Kilkenny Pheasant Liver Pate

Eating local and seasonal is hard to beat. A brace of wild Kilkenny pheasants, locally shot and hung for 6 days, arrived on the kitchen table. These pheasants had a healthy, free life until they met their demise.

A fine brace of Kilkenny Cock Pheasants

They were plucked and gutted. The pheasant feathers made a welcome addition to the compost heap. These pheasants were roasted with some fatty bacon and stuffed with a traditional seasonal herb stuffing, using breadcrumbs made from stale homemade soda bread.

The plump breast of a half plucked Kilkenny Cock Pheasant.

The livers were gently cooked, 3 to 4 times their weight, in country butter. Once they were cooked through, they were placed in the food processor along with a clove of garlic, a teaspoon of fresh thyme and lots of freshly ground pepper. The pan was rinsed out with a large splash of sherry, which was then added to the food processor. It was all whizzed up together and poured into a small bowl and placed into the fridge.  So easy.

Pheasant Livers on Melting Country Butter

The pate, with a little added sloe gin jelly, makes a rich starter to any winter meal. 

Pheasant Liver Pate with Sloe Gin Jelly

Waste not, want not... 

The pheasant bones should always be simmered up with root vegetables, herbs and spices to make a good stock. The base for a hearty seasonal soup.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Chicory, Radicchio and Chicons

The blanched Chicons are now ready to eat, they were dug and lifted late in November, placed upright in pots with compost and kept in the dark in a cool dry place, since. Sliced from their roots at the base and then cut into small pieces, with some dressing and they make a refreshing winter salad at a time, when there are fewer salad leaves available.

Witloof Chicons

To my surprise the mild winter has allowed the non-forcing Chicory or Radicchio varieties to survive continuous cropping and they are still providing us with welcome fresh green and red leaves.

Chicory Salad Leaves

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Ham Hock and Potato Pie

A local Kilkenny organic pig is killed and no one wants the delicious ham hocks, so they landed up on my kitchen table. If we kill animals for food, we should be respectful of the fact that a life has been taken and be prepared to make use of the entire animal. Some of the lesser known cuts of meat make for the best eating. This Ham Hock and Potato Pie is made using mostly locally produced Kilkenny ingredients.

Ham Hock covered with water, simmered with celery, onions,

leek tops, herbs and spices.

INGREDIENTS TO COOK THE HOCK 

1 ham hock, 

Leeks, 

Onions, 

Celery,

Bay leaf, 

Black pepper, 

4 cloves,

1 star anise, 

Herbs.

Cover with the ham hock with water, add fresh leeks leaf tops, onion, celery, bay leaves (anyone can grow a bay tree), whole black peppers, cloves, star anise, parsley stalks, sage, thyme. Simmer 2-3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Leave to cool in stock. Strain the stock and reduce it and retain whatever you do not require for soup.

Ham Hock cooling in its own stock

INGREDIENTS FOR PIE

Meat off hock,

Onion,

Freshly dug carrots,

Freshly dug leeks,

Freshly picked thyme - tablespoon

Goose grease left over from Christmas

1 tablespoon flour

500 mls Homemade cider

250 mls reduced ham hock stock

Creme fraiche

6 floury potatoes

Some Kilkenny produced ingredients for Ham Hock Pie

Fry onion, fresh carrots, fresh leek, thyme in goose grease left over from Christmas. Once soft, add tablespoon flour mix in and add 500 mls homemade cider, 250 mls reduced ham hock stock. Add ham removed from bone and simmer 10 minutes.

Ham Hock Pie filling ready for Potato topping

Steam 6 floury Golden Wonder potatoes, until they are smiling, these ones were grown on the fertile flood plain of the River Nore. Remove the skins, mash with 100gms of creme fraiche or milk and add any seasoning you wish. Place on top of meat and vegetables.

Kilkenny Organic Ham Hock & Potato Pie

Put in moderate oven for 45-50 minutes and you will wonder why we do not eat ham hocks more often.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

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