The Darina Allen Column

Summer

What joy, the garden and greenhouses are bursting with produce, so are the Farmers and Country markets and hopefully, your local shops and supermarkets are offering the bounty of the season to tempt you to make beautiful salads, pasta dishes, gorgeous soups and crudtiés.

I know I’m super fortunate to have a greenhouse so we have beautiful new potatoes, weeks later than usual this year but many of you too have discovered the magic of owning a tunnel to use as a protected garden. Pair them with some of those little scallions, put them into other dishes to add extra bulk and deliciousness but best of all boil them in sea-water, eat immediately slathered with butter and Irish sea salt -you’ll feel like saying grace and thanking the Good Lord and Mother Nature for the bounty of the seasons, and of course make a wish.

There’s still a little asparagus about and we’re just getting the first Summer crabs from Ballycotton and soon we’ll have mackerel. Joy of joys, the gooseberry bushes are dripping with fruit. You know, they are my favourite sea fish – fresh mackerel eaten within a few hours from the sea is a revelation to many.

The wild Irish salmon season started on the 12th of May. Just a few weeks to enjoy this sublime and precious fish. So treat yourself. And then there’s broad beans, oh my goodness I just love broad beans or fava beans as they are known in the US.

We use every scrap, the top leaves and some flowers in salad (don’t pick too many flowers, remember they will be ultimately be the broad beans) When the little pods are just 3 to 4 inches long, we chargrill them. But to be as magical as I say, broad beans must be super fresh, the natural sugars turn into starch within 5 or 6 hours and after a few days travel they really lose their ‘mojo’ and become dull and mealy. So I can understand if you’re baffled by my enthusiasm.

You’ll need to grow them yourself or sidle up to a friend with a glut and maybe do a barter.  We’ve also had the first of our courgettes with their frilly canary yellow blossom, another vegetable that can be dull as dishwater or blow your mind when they are young, crisp, and nutty in flavour. Try them raw and thinly sliced in a carpaccio of zucchini, drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil and a few flakes of sea salt, alternatively sprinkle with some strips of anchovy and add a little of the oil. Decorate with the zucchini blossoms.

I’ve chosen a few of my favourite Summer recipes, so difficult because there are so many delicious ways to serves gorgeous fresh produce.

Spring Onion or Garlic Chive Soda Bread

On a recent trip to India I loved the flat breads with scallions. They use a yeast dough but this soda bread version is also delicious and super easy to make.

450g (1 lb) flour

1 level teaspoon bread soda

1 level teaspoon salt

2-4 tablespoons finely sliced spring onions or garlic chives

350- 425 mls(12-15 fl oz) approx. sour milk or butter milk to mix

First fully preheat your oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8.

Sieve the dry ingredients, add the finely sliced spring onions. Make a well in the centre. Pour most of the milk in at once.

Using one hand, mix in the flour from the sides of the bowl, adding more milk if necessary. The dough should be softish, not too wet and sticky.

When it all comes together, turn it out onto a floured board, knead lightly for a few seconds, just enough to tidy it up.

Pat the dough into a round about 1 1/2 inch (4cm) deep and cut a deep cross on it to let the fairies out!

Let the cuts go over the sides of the bread to make sure of this.

Bake in a hot oven 230C\450F\ gas mark 8 for 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 30 minutes or until cooked. If you are in doubt, tap the bottom of the bread, if it is cooked it will sound hollow.

Pappardelle with double Broad Beans and Rocket Leaves

Serves 4

450g pappardelle

225g broad beans, shelled

8 tablespoons broad bean puree (see recipe below)

A fistful of rocket leaves

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, approx.

freshly ground pepper and sea salt.

First make the broad bean puree.  Cook and shell the broad beans and keep warm.

Cook the pappardelle until ‘al dente’ in plenty of boiling salted water.  Drain quickly. 

Add a little extra virgin olive oil to the pan, add the broad beans, pasta and rocket leaves and toss well.  Season with lots of pepper and some sea salt. 

Put two tablespoons of warm broad bean puree onto each plate. 

Put a portion on pasta on top and serve immediately.

Broad Bean Puree

We use this puree in many ways, you can imagine how good it is with ham or bacon, duck, summer plaice or John Dory.

150ml water

1 teaspoon salt

450g shelled broad beans

sprig of summer savory

about 25g butter

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1-2 teaspoon summer savory, freshly chopped

2-3 tablespoon cream

Bring the water to a rolling boil, add the sea salt, broad beans and a sprig of savory.  Boil very fast for 3-4 minutes or until just cooked.  Drain immediately.

Melt a little butter in the saucepan, toss in the broad beans and season with freshly ground pepper.  Taste, add some more savory and a little salt if necessary.

Slip the beans out of their skins.  Add the cream and puree.  Check the seasoning and serve.      

Green Goosegog Crumble with Elderflower Cream

When we were little,  we always called gooseberries goosegogs. The first green gooseberries may still be hard and under ripe but fantastic for pies and tarts. Crumbles are the quintessential comfort food, this is a brilliant master recipe, just vary the fruit according to the season.

Serves 6-8

675g  green gooseberries

45-55g soft dark brown sugar

1-2 tablespoon water

Crumble

110g white flour, preferably unbleached

50g butter

50g castor sugar

Elderflower Cream

175ml cream, whipped

1 tablespoon elderflower cordial

1.1L capacity pie dish

First stew the gooseberries gently with the sugar and water in a covered casserole or stainless steel saucepan just until the fruit bursts.

Then taste and add more sugar if necessary. Turn into a pie dish. Allow to cool slightly while you make the crumble.

Rub the butter into the flour just until the mixture resembles really coarse bread crumbs, add the sugar. Sprinkle this mixture over the gooseberries in the pie dish. Scatter the flaked almonds evenly over the top.

Bake in a preheated moderate oven 180C/350F/regulo 4, for 30-45 minutes or until the topping is cooked and golden. Serve with elderflower cream or just softly whipped cream and soft brown sugar.

To make the elderflower cream, fold the cordial into the softly whipped cream, to taste.

Variation: Gooseberry and Elderflower

Stew the gooseberries with white sugar, add 2 elderflower heads tied in muslin while stewing, remove elderflowers and proceed as above.

Variations on the Crumble

30g oatflakes or sliced hazelnuts or nibbed almonds can be good added to the crumble.

HOT TIPS

Guest chef: MerlinLabron We are very excited to be welcoming  Merlin Labron from Michelin starred Portland Restaurant to the cookery school this year for a guest chef demonstration on Wednesday 20^th June 2018. Awarded a Michelin star only nine months after having opened his first restaurant, Merlin might be very young –he won the prestigious award as head chef at Portland at only 24 but he knows what he is doing. An accomplished chef trained in France, Switzerland and Belgium.  See www.cookingisfun.ie

East Cork Slow Food : back by huge demand Ted Dinan, Professor of Psychiatry, Principal Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork, will give a talk titled Food and Mood:  role of melancholic microbes at The Ballymaloe Cookery School on Tuesday 26th June 2018 at 7pm. BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL. Standing room only at the last event so don’t miss this one.

Enquiries 021 4646785,  slowfoodeastcork@gmail.com. Proceeds to the East Cork Slow Food Education Project.

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 '30 Years at Ballymaloe' - Bord Gáis Avonmore Cookbook of the Year 2013

Good Food Ireland Cookery School of the Year 2012/2013

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Once again, the Ballymaloe Cookery School in East Cork has a great programme of cookery courses for all interests and abilities running throughout 2017. Ranging from a relaxing visit to sit in on an afternoon cookery demonstration to a week long ‘Intensive Introductory Course’.

Sitting in the middle of a 100 acre organic farm the Ballymaloe Cookery School provides its students not only with a life skill learnt under the expert tutelage of their very capable teachers but also a place to relax and unwind from the stresses and strains of normal everyday life. The cottage accommodation available onsite for residential courses consists of a collection of delightful converted outbuildings which have been transformed over the years by the Allens, and other accommodation is available locally for the short courses.

www.cookingisfun.ie