Connemara Lambs Liver with wild Irish mushrooms a la mode Mygar

This is a liver dish, but please do not be put off by that. Many kids and even adults have an aversion to it, perhaps because of its texture, colour or presentation at the butchers - but it is the same stuff which the same people will pay a lot of money for in it's processed form - pate.


The other reason may well be that the only liver people in Ireland have had was an over cooked, dried out attempt at liver and onions.


Liver is probably one of the most economic and yet undervalued cuts.
It is filling, versatile and being packed with Iron it is particularly beneficial in the diet of teenage girls who may have some degree of anemia. But this is a way of serving it that most people enjoy.

In keeping with the previous post on onions, I had planned to do a staple - liver and onions - but this is just a little more exotic.

This recipe is basically Hungarian, with a few little alterations from myself, its tasty, filling, attractive and very economical. True to its eastern European origins its heavy on paprika and peppers.
To give it an Irish twist I used a little barley flour and some wild mushrooms - but this is entirely optional.

The wild mushrooms are in a way not only Irish but a nod to eastern Europe - Poland in particular.
This is the time of year that Polish friends of mine tend to become as maudlin as Russians.
With their continental climate, they normally have a long, dry September/October period.

What gets them down is the rain we get here - in particular at this time of year. They call this period of time the Golden Autumn - where it is virtually a national obsession to go into the forests and pick mushrooms.

Other European cultures have a strong interest and knowledge of wild mushrooms, we Irish have a fear of being poisoned - with some justification.
On mainland Europe children are taught how to identify and collect wild mushrooms at an early age.
But we are taught that if it is not a field mushroom then it should be avoided at all costs.

If you want to learn about mushroom hunting in Ireland then its worth contacting Bill O'Dea who has been holds annual mushroom hunts. He also organizes the occasional trip outside Ireland.
For details go to http://www.mushroomstuff.com/
If you don't know your mushrooms, then shop bought ones are a safe option.

Normally served with a veg risotto rice, I just went with some small herbed potato's.

This meal serves 2

INGREDIENTS
300 gm Liver - chopped (lamb is the most subtle flavoured)
100 ml cream
1/2 small leek, finely sliced
1 Bell pepper, red, diced
3 heaped tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons Paprika
2 teaspoons barley flour
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste
Optional
150 gm Sliced Mushrooms
1/2 finely chopped red chili.

Allow 30 minutes for small spuds, so get them down in some salted water.

Take the flour, Paprika, salt and pepper. Put into a clean plastic bag and mix well.
Add the chopped liver and coat it well with the mix. This is the method I use for coating any meat or veg with seasoned flour.

Fry the leeks, garlic and chili gently in some butter until they are soft.
Add the coated liver and cook through. The smaller you cut the liver, the quicker this will be.

To me liver is cooked when the centre of a sample piece is dry and pink, it is important not to over cook it.

When the liver is cooked through add the sliced mushrooms and diced bell pepper, sweat them off until they have softened - about 50% cooked.

Then add the cream, which picks up a lovely colour from the paprika and reduce the heat.
Leave for about 5 - 10 minutes to reduce a little and the bell peppers are cooked.

All of the above takes about 20 - 25 minutes, so you are timing it for the potato's.

When they are done, just strain them - put them back in the pot with some butter, freshly chopped herbs and salt. I used Atika parsley, chives and a little dill leaf. Whirling them around in the still warm pot gives a nice even coating.

I plated this up with home made Blackberry Chutney, and it really sets off all the flavours of the meal.
The texture of the liver, for those who might find it a little different is well complimented by the mushrooms, so in a way this recipe is all you ever wanted to know about liver but were afraid to ask about.

I found the slight sweetness of Cabernet Sauvignon also complimented the meal.

I hope you enjoy this recipe - and please take the time to comment on any thoughts or suggestions.

Ardmore Irish style Alsace Onion Tart

The Onion is one of the oldest crops we humans have raised. It's reckoned we, as a species, have cultivated Onions for 5 millennium. Along with leeks and garlic - members of the same family- they are amongst the oldest recorded crops. There are so many varieties that grow in so many climates it is impossible to write a full history, but they are an important and continuous part of our evolution.

I would hazard that 99.9% of people who have a kitchen garden will grow some member of the Onion family.
It is a cornerstone in crop rotation and when grown from set is very easy to cultivate.
There are varieties that are quick growing for the summer, others that can survive winter and give us early crops

Onions were a staple in ancient Egypt, they were also worshiped and used in burial ceremonies, many have been found in tombs.

Onions are mentioned as being eaten by the Israelites in Exodus: "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic."
In the sixth century B.C., the Indian medical treatise Charaka - Sanhita celebrates the onion as medicine - a diuretic, good for digestion, the heart, the eyes and the joints.

Dioscorides, a Greek physician in first century A.D. also noted several medicinal uses of onions.
The Roman gourmet Apicius, credited with writing one of the first cookbooks had many references to onions.
Pliny the Elder wrote of Pompeii's onions. Excavators of the city found where bulbs about which he had written left behind telltale cavities in the ground where Pliny had seen them in the gardens, in the town where he was another victim of Vesuvius.


The basis of most foods we eat is the onion, Asian, Indian and European cuisines all rely heavily on them to provide the foundation of so many familiar dish's. They are the first ingredient prepped in so many curries, stir fries and stews.

But we often don't look at the onion as the centre of a recipe in itself.
Onions are treated, quite poorly in my opinion, simply as the first thing into the pot to take on and spread the spices and herbs to the rest of the meal, its own identity getting overwhelmed and lost itself in the process.

So, to perhaps do my little bit to right that wrong I am planning a couple of recipes that concentrate on the noble vegetable.

France is famous for its onion growing, and the use of onions in its cuisine. Perhaps the region of Lyon is most noted for the use of onions, but my favorite onion dish comes from Alsace.
It's simple, delicious, served hot or cold, as a snack or a starter and it's a family favorite.
To give it a little bit of a Connemara twist in the pastry I use buttermilk to bind, but water is also fine.

The onions I grew this year was a mixture of Ailsa Craig and Bedfordshire Champion from seed and Red Baron and Stuttgarter from set.
Leeks were Musselburgh, Lyon and an old Dutch type Albinstar from seed.
If there is one thing I learnt is that you plant the leek out as a winter veg because they are very slow growing, and unless you are really into heritage varieties like myself, onion sets are a lot harder than sets.
I hung the onions up to dry french style, braided up by the fireplace.

INGREDIENTS

For the pastry

125g  plain flour
pinch of salt

75g  Cuinneog butter, cubed

30-45ml/2-3 tbsp buttermilk. Cuinneog also make this product.

For the filling

450g onions, halved lengthwise and very thinly sliced crosswise.
You can substitute some leeks for the onion
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
250ml cream
1 whole egg plus the yoke of an egg
1/4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg


Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in most of the butter.
Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until it resembles fine crumbs.
Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons buttermilk, then stir with a knife until it clumps together – add a little more buttermilk if it's dry.

Bring the mixture together to a rough ball. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead very briefly until you have a smooth, firm dough – do not overwork as you'll end up with tough pastry!

Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes – this relaxes the gluten in the flour and stops it shrinking during cooking

While the shortcrust pastry is chilling, put some butter on a frying pan and melt at a low heat.

Add thinly sliced onions and saute until soft and translucent.

 

Meanwhile put the cream, egg, salt and nutmeg into a bowl and beat with a fork until blended.
Also start to preheat oven to 190°c at this time.
 

Take out the pastry and roll it out to the size of your lightly greased baking dish. Again I used Cuinneog butter to do this

 

Carefully line the pastry in the tin so the crust is just a little proud of the edge, just slightly higher.

 
When the onion is ready, put it into the baking dish.
 
Then pour over the cream mix until it comes up just to below the onion

Put into the preheated oven for 35 - 40 minutes, until the top is browned.

 

Serve with a nice, crisp green salad or I would recommend a warm goats cheese salad. A lot of recipes call for bacon in the tart, but to me that is a different dish, more from the Lorraine side.

It is a simple meal to prepare as I said, and its very economical as well. Lovely served with a Muscadet.

I hope you enjoy it, and please take the time to leave a comment.

Connemara Kapusta

This is a Ukrainian style preserved cabbage.
But this method is the same as for Zuurkool, Sauerkraut, Kimchi and other fermented veg recipies.

You will need a fermenter or a very large crock, glass or enamel container

Non iodized salt
Sterilised bottles, filled with water
Sterilised plate to fit container

A sterilised tealight if you want to copy this method.

The basics are salt and cabbage.
I used 2.3 KG of cabbage and 4 tablespoons of sea salt.
You can make as much as you wish as long as you use the ratio of 5 lbs. cabbage to 4 Tbs. salt.
If you plan on refrigerating and not jarring use 3 tbs of salt, not 4.

I added:
Half a cooking apple, grated - the sugar speeds up fementation.
Half a teaspoon of Juniper Berries
Half a teaspoon of Carraway seed
Some tips here to prevent problems with your sauerkraut:

Never use aluminum utensils! Absolute cleanliness is necessary for a good result.

I made a fermenter with the help of Home Brew West to make my sauerkraut. But you can use a glass or enamel coated container or a large crock.

Clean and scald the container well!  I washed everything in Milton Fluid first, then rinsed by pouring boiling water into the container and swishing around for no less than 30 seconds

To prepare the cabbage, remove and discard the outer leaves. Wash and drain and then cut the cabbages into halves or quarters while removing the core in the process.

1) Shred Cabbage - I use a food processor for speed and ease. If you shred by hand, make sure the shreds are no thicker than 2 Euro coin

2) Mix, with wooden spoon or very clean hands, 2.3 KG / 5 lb of shredded cabbage with 4 tablespoons of non iodized salt like seasalt, maldon salt or Kosher salt - do not use regular table salt.

Toss and mix thoroughly until salt dissolves.

Step 3) When juice starts to form on cabbage from tossing - Pack the cabbage firmly and evenly into a clean crock, glass or enamel container. Press firmly to encourage juice formation.
You can also give it a bit of a pounding, I use a rolling pin, the blunt end.

Leave it for an hour or so to let the liquids seep out of the cabbage.

Step 4) Make sure the liquid covers the cabbage completely!
This does not always happen unless the cabbage is fresh from the garden, and red cabbage seems to have less water than green.
You can prepare additional extra brine by putting 1 1/2 Tablespoons of salt into 950 ml of boiling water. Dissolve salt and cool brine to room temperature before adding to the pot of cabbage.

Step 5) Once cabbage is immersed in brine water, place your sterile plate and weights on top

I used sterilised bottles filled with water but you cab use a large food grade, plastic bag filled with brine water and lay on top if cabbage.
Use 2 large bags, one inside the other with a couple of litres of cooled brine water inside.
That way if the bag breaks it will not water down the cabbage into a tasteless mess.

The cabbage must be well sealed all around with the bag, so no air can get in and contaminate the sauerkraut with unwanted yeasts or molds!

Step 6) If using a fermenter the put on the lid and wrap clingfilm round the edge.
If you dont have a lid first seal off with clingfilm, then a heavy towel or cloth tied securely into place.
Do not remove this until fermenting is complete!

It really does need to be airtight as it is oxygen that spoils the food.
Now, one little trick I came up with for the fermenter was to remove all oxygen is very clever, straight out of intercert physics, even if I do say so myself, and easy - but you need to be careful.

I took a but a lit Tealight candle into the fermenter before closing.
I then closed the lid and sealed off with clingfilm as above.

On the first attempt the candle created a new unplanned "observation" window that I had to seal again with clingfilm and silicone.

But the second attempt worked. The trick is to keep cold water running over any hotspot the candle creates.

21% of air is oxygen, so that got burnt off by the candle that extinguishes itself when the oxygen runs out - and also creates a partial vaccum in the fermenter. Doing this burt off approx. 2 litres of oxygen.

In addition to getting rid of O2 there is another benefit. You can see this on the s-bend airlock that I got from Home Brew West, that difference of level on both sides confirms that I have an airtight seal.

I am actually happy to have an observation hole now and will incorprate that into my next fermenter, but get some plexiglass or glass instead, the clingfilm repair job will do for now.

Step 7) Put in an area where the temperature will not be above 25c degrees. Fermentation will begin within a day, depending upon the room temperature.

Step 8) Fermenting does not take long, but this is
If room temperature is 24c degrees allow 3 weeks for fermentation.
If room temperature is 20c degrees allow 4 weeks for fermentation.
If room temperature is 18c degrees allow 5 weeks for fermentation.
If room temperature is 15c degrees allow 6 weeks for fermentation.

NOTE: If temperature is above 25 degrees, the cabbage may not ferment and could spoil.

Step 9) Once fermented taste to see if your required tartness exists. Tartness will weaken as you process by jarring so make sure it is a wee bit more tart than you like!
If you refrigerate only rinse and toss with cold water to attain the tartness desired.

This is a great staple for the cupboard. I love it with smoked sausage, I guess its because I really liked rookwurst and zuurkool in the Netherlands.
There are good smoked sausage available in Ireland at the supermarkets, Lidl in particular.
Another one that I get locally is delicious, made by McGeough's in Oughterard 

Making a cheap sterile anerobic fermenter for Zuurkool, Sauerkraut, Choucroute, Kiszona Kapusta, Kimchi etc.

One of the things I set out to do at the start of the year was make Zuurkool - Dutch Sauerkraut - and a Ukrainian type of pickled cabbage. Sauerkraut is made by a process of pickling called lacto-fermentation. I wont bother going into details here.

Fully-cured sauerkraut keeps for several months in an airtight container stored at or below 15°C.

Neither refrigeration nor pasteurization is required, although these treatments may prolong storage life. However, pasteurization will destroy all of the beneficial digestive enzymes and lactic acid bacteria, as well as the valuable vitamin C content, so it greatly diminishes the nutritional value without any significant benefit.

This type of preservation is something you find right across Europe, and it has various names.
In Alsace and Lorraine in France it is generally called Choucroute. In Germany Sauerkraut, in Holland it's Zuurkool. You will find Kiszona kapusta all over Eastern Europe.
Even in Asia this type of preservation is popular, perhaps the most well known being Korean Kimchi.

Recipes for Zuurkool will come later, the first thing we need to do is prepare the equipment.

Basics, airtight food grade container with an airlock and bung from homebrewwest

The Sauerkraut types we get in Ireland are frequently just pickled in vinegar and filled with preservatives. Real Sauerkraut is very tasty and very, very healthy.

Captain James Cook always took a store of sauerkraut on his sea voyages, since experience had taught him that it was an effective way to fight scurvy, even they did not understand vitamin C fully in those days.
This allowed Cook to map the world and bring most of his crew home safe - quite a feat in those days.

German sailors continued this practice even after the British Royal Navy had switched to limes, earning the British sailors the nickname "Limey" while the Germans became known as a "Kraut's".

The rebranding of French Fries as Freedom Fries in recent times in the US is not a new idea.
During World War I, due to concerns the American public would reject a product with a German name, American sauerkraut makers relabeled their product as "Liberty cabbage" for the duration of the war.

The main problem we have here in making it is the equipment required. It is easy to make, but we Irish are used to buying it in jars or having it with hot dogs.
We are not quite sure how its made - and from the taste we assume it is pickled in vinegar. It's actually fermented.

There are several specialist crocks available on the continent specially made for this with an air tight water lip seal, the best known being the Harsch brand from Germany.

However, the cost of shipping such heavy and delicate items to Ireland from the continent is prohibitive.
So, I had to figure out a way to create anaerobic fermentation  without the costly equipment.
To create this type of fermentation, you need to allow for the release of CO2 while at the same time prohibit the intake of O2 - much easier said than done.

Thats where Homebrewest.ie comes in. A small Irish company, based in Barna, Connemara.
They provide a great service and free shipping, and great advice even for madcap customers who turn up out of the blue asking for advice on how to ferment cabbage.

www.homebrewwest.ie/index.asp

I knew that brewers are experts in fermentation, and so with their help and advice, I came up with a plan.



If you go to a chipper or a restaurant, they will normally have catering sized food grade containers for things like Mayonnaise, Curry powder etc. - You are going to have to blag one.

So, once you have a food grade plastic container and an air tight lid - your half way there.
It's then a question of bodging together your anaerobic chamber.

First, use a pen to draw the narrow end of the bung on the bucket lid and centre it up.

The centre the wide end over the initial circle. Draw around it - this will give you minmum and maximum diameters.

Cut between the circles, always staying closer or even on the inner one. Insert the bung with the airlock fitted.

Insert the bung with airlock already fitted.

Now, you will see that the bung pushes down the plastic, making it proud on the inner side of the lid, pull it back a little to make that area recessed.

That allows the silicone to settle on the inside of the bung sink and sit easier.

Then use some silicone to seal it fully on top and on the bottom.

It is not only cabbage you can ferment in the chamber, it can be used for other veg like turnip, gherkins etc. It can also be used for curing meat - not sure about fish - and fermenting mash to make into beer or spirits.

Each use will be explored in due time, but if others use this design - please comment here or let me know

Setting up for winter

There's more to a kitchen garden than just summer salads.
You can have good, fresh food through the year and reduce the food miles.

I have started cleaning up the beds, and trying to keep the cats out.

Leeks have been transplanted, as these can stay in the ground through the winter.
I'm also growing modules for winter and spring cabbage, Kale's and cauliflower.

Transplanting the leeks also allows me to earth them up further.
They are slow growing, but well worth the wait.

My Paris Silverskin pickling onions have not grown all that well - too crowded or overshaded perhaps, so I transferred them to a new bed with the leeks.

Its also time to start crop rotation, so putting in the leeks starts next years onion patch.

As well as that there is just general cleaning and tidy-up. The squash that I grew went out of control, so a couple of planks and nails with a length of old telephone wire has been set up to provide a trellis of sorts, rough and ready but it gets things back in order.

Over the weekend I will clean up the pathways and I have a few more bits and pieces to pickle or preserve.

Some of the broccoli have bolted, so its time to keep an eye on the others, if they look like their going to bolt, then it is a case of blanch and freeze I think.

I will need to trellis up a few other bits and pieces, but over all there's not that much to do other than prep work for the winter vegetables.