Robin's take on Surf and Turf this week, showing some of the great veg that is being grown at the moment! It's the usual deal, it's in the usual place and we look forward to having you!
fish
Supper | Wednesday | October 2nd /
Another week and we get closer to chilly evenings. This week it's my turn! So here you go! Marvelous, seasonal and just a little on the warmer side to get you ready for the coming weather!
Supper! Wednesday July 24th /
Next supper! Few spots gone already... as usual just email to book in!
Supper is Happening! September 19th! /
I'm really excited about this menu! I feel all warm and Italian! I'm going to get around to posting how the last few suppers have went! I promise! It's just been so busy!
Supper's Happening! Tomorrow! 12th September! /
Tomorrow's Supper! We have four I believe so far! There's room for two more!
Secret Supper at Joy of Cha! /
This week's menu! Lovingly designed by D as always!
The plan is one large bream for every two people you sit, relax and enjoy. The chocolate cake is a gluten free one I've wanted to try out for a while! It'll be all tasty! Hope to see you there!
Supper is Happening! Wednesday 5th! /
So for the month of September I'll be trying to use sustainable fish in at least one course of every supper that I make.
So here it is! This Wednesday's menu. It'll be for eight people to eat and it'll be very tasty. Also just to get this out now there'll be little bones in the mackerel and bones in the icecream....I hope.
Supper Happened July 4th! /
Sorry about how far behind I am on these supper posts. It's been a bit hectic lately. So today, I hope to tell you about two supper that have happened! This was somewhat of a hurried supper, I had been working Galway at the Ocean Race and came back on the train to Dublin the night beforehand and was on a train back to Galway in the early hours of the morning the Thursday morning.
The idea for the dinner came to me while I was at Corleggy Cheese's farm preparing to go to Galway. I decided if I was going to be on the West Coast of Ireland I should mainly use what I could get my hands on there. I thought to myself that I'd just ask around the market and see who had the best mussels BUT everyone was talking about Marty's Mussels. So I went and found the number for them called and voilà, mussels. I talked to Catherine Nee (Marty's wife) she informed me all about their mussels, she also brought them to Dublin for me, which was very,very appreciated. They're rope grown, they've got a thinner shell and cook quicker than most mussels I've used in the past. I arrive in Dublin to find these waiting for me:
I got home Tuesday and began to prep, decided I was tired. So relaxed. I had my little sister over the next morning, so the Wednesday turned out to be a very busy day. The supper was easy and very manageable, the main prep came with the making of the ice-cream. The idea to infuse it with elderflower came when I was on the farm, the only problem was getting it to Dublin five days later. We had been infusing vodka with elderflower for some other fun projects so I decided to borrow some of it and make a syrup. I cooked down the vodka with some extra elderflower in it with 4 tablespoons of sugar, boiled off the alcohol. So I used the syrup as the sugar in the custard. Job done, I had elderflower custard. Left it to chill in the fridge for 8 hours or so. I got gooseberries from the McNallys and cooked them down with lemon juice and sugar. We served it with gingerbread people.
Cooking the mussels was simple, at Marty's they debeard nd clean all the mussels. I made my harissa and got a huge amount of coriander. In the bottom of my largest post I heated oil with chopped garlic and shallots. When te oil was hot enough I added the mussels with a glass of dry white wine. I didn't necessarily need the wine, but I want to get a good bit of steam to make sure I could get all the mussels cooked properly...I hadn't gotten around to cooking 5kg of mussels before..it went ok. There was a bit of pot shaking, but I just left them to it. IT was great with the thinner shells they cooked great. I put about 2/3 of the batch into a large hot pot and lay it out on the table, sprinkled chopped coriander over the top and it was ready to go.
As we worked our way through the mussels I served slices of sourdough bread to start to soak up the wonderful spicy juice in the bottom of the pot. With this meal we also had battered aubergines covered in honey infused with rosemary. With Aubergines I always try to get as much liquid out of them as possible before cooking with them. Battered aubergines are not the prettiest things in the world but that taste great. I also made a seaweed salad, with this salad, I rehydrated a mix of seaweeds and washed out a good bit of the saltiness. I then mixed the seaweed with spinach and some seared broadbeans, dressed it in a honey, lemon and dijon mustard dressing.
It all went well. The ice-cream was fresh and light, it was refreshing after a spicy and salty dinner.
Supper Wednesday July 4th /
Well I'm away in Galway for the next 9days but going to leg it back ti Dublin for Wednesday. Same deal as last time. Let me know if ya want in! If there's a space consider yourself fed!
Zhoug (a kind of green harissa) /
Today has been a very busy day. Making condiments left right and centre. Zhoug is excellent with fish and rice. It doesn't last very long in the fridge but you'll have it for 2 weeks or so. It's just that the fresh coriander doesn't like sitting about very much.
What you'll need:
- 250g long green chillies
- ½ teaspoon green cardamom seeds, green husks removed, finely ground
- ⅓ teaspoon coriander seeds, ground
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, ground
- 4 tablespoon of roughly chopped fresh coriander
- 1½ cloves of garlic
- a small squeese of lemon
- 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt & pepper
Chop the stems off chillis, cut them in half then with a teaspoon scrap membrane and seeds from the inside and roughly chop. Put everything except lemon and oil in a blender and pulse till everything is smooth. Transfer everything to a mixing bowl and add lemon and oil. Mix well and place in a sterilised jar. You should end up with just above 250g of Zhoug.
