Lily’s Blog

As I cook my way through various cookbooks, I never cease to be amazed at the high number of calories in some recipes. I’ve commented on this before in a number of posts. A recent example is a recipe that I won’t be cooking from Roly’s Cookbook – a recipe for Fish Pie which serves four and lists a half litre of cream as one of the ingredients. Half litre of cream for four equals 125ml of cream per person. I’m loving Roly’s cookbook but I’m not loving the calorie count of some of the recipes.

For a similar reason I was critical of the Avoca’s Salad’s book. A number of the salad recipes were loaded with almost hidden calories.

Darina Allen is one person I admire for her trojan work for Irish food. Her latest book ‘Forgotten Skills of Cooking’ is a cultural masterpiece in my humble opinion. But I would still be critical of Darina Allen’s heavy use of cream and butter in recipes.

How can we fight obesity if recipes in relatively ‘ordinary’ cookbooks written by professional chefs are so calorie laden?

According to latest OECD data available, 51% of the Irish adult population in 2007 were either overweight or obese (BMI > 25kg/m2). This is a frightening statistic when one realises how many medical conditions are directly related to excess weight. (For the record, the figure for Switzerland was 37% and the UK was 61%. No data was available for the US.)

Jamie Oliver is one professional chef whose crusading I hugely admire. His campaigning against the use of processed foods in schools. His campaigning to change unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for the better across the UK. His training in the restaurant business of young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. His latest project is in Huntington, West Virginia where he tries to change the way Americans eat and depend on fast food.

Jamie Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize for his campaigns to “create change on both the individual and governmental level” in order to “bring attention to the changes English and now Americans need to make in their lifestyles and diet.”

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a U.S private nonprofit foundation devoted to what it calls “ideas worth spreading”. Its lectures or TED Talks are subject to a strict time limit of 18 minutes, referred to on occasion in jest as the TED commandment. From 2005 to 2009, three $100,000 TED Prizes were awarded annually to help winners realise a chosen “wish to change the world”. Previous winners included Bono in 2005 and Bill Clinton in 2007. From 2010, only one winner was chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts of achieving the winner’s wish. Each winner unveils their wish at the main annual conference – within the specified 18 minutes.

Here is Jamie Oliver’s speech on receiving his TED prize. I’m not sure how he got away with his ‘longer than 18 minutes’ speech but it really is worth watching.

His TED wish was simply

“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

I really feel Jamie has his finger on the pulse, so to speak. Learning to cook healthy food is a life-skill. It’s our medicine for health and our health is our responsibility. It’s our medicine in the fight against obesity. It can be done so cheaply even in these recessionary times and there’s nothing as nice as being able to share good home-cooked, healthy food with family and friends.

Dear professional chefs

Can I just remind you that half of the Irish adult population is either overweight or obese. It’s not much different in other countries either. Can you just consider this small fact a little more when write scrumptious recipes for the likes of me to cook at home. Your report card says ‘Shows great ability but could try harder’.

One of your recipe followers

This post is about a long tradition chez Collison of Denis making pizza on Friday night. I’m reminded of the song from Fiddler on the Roof

Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!

Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home?

The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.

All above is correct chez Collison other than atheist Papa says no prayers, daily or otherwise.

Friday pizza making chez Collison has a number of origins.

First about thirteen years ago Denis and I stayed for a few days at the Arbutus Lodge in Cork. At some stage over our stay, I commented on the great breads. The person serving us was the owner. We had a good chat about bread baking and she said that her husband, Declan, gets up early every morning to bake. She recognised that I was interested and asked if I wanted to get up the following morning to watch him. That night we were meeting friends. I excused myself early as I had to be up with the birds … and the baker.

At 5am the following morning, leaving sleeping beauty in bed, I quietly crept down to the kitchen. There things weren’t so quiet. Declan was already up and the ovens were going. For a few hours he made different breads, sourdough, yeast, soda, ciabatta, focaccia and finally ending with pizza. Much of what he made that morning was for sale at the English Market. I helped, learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed my lesson with a master.

A number of years later I read in the paper that the Ryans sold the Arbutus Lodge and Declan set up a multi-award winning bakery, Arbutus Bread Ltd.

Here’s what the Bridgestone Guide said

Declan Ryan’s pioneering bakery is one of the most important artisan businesses in Ireland …

Another source of our inspiration into making pizza from scratch at home was a fantastic restaurant in Sligo called Truffles, run by Bernadette O’Shea. Alas this restaurant is no more. Here’s a review of this restaurant from the New York Times in 1994. I love Bernadette O’Shea’s book Pizza Defined.

I can’t really remember how ’sleeping beauty’ rather than ‘keen pupil’ became chez Collison’s chief pizza maker. But he did. And I’m so glad he did. I do most of the cooking at home so love when it comes to pizza night. It’s part of the ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ feeling.

Over the years various mice helped with pizza making. I remember middle-mouse entering chez Collison’s pizza recipe in a children’s cookery competition.

Here’s a pizza making picture essay.

First up getting the tomato sauce on, basically lots of garlic and tomato

Pizza Chef at work

Chat is important

I was away for the early dough stages and just arrived home for kneading the dough

Pizza shovel needed

Table ready

Nyom nyom

The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.

Niamh left a comment on my recent chocolate cake post, mentioning that her daughter had tried a chocolate cake recipe from the ‘Green & Black’s Chocolate recipes’ cookbook, which was perfect for celiacs. I dug out my copy of the book and tried the recipe. It was an interesting recipe – a flour-less, fat-less chocolate cake. The recipe is actually here on Nigella’s website.

Clementines were simmered for 2 hours, cooled, cut, pips removed and liquidized.The recipe called for eggs to be beaten and then sugar, almonds and baking powder to be added. The pulped clementines were then mixed in and the mixture put into a springform cake tin. How simple does it get! I took a shortcut by first beating the eggs and sugar. I then added in the very roughly chopped clementines and used a hand blender to blend them in. (Saves on the washing up!) I then mixed in the other ingredients and it worked perfectly. The cake was baked for an hour. The Green & Black version of this recipe called for a bar of Maya Gold Chocolate to be grated over the hot cake in the tin. Nigella’s recipe doesn’t include this.

If ‘life’s too short for stuffing mushroom’s’, then I’ve now decided that it also is too short for grating a bar of chocolate! This was a slow job and I don’t have sufficient patience. It was also interesting that when the chocolate was grated onto a plate, something like static built up because the grated chocolate behaved like sand-flies when I tried to spread it over the cake.

Next time I will melt the bar of chocolate to spread it.

The recipe at one point states; Remove the cake from the tin and store in an airtight container and at another point; Don’t be tempted to serve this cake warm. It must only be eaten once it has cooled as the texture becomes moist and the flavours of the almonds and oranges have taken hold. It is best served the day after it is made.

We ignored these ‘hands off on the day it’s made’ instructions and proceeded to try the cake a few hours after it came out of the oven. Well Denis had arrived home late from Hungary so we had to sample it with him. Tommy’s opinion of the cake was ‘meh’. Denis’s opinion was ‘it’s okay’. (Lacking true enthusiasm). I liked it. Next day when we had ‘official permission’, Tommy tried it but still considered it ‘meh ‘. Denis upped his opinion and put it in the ‘definitely repeat category’. I agreed with Denis

I would repeat it because as well as being lovely, it was also relatively healthy and so easy to make.

I just have to get the timing right for when we attack the next one!

I thought of this poem by Russian poet, Inna Kabysh as I was making marmalade at the weekend.

Making Jam in July

A woman who’s making jam in July
is preparing to be around for a while.
She intends to soldier on, to hibernate
through the discomforts of winter.
Otherwise, for what reason, and notice,
not out of any feeling of duty,
should she be spending the short summer
skimming residue off jam?

A woman who’s making jam in July
in all the chaos of a steamy kitchen,
isn’t going to be absconding to the West
or buying a ticket to the States.
That woman will be scrambling out of snowdrifts,
buoyed up by the savour of the fruit.
Whoever’s making jam in Russia
knows there isn’t any way out.

I like this poem.

Making marmalade isn’t part of my new cooking experiment as I used a recipe from Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe cookery course. It was only afterwards that I spotted that one of the books I’m using for my experiment, Jim’s Kitchen, has three marmalade recipes. Oh well!

I washed 2kg of marmalade oranges and put them into two pots with 5.4 litres of water in total. A lot of water and thus two pots because I don’t have one big enough for the full quantity. The pots were brought to the boil, transferred to the slow oven for about two hours and then left to cool.

Youngest mouse had borrowed my camera so I only took photos of the later stages, when he got back.

The oranges, soft at this stage were removed from the liquid, halved and the centres scooped out onto muslin cloth. I tied the muslin cloth into a bag and added it into the liquid. The orange skins were finely chopped and also added in. All escaping juice was collected and added back into the saucepan. The liquid was then boiled and reduced to just over a third of its original volume.

4.4kg of sugar was warmed in the slow oven and then added into the liquid now in one saucepan. I dissolved the sugar fully but then used a second saucepan to rapidly boil smaller quantities of the marmalade until setting point was reached. It was great fun trying to judge how far I could go without it all boiling over. I like living dangerously!

Judging when setting point is reached is really a bit of guess work, for me anyhow. Because I only make marmalade once a year, I never remember how long it actually takes. I try testing some of the liquid on a plate cooled in the freezer. If it passes the ‘wrinkle test’, it means it will set!

Usually I’m on a wing and a prayer, hoping I’ve boiled it enough to set it, but not too much to spoil it.

The end result was well worth all the winging and praying!

For the smell in the kitchen alone, it was well worth it!

Later on, Denis and I sat down and ate fresh brown bread and still hot, fresh marmalade.

A woman who’s making jam in July
is resigned to living with her husband.

I’m not sure if this counts though for marmalade in January!

Well maybe re-order that title.

Not surprisingly I got some cookery books for Christmas.

Amongst them were two copies of Zest. Zest is a collection of recipes from 62 top Irish restaurants in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation. At this stage of my life, I’ve eaten in about a dozen of them over the years. If I keep going at the same rate, I won’t get to even half of them in this lifetime!

Each restaurant provided a starter, main course and dessert recipe accompanied by photographs. 186 recipes in all. This is a good book but not for everyday cooking. It’s a special occasion cookbook. As the foreword states Zest is an extraordinary cookbook, which represents a gourmet trail around Ireland. It is a vivid and vibrant showcase for all that is good about Irish restaurants today. It is also designed for those who want to create fine foods in their own homes.

To give you an idea, I just picked Rathsallagh House in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, where my niece had a wonderful wedding reception recently. Their three recipes were:

Tartare of tuna spiked with lime and sesame, with lime crisps and mango-basil vinaigrette

Lime, honey and soy marinated chicken supreme with pak choi and coriander sauce

Ginger pudding with banana sorbet and chocolate sauce

Rathsallagh likes lime!

Recently when I was trying to choose a cookbook to experiment with for everyday cooking, Steph suggested this book. I had looked at it but discounted it. Steph made the very valid point that a cookbook for everyone would have been more in keeping with the ethos of the Irish Hospice Foundation.

At €20 this hardback book represents good value for money. The Irish Hospice Foundation is certainly a good cause. The cheerful yellow cover is great, yellow – the colour of hope.

I’ll review the others shortly.

A Teresa

I love Christmas
I love baking
But I don’t do any Christmas baking.

Why, you might ask?

Well for the last about twenty years, Teresa does all my Christmas baking.

Teresa, great friend, married to a relative of Denis’ (to be precise, a step first cousin once removed!), ‘adopted’ grandmother to our three boys

Teresa lived beside us when we lived in Nenagh. When a child got sick she was the person I called on. When we went to America for six weeks for Tommy’s surgery in 2004, Teresa moved into our house to take care of Patrick and John.

Teresa is gifted at baking, scones, sponges, brown bread. You name it, Teresa can bake it. I learned a lot of my baking from Teresa.

The whole tradition of Christmas baking started when Teresa used to call in when I was doing Christmas baking. She would sit and drink tea and watch a much less able, a much less experienced person …

In the intervening twenty years we’ve evolved. The expert now does the baking. I do all the sitting and the tea drinking. We still both love this annual Christmas baking day, bakeathon.

Saturday was this year’s day.

My work for the baking day is to have all the shopping done and the mincemeat made in advance.

Teresa doing Christmas baking is now far more special though.

Two years ago I noticed that Teresa had to sit down a lot while we were doing the baking. I helped her much more than usual that day as she was feeling tired. Very shortly afterwards, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. She had chemotherapy and radiotherapy and then surgery to remove the tumour. She went in for surgery in July last year but unfortunately didn’t come out of hospital for seventeen weeks. I visited her almost every single day. Patrick was in the US at the time and I remember him keeping in regular contact as to how she was. Teresa suffered complication after complication post surgery. For two of those seventeen weeks we kept vigil in intensive care. She battled but won this hard-fought battle.

You can imagine how special it was when she insisted on ’supervising’ me doing the baking last Christmas.

You can imagine how special it is when she insisted she was back ‘doing the baking’ this Christmas.

Photos from bakeathon 2009!

The line of mince pies getting long

Longer

Nine dozen long

We like our mince pies!

Now only 107 left for Christmas!

The plum pudding mixture

I did help with the heavy work of stirring the mixture!

Teresa filling the pudding bowls

The finished Christmas Cake which she had baked earlier (like in any good cookery show).

Yes, I recommend that every home should have a Teresa!

Autumn is here. Autumn used to mean loads of apples, cooking apples.

We bought our last house in 1992. One of the things that really attracted us to that house was the great mature orchard. In fact there were orchards on two sides of the house. When we bought the house, there in a drawer was a list of the varieties of fruit trees, written by the previous owner, on the back of a page from an old calendar. The list (and trees) dated back to the seventies. I framed the list. I really loved those trees.

When we decided to move in 2005, one thing that really bothered me was leaving the orchard. Needs must! We left the list with the new owners, feeling it never belonged to us, it belonged with the house.

Now we have a new house but no mature apple trees. We have sown some. The only problem is the soil is quite wet, our garden being at the end of a slope in the land. Nevertheless Denis and I intend tacking this problem to get fruit trees growing.

A visit to Seed savers will be a must. Seed Savers is a voluntary organisation ‘dedicated to the location and preservation of traditional varieties of grains, fruits and vegetables’. Reading the many of the varieties of apples on their website reminds me of the orchard at our last house but also the one we had growing up.

We were reared on apple tarts, apple sponge, apple dumpling and stewed apples. My children were reared on apple crumble and latterly apple cake. When Patrick first came home from college in the US, I asked him what food he most missed. His girlfriend at the time immediately piped up that she missed apple crumble, she had had it so many times at our house.

In the autumn we peeled loads of apples, lightly stewed them, into the freezer and then proceeded to eat them all winter and spring. Quite the squirrels, we were! Because the apples were stewed, they were great to use in crumbles.

Apple crumble is definitely a firm favourite chez Collison. Here is the recipe from Darina Allen.

Stewed apples
675g cooking apples
45-55g sugar
1 – 2 tablespoons water

Crumble topping
110g white flour
55g butter
55 g castor sugar

Stew the apples gently with the sugar and water, until about half cooked. Turn into a pie dish. (I have never weighed apples, I peel and chop them roughly, add sugar, stew them and taste to see if sweet enough.)

For the crumble topping, rub butter into the flour, then add the sugar. I do weigh the ingredients for this.

Sprinkle the mixture over the apple in the pie dish. Bake in a preheated oven, 180 deg for 30 – 45 minutes, or until topping is cooked and golden.

Often I cook the apples and prepare the crumble topping, store both in the fridge and cook to order. This was because everybody prefers it freshly cooked.

I’ve previously given the recipe for apple cake here.

Now we are going through a few lean years with regard to cooking apples. Watch this space. Hopefully Autumn will soon again mean a plentiful supply of cooking apples.

See, laptops are not the only Apples of importance in this house!

Ever find you know something, but you don’t really know. Here I’m referring to granola. I love granola and frequently make it with a recipe from my sister. But if someone was to ask me what exactly granola is, I might struggle a bit. Yes I know it is a breakfast cereal. Yes I know the basic ingredients. Yes I make it. But …

What exactly is granola? Resort to dictionary. Granola: a kind of breakfast cereal consisting typically of rolled oats, brown sugar or honey, dried fruit, and nuts. I know that but …

What’s the difference between granola and muesli. Resort to google. One of answers: Granola is toasted/baked, while muesli is raw.

But what about crunchy muesli, is that not cooked? Look for recipe for crunchy muesli to see if it is cooked. This was one I found: a recipe for Crunchy Granola (Muesli)

I gave up, none the wiser.

Whatever granola exactly is, this granola recipe is great!

Maple Walnut Granola

325g Rolled Oats
1 cup Rice Bran
140g Sesame Seeds
75g Dried Cranberries
75g Dried Currants
140g Chopped Walnuts
1 teaspoon Ground Allspice to taste
50ml Organis Rapeseed Oil
225ml Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Pre-heat oven to 250 deg F
Cook for 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes

Anyone know?

A friend gave me this recipe for a very refreshing drink made from elderflower. Elderflower grows all over the countryside but I hadn’t used elderflower in cooking before.

10 Elderflowers
2 Lemons
2 lb Sugar
1oz Ascorbic Acid
4 pints Boiling Water

Leave for 24hours, strain and bottle. Store in fridge.

I just looked up Darina Allen’s book, ‘Ballymaloe Cookery Course’ to find she has nine recipes using elderflowers apart from cordial.

Watch out family!

I got the following BBQ rules in an email today, had a good laugh reading them, so though I would add a quick post. I asked Denis, my long-suffering husband, if he was okay with me posting this send-up on males barbecuing, after all he does the barbecuing in our house.

He said his reply would be in the comments!

BBQ RULES
We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion: -
1. The woman buys the food.
2. The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes the dessert.
3. The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill – beer in hand.
4. The woman remains outside the compulsory three-metre exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.
Here comes the important part:
5. THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.
More routine.
6. The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.
7. The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat.
Important again:
8. THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.
More routine:
9. The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.
10. After eating the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
And most important of all:
11. Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
12. The man asks the woman how she enjoyed her ‘night off’, and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there is just no pleasing some women.