I am right in the middle of a very busy few weeks, and I am enjoying every minute of it. Key to this process is my right-hand woman, Andrea Doherty, who manages my diary. She is brilliant at packing as much as possible into whatever place I am going to. Andrea likes to keep my time on the road as short as possible and does a good job at it.
Recently, I have been in Limerick, Cork and Kerry, where I enjoyed lots of demos and a visit to the Blás na hÉireann awards. While down south, I also paid a visit to the Today Show with Daithí and Maura in the RTÉ Cork studios. I always enjoy live TV, and they are both great fun.
It takes me back to my Open House days, which was always live, and I did every Tuesday for many years. Daithí and Maura are easy company, even on live TV. I cooked sticky beef skewers and a lemon curd cheesecake for them, and I didn’t hear any complaints.
I also enjoyed my stay at the Dingle Skellig Hotel where everyone was very friendly. Special mention to the great staff – when I arrived, they sat me down straightaway to a delicious Irish breakfast.
The cookery school is busy at the moment with one of my favourite courses – A Taste of Italy. As you know, I love Italian food, and it is great fun to teach people a little about the cuisine as they are learning to cook it themselves.
We always have a good time. I’m very lucky to have Claire Beasley and Marian Fee providing great backup and keeping it all running smoothly.
We have been doing it for more than 10 years now, and I love meeting the people. It is about equal male/female representation these days which is great. More men are definitely cooking, and it’s about time.
Next on the agenda was a book launch in Dunnes headquarters with Donal Skehan. Donal’s Real Time Recipes 3 is out on the shelves now. I know how much work goes into getting a book finished and I wish him every success with it.
Looking ahead, a big one coming up for me is the Women & Agriculture conference, which is only up the road in Sligo on 23 October. I was delighted to be on the front cover of Irish Country Living recently to talk about the conference and my career to date.
I am so lucky that I enjoy the variety in my job and the people I work with. I know there will be lots of interesting questions at those demos, and I look forward to meeting the readers.
New recipes
I am often asked for new recipes using mince, and today, I have two good-value mince dinners. We eat this chilli mac and cheese quite often at home. Everyone loves it. And an added advantage is that you can batch cook it.
There are lots of interesting tastes here. You can season the steak mince with a fajita spice mix or cajun spices. Sriracha is a lovely thick, hot, sweet and spicy sauce from Thailand that gets its name from the town where it was first made – Si Racha. The kidney beans add a fun texture. I think Drinagh from Co Cork is a fabulous cheddar for everyday cooking. This meal also is good with rice. Sometimes, I do it with a baked potato and pour over the grated cheese. Delicious.
Our second recipe is Asian meatballs made with pork mince or with a 50/50 mix of Irish beef and pork mince. If you’re short on time, you could just buy the meatballs and dress them up.
The Asian twist comes from the five spice and hoisin, both of which are flavours I enjoy. I often use hoisin in a stir fry. The soy and ginger sauce and the hoisin are cupboard essentials for me, and both are part of the Simply Better range.
Cavolo Nero, also known as Tuscan kale, is popular now. We grow it very successfully in our garden behind the restaurant. You could swap this out for a crisp purple cabbage. Enjoy!
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
2 tsp garlic flakes
1 pack Irish Angus beef steak mince
(10% fat) (550g)
1 tbsp Sriracha hot honey rub
2 tbsp steak seasoning
1 tin tomato puree (140g)
1 carton beef stock
1 bottle Italian tomato passata (680g)
1 carton kidney beans, drained and rinsed
250g penne pasta
1 pack mature cheddar, grated
A good handful fresh coriander leaves
2 green chillies, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan over a high heat. Add the onion and red pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are softened and just starting to pick up colour. Add the beef mince and cook for a few minutes until browned, breaking it up as you go.
2. Tip in the sriracha hot honey rub and steak seasoning and sauté for one minute. Then stir in the tomato puree to combine. Add the stock with the passata, kidney beans and penne and bring to a simmer, stirring. Cover, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 12-14 minutes until the penne is ‘al dente’ and the beef is tender.
3. Turn off the heat and season to taste. Scatter over some of the cheese with the green chillies, then cover it again for 2 minutes until the cheese has melted. Sprinkle with the coriander and serve straight to the table with the rest of the cheese in a bowl to serve.
Sticky Asian
meatball bowls
Sticky Asian meatball bowls.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 pack Irish Angus lean beef steak mince
(5% fat) (700g)
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
1 heaped tsp Chinese five-spice
2 tbsp soy and ginger sauce
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 tbsp Irish-made hoisin sauce
1 pack fresh Cavolo Nero kale, shredded
1 carton lemon and honey Irish beetroot
and grain salad
1 carton lime and mint mixed bean,
quinoa and kale salad
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 pack baby rainbow carrots, cut into long matchsticks (julienne)
4 baby cucumbers, peeled into ribbons
Handful of fresh mint sprigs
Method
1. Put the beef in a large bowl with the spring onions, five-spice and soy and ginger sauce. Use your hands to mix everything together and then shape into 20 meatballs.
2. Heat a skillet pan over medium to high heat. Add half the oil and sauté the meatballs for 10 minutes until golden brown, turning them regularly with tongs. Drizzle over the hoisin sauce, tossing to coat the meatballs evenly, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes until the meatballs are tender and nicely glazed.
3. Meanwhile, put the Cavolo Nero kale in a bowl with the rest of the oil, and using your hands, give it a good massage. Divide among bowls and add mounds of the ready made salads.
4. Spoon the meatballs onto the Cavolo Nero kale and drizzle over the sauce, then scatter with the sesame seeds. Add the carrot matchsticks and cucumber ribbons with the mint sprigs to serve.
I am right in the middle of a very busy few weeks, and I am enjoying every minute of it. Key to this process is my right-hand woman, Andrea Doherty, who manages my diary. She is brilliant at packing as much as possible into whatever place I am going to. Andrea likes to keep my time on the road as short as possible and does a good job at it.
Recently, I have been in Limerick, Cork and Kerry, where I enjoyed lots of demos and a visit to the Blás na hÉireann awards. While down south, I also paid a visit to the Today Show with Daithí and Maura in the RTÉ Cork studios. I always enjoy live TV, and they are both great fun.
It takes me back to my Open House days, which was always live, and I did every Tuesday for many years. Daithí and Maura are easy company, even on live TV. I cooked sticky beef skewers and a lemon curd cheesecake for them, and I didn’t hear any complaints.
I also enjoyed my stay at the Dingle Skellig Hotel where everyone was very friendly. Special mention to the great staff – when I arrived, they sat me down straightaway to a delicious Irish breakfast.
The cookery school is busy at the moment with one of my favourite courses – A Taste of Italy. As you know, I love Italian food, and it is great fun to teach people a little about the cuisine as they are learning to cook it themselves.
We always have a good time. I’m very lucky to have Claire Beasley and Marian Fee providing great backup and keeping it all running smoothly.
We have been doing it for more than 10 years now, and I love meeting the people. It is about equal male/female representation these days which is great. More men are definitely cooking, and it’s about time.
Next on the agenda was a book launch in Dunnes headquarters with Donal Skehan. Donal’s Real Time Recipes 3 is out on the shelves now. I know how much work goes into getting a book finished and I wish him every success with it.
Looking ahead, a big one coming up for me is the Women & Agriculture conference, which is only up the road in Sligo on 23 October. I was delighted to be on the front cover of Irish Country Living recently to talk about the conference and my career to date.
I am so lucky that I enjoy the variety in my job and the people I work with. I know there will be lots of interesting questions at those demos, and I look forward to meeting the readers.
New recipes
I am often asked for new recipes using mince, and today, I have two good-value mince dinners. We eat this chilli mac and cheese quite often at home. Everyone loves it. And an added advantage is that you can batch cook it.
There are lots of interesting tastes here. You can season the steak mince with a fajita spice mix or cajun spices. Sriracha is a lovely thick, hot, sweet and spicy sauce from Thailand that gets its name from the town where it was first made – Si Racha. The kidney beans add a fun texture. I think Drinagh from Co Cork is a fabulous cheddar for everyday cooking. This meal also is good with rice. Sometimes, I do it with a baked potato and pour over the grated cheese. Delicious.
Our second recipe is Asian meatballs made with pork mince or with a 50/50 mix of Irish beef and pork mince. If you’re short on time, you could just buy the meatballs and dress them up.
The Asian twist comes from the five spice and hoisin, both of which are flavours I enjoy. I often use hoisin in a stir fry. The soy and ginger sauce and the hoisin are cupboard essentials for me, and both are part of the Simply Better range.
Cavolo Nero, also known as Tuscan kale, is popular now. We grow it very successfully in our garden behind the restaurant. You could swap this out for a crisp purple cabbage. Enjoy!
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
2 tsp garlic flakes
1 pack Irish Angus beef steak mince
(10% fat) (550g)
1 tbsp Sriracha hot honey rub
2 tbsp steak seasoning
1 tin tomato puree (140g)
1 carton beef stock
1 bottle Italian tomato passata (680g)
1 carton kidney beans, drained and rinsed
250g penne pasta
1 pack mature cheddar, grated
A good handful fresh coriander leaves
2 green chillies, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan over a high heat. Add the onion and red pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are softened and just starting to pick up colour. Add the beef mince and cook for a few minutes until browned, breaking it up as you go.
2. Tip in the sriracha hot honey rub and steak seasoning and sauté for one minute. Then stir in the tomato puree to combine. Add the stock with the passata, kidney beans and penne and bring to a simmer, stirring. Cover, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 12-14 minutes until the penne is ‘al dente’ and the beef is tender.
3. Turn off the heat and season to taste. Scatter over some of the cheese with the green chillies, then cover it again for 2 minutes until the cheese has melted. Sprinkle with the coriander and serve straight to the table with the rest of the cheese in a bowl to serve.
Sticky Asian
meatball bowls
Sticky Asian meatball bowls.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 pack Irish Angus lean beef steak mince
(5% fat) (700g)
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
1 heaped tsp Chinese five-spice
2 tbsp soy and ginger sauce
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 tbsp Irish-made hoisin sauce
1 pack fresh Cavolo Nero kale, shredded
1 carton lemon and honey Irish beetroot
and grain salad
1 carton lime and mint mixed bean,
quinoa and kale salad
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 pack baby rainbow carrots, cut into long matchsticks (julienne)
4 baby cucumbers, peeled into ribbons
Handful of fresh mint sprigs
Method
1. Put the beef in a large bowl with the spring onions, five-spice and soy and ginger sauce. Use your hands to mix everything together and then shape into 20 meatballs.
2. Heat a skillet pan over medium to high heat. Add half the oil and sauté the meatballs for 10 minutes until golden brown, turning them regularly with tongs. Drizzle over the hoisin sauce, tossing to coat the meatballs evenly, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes until the meatballs are tender and nicely glazed.
3. Meanwhile, put the Cavolo Nero kale in a bowl with the rest of the oil, and using your hands, give it a good massage. Divide among bowls and add mounds of the ready made salads.
4. Spoon the meatballs onto the Cavolo Nero kale and drizzle over the sauce, then scatter with the sesame seeds. Add the carrot matchsticks and cucumber ribbons with the mint sprigs to serve.
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