It was brunch time and I wanted some smoked mackerel. We had fresh rolls from the bakers, some eggs and I did scrambled eggs with smoked mackerel. A couple of finely sliced wild garlic leaves, some chopped up parsley and tomato added made it a healthy and filling brunch.

I decided to cook the sea bass for dinner with the green peppercorns. I chose my ingredients and decided to make a stir fry with noodles and veg and to cook the sea bass in the oven.

Honey and soy glazed sea bass with green peppercorn stir fry, serves 2, oven 160C

• 1 sea bass per person
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 ½ tbsp runny honey

Veg for the stir fry

• 1 carrot
• 2-3 cm ginger
• 2 spring onions
• 1 stalk lemon grass
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley
• pineapple
• 4 bunches of peppercorns
• 1/2 romaine lettuce head

Stir fry sauce

• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

Cut up the veg, cut the ginger julienne very finely, slice the spring onions, cut the carrot julienne and only use the inner part of the lemon grass, finely slices. Chop the parsley and cut up the pineapple and slice the lettuce and garlic. Set aside and prepare the fish.

Start by gutting it and remove the scales. Rinse and make sure there is no blood left, pat dry with paper and score the side. Mix the soy sauce and honey and brush the fish, inside and out, stuff it with some ginger, sliced garlic and some lemon thyme. bake for 20 minutes.

Start the wok and when it is hot add the oil. Add the ginger and let cook, then add the garlic, lemon grass and chilli. Add more the sauce ingredients and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Ad the rest of the ingredients. Place the rice noodles in a bowl and pour over boiling water.

When the noodles are soft mix them with the stir fry and serve with the fish. If you want the skin crispier place the fish under the grill for a few minutes before serving.

The fish was perfectly cooked and the delicate meat so tender. Soy sauce and honey brought out the sweetness of the delicious fish.

Asparagus and fresh green peppercorn soup, serves 2 as a starter or snack

• 1 bunch of asparagus 
• 2 bunches of fresh green peppercorns
• 1 handful of spinach
• 1 apple
• 4 dl chicken stock

Garnish 

• chive and wild garlic flowers
• raw asparagus tips

Cut up the asparagus, rinse the peppercorns and the spinach and steam for 6 minutes. Cut the asparagus tips in half for serving and add them raw to the soup.

Peel the apple and remove the core, the apple is not necessary but it adds some sweetness and gives the soup more body. Place it in a blender with the chicken stock and the steamed veg. Remove the core from the green peppercorns before adding and pour in to bowls. Add the garnish and serve.

The green peppercorns adds their own flavor a nice kick without overpowering the flavors of the spinach and the asparagus and the raw asparagus tips adds texture.

I have entered this to the great  1 Ingredient challenge, hosted by Laura at How to Cook Good Food and Nazima and Pierre’s Frangalise Kitchen. It was asparagus this month I could not resist!

One of the most amazing facts is that in 1959, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at the annual rent of £45!  Imagine if that was possible today!

The building is great and full of atmosphere.

We made our way floor by floor up.

We found some truths along the way

Some old ads 

in the end we made it up to the bar with a stunning 360 degree view and we were in luck as the sun was out and we could see the Wicklow mountains, of course whilst enjoying a pint of Guinness. I am not normally a Guinness drinker but it tasted pretty good.

After the pint we started to make our way down and on the ground floor they had the ingredients, including this beautiful waterfall.

In celebration of all the history we decided to get back to town by horse and carriage. The lovely Nellie took us through the Dublin neighbourhoods.

It was slightly off to travel in such an old fashion way and look out and see a very modern Dublin, but still very nice and I would recommend it as a way to travel around.

This inspired me to cook a dish with Guinness. My first idea was a chocolate cake but as I am not a baker I thought a stew. I read a few recipes and they seemed quite easy. I wanted to make it from oxtail, a cut I still haven’t cooked with. When I went to the Robsons’ they were more geared up for barbecue meats  so I got shin of beef instead. This is a great cut, very cost efficient and all it needs is long and slow cooking. I wanted to make it light despite it  being a stew so it is loaded with veg.

Ginger & Guinness beef stew, serves 4-6, oven 160C

• 1 carrot
• shin of beef
• 1 onion
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 can of Guinness
• 2 bayleaves
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing ricewine
• parsely stalks
• Szechuan peppercorns
• ½ garlic
• 3-4 cm ginger
• flour
• salt & pepper

To be added later 

• 2 small carrots 
• 10 baby potatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 lemons
• 4 mushrooms, quatered
• spinach
• 2 heaped tbsp creme fraiche

Peel the carrot and cut up in pieces, slice the celery and the onion. Cut the ginger fine and cut the garlic cloves roughly.

I bought the meat whole and I dusted it with flour and browned it. I added the veg, the parsley, bayleaves, peppercorns and the Guinness.. Let it cook for 2 hr in the oven.

After two hours take the pot out of the oven. Remove the meat and the bayleaves. Place everything in the blender and give is a whizz until smooth. If you don’t like the crunch from the Szechuan peppercorns put through a sieve. Put everything back in the pot, add carrot, potatoes, onion and the juice of 1 lemon. Place in the oven to cook for another hour.

Take it out of the oven and add chopped spinach, creme fraiche and and the juice of another lemon. Put the lid back on and let stand for 10 minutes. Serve with chopped lettuce, sliced spring onion and fresh parsley.

It might be slightly more of a winter dish but it works well with a salad and all the veg made it work.

Ham hoc casserole, serves 6, cooking time about 2 hours in 160C

• 1 smoked ham hoc
• 2 carrots, cut in to small cubes
• 3 celery stalks, cut in to cubes
• 1 yellow onion
• 1/2 fresh garlic, cut in to small chunks
• 1 bunch of parsely, roughly cut
• 1 chilli
• 1 ½ l water
• 2 bay leaves
• 4-6 whole pepper corns

—-

Add after 1 ½ hour

• roughly cut up greens 
• 1 dl pearl barley
• Paneer cheese, cubed

Blanch the ham hoc twice and remove the skin and as much as you can of the visible fat.

Add the chopped veg, spices and the water and add to the casserole.

Let it cook for about 1½ hour and then add the greens and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

When that was cooking I did a soup as a starter.

Spinach and wild garlic soup with crispy salami, serves 2 as a starter

• Spinach
• 2 spring onions
• 3 dl veg stock
• grated ginger

— Simmer until the spinach is wilted and then add:

• Wild garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 spring onion
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• corn from 1 corn on the cobb, set some aside for garnish
• salt & pepper

— Blitz in the blender and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with

• 4 thin slices of salami, pan fry them until crispy 
• 2 baby asparagus, slice raw
• sweetcorn
• Chive, shopped
• Parmesan cheese, grated

When the spinach is wilted take of the heat and add to a blender. Add the wild garlic, 1 spring onion, the apple and the corn from the cob. Blitz and taste with salt and pepper until happy.

Place in the soup in bowls, add the garnish and serve.

When the casserole is ready take the meat out and cut off any visible fat, leaving the meat in edible chunks and place back in with the vegetables. The consistency is now slightly thickened, the smokiness from the ham hoc came through and the meat was meltingly tender. Serve with wild garlic pesto.

I love when I can cook the dinner in the oven, the whole house smells wonderful and there is something so satisfying about taking the time enjoying the flavors and catch up on the week gone past without any stress and a lovely dish for my new pot.

I have entered this to Javelin Warriors Made with Love Mondays

Reading on the website of The Greenhouse in Dublin it claims to be “a unique restaurant of understated luxury” and I can’t do anything but agree. The food is innovative, light and simply delicious.  It is not a place for a rushed lunch but to enjoy the food, the wine and to have a sensible conversation. I arrived slightly before opening but was quickly seated and was left with time to have a proper browse through the menu. There were  two starters and two main courses to choose from but I could not make my mind up!

My friend arrived and it made for two of us unable to decide. In the end we decided to go for different starters and different mains and share! How perfect! We started with a lovely, cool glass of bubbly and some pre starters from the chef.

They were all that perfect little bite and simply delicious. We shared a lovely bottle of wine to go with the food. Unfortunately as I did not take a picture of the wine I can’t remember what it was. The flavor was light but earthy and went very well with all our food.

I opted for yellowfin tuna, avocado, radish, warm kalamnsi mayo, soy tapioca as a starter. It lived up to the expectations set by the pre starters! It was as beautiful as it was delicious.

My friend opted for the foie gras royale & frozen sea buckthorn, smoked eel and walnut.

It came in 2 parts

I think we took turns sneaking a little bite of each others plates! When the main courses arrived it was no different, we both had a tiny bit of food envy but as we were sharing it worked out just fine!

My friend opted for glazed cod, asparagus & Alexander risotto, baby squid & chicken wing, it looked like a work of art and the chicken wing was great, I had never thought of matching it with cod. I love to be surprised.

I can never resist pork belly and this one was fab! It was cooked at low temperature for 62 hours, needless to say it simply melted in my mouth! It was roast piglet, peas, Iberico ham, potato mousseline and liquorice.

There was no room for desserts, even if we both thought there might be, just for a short second when we saw some of them come out so we opted for sharing a selection of artisan cheeses. A perfect ending to such a lovely meal. As always, great food always tastes better in great company!

If you are in Dublin don’t miss this The Greenhouse! With the location it might be even better after a spot of shopping!

There were lots and lots of bluebells covering the ground.

The light was fantastic and the sunshine through the trees looked very beautiful.

Just in time when we came back we did a quick visit to the pub and then it was time to go home and start dinner.

I bought white miso paste and cod yesterday and wanted to make miso glazed cod. The original recipe comes from Nobu and involves black cod. I had bought cod loin and it worked really well.

Miso glazed cod, serves 2, oven on grill

• cod loin, 500 gr 
• 1 small bag of white miso paste
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp mirin

Mix the miso paste, sugar and mirin in a pan and stir until the sugar dissolved. Marinade the cod, for 24 hours if you have time. When it is time to cook take the cod out, spoon over as much of the marinade as possible and grill for 8 minutes and the cod will be flaky and ready to eat.

I had an order for mash potato for dinner and was thinking of how I could make it work with the miso cod.

Wasabi and green pea mash, serves 2

• 4 white potatoes
• 1.5 dl milk
• 1 knob of butter
• 1 heaped tbsp light creme fraiche
• 3 tsp wasabi
• 1 dl green peas

Peel and cube the potatoes, boil them for 10 minutes or until soft.

Put them through a potato ricer to get a smooth mash. Warm the milk and melt the butter in it before adding it to the mash. Add the creme fraiche and the wasabi whilst warming the peas. Add the peas to the mash.

I also did a salad to go with the fish and mash. I did an avocado dip yesterday and decided to dress the salad with what was left.

Avocado and tofu dip/dressing

• 1 pack silken tofu 
• 2 avocados, ripe
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 heaped tsp hot sauce
• salt & white pepper to taste

I placed all the ingredients in a blender and whizzed until smooth. I served it with crudités the day before and it also worked very well as a dressing.

The wasabi lifted the mash and made it work really well with the fish. It added a little hotness but only as a background note.

The apple trees look stunning and if there will be as many apples as there are flowers we are in for a great year!

The rosemary is in bloom with lovely light blue flowers.

The hardy dandelion is always blooming but no matter how annoying they are, they are pretty and the yellow always looks happy and bright.

We picked the first batch of asparagus. I only picked 5 stems and wanted to let the flavour really come through. I also picked some chives and some wild garlic, I have one wild garlic plant at the allotment and it never fails to produce!

Feta cheese creme

• 1 pack of feta cheese 
• the zest of 1 lemon
• cracked black pepper
• 3 tbsp low fat yoghurt
• chives

Crumble the feta and mash it up with a fork. Mix in the yoghurt, lemon zest, black pepper and the chopped chives.

Steam the asparagus, add feta cheese and extra virgin olive oil.

Zucchini rolls, slice the zucchini length wise, brush with oil and grill the slices approx 4 minutes on each side in a griddle pan until the soften. Spread a thin layer of the feta cheese creme along about 2/3 of the zucchini strip. Place a leaf of wild garlic, a baby spinach leaf on top and roll up. Secure with a toothpick before serving.

I also picked some rhubarb. It is really strong and I picked some for a crumble.

Coconut and pistachio rhubarb crumble, serves 4, oven at 180C

The crumble

• ½ dl toasted coconut 
• 30 gr toasted pistachio nuts
• 3 heaped tbsp sugar
• 1 dl spelt flour
• 2 dl oatmeal
• 125 gr butter

The filling

• 4 rhubarb stalks
• 1 punnet of strawberries
• 2 dl sugar

Grind the toasted pistachio nuts, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix the crumble.

Mix the rhubarb and the strawberries with the sugar and add the crumble on top, bake for 35 minutes.

I did a vanilla sauce to go with it and the first pick of rhubarb of the year tasted very nice!

Everything is planned for the allotment, the seeds are in, we need to buy some plants as it is so late in the year but it is looking to be a good summer with lots of nice produce.

I have entered this to Karens lovely Lavender and Lovage, Herbs on Saturday, this time hosted by Anneli Faiers Delicieux and Javelin Warriors always challenging Made with Love Mondays

It started by buying a new barbecue, the old one was falling apart and it was time to take it to the tip. So in the garden is a shiny new one, the ones that starts with a certain “W”. We got some lamb chops, sausages, bacon and morcilla. Too lazy to get some veg I used what I had at home.

When having a barbecue, first thing first, open a nice bottle of chilled rose. I prefer Wolf, a rose Pinot Noir. I opened the bottle, poured myself a glass and started cooking by marinating the lamb chops, set aside until they are ready to be cooked.

Veg loaded potato salad, serves 3

• 4 medium sized salad potatoes
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 1 avocado
• 1 carrot
• 1/4 onion
• 1 egg
• 2 heaped tbsp light creme fraiche
• 2 heaped tbsp cottage cheese
• salt & white pepper

Peel, cube and boil, for 10 minutes, the potatoes together with the egg and the cauliflower florets.

Finely cube the peeled carrot, chop the onion, slice the spring onion and peel and cube the avocado.

When the potato has boiled add it to the salad along with the chopped up egg, creme fraiche and the cottage cheese. Gently mix and add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to let the flavors marry whilst placing the meat on the barbecue and starting on the salsa.

Mango and chilli salsa

• ½ mango
• 2 spring onions
• 1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley
• 1 red chilli
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small tsp French mustard

Slice and cut the mango in to fine cubes. Finely chop up the spring onion and chop the flat leaf parsley. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and then mix the dressing and add.

The thing about a new barbecue is that I actually didn’t know how it worked and I soon realized that I did not have enough charcoal, the heat was not hot, just warm enough to cook. It  cooked the lamb chops and sort of smoked the cauliflower but the rest needed a helping hand in the oven I have to admit. I will know next time.

The cauliflower and the morcilla got a slightly smokey flavor and it was delicious.

I cut up the rest of the meat on a chopping board.

The lamb chops were done first so we ate them beforehand.

For dessert I decided on a goats cheese and some orange honey from Montserrat in Spain. There was a few market stalls just below the monastery and it looked so delicious.

As it was Friday evening, before a bank holiday, why not have a wee dram to sleep on? I opened a brand new bottle and had a wee dram  to start the weekend.

I have entered this to the always great Made with Love Mondays, hosted by Javelin Warrior

Standing proud was a Langres Mons cheese. I had never seen it before and I wanted to try something new. It comes from the Champagne district, it is a Cow’s milk cheese with a soft, washed rind and quite stinky. It has a natural hollow at the top where it is traditional to pour champagne before eating.

This was enough to intrigue me. I got a few other cheese and carefully carried them home! As it happened we didn’t eat the cheese and it has been sitting in the fridge for a week, it was too much cheese for 2 people to finish it off on our own so I decided to make a cauliflower bake with it, I love the flavor!

As the weather is getting better it is finally time to start working on the allotment! We did some careful planning but also picked the last of the sprouting broccoli, absolutely delicious! I picked some cabbage leaves, the last of the cavolo nero and I still have a bunch of Brussels sprouts to be cooked and then I have to wait for a while for produce.

Broccoli and cauliflower Langres Mons bake, serves 2, oven 200C

• broccoli 
• cauliflower
• ½ langres mons cheese
• 4 dl milk
• 3 tsp arrow root
• grated nutmeg to taste
• salt & white pepper

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower for 5 minutes and place in an overproof dish.

Make the cheese sauce. Add the muilk to a pan and add the arrow root, stir until thickened grate nutmeg over it, add salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil and let simmer for a couple of minutes. When happy with the flavors take the sauce off the heat, add the cheese, stir until melted and pour over the veg. Place in the oven until brown and bubbly.

In a frying pan dry roast the Marcona almonds until they start to release their natural oil and get a slight colour  Add spice to your liking, I used salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, set aside to cool on a plate.

Rinse and pat dry the salmon, then add salt and pepper before pan frying it in a little oil. Finish it off in the oven for about 15 minutes with the bake.

I did a tomato and onion salad on the side for some freshness and acidity.

When the salmon and bake are done serve up with the toasted almonds. The whole dinner was made in about 35 minutes. The almonds added flavor and crunch and was great with the salmon.

We finished it all off, even the bake and for dessert I simply served up some fruit. I love the muscat grapes that are in season now, they are so aromatic, to smell and to eat, perfect with cheese as well!

There were quite a lot of nationalities on the tour, some from the very North of Sweden where it was -15C, a group of Russians, the loudest of them all and mainly talking to each other  when our guide spoke a bit louder so we could all hear the group of Russians followed suit and simply spoke even louder, in Russian. There was a group of Spaniards who had arrived on their bikes, having a guys few days “off”. Our guide had genuine passion for the land and for the wines. It turned out that the wines are made by women here, and some of the wines have women’s names.

As we walked around outside our guide explained how they grow and create their bio dynamic wines and cava. It was fascinating and so much I did not know about the whole process. I loved the smell of wood everywhere and I was stunned to know how much some wine barrels cost and for how few years they are useful for the winery.

Exactly 12 meters below they store their cava. The space below has a high humidity and there were lots and lots of bottles.

After the tour we went to the room for wine tasting. We had some cheese and local sausage to go with the wine.

We tried a variety of wines, my absolute favorite was the Cava but the Mas Irene, a red, was fantastic. The winery has a long history, having been run by the same family since the 18th century  Joan took us through a couple of wines and the philosophy and the warmth from his personality was present in the winery.

The Russians looked unimpressed  and left as soon as they could but I could see how the rest of use were thinking of how many bottles we could fit in the suitcase and bring home, myself included. I bought some wine but regret that I didn’t buy any cava, it was just delicious.

After the wine tour and tasting we climbed in to the car and it was time to head back to Barcelona. We arrived back at the hotel after an adventurous day, the breakfast, the monastery  the long and lazy lunch and the beautiful wines, 10 house later. It was a long time but the day went so fast! Feliciano knew so much and we felt that we had fallen a little in love with Catalonia! Thank you Feliciano for an absolutely wonderful day out!