Nettle and Barley Pudding - An Experiment

It is time to go foraging for Nettles, they are now in season, here in County Kilkenny.

Bunch of Freshly Picked Nettles

Best eaten tender, soon after emerging from their winter slumber.  When picking them, wear rubber gloves, so you will not be stung. This recipe calls for a decent bunch. Make sure they are growing in a spot where they have not been sprayed, away from a road and preferably where there are no livestock grazing.

Added ingredients: leeks, sorrel, watercress, thyme & chives

This recipe is based on an ancient type of pudding, commonly eaten in the past. 

Puddings, nowadays, apart from blood puddings, are usually regarded as sweet dishes, but this was not always the case. Originally, they were placed in an animal's stomach, like the modern Scottish haggis. From the seventeenth century, puddings, generally savory, wrapped in a cloth and thus cooked. Later, in second half of the nineteenth century, they were placed in a pudding basin and steamed. 

Barley and Nettle Pudding being placed in Lamb Stock

RECIPE

Lamb, ham or chicken stock

Barley (pearl barley was used in this case)

Bunch of nettles

Bunch of watercress

Bunch of sorrel

2 leeks

Chives

1 wild garlic leaf

Sprigs of thyme

Salt

The barley was soaked before hand, in lamb stock and then drained (there is a similar version of this recipe, that uses barley flour). The greens were finely chopped, added to the barley, along with some sea salt, mixed together.  Some of the larger leaves were held aside and used to line the pudding cloth, and to wrap the pudding. It was then tied up and cooked in a saucepan of lamb stock for an hour and a half.

Nettle and Barley Pudding

VERDICT

The pudding should have been opened, once it had cooled, but being in a hurry to taste it, it was opened while still steaming - so it lost its shape! It was wonderfully tasty, and was eaten with some locally produced lamb. It is likely that in medieval times, all sorts of exotic foreign spices (of which they were so fond), would have been added - by those who could afford it. 

Next time, I am going to try the barley flour version, it is an inspirational dish: traditional, healthy, cheap, local and seasonal. 

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Real Mint Sauce for Easter Lamb

Have you ever gone out to dinner, ordered lamb and mint sauce? The lamb was delicious, but the mint sauce was a disappointing nasty, vinegary mess, out of some mass produced jar - sadly, this is a common scenario for which there is absolutely no need.

Homemade Mint Sauce made from a mixture of Applemint and Spearmint.

Mint is one of the easiest herbs to grow in County Kilkenny, so much so, it can become a weed in the garden, if not kept under control. Spear Mint (Mentha Speicata) is used here, along with Apple Mint (Mentha Sauveolens), both can be grown in an old pot or bucket.

Mint Sauce is the simplest of sauces to make, there is no excuse for not giving it a go. It is a very good example of how one can be thrifty and still enjoy good food, by complimenting it with a quality sauce, at virtually no cost.

RECIPE
Pick a bunch of young sprigs of mint
Tear the leaves from the stems
Chop the leaves, finely
Place in bowl, cover with boiling water
Add teaspoon of sugar, vinegar to taste and a pinch of salt.
Leave to cool and serve.

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