A Hearty Winter Pea Soup

A cheap, easy to make, winter soup using local produce.
Yesterday, a bag of locally grown, dried Kilkenny peas were received from a generous neighbour. Some of them were soaked overnight, as I pondered how they should be cooked.

Kilkenny Dried Peas

Peas were first cultivated in central Europe and were probably introduced to Ireland before medieval times. They soon became popular and they had the added advantage of storing well throughout the winter months, once they were dried.

This morning, the weather was wet and miserable, so it was the perfect day for a hearty, winter soup. There was no time to go shopping, this had to be a quick recipe, using what was already in the house and garden.

Soaked and Cooked Peas added to Onion, Marrow & Carrot

Recipe:

A handful of dried peas were soaked overnight and then simmered for 30 minutes.

A large onion, gently softened in butter with a dried bay leaf.

A hunk of marrow left over from the last of the summer courgettes, added to the onion, along with a chopped, freshly dug carrot.

The peas were added along, with a little cider (because it was there) and a litre of good stock.

Stock added to the Pea Soup

This was simmered for 10 minutes, seasoning corrected and a teaspoonful tumeric added.

Tumeric is a spice that contains curcumin, which is believed to have anti-inflamatory properties and to protect against Alzheimer's disease and cancer. In addition, it enhanced the yellow colour of the vegetables.

Pea, Marrow and Carrot Soup

The soup was then whizzed up, a sprinkling of parsley added and ready for consumption.

If it is too thick, water or milk can be added.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

A Frugal, Thrifty, Cheap, Traditional Christmas is the new Irish Christmas

A thrifty, traditional Christmas is the new Irish Christmas in the current recession.

Keep everything as simple as possible. 

Budget - Make your shopping list and Christmas present list, months in advance. 

Use as few processed foods as you can manage.

Use natural and locally made decorations.

Christmas Tree: if you live in the country, you may be able to buy a fresh tree off a neighbour. The commercial ones are cut in November and are sometimes found wilting on Christmas Day. If a tree costs too much, try using just a few evergreen branches and decorate them. Even a bare branched tree or potted shrub can look wonderful, once decorated.

Decorations for the Tree: every year after Christmas, carefully put away all the decorations that are in good condition. Build up a family collection of ornaments for your annual Christmas celebration. Save that paper fairy made by your child in junior infants class, it will last for years and will cause amusement, as it ages. Try and add one or two carefully made/chosen new items each year. Make your ornaments, some are easy to make and last for years.

A Christmas Decoration - handmade locally in Kilkenny: Jerpoint Glass bauble.

Date: don't allow Christmas to last for ever, prevent it from starting too early, by considering the traditional dates for decorating the house i.e. putting up the tree on 23rd/24th December and leaving it up for the 12 days of Christmas, taking it down on the feast of the Epiphany, or what used to be known as Little Christmas or Womens' Christmas on January 6th. If you are under pressure to start early, try celebrating Advent with a homemade decorated wreath, or an Advent calendar or candle and stand firm on everything else, until a couple of days before Christmas.

Wreath: these are expensive and never look as well as a homemade one. There is nothing simpler to make. Forget florist's fancy rings, foams and other secrets. All you need is a wire coat hanger, cut off the hook and make it into a circle. Then go outside to a garden and cut lengths of greenery, evergreen plants preferred, and roughly bind them to the wire using green thread or string. Once you have achieved the shape and size that you require, then bind it with some red or colorful ribbon and decorate with whatever you have to hand - Christmas decorations, dried flowers, fir cones etc. You will be surprised at how easy and quick it is.

Decorate your House: plastic decorations are expensive. Use the traditional ivy, holly, yew or fir. Drape them on top of your pictures and intertwine the ivy up the stairs. Use greenery that grows near you. If you do this on Christmas Eve they will last until Jan 6th when it is time to take them down and add them to the compost heap. Trail the ivy along and around the table on Christmas day. It costs nothing and looks great.


External Decoration: forget the flashing Christmas lights, just don't even think about them. A single candle flame, in the window, on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, is remarkably effective and a most welcoming sight.

Food: decide well in advance what you are going to eat and write out a menu, then write out the shopping list of ingredients that you require and stick to this list rigidly and you will save yourself a small fortune.

Santa Claus: Santa will be only too well aware that there is a recession this Christmas, so he will only be bringing small presents that will actually fit into a sock or stocking. These should either be hung at the end of the bed or near the fireplace to make life easy for him, so that he won't have to waste time wandering around looking for them. Parents who have laboured long and hard should ensure that their children are aware that presents bought by their parents are the products of those parents' hard work and are to be appreciated as such.

Wrapping Presents: whenever you receive a gift, always save the paper and any ribbons. Then, when Christmas comes around you will have a good supply. If you want to be really thrify, try using newspaper sheets, they can be most decorative, especially when wrapped with some recycled ribbon.

Christmas Crackers: if you have to have them, either make them yourself or buy cheap ones and carefully open them and fill them with homemade gifts or sweets that you know everyone will enjoy.

Turn off the Electricity: light the fire and light some candles. Decant your sloe gin, fill a few glasses, tell some stories and have a great Christmas.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Kilkenny Salsify

SALSIFY

An under rated old fashioned vegetable once grown in Irish Victorian kitchen gardens. Like sea kale, it became unfashionable and forgotten. Look out for the seeds, it is well worth growing and you will find the tender roots a welcome addition to your autumn meals.

Leave a few plants to over winter and if you leave them until they flower, they will seed freely. You can eat the young shoots in salads. The purple flowers are an added attraction.

Dig roots carefully, they are brittle and will easily snap. Dig them while they are still young. 

RECIPE: Gently wash and remove long green leaves. Scrap off skin, chop into one inch long pieces, place in salted boiling water that has some lemon juice added to it, until they are just beginning to soften. Drain.

Roll in a little butter, with chopped parsley and a little lemon zest and enjoy their beautiful delicate flavor.


Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Pig's Head Brawn, with Lemon & Parsley

A beautiful large organic pig's head from Bennettsbridge, landed up on my kitchen table. This was a particularly meaty one and deserved special attention.

Recipe for Brawn: Place the half the pig's head in a large pan, along with some root vegetables, herbs and in this case some dry roasted spices. Cover with water and simmer slowly for about three hours.

Once cooked, the meat should be beginning to fall off the bone, discard the vegetables and herbs and remove the head from the stock. 

Boil the stock until it has reduced down, after adding juice of one lemon and a desert spoon of white wine vinegar. Add fresh parsley stalks and remove after ten minutes, for added flavour.

Pick the meat off the head, including the tongue and ear (if you wish). Discard the surplus fat and bone.

Place the diced meat in a bowl and season well, with teaspoon salt, desertspoon of ground black pepper, about a third of a nutmeg, grated and a teaspoon of allspice. Added the grated rind of one lemon and several spoonfuls of chopped, fresh parsley. 

Prepare a dish or a mould by greasing it with butter and placing a slice of lemon and a little parsley on the bottom.

Mix the meat, herbs and spices well. Then gently place in mould, and pour on your simmering stock, which should have reduced enough, so that it just fills your mould with the meat in it.

One it has cooled down, place in fridge for several hours until set. To remove from mould, place it briefly in hot water for a few seconds and then run a sharp knife around the edge, place a plate on top of mould and invert and tap gently until the jellied brawn drops out.

Slice and eat cold, with some homemade chutney or pickle. If your friends are squimish, tell them that it is a pork terrine and they will love it. If we eat meat, we should respect the animal that we are eating and not waste good meat, we should always endevour to make use of the entire animal. This is a pleasure and not an ordeal.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Kilkenny Sloe Gin & Sloe Jam

In Kilkenny, it has been one of the best years in recent times, for Sloes. They started ripening in early September and today, now in late November, the last of them, sweetened by the frost, are still on the blackthorn bushes waiting to be picked.

Sloe Gin, or Sloe Vodka, or if preferred Sloe Poteen, is the simplest of all recipes.

Freshly picked Sloes, ready for the pot.

Just prick the Sloes, pop them into a bottle (as in photo below) and add between a third of their weight and half their weight in sugar. The bottle in the photo is waiting to be topped up with more gin.

If you prefer your Sloe Gin to be sweeter, then just add more sugar. Fill the bottle to the top with your preferred spirit. Shake every day for a couple of weeks. Leave for three months and then strain.

SLOE GIN - Use as a liqueur drink on its own, or in cocktails.

A TART SLOE JAM

Weigh your sloes and then weigh out three quarters of that amount in sugar.

In a large pot or preserving pan, place your sloes with enough water to half cover them. Simmer until the stones are exposed and the flesh is soft.

Then rub the fruit through a coarse sieve or colander to catch the stones. Discard the stones. Add warmed sugar and bring slowly to boil while the sugar dissolves.

Simmer for five minutes and then place the jam into sterilised jars.

SLOE JAM in recycled jars.

The flavour is slightly tart and the colour is a deep colour. Eat with lamb or pork or use in a steam pudding.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Recession Proof Christmas Presents

This Kilkenny Christmas is going to be a thrifty one, no expensive presents, just homemade ones. What better than to make ones own preserves, they are always well received. Instead of bringing a bottle of wine or flowers, try bringing one of your homemade jams, chutneys or pickles when you next go visiting.

Eventually the tomatoes ripened

A glut of cucumbers ensured a plentiful supply of cucumbers for Cucumber Pickles.
The tomatoes were slow to ripen, so lots of green tomato preserves were made. The Green Tomato Jam and Green Tomato Marmalade were successful experiments to be repeated again next year.
A friend, in Toronto, sent a great recipe for green tomato Chow Chow, basically a green tomato pickle, with celery seeds that complimented the tomatoes.

Pickles and Chutneys waiting for Christmas

Still more green tomatoes kept on coming, with no sign of any ripening, so it called for further creativity. This was a Damson and Green Tomato Chutney, making use of a basket of damsons grown by a neighbour and left on the kitchen table.

From L-R: Damson & Green Tomato Chutney, Green Tomato Jam,
Green Tomato Marmalade & Green Tomato Chow Chow.

Eventually, the tomatoes started turning red - much later than usual. Now, was the occasion to make a Red Tomato Relish and a Spicy Red Tomato Relish (spicy, not hot) which will reduce the need to buy a well known brand of tomato ketchup.

From L-R: Wild Plum Jam, Hedgerow Jelly and Sloe Gin & Wild Apple Jelly

Foraging in the deep freeze, revealed some white currants which required attention. These were turned into White Currant and Rosemary Jelly, to be eaten with lamb. It is a beautiful jelly to make, as the white currant juice turns to a surprising, delicate pink colour.
These preserves are all easy to make and the main expense is the sugar and vinegar. Sadly, there is no longer any Irish sugar produced, the factories were closed down. Sugar beet is now grown by my neighbours, only for animal fodder. Instead, we have to buy the more expensive imported cane sugar.
Perhaps, next year, some homemade vinegar will be produced to further reduce the cost.
Don't be too enthusiastic about bringing your glass jars to the recycling centre, instead hold onto them and reuse them, year after year.

These presents are recession proof as they will taste just as good in boom times.

Old Fashioned Suet Christmas Pudding (for those who dislike Raisins & Sultanas).

This old fashioned Christmas pudding is not made entirely out of local ingredients, it reflects a time (long pre-dating the concept of air miles) when imported spices and foreign dried fruits were expensive and exotic and thus appropiate for a Christmas feast.

There was no such thing as refrigeration and a pudding such as this, stored in a cool, dry larder will keep for at least a year.


The hunt for all the ingredients took longer than usual this autumn, as there was no suet to be had from the local butchers. Eventually, one came to the rescue once he realised that I only needed half a pound. Remember to finely chop the suet and remind oneself that the human body requires a certain amount fat to be healthy. The problem is that we often eat too much of the wrong sort of fats.


This is a traditional Christmas pudding, in the past people had limited access to fat, so it was a luxury. Nowadays, it gives added flavour and diamension to this recipe and as Christmas only comes round once a year, it is time to indulge.

The eggs (above) are from my own ducks and geese, they are beaten and then mixed with the brown sugar. The breadcrumbs are my own, the suet and cider are locally produced. 

INGREDIENTS

1 lb unsulphured chopped dried apricots

1 lb chopped dried dates

1/4 lb chopped chopped figs

6 oz mixed candied peel

1 lb breadcrumbs soaked in 1 cup cider

1 lb finely chopped suet

3 goose eggs, I duck egg mixed with 1/2 lb dark brown sugar

Juice and rind of 2 lemons

1 oz mixed spice

1/2 glass brandy

1/2 grated nutmeg


What a shame, none of my figs were of any use this year, as it was such a poor cold, cloudy summer. The fruit is mixed with the dry ingredients first and then the remaining ingredients are added. 

All ingredients are beaten well together and turned into 3 well buttered bowls and covered with greaseproof paper and steamed for 3 1/2 hours. 

Keep in a cool place until Christmas, or in the freezer for next year. Before eating steam for 2 hours and then spike with blanched almonds, top with a sprig of holly (make sure it has berries), warm a little brandy, pour over the pudding, set alight and present the flaming pudding to your diners. Serve with brandy butter.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Sea Kale in Autumn

The Sea Kale has done well over the summer months, recovering fully after all its spring shoots were cut for eating. Despite the bad summer, it has built up its reserves for the winter and now looks like some nobbly monster.

Sea Kale in the Autumn

Today, it was mulched with three year old well rotted horse manure and once the final leaves have fallen off, it will be covered with earthenware pots and tucked away until the spring, when there should be a mass of lucious, blanched shoots - a great delicacy.

Sea Kale ready to be covered

It was nurtured in this manner in Victorian and Edwardian kitchen gardens, but has subsequently grown out of favour with diners.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Roast Kilkenny Pigeon with Hedgerow Jelly

Six beautiful, freshly, shot pigeons landed on the kitchen table. After plucking (feathers now rotting down on the compost heap) and gutting them, we found that they had been eating beech nuts and beans. They obviously have good taste!
Two were immediately roasted for supper, larded with a few free range bacon rashers and they proved to be first class eating, along with some homemade hedgerow jelly.

The jelly was made a few weeks ago from wild apples, haws, rosehips, sloes and a few blackberries. A dark purple jelly, with a wonderful deep flavour. It is particularly special, as so few jars are made from a large amount of fruit, but it is worth it.

The six livers were quickly whizzed up with some brandy, thyme and rich butter into a pate.

Waste not, want not... The next day the bones were simmered up to make a rich stock for pigeon soup.

The remaining pigeons are in the deep freeze awaiting a pigeon pie.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Wild Apple Verjus/Verjuice

I have not been able to buy Verjuice, so I have decided to make some.
It can be made out of grape or apple juice. As there is a plentiful supply of wild apples this year, it is time to try it.

The wild apples are chopped in half and placed in food processor with a little water and whizzed up until they are broken up into a mash.

Then placed in a jelly bag. Once the apple mash ceases to drip, the juice is ready to be bottled in sterilised bottles. 10% of the total volume of juice is the amount of vodka that is added to act as a preservative.

Wild Kilkenny Apple Verjuice/Verjus ready for consumption. Use to make a salad dressing, instead of vinegar, for a much more subtle taste.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Autumn Nuts & Seeds

I have been foraging for beech nuts/mast. These lowly, under-rated "nuts" are more delicious than imported pine nuts, why are they not used in recipes more often?
Now is the time to collect them before the squirrels horde them for the winter.

The dill plants have yielded a bumper crop of seeds which have been dried and will be use for cooking and for sowing next year.

Sloe Gin and Wild Apple Jelly

Now that the first frost has arrived it is time to pick sloes and wild apples, sweetened by the frost, to make Sloe Gin Jelly. I have some of last year's sloe gin left over and will use it in the jelly recipe. 

Wild Kilkenny apples ready for picking

Ripe sloes

Sloes and wild apples ready for cooking

Sloe and apple juice

The finished article with last year's sloe gin added: Wild Apple, Sloe & Sloe Gin Jelly.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com