Greek Salad

Why can't you get a nice Greek salad in a restaurant in Ireland? It's easy to make. what's the problem? A good Greek salad is the essence of summer and it's so easy to prepare. Here's my recipe for a great Greek salad!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is important to use a good full- fat feta cheese, good quality Kalamata olives and tomatoes.
Greek Salad

serves 4

6 or 7 plum tomatoes or equivalent cherry tomatoes chopped roughly (de-seeded if you prefer)

1 medium cucumber or 1 half large cucumber, seeded and peeled then sliced thinly in little crescent moon shapes.

1 medium red onion finely diced

150-200 grams Kalamata olives stoned

150-200 grams feta cheese

Dressing

1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

half cup of extra virgin olive oil

one handful flat leaf parsley chopped

small handful fresh oregano finely chopped

a few sprigs of fresh thyme finely chopped

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Prepare the dressing first so it can macerate while you prepare the salad. To make any basic dressing you want the ratio to be, 1 part lemon or vinegar to 3 parts oil. Mix oil and lemon juice, garlic, herbs and pepper. In a separate bowl mix together chopped tomatoes, olives, sliced cucumbers, and finely chopped onion. Add dressing to coat salad and mix. Crumble feta over salad and stir through. Serve immediately.

Lettuce Give Thanks

This spring I planted a variety of vegetables and herbs in my garden. I wasn't sure how to go about planting a garden. House plants under my care had never lived longer than six months, understandably, I was nervous. The first day we started digging the soil was incredibly rocky and a foot below the rocky soil, lay concrete. It was unfortunate, I had already surmised the inevitability of stony soil, all one has to do is look at the landscape of Connemara to know that big rocks and little rocks will play a starring role in, The Things That Annoy You About Gardening in Galway. The concrete was a bummer, I had hoped to grow kohlrabi, carrots and onions. My root veggie dreams were smashed between rocks and concrete. I soldiered on with lettuce, garlic and gooseberries.

I only found out last week, pretty much any idiot can throw down some seeds and they'll grow. All the gardening books I had read made me wonder how anything grew in the wild without the helping hand of man, between that and the plant hypochondria ... One gardening book in particular showed pictures of plants with various viruses, diseases, bugs and fungus. I was convinced my raspberries had some sort of virus. It was almost nice to of set actual hypochondria with this new plant one.
Last week I ate the first head of lettuce it was amazing, all that garden to fork crap is true. It felt great to make a bouquet garni from my herbs. If I were to buy the herbs at the shop it would have cost almost ten Euro to assemble. It was probably about twelve Euro to buy my herbs, pots and compost. I almost made my money back from one measly bouquet garni. I have enjoyed gardening, It wasn't nearly as time consuming or as hard as I had envisioned. I haven't mastered it by any means. But hey, any idiot can throw down some seeds and see what grows. It's brilliant!

Beetroot

I was at Bentley's on Sunday. It was the only late bar in Limerick that happened to be free in. It was like an airport hotel inside, it should be called Riff Raff's. We were up for a friends birthday which coincided with Indie Week Band Competition. Some other friends had won the previous year, they're called Walter Mitty and the Realists. Anyway, we were all at Bentley's, plus some Canadian band and I was telling everyone about how I had some beetroot during the week and how the day after my life flashed before my eyes when I momentarily thought I had bowel cancer, then realized it was beetroot. Everyone had a red food poo story or similar. Pretty rock 'n' roll. Almost everyone at the table was anti-beetroot. We are so used to pickled beets which are pretty muddy in taste, more akin to bottom feeding fish in flavor than anything worth eating. However, fresh beetroot is a revelation, earthy rather than swampy. Eaten raw, they sing on the salad plate and roasted they ooze sticky sweetness. Just don't forget you've eaten them!

Lovage

I recently bought The River Cottage Cookbook at a charity shop. One of the first recipes I tried was the pea, lettuce and lovage soup. Lovage is pretty hard to come by. I remembered seeing the stuff previously at one of the veggie stalls at the farmer's market. However, I had never used lovage. I assumed it was more of a medicinal herb rather than a culinary one. Boy was I wrong, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes the taste and smell of lovage in his book as 'curryish.' When I got home from the market I excitedly opened the bag to get the inside scoop on lovage. The scent that rose up from this crumpled little bag was astounding. I made Dermot take a drag of the heady herb. He was just as amazed as I. Yes, it is 'curryish' and so much more. If you see lovage, buy it, the scent alone will inspire you. Whittingstall, points out that only a little lovage is needed to cook with, as it is so potent in scent. The recipe below is verbatim from The River Cottage Cookbook. You can eat this soup hot or cold. I added cream to my soup before serving cold. It was really good and inexpensive to make.
Pea, Lettuce and Lovage Soup

1 medium onion

a little butter or olive oil

500 grams or 1 pound fresh or frozen peas shelled

1 small Cos or Romaine lettuce, or 2 Little Gems, shredded

700 ml good chicken or vegetable stock

5-6 lovage leaves, plus 4 to garnish

salt and pepper

Dash of cream optional

Serves 4

Sweat onion in oil or butter until soft, then add peas and lettuce. Pour over the stock, bring to boil and simmer gently for 4-6 minutes until peas are completely tender. Remove from the heat and add lovage leaves, then blend the soup with an immersion blender. Stop blending when you are happy with the texture. If you like smooth soup blend away, if you like thick chunky soup stop when you reach the desired consistency.
To serve cold, chill in the fridge. To serve hot, reheat stirring occasionally, but do not allow to boil. season to taste, then pour in to individual bowls and garnish with a single lovage leaf.

Broad bean, tomato and mozzarella salad

On Saturday I bought fresh broad beans and by today I still hadn't used them. I decided to make a summery Italian style dish. To prepare broad beans, shell and boil for one to three minutes depending on how large the beans are. I over cooked mine slightly they were still yummy. I tossed the beans with extra virgin olive oil,one finely chopped clove of garlic, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.

I seeded two tomatoes and diced them, and roughly tore up fresh mozzarella and added the veg and cheese to the broad bean mixture.
You must use good mozzarella. I added a chopped handful of fresh oregano to finish the salad off. Let the salad sit for an hour to macerate in the mixture and then enjoy.

mozzerella

Courgettes and Garlic

Last night I was watching a cooking show. It was Trish's fancy French stuff or something. This recipe seemed kind of unappealing but I felt like I need a new cold dish for my repertoire. I was pleasantly surprised by the results.
Recipe for Courgettes and Garlic

2 courgettes

1 head of garlic

1 tablespoon fresh thyme or to taste

juice of 1 lemon

extra virgin olive oil to taste

salt and freshly cracked pepper

Trish added Parmesan, I omitted that ingredient.
This recipe is pretty straight forward. Wash, top and tail courgettes. Pull apart garlic, but keep them in their skins. Boil courgettes and garlic in hot water for ten or so minutes. When the veg and garlic are tender, take them out of the pot and set on a towel to dry. Squeeze the cloves of garlic from their skins and mash them together with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. When the courgettes are cool enough cut into thirds or halves or if you're feeling pretty out there, quarter them length ways. If you have a large enough plate you can lie all the courgettes (I would only halve the courgettes length ways then) out and top evenly with the mashed garlic mixture. Then drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh thyme. If you're like me, you may have to stack the courgettes lasagna style on to a smaller plate.