Recipes

Nettle Soup

• 1 large onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 potatoes
• 2 handfuls nettle heads
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• Olive oil, salt and pepper
• 150ml single cream

Peel and chop the onion, garlic and potatoes and fry them for 3-4 minutes in a large saucepan in a little olive oil. Trim away the stems from the nettle leaves, wash well and add them to the pan. Make up
stock cube. Boil fairly rapidly for 15 minutes until the potatoes are cooked. Add cream, liquidize and return to the pan to keep hot.

Season and serve.

Wild Garlic Pesto

•    200g wild garlic leaves
•    200g grated Parmesan cheese
•    200g pine nuts
•    enough olive oil to make a pouring sauce
•    salt and pepper

Disregard the stems and use only the leaves from the picked wild garlic; clean them well. Put the garlic leaves and pine nuts into a food processor and process them until they are smooth. Next add
the parmesan cheese and blend well. Gently pour in the olive oil until you have a smooth sauce.
Season with salt and pepper. Stored in air-tight jars in a dark cupboard, this pesto will keep for several weeks.

Garlic Mustard Quiche

•    1 store-bought pie crust (8 inch)
•    1 3/4 cups milk
•    1 cup shredded cheese
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    1/4 teaspoon paprika
•    1/2 grated onion
•    3 eggs



Brush crust with egg white. Scald milk and melt cheese into milk.
Then, add onion, salt, and paprika. Beat in eggs
Bake for 45 minutes at 175C.


Cooked Green Sorrels
Strip and wash 2 lbs of sorrel. Cook in a saucepan with no additional
water, until wilted. Drain, if necessary. Stir in 3 tbsp butter and 3 tbsp
sugar and simmer a few minutes. Add 2 tbsp of raisins and serve.


Vegetable Gratin


All ingredients can be locally sourced


Veggie Bit

Broccoli and cauliflower  
or
Potato, pea and courgette
or
Turnip and carrot
or
Cabbage and potato



Béchamel Sauce Bit

800 ml milk     
70 g butter
70 g flour
1 onion           
5 cloves (optional)
salt +pepper
Pinch nutmeg (optional)
Bunch of fresh thyme    
3 bay leaves (optional)
70 g grated cheese (optional)


Topping Bit

2 handfuls breadcrumbs
1 handful fresh herbs
Glug of Rapeseed oil (you can use olive oil also)


Preparation
Bear in mind this will make enough béchamel to make a gratin for about 8 to 10 people so adapt it if necessary. But this gratin freezes perfectly if you want to make a big batch. The béchamel will keep in the fridge for up to five days.

Pretty much any veg are good in this dish depending on what you have available at that time of year.

While we grew our own over the summer, local veg can be sourced at Rosie’s organic market on a Saturday morning or now Supervalu from a local organic supplier based  in The Curragh.

The first job is to stud the onion with cloves and add it and the thyme, bayleaf and nutmeg to the milk.
Slowly bring it to the boil, don’t let it boil over. Turn off and leave to stand for 20 minutes.
Mix the breadcrumbs with the oil and herbs and season with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter slowly and then add the flour stirring vigorously until they are blended smoothly. A wooden spoon is best for this job. Then start to add the milk bit by bit to this basic roux mixture, beating in all the milk before adding more. It takes a few minutes to add all the milk and you must keep stirring it at this stage. The mixture should be smooth and slowly become creamier and silkier. At this stage you can add some grated cheese.
Cook your veg for so that they are just becoming soft but still retain their bite.  Courgettes and cabbage are fine in 3 minutes. Potatoes will of course take a bit longer depending on the size. We put them in the steamer for a few minutes then lay them out in your oven proof dish.
Poor the sauce over the veg add  the breadcrumb topping and put it into the oven at 180 for about 30-40 minutes depending on how crunchy you want the topping to be!

We adapted this recipe from the Cornucopia cookbook (a vegetarian and wholefood restaurant and café on Wicklow St in Dublin city centre.

Maynooth Lamb Simple Stew (serves at least 4)
3 onions (we used home grown)
4 gigot chops or lamb shanks (we used a combination sourced from a local farmer here in Maynooth)
800 ml stock (we used organic, low salt veg stock as some bought stock cubes can be very salty)
4 large potatoes cut into about 2 inch dice (we used home grown)
Fresh thyme, parsley, marjoram or whatever you have to hand but these work well.

Fry chops or shanks in a little oil til brown in a large pot. Add chopped onions and fry for a couple of minutes, add herbs, seasoning and bring to boil.
Reduce to a simmer and leave on low heat for a few hours or until the meat starts to fall off the bone. Take the meat out and remove the bones if desired and return to the pot.
Add potatoes and bring back to simmer for about 20 minutes until potatoes are cooked through.




Summer Vegetable Curry with Homemade Paneer Cheese and Cucumber Raita (serves 4 - 6)



Veggie Bit

2 large onions (home grown)
2 cloves garlic (Market could be a good seasonal source!)
5 big handfuls swiss chard
2 handfuls of yellow runner beans
2 red chillis (our home grown ones failed but again Rosie might be a good source?)
4 large potatoes cut into eighths
Fresh tomatoes or half a tin of organic tomatoes
Approx 1 pint of vegetable stock


Cheese Bit (optional but fun to do!)

1.8 litres whole milk
3 tbsp white wine vinegar


Raita Bit (Optional)


1 small cucumber (homegrown)
200 ml of natural yoghurt (we used Glenisk)
A sprig of fresh mint and a handful of fresh coriander (homegrown)




Dried Spicy Bit


1 Tsp coriander seed
1 Tsp cumin seed
1 Tsp turmeric
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp paprika
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp fennel seed


*Just a note here about garlic and Swiss Chard and Paneer cheese! This is a one we will definitely be growing in copious amounts come October/November this year as in most of the supermarkets around Maynooth, garlic is being imported from China!! Also swiss chard is the veg for dummiesl, it is just so easy to grow and you use it like you would spinach. There is no need for rice with this dish as the potatoes serve that purpose.  The paneer cheese has a bland taste but great texture and it takes on flavour.  I have had paneer sag in Indian restaurants and so this is my version.   The recipe for the paneer itself came from Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Home Cooking.
Preparation
To make the paneer, bring the milk to the boil and just before it boils over add the white wine vinegar. Use a spoon to separate the curds from the whey. I lined a colander with muslin and put the colander over a bowl to strain the curds as Darina instructed. You could just use a spotlessly clean tea towel.  If you can put a weight on it to help all the liquid drain away. Just wrap you cheese up and leave in the fridge. It can be used shortly after and will keep for two days.
Fry the cubed paneer cheese in a little oil until just brown and drain on some kitchen towel and set aside until you’re nearly ready to serve your curry.
To make the curry start the onion frying in a little oil for a few minutes. Meanwhile bash the spices in a pestle and mortar and add to the onions at this stage so they can release their flavour.
Finely dice the chili and garlic, chop beans into inch long pieces, and add with potatoes and chard
Cover with stock and leave until the potatoes are cooked. When ready to serve add the paneer cheese allowing to just warm through. Don’t mix too much at this stage so that it won’t break up.
Meanwhile peel and finely dice the cucumber and chop the herbs. Mix with yoghurt and serve a dollop on top of the curry.





Honey BlackBerry Cake with Butter Icing
175g self raising flour (Ballybrado is recommended but can be tricky to get locally)
150g butter
100g soft brown sugar
175g honey (Enfield Honey recommended – be warned Boyne Valley honey is imported!)
2 handfuls of berries (we used homegrown blackberries and they are optional)
1 tbsp water
2 eggs (we used locally produced free range hen eggs but duck eggs would be fine too
70 g butter at room temperature
200 g icing sugar
1 tbsp water

Melt the butter, sugar, water and honey together over a gentle heat and set aside to cool.
Grease and line a deep cake tin with grease proof paper.
Put your chosen berries in the base of the tin.
When the mixture is cool add your whisked eggs and fold in your flour a little at a time. Beat with a wooden spoon leaving no lumps.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes (or until a skewer inserted to the middle of the cake comes out clean) at 180 degrees. Take out of the tin and leave to cool on wire rack.
Beat the butter until soft with wooden spoon and water and sift in the icing sugar, combine until smooth and smear over the cake when it is cool.

We adapted this recipe from the Enfield Beekeepers Website.