An Irish Country Cookbook

by Patrick Taylor

  Makes 1 coffee

  4 oz/120 ml strong black coffee, hot

  1 large measure (2 oz/56 g) Jameson’s Irish whiskey

  1 Tbsp heavy cream, lightly whipped

  Sugar (optional)

  Warm a stemmed glass with hot water and discard the water. Pour the coffee into the glass, add sugar if using and then the whiskey. Pour the cream over a hot teaspoon to float on top of the coffee. Serve with Chocolate Truffles (here).

  A Hot Irish

  Whilst Doctor O’Reilly wouldn’t adulterate his precious John Jameson with anything at all, it was a different matter when he needed a wee hot one. You see, a hot whiskey is a well-known traditional “cure-all” for the winter sniffles. It was said that if it didn’t cure you, sure you didn’t mind because you felt all the better for having it anyway. It’s also considered to be a delicious digestive or a nightcap before bed.

  Makes 1 “wee one”

  Boiling water

  Good Irish whiskey (Jameson or Powers is ideal)

  2 tsp sugar

  7 or 8 whole cloves

  1 lemon slice

  Put a teaspoon into a stemmed heatproof glass and pour boiling water into the glass to warm it. Discard the water and pour a measure of whiskey (any size) into the warmed glass. Just leave enough room to add an equal quantity of boiling water, then add the sugar, cloves, and a good slice of lemon. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and drink while it is hot. You might need to wrap a wee napkin around the glass if it’s too hot.

  Epilogue

  Today’s Friday and, glory be, the book’s nearly all done. I’ll not be truly busy cooking for another half hour so I’m going to write this epilogue and at last put the manuscript to bed.

  I’m sitting, pen in hand at the table in my cosy kitchen this evening at Number One Main Street, Ballybucklebo, where I’ve worked these many years. I have the Jerusalem artichoke soup made and ready to heat. I popped a beef Wellington into the oven five minutes ago so it’ll be ready to serve when the guests have arrived, had their pre-dinner drinks, and their soup. The beef’s roasting and it smells lovely. The spuds are ready for boiling so I can mash them and make champ, and the carrots peeled and ready to cook. We’ll top the dinner off with sticky toffee pudding and a cheese board.

  Doctor O’Reilly’s got a nice white Entre-Deux-Mers chilled to have with the soup and a Châteauneuf-du-Pape to follow. He’s not a great lover of sweet dessert wines, but there’ll be a good Taylor’s port or a Rémy-Martin XO cognac to go with the coffee. I do think his and his wife Kitty’s guests—Doctor Barry Laverty and his lovely fiancée, Sue Nolan; Mister Charlie Greer the brain surgeon and Sir Donald Cromie the orthpaedic surgeon, both classmates of Doctor O’Reilly in Trinity in Dublin in the thirties; and their wives—will know they’ve been well fed and watered, so.

  Feeding people either with formal dinners like tonight’s or ordinary day-to-day meals has been a big part of my life’s work, but I never thought when I set out to write this book what a labour of love it would be, so. It does please me very much to cook and to have my work appreciated. Until now the enjoyment has come from those who come here to Number One Main Street, Ballybucklebo. Folks like Doctor O’Reilly’s brother Lars the solicitor, the marquis of Ballybucklebo and his sister, Myrna, Doctor Ronald Fitzpatrick from the Kinnegar, and Doctor Nonie Stevenson the new assistant, to name a few.

  And now my recipes and those of friends and special contributors are going to find a wider audience. I do hope readers will have fun exploring the tastes of Ireland, many of which I learned from my ma.

  And it’s not for me to take the whole credit. Many of those who contributed are recognised in my acknowledgements, but I want to pay special thanks to Doctor Barry Laverty for taking the trouble to pen the stories. In truth I had very little editing to do. Dorothy Tinman arranged the artwork and has done a wonderful job. Go raibh milde maith agat, thank you very much.

  And I must say a shmall little word about Patrick Taylor. I never for a minute thought when he started spinning his Irish Country Doctor yarns that the recipes of a County Cork woman from a wee place called Béal na Bláth would ever find their way into a book of their own. But they have, praise be. And I truly hope you enjoy cooking them as much as I do.

  And now I hear the first guests arriving and being greeted by himself, and that’s time for me now to get on with my work, so.

  Until the next time, Slan leat agus beannacht De agat. Farewell and God bless you.

  Maureen “Kinky” Auchinlech

  Some Helpful Advice from Kinky

  I thought it might be useful if I put all the wee notes that I’d made here and there through the recipes in one place to make them easy to find. So here they are:

  SOUP/VEGETABLES/FRUIT/SAUCE

  When you are making soup, covering the vegetables with parchment paper and cooking very gently for about 10 minutes creates steam and is called “sweating.” This enables the maximum amount of moisture and flavour to be extracted.

  When using fresh tomatoes, immerse them in boiling water for a minute then plunge them into ice cold water and draw a line round the tomato with a sharp knife. This will make it easy to peel off the skin.

  Microwaving lemon halves for 10 to 15 seconds before you squeeze them will double the yield of juice.

  Melting butter and stirring an equal amount of flour into it is called making a roux (pronounced “roo”) and can be the basis for many sauces. It is a good idea to make more than you need as it will keep wrapped in cling film or foil in the refrigerator. However, the rule is that if your roux is warm you whisk a cold liquid into it. If the roux is cold you whisk in warm liquid

  BREAD/CAKES/DUMPLINGS/PASTRY

  Flour is a little bit like a sponge and it can absorb moisture from the atmosphere. Miss Sue Nolan, the school mistress, is very learnéd in these matters and she tells me that the amount of moisture in flour can vary because of damp weather and humidity in the atmosphere. How you store flour also makes a difference. So some days you may need to add more liquid than others.

  When making bread and farls if you are in a hurry you could substitute vegetable oil for butter and add with the buttermilk.

  When measuring both oil and treacle (or molasses), if you use the spoon to measure the oil first, the treacle or molasses will run off the spoon more easily.

  If you are using the oven or a bread-proofing oven programme to let yeast dough rise, it really gives the rising process a head start if you create steam by placing a baking tin containing boiling water in the floor of the oven.

  When making dumplings on the surface of a stew, do not open the lid when cooking and keep the liquid just at a simmer and the dumplings will be light and fluffy.

  The batter for Yorkshire puddings can be made in advance up to three days before you make the puddings, but bring it back to room temperature before cooking. Do not open the door while the puddings are cooking or they might collapse. Prick with a toothpick to allow the steam to escape.

  When rolling out pastry use whole-wheat flour. This adds a nice crunchy texture to the pastry.

  I think it is preferable to use a metal pie tin for blind-baking a pie shell, as it gives a crisper finish than a ceramic or glass dish. You can always transfer it to a ceramic or glass dish when adding the filling.

  When icing a cake with marzipan, be sure to leave it for a few days after you put on the marzipan, to allow time for it to dry out, before you put on the royal icing.

  Christmas pudding matures and tastes much better if you can remember to make it six months to one year before you need it.

  EGGS

  The secret for successful meringue is to make sure that not a single drop of egg yolk gets into the mixture and to ensure that your bowl and beaters are perfectly clean and grease-free. I rub a splash of vinegar on a paper towel round the bowl and beaters.

  For perfect fried eggs, add a teaspoon of water to the frying pan, then cover and turn the heat down very low or off and the top of the
eggs will cook in the steam.

  Cooling hard-boiled eggs quickly under cold running water will prevent them from discolouring.

  FISH

  If serving fish raw, always use fish that has been frozen as this destroys any parasites that may have been present.

  MEAT

  When making stew, if you have time, do it on the previous day because it improves the flavour. Refrigerate overnight and it will be easier to remove any fat that has solidified on the surface. Then when you cook it the following day, you can make the suet dumplings or cobbler topping to finish it off.

  The difference between cottage pie and shepherd’s pie is that you use lamb instead of beef to make a shepherd’s. This is very good too, and reminds me so much of my childhood and a man called Connor MacTaggart, but you’ll have to read An Irish Country Girl to find out why.

  It is easy to coat meat in flour in a plastic bag. Just put the flour and seasoning in the bag, add the meat, close the top, and give it a good shake around.

  The difference between gammon and ham, simply put, is that gammon is raw and ham is ready to eat. Gammon has been cured in the same way as bacon, whereas ham has been dry-cured or cooked. Once you’ve cooked your gammon, you can call it ham.

  EVAPORATED MILK

  Evaporated milk is unsweetened and is milk which has had about 60 percent of the water removed via evaporation. Condensed milk is sweetened. Sixty percent of the water has also been removed from condensed milk, but it differs in that sugar has been added. Unsweetened condensed milk is a redundant term. It is simply evaporated milk.

  SEASONED FLOUR

  Seasoned flour is plain flour to which you’ve added salt and pepper.

  SUGAR

  To soften hard brown sugar that you need to use immediately, just put it in a microwave container with a piece of damp paper towel and cover with a lid. Then heat it on high for about 30 seconds and test it for softness. If it is still hard just give it another 30 seconds.

  To soften brown sugar that you do not need to use right away just put it in an airtight container, add a piece of well-moistened paper towel, replace the lid, and leave it until the sugar absorbs the moisture, then remove the paper and seal it in an airtight container.

  GINGER

  Keep ginger in the freezer and it is easy to grate while frozen.

  Acknowledgments

  Without the unstinting help and encouragement of many people we could not have written and produced this book. They are:

  Tom Doherty, Kristin Sevick, Cheryl Redmond, Irene Gallo, Alexis Saarela, Jamie Broadhurst, and Fleur Matthewson, all of whom have contributed enormously to the literary and technical aspects of bringing the work from rough draft to the bookshelf.

  Natalia Aponte and Victoria Lea, our English rights literary agents.

  Jessica and Rosie Buchman, our foreign rights agents.

  Tristan Allen, Deputy General Manager, and Paul McKnight, Executive Chef, of Culloden Hotel and Spa, Holywood Co. Down N Ireland.

  Gale Robinson, in Saltspring Island, British Columbia, for the use of her pottery soup bowls used in photography.

  Frances Nixon, in Kincardine, Ontario, for inspiring the recipe for Guinness Cake.

  Don Kalancha, Joe Maier, and Michael Tadman, who keep us right in contractual matters.

  To all our friends in Channel Ridge, Saltspring Island, for their support.

  To you all, we tender our most heartfelt gratitude and thanks.

  Glossary

  bain-marie: A baking tin or dish placed in a roasting tin or saucepan of water. It allows the food to cook indirectly and protects delicate flavours.

  bake blind: To bake or part bake a pastry shell without the filling. This ensures that the shell will remain crisp. Simply prick the pastry, lightly, with a fork. Cover with parchment and add baking beans or rice to prevent the pastry rising.

  baste: To moisten and flavour meat or fowl when roasting by spooning the pan juices over it or using a basting brush.

  beurre manié: Equal parts of cold butter and flour blended together and whisked into simmering cooking liquid to thicken it after cooking. Different from a roux, which is cooked beforehand.

  boil: To keep liquid at a temperature that produces bubbles that break the surface.

  deglaze: To dissolve the residue at the bottom of the cooking pan by adding liquid such as wine or water and heating over a high temperature until the liquid boils and incorporates the remnants. This will then form the basis for a sauce or a gravy.

  degrease: To remove the fat from the cooking liquid. This is usually done by skimming it from the top after the liquid has been chilled.

  fold: To combine ingredients without knocking out the air. This is usually done by gently adding or folding the lighter ingredient to the heavier one in a large bowl. Run a spatula or large metal spoon round the side and across the bottom of the bowl so that you are folding the mixture over itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until just combined. Do not overwork.

  glaze: To coat the surface of food with a sweet or savoury mixture such as honey or egg to produce a shiny surface when cooked.

  gratin: A dish topped with crumbs or grated cheese and dotted with butter, and then placed under a grill until a golden crust is formed on top. It is usually served in its baking dish.

  infuse: To extract maximum flavour by steeping in hot liquid.

  knead: To work dough (or marzipan) with the heel of the hand in a pressing and folding motion until it becomes elastic and smooth.

  liquidise: To change solid food into liquid using a blender.

  marinade: A mixture of either liquid or dry ingredients to flavour and give moisture to food, which may remain in the marinade for several hours before cooking.

  puree: To mash or blend food with a mixer to form a smooth, thick mixture.

  poach: To cook food gently, just submerged in liquid that is just below the boiling point; see the definition of “simmer.”

  roux: A cooked mixture of fat, usually butter, and flour used to thicken liquids such as sauce, soup, or stew. A roux is made by melting butter, adding the flour, and then cooking the mixture for several minutes to cook off the taste of raw flour.

  sauté: To fry quickly, usually in butter, in a small pan.

  sear: To cook food (usually meat) over high heat so that it browns quickly and seals in the juices, after which the heat is reduced for the remaining cooking time.

  score: To make shallow incisions in a cut of meat or outside layer of fat to aid penetration of heat or a marinade or just for decoration.

  sift: To put fine ingredients such as flour, baking soda, etc. through a fine sieve.

  simmer: To keep a liquid at just below the boiling point so the liquid just trembles.

  skim: To remove scum, fat, or froth from the surface of stock or soup.

  steam: To cook over boiling water in a closed container.

  sweat: To cook vegetables gently over a low heat, covered with parchment paper and the pan lid, so that steam is created, and the maximum amount of moisture and flavour is extracted.

  toss: To thoroughly combine several ingredients by mixing lightly.

  zest: The thin outer rind (not the white pith) of lemon or orange, usually grated or cut thinly.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  apples

  Apple and Bread-Crumb Pudding

  Apple Chutney

  Apple Compote

  Caramelized Armagh Apple and Cinnamon Brûlée

  Himmel und Urde

  Kinky’s notes on

  Parsnip and Apple Soup

  Potato-Apple Fadge

  Sweet Mince

  avocadoes

  Avocado Mousse with Shrimp

  Strangford Sea Scallops Marinated with Mango,
Avocado, and Chili Salsa

  bacon

  Bacon and Leek Pudding

  Dublin Coddle

  Kinky’s Eggs Benedict with Soda Farls

  Kinky’s notes on

  Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

  Traditional Ulster Fry

  bain-marie

  baked dishes

  Mustard Baked Fish

  Simple Baked Fish

  baking soda

  Buttermilk Pancakes

  Guinness Bread

  Irish Wheaten Bread

  Oven Soda Bread

  Soda Farls

  Ulster Buttermilk Scones

  Barmbrack

  batters

  Kinky’s notes on

  for Yorkshire Pudding

  beef

  Beef and Dumplings

  Beef and Guinness Stew

  Beef and Pastry

  Beef Cobbler

  Beef Stew

  Beef Wellington

  Corned Beef Curry

  Cottage Pie with Champ Topping

  Kinky’s notes on

  sauces with

  Steak and Kidney Pie

  Steak and Kidney Pudding

  Steak and Mushroom Pie

  Veal Liver Pâté

  with Yorkshire Pudding

  Beet Chutney

  Bilberry Jelly

  biscuits

  Cheese Straws

  Ginger Biscuits

  Blueberry Jelly

  brandy

  Brandy Butter

  Brandy Sauce

  Kinky’s notes on

  breads, bread, bread crumbs

  Apple and Bread-Crumb Pudding

  Barmbrack

  Bread and Butter Pudding

  Buttermilk Pancakes

  Easy Bread Sauce

  Guinness Bread

  Irish Potato Bread