A Summer Shellfish Delight

Its so refreshing when the weather improves and we turn to the BBQ and salads. However one of my favourite things about Summer is the rich bounty of shellfish that is available particularly lobster and the brown crab. I am blessed to be able to buy both of these at very reasonable prices at my local farmers market and it helps that the fishmonger Martin is a bit of an old charmer.

I was watching a recent episode of Great British Food Revival where Angela Hartnett was talking about the delights of both the brown crab and spider crab. She did a a lovely spider crab gratin which inspired this dish.

Spiced Brown Crab Gratin

Serves 4.

4 Brown crabs cooked and picked (both brown & white meat) Retain the shells for the gratin.

2 Shallots finely diced

1 Stick lemongrass finely chopped

1 Red chilli finely chopped

1 tsp Ground cumin

1 Glass dry white wine

2 Tbsp brandy

Zest and juice of 1 lime

Dash sweet chili sauce

2tbsp rapeseed oil

Sea salt

Topping;

100g Breadcrumbs

50 g Parmesan finely grated

Heat your grill to a high heat.

Saute the shallots on a low heat until they are translucent. Add the lemongrass, chili and cumin and allow them to cook for a minute or two. The add in all the crab meat and heat through. Add the brandy and flambe to burn off the strong alcohol taste and then add the white wine, zest and juice of the lime and the chili sauce and allow it to reduce down. Check the mixture for seasoning and adjust to taste. Spoon the mixture into the crab shells. Mix the breadcrumbs and parmesan together and sprinkle over the top of each filled shell. Place under the grill for about 3/4 minutes and serve with a wedge of lime.

If you cant get crabs you could just use white crab meat, reduce the amount of white wine and put it in small gratin dishes.

Summer Time Dinners

At long last the weather is showing signs of improvement and this means its time to think of summer food. While I love the BBQ, I also love to have tasty bits in the fridge that can be pulled out for a quick lunch, a picnic or a midweek supper.
Whilst shopping last Friday I saw a ham hock and thought immediately of a terrine to have in the fridge in the hope of some of this elusive warm weather. This is the result!

Ham Hock Terrine with Apricot and Hazelnut

Ingredients

1        Ham hock soaked overnight and then boiled.
454g  Lean pork mince
150g  Breadcrumbs
1        Large onion finely chopped
50 g   Toasted hazelnuts roughly chopped
100g  Dried apricot quartered
1        Egg
1 tbsp Freshly chopped sage
Salt & Pepper to season.
6/8     Rindless streaky rashers

Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 for fan).
Fry the onions until they are translucent and allow to cool. Flake the meat off the ham hock and if necessary cut into narrow long chunks.Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and bring together.

Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with the streaky rashers with the ends hanging over the edge. Put the mixture into the tin and press in well. Then fold over the streaky rashers. Put the tin into a bain marie and put into the oven for 50 mins to an hour. If you feel it is going to brown on top cover with some tin foil. When it is cooked allow the terrine cool in tin. When it is cold wrap it tightly in clingfilm and return it to the tin. Then put something good and heavy on top of it for about 4 hours. Then refrigerate overnight and its ready to serve.

A Blast from the Past

I always enjoy observing the adventures that other people take on. Twitter is an amazing place to keep tack of the trials and tribulations of others. And one of the people I follow Laoise aka Cuisine Genie is currently having the adventure of a lifetime at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London.

Last week she tweeted that they were learning about pithivier. This was such a blast from the past for me. While I have eaten pithivier a few times over the last few years I haven't made pithivier since I was in college.

So Pithivier is the most delicious  puff pastry pie that can be either sweet or savoury and it originates from a place in France.  It has a lovely distinctive sundial on the top of it. On Saturday evening I set about making a lovely savoury pithivier which I hope you get a chance to try and enjoy.

Beef Pithivier with a Wild Mushroom Jus

Ingredients:

400g  Beef Fillet in a 1cm dice.
1        Large Onion diced.
150g  Mushroom selection diced (I used a mix of chanterelle, oyster and chestnut)
 2tbsp Olive oil
3tbsp Brandy
2tbsp Sour cream.
1 tsp  Chopped fresh thyme
Salt & Pepper

2lbs Puff pastry - you can make it or buy it depending on the time available to you.

For the jus:

200 mls red wine
2     tbsp balsamic vinegar
50g dried wild mushroom soaked for 20 minutes in 50 ml  warm water
200 mls Beef Stock
1     sprig of thyme
2     tbsp brown sugar
       knob of butter

For the pithivier:

To prepare the pithivier sauté the large onion for a couple of minutes in the oil but do not allow to colour too much. Add the beef fillet and sear well. Then add the mushrooms and allow them to cook until just soft.
Add the brandy and flambé to burn off the alcohol. Finally add the sour cream and sitr. Allow the mixture to thicken and the cream to reduce for a few minutes because you don't want the mixture to be too wet.
Allow the filling to cool completely as if it is warm it will melt the pastry.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Roll out the pastry. I just did 500g at a time. When you have it rolled out to about 3 mm no thinner cut out 2 x 6" discs and 2 x  4"discs. Do the same with the other 500g of pastry. Keep the trimmings for something else.

Lay out the 4 4"discs. Divide the filling between the four discs making sure to leave an outer rim of about 1 cm and stack the filling so that you will have a nice dome shape. Brush the rim with egg wash and put the 6" lid on. seal the edges by pinching them together so that you get a nice 'frill'. Place the 4 completed pithivier on a baking tray. Score the top so that it looks like sunrays (see pic). Brush with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes.

For the jus:

Put the wine and vinegar into a hot pot and allow to reduce by half. Then add the stock, chopped mushrooms, water and sugar and thyme an allow to reduce again by about half. It should have started to get syrupy. Finally whisk in the butter to give the sauce a nice shine.

I served this with some lovely cep mash with cep oil that I got from Ballyhoura Mushrooms and some green beans.





I

End of Chapter One.

Five years ago a friend asked me if I would like to take part in a Christmas craft fair selling some of my chutneys and jams. I had never thought about doing anything like this before and so I jumped at the chance.

That evening I met a few stallholders from our local farmers market where I was also a customer and one thing led to another and it was decided :- I was going to take a stall. Low and behold shortly afterwards I fell off the second last step of the stairs and broke my wrist.

By the time I was able to drive and work in the kitchen again another lady had started selling jams. So I resigned myself to making chutneys, relishes, dressings and pates. It was so exciting to experience selling my own produce and to get compliments about what I was doing.

A couple of months after I had taken my stall the cheese lady - Mary - told me she was leaving. I jumped at the chance of taking on the cheese stall having had a long obsession with all things cheesy.
This is when "The Cheeseboard" began.

The last few years have enriched my life and that of my families hugely. My children have seen hands on trading - learning rapidly about the connection between hard work and earning money.
I have met a vast array of people from the community and have become a  member of my local community in a way that can often take a "blow in" decades!!!
I have made an incredible amount of friends which has brought many happy occasions to our lives and I've even bought an 'oul dress or two along the way !!

However over the last few months I've been yearning for a change.  I need a new challenge.

And so .....

Today was my last day as a stallholder in Gorey Farmers Market. I say this with a certain amount of melancholy but also with great expectations of other things to come......

I am thrilled to say I am handing over the reigns to a now ex- customer but still a very firm friend Aidan Clince. I can only hope the stall brings him the same amount of happiness that it has brought me over the past  few years.

And me .... Chapter 2 starts today. First I'm going back to college (again) to do a Maths degree and concurrently I have plans to formulate for my new (ad)venture.

In the meantime I'll still be cooking, eating and reading about food and bringing you an ocassional recipe.

Always  "The Cheeseboard" Gwen xxx

Shakshuka Irish Style

So its 2013 and I'm full of good intentions and resolutions like I will eat less, I will lose two stone, I will exercise more and most especially I will do more food related activities like add recipes to the blog, attend food festivals regularly etc.  - Does anyone see a problem with this?

However another resolution is to make use out of my cookery book collection and on this note I promise I have started well. I currently have an obsession with all things middle eastern  or to be more precise Yotam Ottolenghi.

I have all three of his books and have gone and bought lots of lovely spices, pomegranate molasses and preserved lemons. I really love the freshness of the recipes. I particularly like Shakshuka which is basically eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce. So one Sunday morning recently I decided to give it an Irish makeover! The results were delicious although I can't see some of my other resolutions being realised successfully if I indulge in this too often. Having said that everyone in the family enjoyed this thoroughly.

Shakshuka Irish Style

1          Onion diced
1          Can cherry tomatoes
1Kg     Ripe tomatoes chopped in big chunks
454g    Sausages
6          Slices streaky rashers cut inot lardons
1 tsp    Cumin seeds lightly roasted
1tsp     Harissa paste (or to taste depending on your tolerance)
1         Red pepper diced
150ml  Water
1 tbsp  Olive oil
6         Eggs
Bunch Coriander


Saute the onions until golden for a bout 5 mins then add the cumin and harissa and cook fro a minute or two. Then add the lardons and sausages chopped into bite sizes and allow to brown for a few minutes. Next add the peppers and allow to soften for a minute or two. Then add all the tomtoes and the water and allow to come to a simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes until its  bubbling and thickens up a little. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. Then make little nests for each egg. Crack the eggs into the nest and swirl the egg white slightly in the sauce. Allow the eggs to poach gently leaving the yolks golden and runny. Sactter fresh coriander leaves over the top and serve. Perfect on a cold morning.

A Quick Fix - Wholemeal Cheese Scones

I love baking but I don't always have the time to go to a huge amount of trouble (or washing up) so its great to be able to put something together quickly without making a mess.

Scones are the ideal answer to this. So yesterday morning (Sunday) I was enjoying a leisurely lie in when my brain had a vision of breakfast that included brown bread. Then the next light bulb went on I a) hadn't made any, b) hadn't bought any and c) hadn't taken any out of the freezer. So out of the bed with me and down stairs to feed my brood who seem to be forever starving! 

It was 11am and I had an incredible amount of housework to do to be ready for the week. I decided a nice wholemeal cheesy scone would be the perfect answer to my brains vision. So on went the oven and a tasty breakfast was on the table in 35 minutes! They also keep well for a few days because of the fat content in the cheese.

Wholemeal Cheese Scones

300g Stoneground Wholemeal Flour - I use Uncle Aidans a lovely Wexford flour

300g Plain Flour

200 g Cheddar Cheese

400 ml Buttermilk

1 tsp Bread sSoda

1 tsp Salt

Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Grate the cheese and add 150g into the flour and mix in gently. Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk. Using your hand like a claw mix well. Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured worktop and quickly shape the mixture into a round. Then flatten it gently to about an inch. use a medium cutter to cut out the scones. Put them onto a lightly floured baking tray. Brush them with egg wash and sprinkle the remaining cheese over them. Place them into the oven fpr 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

A Summer Dedication

Woodford Bournes Patrick St

Its quite some time since I last wrote a post. Many things got in the way mainly too much much going on and something had to give. Over the last couple of months though one of things that did not change was my interest in cooking in fact it has served me well as a stress reliever. I recently spent a few days away in West Clare with the kids, my Mum, her Sister, my Cousin and her little girl. We were staying in self catering accommodation so everyone brought stuff with them including  my Mums pressed ox tongue and a galantine. These items have always been firm family favourites in our family as my gran had always included them on the menu for special occasions. So last week there was alot of oohing and aaahhing over them and they didn't last too long!! These things have morphed in may ways over the years and I now make them my way for my family and have become favourites in my home too. This got me thinking about how I got my love for cooking and brought back many early food memories. My Mum is a marvelous cook and she didn't lick it off the stones. My Gran won many competitions through her involvement in the ICA and indeed fish cookery was her speciality as my Grandad was very partial to a bit of Turbot or Brill on a Friday!!
During the course of planning this post I had the most wonderful conversation with my Mum about grocery shopping back in the day. My Mum is from Cork and she told me all about how wonderful the shops on both Princes St and Patrick St were, recalling merchants like Woodford Bourne wine & spirit merchants, Smiths Stores and the L&N who were general merchants with whom you would place your order and it would be all packaged up and delivered to your door. She recalls shops called Quaines for fish, Mortells for eggs, Rose Bros for Pork and O Hares in the English Market for meat.

The English Market

She particularly recalled being sent into town when she was about twelve to get some vegetables and picking  up a bunch of radishes in Russells vegetable shop and a lady asking her what they were !! So really it is no wonder that my earliest memories of food are cooking with my Mum and Gran and I can still recall the aromatic smells from their kitchens. So the two main recipes in this post are a celebration of the fabulous influential women in my early life , both of whom instilled the importance of good home cooking into my psyche.


Menu

Pressed Ox Tongue with Port Jelly
Country Terrine
****
Rice & Pimento Salad
Mushroom Salad
Beetroot Jelly
Stuffed Eggs
Potato Salad  
What my Gran called a General Salad


Pressed Ox Tongue with Port Jelly

Ingredients:
1 Pickled Ox Tongue (soaked overnight)
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Stick celery
1 Bouquet Garni
2 Gelatine leaves
50 mls Port

Place the soaked tongue into a large pot add the onion halved
the carrot and celery along with the bouquet garni and cover with water. Allow come to the boil and simmer on a low heat for approximately 3 hours. At this stage remove the tongue from the cooking liquor and allow cool a little. Retain the cooking liquor. when the tongue is cool enough to handle remove the skin and any fatty bits at the base.  Put 150 mls of the cooking liquor into a pot and heat gently. Soak the gleatine in 50mls cold water and allow soak for approx. 10 minutes until spongy. Squeeze out and add to the liquor and allow the gelatine dissolve stirring gently. Finally add the port. Then quickly curl the tongue into a tight fitting bowl and pour over the jelly. Cover tightly with clingfilm and invert a saucer on top. Place a heavy object on top ( I use the bowl of my pestle & mortar) and stand until cool. The place in the fridge with weight still on top in the fridge overnight.

Country Terrine


My gran would have called her version of this a galantine which is traditionally made from minced chicken but that would have been extremely expensive back in the day. She used to use beef mince and sausage meat. She also used to put two boiled eggs in the centre, wrap it in muslin and boil it.

Ingredients.

500g Lean beef steak mince
300g Turkey Mince or pork mince whichever you prefer.
A boiled ham hock
1 onion finely diced
2 cloves garlic
150g mushrooms sliced finely.
4 tbsp freshly chopped herbs such as parsley, sage, thyme, chives
1 egg
100g breadcrumbs
dash of Leas & Perrins
dash of tomato sauce.
sat & pepper to season

Preheat you oven to 200 C or 180 C Fan. Gently fry the onions and garlic together until almost translucent. Add the sliced mushrooms and allow to soften. Drain on some kitchen paper and allow to cool. In the meantime cut the meat off the ham hock and cut up into rough chunks. Then put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix together ( I use my hands for this). Tightly pack the mix into a 2lb loaf tin  ... it will fit I promise! Then boil a kettle. Place the loaf tin into a roasting tin and fill the roasting tin until it comes just over half way above the height of the loaf tin. Put in the oven and time for 20mins. Then lower the temperature to 160 C or 150C fan and allow cook for a further 60 mins. Allow cool in the tin until lukewarm otherwise it will fall apart. When you remove it from the tin wrap the terrine in greaseproof or baking parchment and then tinfoil. Allow the terrine to go completely cold and then refrigerate overnight

A beetroot jelly would be made by adding chopped beetroot to blackcurrant jelly. A rice salad would be made with red pepper, scallion and some dried fruit. Gran stuffed eggs and my Mum still makes the best potato salad ever!  All of this would be served on crisp white linen with appropriate condiments such as homemade chutney and my Grandads pickled onions! My Mum has continued these traditions to this day and I am determined that my kids will carry these skills though to theirs. So thanks ladies for the love of food.

Friends for Easter Dinner

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year. Its not quite as frenetic as Christmas, the weather is improving and the evenings are bright. There's a lovely freshness to the young green leaves on the trees and you can really get out and enjoy the world around you. The other reason I love Easter so much is because it doesn't have quite the same hoo haa about  if you what I mean. Especially for Mummies!! Christmas is pressure city central whereas Easter is not quite so intense and I find that I enjoy it  without being fit for nothing but a lazy day on the couch afterwards.

As with so many others we often have family and friends for dinner on Easter Sunday and this means a little menu planning.  I'm a bit of a traditionalist  and would almost always have roast lamb but there are a number of friends and family who are not mad about lamb and so I find myself struggling with the should I cook what I want or serve what my guests like battle. What the guests like normally wins out and so roast duck is a nice alternative for Easter Sunday. Recently I did this and served it with a Kumquat & Cointreau Compote which was luscious!

Kumquat Compote:

250 g Kumquats
200ml Water
100g Sugar
Dollop Cointreau

Dissolve the sugar in water simmer until syrupy then add the kumquats and simmer for 5 minutes or so.

Add the Cointreau and simmer again until only a few tbsp of water remain.

I always roast duck slowly on a trivet having made sure the skin is dry and then rub salt in. I start it on a high heat and then lower right down to 150c and allow to cook slowly. Dont forget to save all the lovly duck fat you collect in the process - think of the confit you can do then!!

To start on this occasion was a lovely 

Chilled Tomato and Red Pepper Soup with a Crab Cocktail

This is an adaptation of a  Gordon Ramsay recipe and its dead easy and quick to prepare although it does need a couple of hours to chill.

Ingredients:

Soup:

500 grms  Ripe tomatoes

1 Large Red Pepper

1 Shallot

1 Clove Garlic

500ml Passata

200 ml Cream

Thyme and a bay leaf

Salt, Pepper & Sugar to season

Olive Oil

Saute the shallots and garlic in a small amount of olive oil gently until softened and transparent. Add the roughly chopped pepper and tomatoes and allow soften for five minutes on a low heat. Add the passata and allow to simmer for ten minute.Season and add the cream and allow to simmer very gently for two minutes. Then liquidize the soup and pass through a sieve. Allow the soup to cool and then chill two hours. adjust the seasoning.

Crab cocktail 

1  ripe avocado

400 g crabmeat

Chives

Chopped dessert apple with a squeez of lime.

200ml creme fraiche (or mayonnaise) 

A squeeze of tomato sauce

The juice of a lime.

Mash up the the avocado and mix with chopped apple and some chopped chive a spoon of creme fraiche and a squeeze of lime juice together. Then combine the remainder of the creme fraiche, lime juice and tomato sauce together. Retain a couple of tbsp of this for later. Then combine the crabmeat with rest of the dressing.

Using a ring or scone cutter place in the middle of a soup plate and put first a layer of the avocado and apple mix then a layer of the crab mis and then nap it with the retained dressing. The pour the chilled soup carefully around the side garnish with chives and serve.

Finally the piece de resistance:

Gateau Diane

This is a lovely crowd pleaser and is extremely rich - perfect for any occasion this one has an Easter twist. I got this recipe from this months Food & Wine magazine hadn't had it in years but it definitely won't be as long again.

4 large eggs whites only (room temperature)

pinch of salt

225g caster sugar

250g chocolate I use 1/3 70% 2/3 55%

100 ml boiling water

500 ml double cream

Preheat your oven to 100c. Line two large baking trays with baking parchment and use a 7" round tin to trace out four circles.

Place the egg whites in a large spotlessly clean bowl , add a pinch of salt and whisk until at soft peak stage add the caster sugar a tbsp at a time and whisk until glossy with a stiff peak. . Then put the meringue mixture onto the parchment carefully in the circles. Bake for two hours and leave in the oven until cold so that the meringue is crisp and dry.

Break up the chocolate and add the boiling water. Place over a pan of simmering water and melt stirring until smooth. Allow to cool. Pour the chocolate into a large bowl with the cream and whisk until thick. (You could add a dollop of baileys or the tipple of your choice at this stage !!). Then place a meringue circle onto a pretty serving plat and spread a layer of the chocolate cream on top, continue with the other layers finishing with the chocolate cream on top. 

Decorate as you wish but for an Easter twist I used mini chocolate eggs and strawberries. Allow to chill in the fridge for two hours. Then serve with a dusting of icing sugar on top.

How are your curtains ?

I always love to see Summer time start. Its so lovely to see the bright evenings and I often feel people are like tortoises. They start to emerge from their shells and stretch out. Even driving through town yesterday evening I was struck by all the people out sitting having the tipple of their fancy - everyone was in great form.  The Market is the same. There are more stall holders and we see the return of our fair weather customers and the sense of community builds once more.

But this has made me think about the long dreary winter months and how we get through them. Once the buzz of Christmas is over we sink into a lull of hardcore regulars! Quite often as a stall holder this is a difficult time. So how do we keep going? Sure its for the love of what we do and for many their livelihood depends on it but its also because of the camaraderie and friendships that have formed between customers and stallholders alike.

Our fish stall holder is what can only be described as a devil. What he gets away with saying to his customers is unreal. The amount of times I've heard him chatting up women of all ages is phenomenal and he does it with such charm and humour that he gets away with murder. And while he's no George Clooney what woman doesn't mind being told she's only gorgeous! Because of this an orderly queue forms at his stall every Saturday whatever the weather and the roars of laughter can be heard and keep the customers coming back.

Then there are the customers who sweep in every Saturday laughing no matter what ! One lady in particular arrives with her dog Guinness every Saturday. Guinness always looks suave in his reflector jacket !!! He trots up to me and sits looking up at me with the most beautiful chocolate eyes that say please give me a treat. He is particularly fond of Gubbeen and Manchego. His owner then follows him over and decrees that her dog has the best taste ever and knows a good cheese when he smells one !

Then she will have a story for you. One that is normally not for small ears if you know what I mean. My particular favourite was about a French man, Italian man and an Irish man. While I could not possibly tell you the rest of the story on this blog as I would most certainly be tracked down and arrested suffice to say to say there were curtains involved and hence Mary now greets me with the line - "How are your curtains?" and the laughter rises again.

This is what makes a Market, this is what makes my Saturday mornings sunny all year round and in honour of the sun here is a nice little week day supper that celebrates the start of Summer flavours.

Roast Mediterranean Vegetable Salad with 

Grilled Goats Cheese and Wild Garlic Oil.

Serves 4
Prep 30 mins plus cooling

Ingredients:

1 Aubergine
1 Courgette
1 Red Onion
20 Cherry Tomatoes
100g Lardons
A mixture of salad leaves in season.
8 thin slices of Chevre Buche
Big bunch of Wild Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & pepper

Chop up the onion, courgettes, aubergine place on a baking tray along with the cherry tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, season and roast in a preheated moderate oven (180 deg) for twenty mins. Then allow to cool.

In the meantime wash the wild garlic and dry.Then crush it with a pestle & mortar or whizz it in the processor and add enough oil to make it loose enough to drizzle. Fry the lardons until a they are a little bit crispy and allow to cool.

Place the slices of goats cheese on a baking tray. When the vegetables are cool place the goats cheese under the grill for two to three minutes. In the meantime arrange the salad leaves nicely. Arrange your vegetables and lardons on top. Finally place two slices of the grilled goats cheese on top and drizzle with the wild garlic oil. A lovely taste of Summer.

The Week Cheese!

One of my favourite things about our market is that there is a really lovely family atmosphere. Parents are accompanied by their children while they browse for their vegetables, fish , meat and cheese. Needless to mention the baking stalls and crepe stall are always a firm favourite for the kids. 

My stall is right next door to the crepe stall which does a mean minnie and mickey mouse american pancake! while they are being prepared there is often a foray over to my stall and you can tell a lot about the little darlings from their reaction to cheese!

First of all there is the UUuugggghhh that cheese smell type who you just know are not for changing and might be quite picky about their food and will do their level best to drag their mums and dads away from the offending whiffs! The mums are more likely to acquiesce but the dads -  they kinda ignore them and mumble yeah yeah hang on a minute while they browse the selection available inevitably buying a nice mature cheddar or a decent bit of blue!! Meanwhile their offspring at this stage are distracted by the nutella coated pancake that they are more than anxious to consume!

The next type is the Whats That???  This is the child who will stand and ask the questions whats that, whats that, whats that? All the while pointing to whatever it is that catches their eye while a queue of paying customers starts to form behind them. This is a difficult one because I never like to offend or to quench the curiosity and a little bit of patience can often pay off.

The next type is the Sticky Fingers type who just want to paw the cheese. Its like watching car crash TV in slow motion. The hands just land - SPLAT - on cheese and you just know they are going to the soft cheese - fresh piece of St Tola or Ryefield  and you just have to hope that their Mums or Dads aren't at the stage where they have been up  since the dawn  and their will to continue has been severly compromised by their little ones exuberance earlier on in the day.

Then there is the child who just wants to taste - I love this child - they are the ones with the quiet sense of adventure that you just know are brimming with confidence and will try anything once. These are the children who will get over it if they don't like it and will not be stopped from finding a cheese that they really like.

Don't mistake this confidence for being that nurtured by parents- sometimes this isn't the case - sometimes its a genuine curiousity about taste and experiences. These are the four and five year olds that like a bit of Stilton or that love olives.

And there is my favourite customer Matthew who comes to me with his family every week to buy the Week Cheese. Matthew is the child that does not eat cheese but is in charge of picking the weeks cheese and regardless of what he picks thats what that family are eating that week!! The ultimate decision maker.

So what do my little customers tend to like - Wicklow Baun, Wicklow Gold, Ryefield and Cooleeney are very popular. Manchego is a shinning star and Parmesan and Mozzarella are great loves for the top of their pasta and pizza respectively.

Here is a recipe for one of my childrens favourite cheesy desserts:

Raspberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake Pots

Prep: 20 mins
Chill:  1 hour
Serves: 4 generously!

150g Mascarpone
150g Soft Cheese ( Full or Low fat)
200ml Cream
50g Golden Caster Sugar
100g White Chocolate grated ( Butlers do a lovely one with berries in it!)
300g Raspberries (retain a few for decorating)
50g Butter
250g Biccies of your choice I use a chocolate chip

Method

Melt the butter and crush the biscuits, mix together and put into the base of 4 pretty glasses.
Sprinkle a tablespoon of icing sugar over the raspberries and allow to macerate for 10/15 minutes
Put the cheese mascarpone, cream and caster sugar into a bowl together and whisk for a few minutes until quite thick. Stir in most of the grated chocolate again retain some for decoration. Then mush up the raspberries and stir into the mixture. If you are fussy sieve the raspberries to remove the seeds. Spoon the mixture into the four glasses and allow set in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. You could leave it overnight. Decorate, serve and enjoy!

The Weather Forecast Obsession

Do you remember when your parents watched the news and you were obliged to be silent so that they could get their fill of that days serious events and then the moment would come when you thought the coast was clear and you could safely speak without your entire body burning up with the fiery glares of anger from the his and hers armchairs in opposing corners of the room. Oh yeah you had just started to argue about looking at Today Tonight or something way more entertaining and your mother SSSHHHHHH'S everyone in the room and says I want to hear the weather forecast. I was never sure whether or not it was for planning what she would wear the next day or when she might hang the washing on the line or more importantly if it was going to SNOW. My mother was always on the alert for snow. She always figured that if there was even the slightest chance of a wintry shower that there was going to be a blizzard and we should baton down the hatches. I thought she was demented!!

But now I understand !!!! It starts on Sunday with the farming forecast on RTE 1. I just cant help myself. I seek it out. Then its every morning on the radio, every evening after the news and increasing selection of weather predicting websites until I resign myself to the fact that it makes no difference and by Saturday morning as I open my eyes the decision is always the same. I always get up, get dressed and stumble into the kitchen to make a batch of fragrant fresh basil pesto and my tomato and chilli tapenade. Once the car is packed off I go into Gorey and set up my stall and begin to welcome all our customers for the day.

The chat is always started with isn't it a ....... day substituting in the appropriate adjective for the weather of the moment and then my favourite few hours of the week begins.  In the spirit of wintry showers here's my favourite remedy to the cold that I love to thaw out with !

Beef Casserole and Oyster Mushroom Casserole

Serves 4

600 g        Round steak (thrifty) sirloin (spendthrift)
1              Onion sliced
2              Cloves garlic crushed
200 g       Oyster mushrooms
500ml      Beef Stock
30 g         Butter
2/3 tbsp   Oil
3tbsp       Plain flour
1 Gl         Red Wine
1             Splash brandy!!
1 tbsp     Chopped Fresh Thyme
1 tsp       Dijon mustard
Salt & Freshly ground black pepper

Heat Oven to 180 º C. Cube the beef and and toss in seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a heavy based oven proof casserole and seal the seasoned meat. Remove and drain off any excess fat. Saute the onions and garlic together and then add the butter. Once melted then add in the oyster mushrooms roughly chopped. Allow to soften for a couple of minutes. Then add the flour and cook off for a minute add the stock, wine brandy and a tsp of Dijon mustard. Add back in the beef and allow the sauce to come to a simmer and too thicken. Adjust the seasoning, cover and put in the oven for 30 mins the turn down the heat to 160 º C and allow to cook for approx 11/2 hours. Serve with creamy mash and I like lovely green beans with this. Pure comfort!