Boiled Bacon and Cabbage (BBC)

Now my mum denies this, but me and my sisters all agree that mum served us Boiled Bacon and Cabbage at least 4 times a week as we grew up. I became sick of it!. As a child, to see ‘Hairy’ bacon on my plate was enough to give me nightmares.”Eat it” my dad would boom “It will give you hair’s on your chest”. Well, he was right as I have a hairy chest now but I still have issue’s with Bacon and Cabbage.

• Firstly hair on food is just wrong – Thankfully I haven’t seen that on the meat in years!
• Secondly mum cooked the cabbage in the bacon water (a good idea) till it could only be picked up with a spoon and all the goodness was gone!

A dark grey green coloured cabbage sludge is just wrong on all levels. When it is also served with boiled potatoes in their skins (now, maybe I’m strange but I hated potatoes in their skins) it was like finger nails been dragged across a blackboard to me.

The Irish brand of  ‘Chef ‘ sauce was always my saviour as huge dollops of this dark tangy condiment could hide all food abuse served to me. This meal was a culinary torture, an Irish Inquisition of Food.

Now I know that most of my friends and family love BBC and these are my personal opinions, but I’m the chef  and that makes me right! lol  😉

My goal is to make something wonderful with these ingredients, and keep the essence of the original dish. And fingers crossed, enjoy my cooking!

I want to believe that BBC is not a childhood trauma and an opportunity to challenge myself in the kitchen and cook something wonderful with these great ingredients:

• Boiled Bacon is stunning in flavour and texture.
• Cabbage, an amazing vegetable with so many varieties, textures, flavours and is high in vitamin A and C.
• Potatoes been the Holy Grail of Irish Food.

I would also like to apologise to my Mum for this tirade against her cooking of this particular dish but “you reap what you sow” 🙂 xx (she is going to kill me for this)

John
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The Secret of a Perfect BBQ – Poaching

We all love BBQ’s with lots of friends or just the family it always seems special.

But we all have at one time seen or heard of food that has been burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. And that is potentially lethal or at the very least inedible.

So I like to ‘Poach’ my chicken, sausages, ribs if big and some pork cuts basically any meat that has to have clear juices to be safe to eat.

Poaching also keeps the meat juicy and tender as it does not dry out meat like roasting can do. You can also serve more people quicker than ever before.

The poaching liquid should be full of flavour so it enhances what ever you put in it. A basic poaching liquid is water, some fresh herbs, onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf and black pepper corns and a pinch of sea salt. You can also add wine, carrot, celery, leek really anything you like the taste of.

To poach a whole chicken I like to flatten it out (butterfly) by cutting out the backbone with some kitchen scissors removing the wishbone and pushing it flat. Then I poach it in a large pan you can also do this in halves or quarters if you don’t have a big enough pan. Bring your poaching liquid just to the boil and reduce the heat till the bubbles are gently winking at you then cook for 20 mins or less for smaller pieces. But please make sure that it doesn’t boil!

Whole chicken butterflied ready to poach

Poached butterfly chicken

Bring your poaching liquid just to the boil and reduce the heat till the bubbles are gently winking at you then cook for 20 mins or less for smaller pieces.

Pink Ladies Shoulder (with Video)

Once again I am lucky enough to have some OldFarm Pork to use for this recipe. Its amazing meat, free range saddleback pigs that have a wonderful life in Tipperary and are lovingly cared for by Margaret and Alfie.
So my shoulder of pork deserved special treatment but not too much as to hide the sublime taste of the meat. I used some fresh rosemary and thyme from our garden and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
I also made a luxurious Pomme Puree a posh version of mash potato made with lots of butter. You can use less butter and salt by adding some warm milk to the processor to get the smooth velvet finish, but this is TheDevilsMenu.com so salt and butter it is for me 🙂
Pink Lady apples are one of my favourite apples, crisp and full of flavour. They compliment the rich pork wonderfully. The sauce is so easy to make you won’t bother with shop bought apple sauce again.
I love this dish, Roast pork carmelised on the outside, the wickedly indulgent ‘Pomme Puree’ and the Pink Lady apple sauce to die for. And after the amount of butter and salt I used making this you may just be saying “hello” to the Devil in person, tell him I said “hi”.
John
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Spanish Pork and Rice (Paella Style) (with video)

Today Elora and Ciara were cooking a simple but delicious meal: Spanish Pork & Rice in a Paella style. Simple ingredients and easy to follow… it might take a bit of time (around 50 minutes) as you need to follow the different steps in sequence, but easy… very easy 🙂

This is home-cooking style and guarantees a happy belly and a big smile. You can use chicken instead of pork and spice up with oregano and lots of flat parsley or rosemary if you are into herbs.

The Magick touch… a little bit of chorizo to bring that authentic spanish flavour 😉

Que aproveche! – Enjoy your meal!
John

Moonstruck Eggs (with video)

After seeing this dish been cooked in the movie Moonstruck starring Cher I cooked this for my lovely girlfriend 🙂

They are very simple but tricky to cook! so  use a nonstick pan with olive oil to make your life easier. It will definetely bring a new look and dimension to your fry in the morning! And I can promise you something… they taste fantastic.

Who said good food has to be complicated 🙂

Great movie Great dish to eat.

Enjoy it!!

John

Pork Chop “Libritos” (with video)

Here is a recipe my girlfriend showed me for a Spanish dish called “Libritos” it has other names in many countries but in Spanish it sounds sexier 😉
The pork chop is Irish free range Saddleback from my friends Margaret & Alfie at OldFarm in North Tipperary.
These are amazingly tender and juicy as the crust holds in all the goodness and they are huge so be hungry.
Enjoy!!

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

This recipe was inspired by the Greek dish Kelftiko, a wonderfully tender lamb casserole.

There are many variations of this dish, some are cooked in paper to seal in the juices others are cooked as a stew or braised. Expensive versions use boned out shoulder or leg but the shanks with the bone left in produce a far better flavour and cost a lot less.

This is a sexed up version that requires a little bit of effort as I marinade the shanks for 24hrs before cooking to add that little extra flavour to the dish.

This will serve 6 people a very generous portion.

First to make the marinade:

1 bottle of semi sweet white wine (I used Liebfraumilch cheap and tasty)

250 ml of olive oil

8 slighty crushed juniper berries

8 black peppercorns

2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

3 bay leaves

1 medium diced onion

5 cloves of garlic

a teaspoon of sweet paprika

a large pinch of sea salt

Mix all these together in a large bowl and add the Lamb Shanks (I had mine cracked by the butcher as its easier to work with them in finger length pieces) cover with cling film and put in the fridge or a cold area turning a couple of times during the 24hr marinading period.

The marinade will also be used for cooking the Lamb Shanks.

For cooking the Shanks you will need:

1 large onion in quartered

2 medium carrots cut into 3 pieces

2 sticks of celery cut into 3 pieces

4 whole cloves of garlic

1 pint of chicken stock

Put the vegetables into a large cooking pot/casserole with a touch of olive oil and slighty colour the onions.

After 24hrs take out the Shanks and dry them with kitchen roll and use a decent one like Bounty/Plenty as it won’t stick to the meat and come apart.Then brown off the pieces in olive oil (heat the pan up first and then add your oil heat that up then add the shanks this will ensure they brown) and add to the pot.

Now pour in the marinade and chicken stock and stir to mix (if the meat isn’t fully covered add a little bit of cold water till it does) put a lid on and bring to the boil once its boiling turn it down to a slow simmer and cover the top with tin foil and put the lid back on . Leave alone for 3 hours.

After 3hrs the meat should be ready to fall off the bone, remove the meat and leave to cool on a plate, bring the cooking liquid back to the boil and let it reduce by half (this means boiling the liquid so it will evaporate leaving a stronger flovour as it gets more concentrated) then strain through a colander to remove the solids and then through a  fine seive so your left with the begining of a beautiful sauce reduce this again by a third skimming off any fats from the top, taste and season with salt and pepper.

Finely dice a large carrot and a medium onion put the carrot into a small pan with a knob of butter and a drop of olive oil and season put on a medium heat with a lid on for about 5 minutes stirring occasionaly  add in the onions and soften then add to the sauce.

Take the cooled meat off of the bones with your fingers it will fall off in your hands (doing this means the meat will serve double the amount of people and it is far easier to eat) and chop it into smaller equal pieces season with salt and pepper and add back to the sauce.

The dish is ready  just warm and serve with Mash Potatos

Lamb Shanks in White Wine

Its a lot of work but so worth the effort.

Plus you get to use nearly every pan in the kitchen 🙂