Hook And Ladder cooking with Michael Quinn PART 3: Beef

This Thursday at the Hook and ladder cookery school Michael Quinn showed us how to make beef wellington (something that puts fear in the heart only at a mention) and gartin dophinois. Beef wellington has been something i have always wanted to try but honestly been to scared to get wrong. Micheal showed us a very simplified version of this dish with a mushroom duxelle that ties it together beautifully. The gratin dophinois is on the other had a dish i have eaten many times and have made my own versions of. But it was very interesting to learn his way and by golly was it a tasty way. Growing up in France the only real spud you eat is a spud in a gratin or tartiflette even in the school cantine we got patate dophinois. They are creamy garlicky goodness pipping hot and full of yum its easy understand why it is such a popular side. The fact that it is very easy to make is just an added bonus. The star of the night had to be the beef wellighton but if i told you the secrets to this amazing dish you would be missing out on these amazing classes. So I will talk to you tonight about the mushroom duxelle. It can be used a stuffing or a side and is just super tasty. I had mushroom duxelle in fancy places before but i had no idea how easy it would be to prepare. Its allot of chopping into tinny pieces sure but its really well and truly worth the prep for the burst of taste.Micheal got the beef this time from O'Flynns butchers in waterford. They have their very own abattoir and I'm told they have the best meat around. and from what i tasted I cannot disagree with this statement

Mushroom Duxelle :

you will need

1 onion

4 or 5 mushrooms ( any old mushroom will do. of course if your using dried willd ones youll need more than one or two)

3 garlic cloves

parsley

thyme

butter

oil

salt n pepper to season

First chop up that onion a thinly as you can tiny tiny little cubes. then heat up the oil and butter. Pop the onions in there let them cook away till translucent. while the onions are getting there, simmer on ,chop up the mushroom again as thin as you possibly can. Pop in the mushrooms add fine garlic add the thyme and you guessed it thinly chopped parsley. Leave this all cook up until nice and soft taste it and see do you need salt and pepper??? leave it simmer away until you feel it is soft enough and then use it as a stuffing or a side as i advised. You will not regret it.

As usual i will pop up photos of the nights cooking class.

https://www.facebook.com/hookandladder.waterford.7?fref=ts

My Japanese adventure food and places

The other day my friend posted that there are not enough sushi places by us and she is right this inspired me to pot a liltle something about my Japanese adventure.Now it was back in 2010 so my memory is not as fresh as it was but i have taken plenty of pictures of food along the way. so here goes lots n lots of pictures of yummy food and a little story as we go. Lets try something different for my blog:

Ever since i can remember I have dreamt of going to japan. One of my mums best friends (my filipino mammy as i would call her) had family based in yokosuka japan and invited me over to stay on the us navy base with them and travel Japan for about three weeks. One of the best and most memorable holidays i have ever had the pleasure of going on with some of the nicest and kindest people.

I arrive at tokyo airport awaiting our train conection my first stop is of course starbucks

 I get a cherry blossom muffin

and a green tea latte to this date one of the tastiest things i have ever had and really wish starbucks was the smae everywhere :(

after several hours on a very fast train i arrive at the us navy base and yes its even more impressive than the pictures can show

starbucks was not enough i had to go to hagendas and macdonalds

 teriyaki burger is yet another fast food i wish we had here and hagendas do an amazing green tea and choc brownie sunday that words cannot describe.

all you can eat sushi i was in heaven

 again with the green tea but it is japan after all and yes yes i have changed allot in almost 4 years ;)

 this is a lift that brings motorbikes up to the roof where they can park... yes japan is the place to be

Here are some pictures of a korean barbeque i was taken to you pic the food you want and you cook it either on a flame or boil it in the tabel that you eat at great system and very enjoyable food

in japan you can leagally drink on the streets however if you want to smoke. you have to walk into smoking areas these areas are little more than lines drawn on the grown stating you can smoke here. japonese people will actually queue to get inside the smoking area even though all it really is is a box painted on the ground. japan is definelty a different world

 in japan all restaurants have plastic food in the window mimicking the appearance of the food they sell and giving you the prices. it is like a menu that has been molded just for you

here i am at the pokemon center being a total geek but its jsut too cool not to share my pokemon adventure

 here is an absolutly stuning temple i visited while in kyoto

 this is a picture that gives you a good idea of just how big tokyo is and feels

 mr bean is a brand in japan for all things soy

 the golden temple very impressive even more when you know that it was burnd down by a mad monk and another monk had to raise the fund to rebuild it :) amazing story

here is an authentic japones grill where i was able to cook all the food on a coal fire

 ramen noodles

 diffrent types of meat and garlic butter

  a seaweed friend rice that blew my mind

 green tea icecream and buns that you toast on the fire before dipping or covering in icecream sublime

in tokyo i discovered a lill french inspired boulagery here i ate a green tea varient of vermicelle one of my most loved french delights and i have to say green tea works pretty much with anything

 as i was of course on a us navy base i also tried super yummy american food and giant pickles

I have to say japan is amazing i wish to go back someday see my friends go on new adventures really really loved this country even if allot of the time it felt like a dream i found it amazing. it was my first time out of europe and it really opened my eyes. as i said this was almost 4 years ago so i knew this blog would be a long shot but i hope you enjoyed the pictures all the same :D

Dee Vinci Cakes works of art you eat

Ok, so I have been meaning to do another blog on interesting business and people who do incredible food creations, Waterford has a lot of incredibly talented cake makers and could probably talk about all of them and very well may do just that however this week I have chosen to speak about Dee Vinci Cakes.

I have known Deirdre for many years. We went to the same school she always was quiet artistic, fun and friendly. I have admired her work and really enjoyed watching her talent grow over the years. She takes such pride in her cakes, makes bespoke stands, creates new flavors often using her friends to be tasters. A job I have often enjoyed part taking in! Creations such as white chocolate with strawberry and mint which was featured on the top tear of our wedding cake. A wedding cake lots of people are still talking about.

As some of you may know, wedding planning is sometimes very difficult, so much to consider and talk about. I have to say I am one incredibly blessed person that so many of my friends are as talented as they are and that they accepted to be part of our very special day.Dee did so by making our incredible cake. Myself and wonderful husband pondered on the wedding cakes question for awhile. We would never of course have an ''normal'' cake we would need something different and truly us. My husband is a Batman fanatic, comic books in general but Batman is in fact his favorite and me well everyone knows i have a soft spot for Hello Kitty, so we decided lets do it let have the quirkiest wedding cake. Hello Kitty batman themed wedding cake.
Then came the hard part which flavours would we like???

I have to say one of my favorite of Dee's cakes is her red velvet, she sure knows how to balance the flavours and keep it extra moist. but as it was a wedding we decided to go the more original route. No fruit cake thank you very much, we will have Belgian choc biscuit cake. The top layer was strawberry and mint white choc biscuit cake. The middle was white choc and coconut cake and the bottom was choc caramel biscuit cake all divine. I have to admit the coconut choc one is my favorite but they where all superb in there own special ways.

More recently i asked Dee for a birthday cake for an 8th birthday. Marceline the vampire princess from Adventure Time in red velvet. I will post pictures of this cake also. I have tried to use dee anytime a big birthday was needed. I commissioned a HR Gieger birthday cake one year for my friends 21st  this was also amazing will try find a picture of this one also as it looked more like a ceramic then it did a cake. it was unbelivable.

Below find her flavors gallery but think big give the girl a challenge or her talent will be wasted

Here is Dee Vinci Cakes page:

http://www.deevincicakes.com/#!cake_flavours/galleryPage

https://www.facebook.com/deevincicakes?fref=ts

Have a look at the pics below

 hr gieger cake

 hard to believe it is a cake

vintage trig xmas cake with a pic of me on it :)

wedding cake