Our Recipe for a Successful Marriage

One of the great things about being married is that you share responsibilities with your partner! This week my adorable husband decided he was going to make me dinner. Of course this doesn’t happen very often, he has a few dishes that he is in charge of, usually grilled cheese, because for some reason his just taste better than mine, and what he calls ‘Nathan’s Gourmet Mac’n’Cheese’ (although he uses penne or fusilli pasta so it isn’t really mac…but that’s just a detail.) So last night of course he wanted to make his mac’n’cheese, which was fine by me, because it meant I didn’t have to cook, but if you know me now you probably realize that I have a passion for all things culinary, so I really can’t just hand over my kitchen and sit on the sidelines, and honestly what’s better than cooking with your honey? In my opinion not much!

Since we have moved to Ireland, my husband has developed a taste (and love) for cheese, Dutch Smoked Gouda is his favorite, but he loves ANYTHING smoked usually. So our fridge is usually fully stocked with assorted varieties of cheese (I gotta make sure my man is happy!) Last night we had a selection of mature Irish Coloured and white cheddar, white cheddar with peppercorns, white cheddar with Irish Whiskey, (are you noticing an Irish theme here?) Dutch smoked Gouda, Dutch Edam, parmesan, and singles (aka ‘American’ cheese.)


We assumed our roles, him as the (stand-in) head chef and me as his sous chef, and we started cooking up a cheesy storm! Now the whole recipe actually started earlier in the day when I prepared the grilled chicken and the rashers (bacon). I started by lightly seasoning the chicken, olive oil, salt, pepper, parsley, and a bit of smoked paprika, Then I grilled them for about 8-10 minutes each side (I am PARANOID about under-cooked chicken.) Meanwhile, I placed the rashers on a baking rack over a parchment lined tin. I baked the rashers for about 20 minutes on about 180 degrees C, turning them halfway. When the bacon and the chicken were finished, I removed them to a small plate and let them cool. Once they were cooled, I diced the 

meat and put it in the fridge until we were ready to add them. After that we started on the sauce and put the water on for the pasta. He started by making a roux, and heating the milk. After cooking the roux for a few minutes, he added the milk, and then we (by we I mean I LOL) tempered an egg and added it to the mixture. When it had cooked for a few minutes, it was time to get crazy with the cheese!! Now he has a very particular order in which he adds the cheese, (probably because he's an engineer...and they tend to have exact 'logical' ways of doing things.) He begins by adding the singles (processed American cheese). Then the Dutch Edam, Dutch Smoked Gouda, any other random cheese we have lying around, and then both red and white cheddar and stir until most of the chunks of cheese have melted into a lovely pale pool of cheesy goodness. By this time, the pasta should be done, and your sous chef (aka me) should have drained it. He added the diced chicken and the rashers to the sauce and stirred briefly, then I poured in the noodles and he stirred until the cheese was evenly distributed. Then we poured the cheesy noodles into an 8"x8"x2" baking dish, covered with seasoned (and buttered) bread crumbs, and we baked it until it was golden and delicious! 

Here's his special recipe:

Ingredients:

• 30g butter
• 15g plain flour
• 500 ml milk
• 1 lg egg
• 5-10g dried powdered mustard
• 5g smoked paprika
• 5g pepper
• 2-3g salt
• 4 slices of (American) Singles
• 60g Dutch Smoked Gouda
• 120g Dutch Edam
• 240g mature red cheddar
• 240g mature white cheddar
• 250g Penne or Fusilli pasta (or pasta of your choice)
• 150g bread crumbs 
• 60g parmesan cheese
• 200g Rashers (bacon)
• 250g boneless skinless chicken breast
• Assorted herbs/spices to season bread crumbs

Method:

1. Season chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley and grill over medium-high heat for about 8-10 minutes per side. Meanwhile, place rashers on a baking rack over a parchment lined tray and bake at 180 degrees C for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.
2. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C. Bring water to a boil for pasta. Meanwhile, melt butter in a separate saucepan over medium-low heat, when butter is melted add the flour and the powdered mustard, and stir constantly for about 5 minutes, meanwhile pour milk into a heatproof jug and warm in the microwave for a few minutes. When the milk is hot, add it to the butter mixture. Lightly beat the egg and temper it with about 200ml of the warm milk mixture, whisk constantly and add the egg mixture back into the pan. Add paprika, pepper, and salt. Let the mixture thicken for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
3. After the sauce has started to thicken, add the cheeses, and stir until the cheeses melt, then add the cooked rashers and chicken and stir until combined. Mix in the drained pasta.
4. In a small bowl, melt 15g of the butter, add bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese, season with any herbs you like.
5. Butter/spray an 8"x8"x2" baking dish and pour in the cheesy pasta, and top with the seasoned bread crumbs. 
6. Bake at 220 degrees C for 20-25 minutes or until bread crumbs are golden and crispy.

TasteFest Cork

Thursday marked the beginning of ‘TasteFest Cork’ a spectacular food festival featuring 15 of Cork’s top restaurants and their most popular menu items, loads of locally produced dairy products, from cream and cheeses to ice cream, cheesecakes and panna cotta. There were also local jams, relishes, sweets, meats, and pastries. You could even relax with a professional massage. First, I must say that the festival was brilliant! We had a great time, we spent several hours perusing the stalls, sampling delicious goodies, and watching demonstrations from celebrity chefs.

Toffee and Marshmallow Cheesecake with Crackling Praline
from Electric.

We were delighted with all of the free samples from the exhibitors, we sampled several varieties of handcrafted Irish Cheddar from Old Irish Creamery. We had previously purchased the Irish Whiskey Cheddar from our local supermarket, and we thought it was delightful, so we were eager to try their other varieties. They were all amazing, but we ended up narrowing our selection to three, Oak Smoked Cheddar, (because my husband goes nuts for anything smoked!) Vintage Red Cheddar, and our favourite Garlic and Herbs Cheddar. We sampled some delicious ham from Carroll’s. We also sampled yoghurt, and the most amazing vanilla ice cream from Glenilen Farm. We had loads more but those were my favourites!

Meringue and Cream with Organic West Cork Strawberries
from Cornstore.

As for the restaurants, the best (in my opinion) were the Spicy Chicken Wings from Boardwalk Bar & Grill, and the Fish and Chips (which happened to be my first experience with fish and chips…I have never really been a fish person) from Hayfield Manor. For dessert, which may or may not have been consumed before our entrees, my absolute favourite, and the thing I cannot wait to try to recreate was the Meringue and Cream with Organic West Cork Strawberries from Cornstore. However, in a close second for my favourite dish was the Toffee and Marshmallow Cheesecake with Crackling Praline from Electric

We also enjoyed a lovely cooking demonstration by Rachel Allen. I was simply delighted to watch her cook! I have tried a few of her recipes and have been amazed by the results, and she was so lovely in person! It was definitely one of the highlights. She made pan fried mackerel, panzanella, a bean and bacon salad, chocolate crème brulee, and a strawberry flirtini, The festival also had other demonstrations by some of Ireland’s top chefs. One of which I was extremely disappointed to have missed was Benoit Lorge from Lorge Chocolatier.

Overall TasteFest Cork had a great atmosphere, gorgeous food, and brilliant cooking demos. I do have to say the ticket price was a bit much, and the ‘Corkers’ was kind of a pain but in general the experience was fantastic!

Boozy Irish Cupcakes

Last week, at my regular knitting meetup, we were discussing blogs, which brought me to the realization that since before the arrival and departure of my parents back in May, I have been neglecting my blog. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t have much to say, or if I was to busy with all of my current projects, but I have decided that it’s time for my neglectful behavior to stop. As the girls and I were discussing our blogs and our recent activity, they gave me a brilliant idea. Every week, I spend hours in my kitchen baking delicious treats for my fellow knitters (and regular pub-goers), why not write a post about what I am baking each week! So this is the first one…it doesn’t have a name yet (so if you have any suggestions I’d be delighted to hear them!) but here goes…

This week we are down a pregnant knitter, as she’s gone away on holiday…So I decided drunken cupcakes were the way to go. After a brief Google search for “Amazing Cupcakes” I came across a blog that caught my attention…The post was from BrownEyedBaker, and it was titled “Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes”. Now I realize that the name is offensive to all of my lovely Irish friends, so I apologize, and will refer to them as Boozy Irish cupcakes from this point on. But back to the point...when I read the post I was delighted! They sounded FANTASTIC! Since I already had a recipe in my repertoire for Guinness cupcakes, I was well on my way to a deliciously moist and boozy cupcake. For those of you who are unaware of this cocktail, it is typically a shot of Irish whiskey, floating on top of a shot of Irish Cream, then dropped into a pint of Guinness. Once the two shots are dropped into the Guinness, the drink must be consumed as quickly as possible as it will curdle. If you are able to consume the drink quickly enough, it’s supposed to be delicious and creamy.

I started with my basic Guinness cupcake recipe, but because there is quite a bit of alcohol in these cupcakes, I decided to go with mini cupcakes.

After the cupcakes were done and cooled, I prepared the Jameson Ganache...

While the ganache was cooling, I cut small holes in the center of each cupcake, once I had finished doing this to 80 mini cupcakes, the ganache was cool enough to put into a piping bag! I filled each of the dark cake caves with thick drunken chocolate ganache.

When each cupcake was infused with the chocolatey ganache, it was time to prepare the Bailey’s Buttercream!








I piped the Bailey’s Buttercream over each cupcake, covering the dark pools of chocolate whiskey goodness. Of course I don’t have the best piping skills, so they aren’t the prettiest cupcakes, but they taste amazing!




Now onto the recipe!

Guinness Cupcakes:

• 250 ml Guinness 
• 250 g butter
• 75 g cocoa powder
• 400 g caster sugar
• 142 ml sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla 
• 275 g plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C & line cupcake tin with paper baking cases.
2. Pour Guinness into a large wide sauce pan, add butter and heat over medium-low heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa powder & caster sugar. 
3. Beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla. Temper the egg mixture by adding about 1/2 cup of the hot Guinness mixture into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Pour tempered egg mixture into the pan. 
4. Whisk in flour and baking soda.
5. Pour batter into cupcake tin and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until wooden cocktail stick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Jameson Chocolate Ganache:

• 200 g bittersweet chocolate
• 160 ml double cream
• 30 g butter, at room temperature
• 10 ml Jameson Irish Whiskey

Method:

1. Finely chop chocolate and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Heat cream until simmering and pour over chocolate. Let sit for one minute and stir from center outward until smooth.
2. Add butter and whiskey, stir until combined. Let ganache cool until think, but soft enough to be piped.

Bailey's Buttercream:

• 460 g butter, at room temperature
• 500 g icing sugar
• 90 ml Bailey's Irish Cream

Method:

1. Using an electric mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl. 
2. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add the icing sugar until all of it is incorporated. 
3. Add Bailey's Irish Cream and increase speed to medium-high, whip for another 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Alternately, if you would like to prepare basic Guinness cupcakes, it is simply divine when topped with cream cheese icing, here's the recipe for it:

Cream Cheese Icing:

• 300 g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 150 g icing sugar
• 125 ml double cream

Method:

1. Whip cream cheese until smooth, sieve over icing sugar and beat together until combined.
2. Add cream and beat again until icing is a spreadable consistency.