Waterford Chef
Martin Dwyer
presents "Food Matters"
for Waterford Today.
Martin, who has been cooking for 35 years , having initially trained in Dublin, France, and then England, has been cooking here in Waterford for the past 25 years.
Until he sold it he had spent 15 years running his own much acclaimed restaurant "Dwyers" on Mary Street. During this time he has also been doing a weekly slot with Billy McCarthy on Deise AM on WLR. He has also made various appearances on RTE television and TV3.
Martin can be contacted at:
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Martin's Christmas Cake
Wednesday, 7th December 2011
Several people have asked me to give this recipe again. It is a beautifully moist cake and the ginger and nuts really add to the bite. I find even Christmas cake-haters love this one.
Ingredients
(For a deep 8" cake tin)
Fruit:
- 110g (4 oz.) Yellow Sultanas
- 110g (4 oz.) Stoned Raisins
- 225g (8 oz.) Glace Cherries
- 110g (4 oz.) Crystallized Pineapple
- 60g (2 oz) Crystallized Ginger
- 60g (2 oz.) Angelica
- 110g (4 oz.) Walnuts
- 60g (2 oz) Candied Citron Peel
- 60g (2 oz) Candied Orange Peel
- 60g (2 oz) Candied Lemon Peel
This is 850g (30 oz) dried fruit and110g (4 oz.) nuts in total.
- Glass of Irish Whiskey
- 5 Eggs
- 280g (10 oz.) Butter
- Grated Rind and Juice of 1 Lemon
- 225g (8 oz). Caster Sugar
- 280g (10 oz.) Plain Flour
- Good pinch Salt
Note. You can use different dried fruits and nuts so long as the end weight is the same.
Method
First prepare the tin. Butter the tin well and
Garlic Mussels
Wednesday, 30th November 2011
This is the most popular way of eating Mussels in Ireland and with good reason. The combination of the shellfish flavours with the garlic and the buttery crumbs is a marriage made in heaven.
Ingredients (6/8 as a starter,4 as a main course)
- 2 kg (4 lbs.) Mussels
- 175g (6 oz.) Butter
- 3 cloves Garlic
- Small bunch Parsley
- 3 tbs. Breadcrumbs.
Method
Wash off the mussels and remove their beards, (if they are farmed mussels they will have little or none). Put these into a large saucepan with a cup of water. Put the lid on and cook just until they open.
Take them out of the pot and discard the liquid (or freeze it for some mussel stock). Remove the top shell, and put the others out on a baking sheet in their shells.
Soften the butter, chop the
Flahavan's Irish oats
Wednesday, 30th November 2011
Catherine Fulvio creates wonderful recipes using Flahavan's Irish oats
Television personality, cookbook author and owner of award-winning Ballyknocken House and Cookery School, Catherine Fulvio has teamed up with Flahavan's, Ireland's favourite porridge, to create a delicious selection of easy-to-prepare recipes using Irish oats. Catherine's recipes are sure to inspire cooks of all levels and demonstrate that oats can be used in numerous dishes and are not just for breakFASt. Each of these five recipes is specially created for home cooking and combines exciting flavours with the nutritious goodness of Flahavan's oats.
Catherine's Granola Crunch served with natural yogurt and fruit compote is a healthy choice for the entire family to enjoy. "Granola Crunch is a firm favourite with our guests at Ballyknocken House at breakFASt time, we're often asked for the recipe. This dish
Autumn Classics from Neven Maguire
Wednesday, 30th November 2011
Taken from Neven Maguire's first cooking app, 'iCook with Neven', which is available now for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad from the App Store. The app can also be purchased through http://www.nevenmaguire.com.
Butternut Squash And Pasta Bake
The roasted butternut squash adds a wonderful zap to this pasta gratin, while the mascarpone cheese helps to keep everything really moist. There's this on going debate about which pasta is better-fresh or dried, and I can honestly say that I think dried is best in most recipes. It uses hard durum wheat, which when cooked gives that lovely 'bite' that we talk about when cooking pasta.
Serves 4
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 25g (1oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
- 1 butternut squash
- 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 175g (6oz) chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 275g (10oz) penne pasta
- 250g
Nutella Roulade
Wednesday, 30th November 2011
This delightful, rich chocolate coffee roulade always goes down a treat, and even if you are watching the calories a little goes a long way
Serves 8
- butter, for greasing
- 100g (4oz) plain chocolate
- 4 eggs
- 100g (4oz) caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
For The Filling:
- 1/2 vanilla pod
- 1 tbsp dark rum or Tia Maria
- 300ml (1/2 pint) cream
- 75g (3oz) Nutella chocolate spread
- icing sugar, to decorate
Grease a 33 x 23cm (13 x9in) Swiss roll tin, line with greaseproof paper and then grease the paper. Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very thick and pale in colour. Beat in the egg whites until stiff, and then fold into the chocolate mixture.
Pour into the prepared tin and spread out evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes until well
Foodspotters Descend On Ireland
Wednesday, 30th November 2011
Waterford on the menu for 450,000 US Foodies
Two of the world's top food bloggers arrived in Ireland last week to see and taste all that is good about food in Ireland. Christopher Connolly's and Amy Cao's, from US based food blogging site Foodspotting.com, visit to Waterford includes an overnight at the Cliffhouse Hotel in Ardmore and a visit to Waterford Crystal, as part of their week long culinary food expedition. During their trip, the duo will be blogging to their 450,000 followers and showing them all that Ireland has to offer food enthusiasts.
Failte Ireland's Head of Operations for the South East, Gary Breen emphasised "Foodspotting.com is the perfect platform to promote the food of the South East and this country as an important destination for the best dishes and beverages. Ireland has some of the best quality ingredients as well
Celeriac
Wednesday, 23rd November 2011
This vegetable is a great winter standby and is the mother of celery. It has a terrific flavour and like all root vegetables it can be boiled, roasted or mashed. It has been cultivated here since 1720 but seems to be taking its time to catch on. It can be cooked in many of the same ways as turnip but has a distinctive celery taste, it can also makes a very good winter salad.
Celeriac mash
- 1 head Celeriac
- 2 oz. Butter
- Salt and Black Pepper
- 1 tbs Cream (or 2 tbs milk)
Method
Peel the celeriac and cut into rough chunks. Put into boiling salted water and simmer until soft (30 mins. approx). When soft drain it well and mash it roughly with a Potato masher
(you dont have to be too particular as a little texture in the
Pain d'Epice (FreNch spice cake)
Wednesday, 16th November 2011
I made this lately for some of the ladies in Sile's choir in Beziers and they all are clamouring for the recipe. Truth is that it is a combination of the French recipe and the Irish one for Gingerbread (with a few Dwyer additions). I think it would be delicious as a light but moist Christmas Cake.
Ingredients
- 110g unsalted butter
- 110g brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 50g stem ginger
- 50g dates
- 50g dried apricots
- 50g walnuts
- 50g sultanas
- 1 thumb root ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon breadsoda
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 225ml. honey
- 225g flour
Method
Pre heat the oven to 160C, 325 F. Gas 3
First beat the butter and sugar in a beater until the mixture gets light and fluffy.
Get all the fruit ready (I like to chop these quite coarsely to give texture to the cake), chop the stem ginger, stone and chop the dates, chop the apricots and walnuts, peel the root
White Chocolate and Peach Cheesecake
Wednesday, 9th November 2011
This is a very simple cheesecake to make as the chololate lightly sets the cheese mixture so you don't need extra geletine.
It is worth while searching out a good white chocolate for this.
Ingredients
(For a 28cm tart tin-serve 6 to 8)
- 125g (5 oz.) wholemeal biscuits
- 60g (2 oz.) unsalted butter
- 450g (1 lb.) peaches or nectarines
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 110g (4 oz.) cream cheese
- 350g (12 oz.) quark or rromage frais - or thick yoghurt.
- 175g (6 oz.) good white chocolate
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Unless the peaches are very ripe you will have to cook them first. Cover them in a pot with water and cook gently for about 10 minutes until tender, then plunge into cold water, the skins should slip off easily.
Crumb the biscuits (in a food processor or by hand) and
Chicken with Chorizo
Wednesday, 2nd November 2011
This is a real Spanish peasant dish, very easy to cook as everything (like an Irish Stew) is cooked in the one dish.
It may be simple but it is very tasty.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 1 large chicken (or 8 chicken thighs)
- 2 onions
- 8 to 12 medium potatoes
- 225 g (1/2) chorizo sausage cut into pieces
- large glass dry sherry
- 1 cup chicken stock
- Olive 0il
- Salt and black pepper
Method
You will need a large roasting tin. Heat the oven to 200C, 400F Gas 7
If you are using a whole chicken cut it into joints, if you cut it into thighs, drumsticks and cut each breast in two you will have eight pieces.
Scrub the potatoes and cut in quarters without peeling. Peel and cut the onions into large pieces.
In a hot pan brown the chicken pieces and put into the tin. Sear the potatoes in the same pan (add more
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