Aye Chef - Cooking with style

This is a traditional Irish Halloween bread, usually stuffed with symbolic tokens, most popularly, a ring for marriage. Just warn your guests of the tradition, otherwise you'll be paying dentist bills :-)

Ingredients: (Makes 2 loaves)

4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 satchets easy blend dry yeast
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 and 1/4 cups tepid milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups dried mixed fruit
1/3 cup chopped candied peel
1 tablespoon caster sugar

Butter two 450 grams loaf tins. Mix flour, spice, salt, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and make well in the center. Mix butter with tepid milk and lightly beaten egg and add to the bowl.

Add mixed fruit and peel and mix well. Turn mixture into loaf tins. Leave in warm place for about 30 minutes to rise. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

When the dough has doubled in size, bake for about 45 minutes or until the loaves begin to slightly shrink from the sides of the tin.

Mix caster sugar with 2 tablespoons water to make a glaze. Remove loaves from oven and brush over with the glaze. Return to oven for 2-3 minutes. Remove from oven again and put on the wire rack to cool.

Source: The Irish Heritage Cookbook

This is a great dish to serve as a main course, I made it for 2009 Yule celebration and now I will make it again tomorrow for my birth-date. Being a very popular Irish dish, it is suited for nearly all occasions, just make enough to help second servings :-)

Ingredients: (serves 4)
2 tablespoons olive oil
900 gram stewing beef (shoulder or rib), cut into thin slices
1 onion, chopped
2 leeks, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 and 1/4 cups well reduced beef stock
2/3 cups Guinness beer
1/4 cups butter
75 grams fat bacon, trimmed and diced
115 grams wild or cultivated mushrooms, sliced
50 grams shallot onions, left whole
1/4 cups plain flour
salt and ground black pepper

Heat oil in a pan and brown the meat. Transfer to a casserole. Saute the vegetables in a pan.

And vegetables to meat and add the garlic. Add stock and Guinness. Season. Cover and bring to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 1.5 hours.

Remove meat, strain liquid and reserve. Discard vegetables.

Clean the casserole and saute the bacon, mushrooms and shallots in the butter for 5-10 minutes. When tender, sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring over a low heat for 2-3 minutes, then slowly blend in the reserved liquid. Return meat to casserole and reheat. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Source: The Irish Heritage Cookbook by Biddy White Lennon & Georgina Campbell

Just as with Chicken Stock, this Beef Stock can be used both for soups and main dishes. Personally I use it for the Guinness Casserole that I'll publish a bit later, but it can be used with just about anything. Ingredients is very similar to the Chicken Stock, but quantities vary a bit.

Ingredients: (makes 6 cups)
3 pounds beef bones
3 celery sticks, sliced
2 medium onions stuck with several cloves
1 carrot, sliced
1 small potato, peeled and sliced
A bit of Sage
2 tablespoons parsley
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns
8 cups of water

Put all ingredients into a large pot, bring to boil, skim all fat and simmer while covered for about 2 hours. Strain liquid and allow to cool. It can be refrigerated for a few days, but if you need it for more, put into freezer.

Source: Celtic Folklore Cooking by Joanne Asala

This chicken stock is a bit different from the usual kind as it includes some unusual spices and herbs that enhance it and make it much more potent both as a soup ingredient and as main dish component.

Ingredients: (makes 6 cups)
Bones and/or leftover carcass of of one or two chicken
1 carrot, sliced
2 celery sticks, sliced
1 medium onion stuck with several cloves
A bit of Sage
2 tablespoons parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
6 peppercorns
12 cups water

Put all ingredients into large pot and bring to boil. Skim fat. Cover and simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Strain liquid into sterilized jar and allow to cool.

You can refrigerate for a few days, but if you want to keep for more time, put into freezer (max 6 months).

Source: Celtic Folklore Cooking by Joanne Asala

After many years of cooking as hobby I decided that it would be good to open a blog about it and share with the wide community some of my insights and recipes.

So, here it comes....