recipease

Doing a little bit of foodie reading I came across this bit of news about Jamie Olivier...he's about to open a new cooking shop in Clapham Junction in London. By cooking shop they mean it's like a drop in cookery school. There are two options (as far as I can make out!) - you can book a 1 hour session online and then drop in and learn how to cook a fish pie for example and then sit down and eat it (which is about £30-35) OR you can choose to go and cook yourself a one, two or three-course meal (for between 1-4 people)....drop your choices into a shopping basket online and when you get there for your slot you are provided with prepped ingredients and a recipe card to follow - and people on hand to help you along of course. You cook your choices and then they get packed up for you to bring home. Sounds like a great idea to get people cooking and no excuse now for not having a homemade meal every day. Also a nice idea for something different to do when on a visit to London perhaps?. Check it out here.

A murderous day of work!

Here are some snaps from a recent shoot for some Uncle Ben's recipe leaflets. The things I have to put up with eh?...

working away like a busy little bee, minding my own business

while, photographer Harry decides he's had enough of me

no, we're good buddies really...thankfully a happy ending!

Quigley's Bakery

Here are a couple of shots from the Quigley's Bakery job I posted about previously here. Designworks sent them onto me - it's always nice to see how the images got used in the end and the fruits of your labour.

website design

Thanks to Neil from Fuel who designed my website, for adding it to his website portfolio. Check it our here.

Neven's Food From the Sun

Neven's programme starts on RTE 1 this Wednesday at 7.30pm and runs for 13 weeks. After a very busy few weeks working on it last April / May, I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished result. Check out RTE for more details. Hope you enjoy!

...additional news...the series has just been sold to UKTV Food for transmission in the summer.

The food of love!

(c) Jack Caffrey

Well, if you haven't yet decided what to cook to woo your honey on Valentine's, then here's a dessert recipe that Neven Maguire wrote for the Journal Magazine in the Farmer's Journal (& I styled in all it's girlie gloryiness!) that is sure to win them over...

PASSIONFRUIT MOUSSE WITH LEMON SABLES
Serves 2

finely grated rind of 2 lemons
50g caster sugar
3 passionfruit, halved and pulp scooped out
2 eggs, separated
40g chilled butter, diced
10 raspberries

for the lemon sables:
50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
25g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
50g room temperature butter
1 egg yolk
grapeseeds oil for brushing

To make the lemon sables, sift the flour and icinf sugar into a bowl. Stir in the lemon rind, then add the butter and egg yolk. Beat well to form a soft dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to three days is fine.

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F / Gas Mark 5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 3mm thickness. Stamp out heart shapes or 2 1/2 cm rounds using a biscuit cutter, then transfer to oiled baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until crisp and lightly golden.

To make the passion fruit mousse, place the lemon rind in a heatproof bowl with half of the sugar, the pulp from two passion fruit and the egg yolks. Set over a pan of simmering water and cook over a low heat for 8-10 minutes, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon, stirring occasionally. Whisk in the butter, a little at a time until smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Whisk the egg whites in a seperate bowl until soft peaks form, then add the remaining sugar, a bit at a time until stiff and shiny. Fold half into the cooled passion fruit mixture using a slotted spoon, then fold in the remainder. Divide among serving glasses, cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight is fine.

To serve, arrange the glasses on plates and decorate each glass with the pulp from half a passionfruit and the raspberries. Place a couple of the lemon sables on the side for dipping. Yum!

Chocolate Fetish

It's that time of year....indulging in chocolates is on the cards as it's almost Valentines! Not just to be fed them by your dearest but also to gorge out yourself - any excuse! Here are some test shots i worked on many moons ago with photographer Lis Parsons when we were both starting out. I have given the recipes (2 of them are mine) also in case they have you coming over in a hot flush...

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

Makes about 24

225g plain or milk chocolate, chopped
100ml double cream
3 tbsp coffee or orange liqueur (or coffee or orange extract)

to decorate:
- cocoa powder
- finely chopped toasted hazelnuts
- finely chopped pistachios
- ground almonds

Place the chocolate and cream in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave until the chocolate melts. Stir until smooth, remove from the heat and leave for about 20-30 minutes until cooled and thickened.

Add your choice of liqueur (or extract) and beat with an electric whisk for about 5 minutes until light, fluffy and paler in colour. (This will take double the time if done by hand, but will obviously work off more calories!). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until quite firm.

Scatter your choice of coatings on small plates and make sure your hands are cold. Scoop out a teaspoon of the chocolate mixture at a time and roll it into a small ball. Toss the truffle in a coating to stick evenly and arrange on a parchment lined tray. Repeat until all the truffles are made and either refrigerate until ready to serve or package into pretty boxes to give as gifts.

WHITE CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO CUPS

Serves 2-4

100g white chocolate, chopped (milky bar is ideal)
2 tbsp cold water
150ml double cream
1 egg white
1 warm shot of espresso mixed with good glug of coffee liqueur
small handful coffee beans

(This was written by my friend Jo Pratt for the book to accompany a series we worked on for the BBC called Nation's Favourite Food. I added the coffee beans in as they looked nice for the shot)

Place the chocolate and water in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and leave to slowly melt. Remove from the heat, stir and leave to cool for about 5 minutes.

Whip the cream until it thickens to form soft peaks and, in a seperate bowl, whisk the egg white until it also forms soft peaks.

Pour the melted chocolate into the whipped cream and gently stir in. Fold in the egg white before spooning into coffee cups, making sure you leave about 1cm of a rim at the top for the coffee.

Place in the fridge for about 2-3 hours until set. Just before serving, pour over the warm espresso and coffee liqueur mixture, decorate with the coffee beans and enjoy straight away.

CHOCOLATE BODY SPREAD

Makes about 450ml

150ml double cream
75ml milk
200g plain 70% cocoa chocolate, broken into small pieces
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp of your favourite liqueur (eg tia maria, frangelico, ameretto, grand marnier)
25g unsalted butter, softened

Heat the cream and milk in a small pan until just coming to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth.

Beat in the egg yolks and your chosen liqueur and leave to cool slightly. Stir the butter through until melted.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a 500ml kilner jar and refrigerate for about 4 hours until set. Label and then package with a small pastry brush tied with ribbon. (This should be kept refrigerated when not in use and will keep for up to a week).

little love muffin..

(C) Cliona O'Flaherty

Well, Valentines is looming and as much as the cheeseyness fills my heart with dread, I do give into gorgeous edible temptations (any excuse of course!). This is a recipe I wrote for Food & Wine magazine a couple of years ago. Keep them to yourself or send them to your little love muffin...

CHOCOLATE, CHERRY & HAZELNUT BROWNIES

Makes about 18 hearts

200g plain 70% cocoa chocolate, broken into pieces
100g unsalted butter (plus a little extra for greasing)
2 eggs
125g dark muscavado sugar
50g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
50g dried cherries, halved
50g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 170C (Gas Mark 3). Grease a 19cm square cake tin, line with parchment and grease again.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, add the hazelnuts and cherries and mix everything together.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and gently fold through. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out just slightly wet.

Remove from the tin when cool enough to handle and leave to completely cool on a wire rack. use a heart shaped cutter, measuring 4cm at it's widest point to cut hearts from the brownie. Dust with icing sugar and send to your sweetie in pretty packaging.

TIPS:
- I'm sure the leftover bits of brownie from cutting the hearts out won't last long, but use for quick individual trifles or crumbled over ice cream if any survive!
- This brownie is even better a day or two after making so get organised and make in advance, leaving nothing to do on valentines day but love!

Dear Diary..

What will the year hold? A peaceful looking new diary....

Glossy Food

I was very excited to open the current edition of 'The Gloss' mag to recognise a photo in there. They featured Simon Dougan's cookbook 'The Yellow Door' which I styled (and Cliona O'Flaherty snapped). Here it is...

am-a-zing sting

I'm just in the door from a quick trip to Dungarvan where I was working on some stings for Neven Maguire's upcoming cookery programme (more about that later). 'Inproduction' produced so the old team was back together (from working on Neven's programme). Here's producer / director David (middle), soundman Ray (left, as usual telling everyone to shush), and camera man Billy (right).

We filmed at Paul Flynn's new cookery school at the Tannery - AM-A-ZING! What a totally fabulous space - ever as stylish and state of the art as you would expect from the Flynns. They have seven new bedrooms also (additional to their townhouse rooms) so no excuse for not treating yourself to a glamorous getaway! Obviously, from the photos we trashed the school a little with all of our gear (but of course put it back together perfectly, promise!)

Watch out for 'Neven's Food From the Sun' series (transmitting for 13 weeks from Wed 18th Feb on RTE1) to see what the stings were for...and watch out for my hands!

Team Topaz

The other day on my travels I came across some shots I worked on for the 'Topaz' in store menu board. Kieran Hartnett was the photographer...

belleek shoot

Here are some photos from a shoot I did for Belleek before Christmas - Chef Neven Maguire is the new face of Belleek so we shot in Neven's gorgeous kitchen at home in Cavan. Marie McGrellis from Belleek and I had a yummy meal at Neven's restaurant the night before the shoot (I'm sure we ordered one course and ended up eating for about four hours, naughty Neven!).

Me trying to look busy while Neven chats to John, Belleek's MD.

Food stylist, make-up artist, whatever.
That's hilarious photographer Khara, doing her thing in the background.

John & Marie checking out the finished Belleek '09 catalogue
at a recent showcase in the RDS.

Neven the cover guy!

TV commercial

Here are some more behind the scenes photos, this time a recent commercial...

another day, another glamorous location...a hallway!

bit of a production line going on

deep in surgery

a fun monitor shot (thanks aoife!)

professional shopper

If car door dents are anything to go by, I spend a lot of my life in supermarkets. I'm still busy testing recipes (for a soon to be revealed cookbook) which means I'm shopping even more than usual - here are some recent (OCD) shopping lists...

back to work blues

OK, OK, Happy New Year! It was a bit of a shocker for me this year to be back with a bang and a big work load - no January hibernating for me - I guess I shouldn't complain. I did struggle to get my head around it a bit though - here's some funny evidence of mardiness (well, more tiredness than anything, i am enjoying it really!)...

loving being back amongst the boxes of god knows what (in yet another little cottage)

back to work and being a brat

and what am i up to? testing like a mad woman...

Christmas Wishes

(c) Cliona O'Flaherty

A bit of fun in Food & Wine Magazine last Christmas. Have a good one!

Ouch!

Slightly sore head today after partying hard at the South Studios Christmas party last night. The guys from the studio had the place looking amazing with artwork on sale around the room with proceeds going to charity, a gorgeous christmas tree decorated with the same baubles as the Shelbourne Hotel (I say!), wicked trifles to nibble on, a DJ who brought the house down (& the cops in!) and a bouncer on the door, how posh!

I don't think Santa was booked - he was a bit freaky as I don't think anyone knew him. He was very funny though with bart simpson slippers on which said d'oh d'oh on them - apparently the closest he could get to Ho Ho! oh dear here comes christmas!

Santa and his little helpers, me, photographer cliona and assistant aoife

The Restaurant Magazine

I recently picked up RTE's 'The Restaurant' Magazine which has some of my work in. Here are some piccies of the edible gifts feature shot by Cliona O'Flaherty.

These are the spiced star cluster cookies
I gave the recipe for in a past post.

Gordon Ramsay's Taste of Christmas...DONE!

I had a fantastic time in London the week before last, working on Gordon Ramsay's Taste of Christmas. It was organised by Brand Events and held in Excel in East London. I organised and managed Gordon's dems in the main theatre where we got through 14 dems over four days. I was helped by four fantastic crew - three of whom came from the cookery school Gordon is involved with, Tante Marie.

Me, Lisa, Sarge, Bianca, The Big G, Helouise
& Liam with two of Gordon's girls in the front.

Sarge (Mark Sargent) from Claridges also cooked and performed with Gordon in a hilarious Christmas themed production. Sarge was even unfortunate enough to end up dressing as a fairy and flying over the audience sprinkling fairy dust, need I say more. Each show, eight lucky people got the chance to come up on stage and be wined, gin'd (!) and dined while the chefs cooked. They had three yummy courses: roast chestnut, parsnip and apple soup (see recipe below), duck breast with braised chicory and almond sprouts and finally pear frangipane tart with ice cream.

Sarge making Christmas wishes come through!

Once we got over two very hectic rehearsals on the first day, I am very relieved to say that everything went really well. The big G didn't come after me waving any 'Kitchen Nightmare' tokens at least, phew!

Gordon Ramsay's Taste of Christmas, happy to say....DONE!
Now, pour me a Gin!

ROAST CHESTNUT, PARSNIP & APPLE SOUP

This soup is very quick and simple to make and is seriously delicious. I'm hooked on it! If you watched Cookalong on Friday night, this was the starter you would have seen Gordon cooking. It is adapted slightly from the recipe in his new book, Cooking for Friends.

Serves 4

• 50g butter
• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and grated
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 apple, cored and chopped
• 1 tsp curry powder
• Small bunch sage
• 250g roasted chestnuts, shelled, skinned and roughly chopped (vac packed are perfect for this)
  
• 800ml – 1 litre hot vegetable or chicken stock
• 100ml single cream
• Olive oil to drizzle
  
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Melt the butter in a wide pan and add the parsnips. Allow to cook out briefly before adding the celery followed by the apples.

2. Add the curry powder and tear in a couple of sage leaves.

3. Season with salt and pepper and allow to soften before adding the chestnuts.

4. Pour in the stock. Cover and allow to simmer for 4–5 minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the cream.

6. Use a hand-held stick blender or a regular blender to liquidise the soup to a smooth and creamy purée (you may need to do this in batches if using a jug blender).

7. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Food Glorious Food

I'm just back from my trip to London and have lots to share with you about all things foodie that I absorbed (all in the name of research!) while there.

Firstly, in work I was supplied with amazing knives from Kin Knives. They were fantastic to use (even if they were so ultra sharp that I now have lots of war wounds!) ,if not a little pricey but well worth the investment. Magimix, as always, came up trumps with kitting my kitchen out with all their electrical delights - I noticed they didn't supply me with the processor with 24 carot gold plated buttons though! Their nifty and easy to use coffee machine made gorgeous coffee in seconds and almost converted me to drinking it. I'm also in love with their mini processors which come in baby pink and baby blue, cutesys!

Food wise, I was treated to 'Flour Power City Bakery's' yummy bread every day in work. On my escape home I came across the all organic grocery store 'Planet Organic' near Goodge St. station, which also sells gorgeous healthy lunches to take away. I opted for an american style cupcake around the corner in 'Peyton & Byrne' instead on this occasion though!

Coconut & raspberry cupcake from Peyton & Byrne, yum yum

On the foodie people front I bumped into my lovely friend Zarina (darn, caught buying that cupcake for lunch!) who I worked with on 'Rosemary's School for Cooks.' Zarina also works as Ainsley Harriett's agent and she told me he was off in Dubai working at the moment, nice for some! Back at work I met up with my gorgeous friend Angela Boggiano who is food editor of Delicious Magazine (who were one of the sponsors of the event I was working at). We had a good giggle of a catch up. I also finally got to meet fellow Irish man Matthew Drennan (Editor of the mag) who I had never met before, but had always wanted to - he was lovely and made me laugh when his Cork accent came out within a few minutes chatting to me, after all his years in London.

I also caught up with some friends for dinner one evening and we dined in 'The Salt Yard' on Charlotte St. It turns out they also own the amazing 'Blackfoot Butchers & Charcuterie Shop' nearby where a friend, Tom now works. Both highly recommended! Before dinner we had drinks round the corner in 'Shochu Lounge' where I had a delicious rhubarb cocktail made with Japanese Shochu (like vodka) - must try and recreate it! My friend Jo didn't have a drink as she announced she is pregnant again, congrats Jo! Watch Jo's bump growing on ITV's Daily Cooks Challenge! Also catch Jo's recipes in her regular Grazia feature and now also in the Daily Mail at the weekend.

Claire Popplewell (she directs the Queen on the BBC you know), Lisa Harrison (watch out for her name flying along at the end of Gordon Ramsay's programmes!), Jo (as mentioned above), myself and finally Tom, from the Blackfoot Butchers.

Also, on the drinks front, I sampled a yummy spiced berry drink from 'Bottlegreen' which was served warm. Nice non-alcoholic idea for Christmas.

Finally, check out the new Jamie Magazine. Yes, as in Jamie Oliver - the mag is exclusive to WHSmith for the first three issues so not sure if it will make it to Ireland just yet but check out the mags website for a sneak preview. Jamie has certainly given Donna Hay & Martha Stewart a run for their money in his own special way!

Breakfast at the airport...Jamie's mag topped off with a
Pret a Manger Victoria Plum Yoghurt with Cinnamon Granola!

Something Fishy

It must be nearing Christmas with all these cookbooks being published recently! I worked on this seafood bible way back in January so it is great to see it at last. It is published by Georgina Campbell with BIM. Paul Sherwood was photographer and I was assisted by Karen Convery. Orla Broderick was the recipe editor. It only feels like yesterday since we all worked together on it.

The photo on the front is of the seafood chowder from The Lobster Pot in Carne. (My parents place, funnily enough!). I would just like to say I had nothing to do with the recipe even going in the book, never mind the shot ending up on the front cover!! We are all very pleased though!

Anyhow, you can buy the book in all good bookshops or here or here

On the Move...

I'm off to London with work this week so have been busy planning my route to work every day. Yes, I had forgotten how hard core it was to travel there and will indeed be taking all of these modes of transport! Might have to find the logo for taxi's too! Come back next week to find out what I've been up to there....