Cook the Book: My Irish Table by Cathal Armstrong

Have you seen this book? It’s gorgeous. Page after page of delicious looking Irish food, the food of the author Cathal Armstrong’s childhood.  The book also includes some Irish inspired recipes from Armstrong’s restaurant in the Washington D.C. area, Restaurant Eve.  Delicious Irish food?  Yes! Don’t get me started on this one. Ireland is a country with amazing natural resources when it comes to food. When I think of Ireland, I think of Irish butter and cheese, grass fed meats, fresh produce and seafood plucked straight from the sea.  I believe that Irish food is having its moment and will continue to do so as the popularity of fussy food wanes in favor of rustic, sustainable, ingredient driven dishes that we all love to eat.

I also adore Cathal Armstrong.  No, I don’t know him, but I feel like I do. He reminds me of my father-in-law, Paddy, in many ways.  One of so many Irish immigrants who has laid down roots on the other side of the Atlantic.  Like my father and mother-in-law, Cathal and his wife Meshelle (Filipina, just like my mother-in-law) built their business from scratch and made it successful through hard work and unwavering belief in their vision.  Like Paddy, Cathal is a very civic minded individual as demonstrated by his dedication to the sustainable food movement and his creation of Chefs as Parents™ (www.chefsasparents.com) a not-for-profit company that partners with the Alexandria public school system to improve the school lunch system.  Among many similarities, the one that strikes me the most is something that Armstrong, Paddy and so many of our customers at the Irish Boutique and Paddy’s on the Square have in common.  It is the way that they maintain their Irish identity, instill a love of all things Irish in their families and salute their home country even as they make America their permanent home.  They serve as shining examples of how to be both Irish and American.

Choosing a single recipe from this book was SO hard.  Honestly, I cannot wait to cook through the entire thing: Irish Stew, Dublin Coddle, President Obama Stew (Chicken Casserole), Shepherd’s Pie, Marrowfat Peas, Piccalilli, Tomato Jam, Apple Pie – I could go on. I chose ‘Cashel Blue and Toasted Pecan Terrine with Frisée and Apple Jam’ because we’re having friends over who we haven’t seen in ages, including two new babies (yay!) and I want to set out some food that we can graze on while we catch up and get the BBQ going. With six adults and five little ones, I think that it’s nice to do something that feels a little bit special with the appetizers, since we’ll be doing burgers and feeding-chasing-cleaning up after little ones during dinner. I’m serving this with a selection of other cheeses and meats and skipping the frisée, only because including it would necessitate forks (less forks, more hands free for holding babies!).

This recipe embodies my favorite aspects of Irish food. It’s simple; made up of only a few quality ingredients, and yet it feels elevated enough to serve to guests.

Cashel Blue and Toasted Pecan Terrine with Frisée and Apple Jam

Terrine

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1 pound Cashel Blue cheese, crumbled

Jam

2 small apples, such as Bramley, Ida Red, Granny Smith, or Pink Lady, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salad

6 ounces (about 8 cups) frisée

2 tablespoons finely minced shallot

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Toast the pecans: Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a 9-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, leaving a generous overlap. Spread the pecans on a pie pan and lightly toast them in the oven for 10 minutes, then allow them to cool.

Make the terrine: Combine the cheese and pecans in a large bowl and pack the mixture firmly into the loaf pan. Fold the overlapping plastic wrap over to cover completely and refrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days.

I halved the terrine recipe because I bought a few other cheese to serve as well. 

This little container worked perfectly for the amounts of Cashel and pecans I had. At this point I packed the mixture in very firmly, first with my hands and then with a spoon. 

Make the jam: Combine the apples, sugar, honey, and lemon juice in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until the apples are syrupy, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, stirring often, until the apples are completely soft and caramelized. Remove from the heat and mash the apples into jam with the back of a fork. Let cool.

I used one Pink Lady and one Fuji apple and substituted agave for the honey.  Did you know that babies aren't supposed to eat honey?  I didn't. Not until I had one. Babies are cagey little creatures known to love apples and jam so I'm not taking any chances.

This is what mine looked like once I had cooked it down as instructed in the recipe. 

Jammy! I left it pretty chunky because that's how I like things but you could mash it more.

Present the dish: Unmold the terrine and cut it into 12 half-inch slices. Gently separate the frisée leaves and put them in a small bowl. Add the shallot, olive oil, and salt and toss to mix. For each serving, center a slice of terrine on a dinner plate and place a small mound of salad and a dollop of apple jam next to it. 

As you can see, I did not present the dish as instructed above but I can see how it would make a beautiful composed first course.  I'll have to store that one away under 'simple-fancy-good dinner party ideas'. 

I may have packed it in the mold too aggressively because I had a hard time getting it out.  Once I managed to unmold it, the terrine held together quite well.  You really must eat it with the apple jam.  It's sort of magic how ingredients that complement each other can equal more than the sum of their parts.  

Chocolate Éclairs: A French Dessert with Irish Flair

This afternoon we are heading over to the home of our very close friends.  Our kids love to play together and we usually have dinner and try to squeeze in some adult catch-up talk before heading home to put the little ones to bed.   People say it’s the Japanese side of me but I hate going anywhere empty handed.  Not that it doesn’t happen, but I think it’s so nice to at least try to arrive with something for your host.  So, for tonight I wanted to prepare a dessert that we would all enjoy without having to make an extra trip to the store.  Inexplicably, I came up with chocolate éclairs.  Chocolate éclairs.  Yes. I know they seem like EXACTLY the opposite of a treat you could just whip up with stuff that you already have in your fridge and pantry, but looks can be deceiving. I don’t know about you, but I always have eggs, flour, sugar, chocolate, and a canister of Bird’s Custard Powder in my cupboard – from the Irish Boutique (of course).  Believe it or not, that’s all you really need to make éclairs.  There are a few steps in the process but none of them are difficult.  I love it when a recipe is both impressive and simple.

I start by making the custard because it needs to cool before I can assemble the éclairs.  I’ve included instructions on how to make Bird’s Custard below despite the fact that there are easy to follow instructions on the side of the canister.  This is because U.K. measurements are a little different from the ones we use here in the U.S.  Personally, I do just fine winging it and adjusting the amount of milk, sugar and custard powder depending on how sweet, thick or thin I want my custard to be.  I'm not much of a measurer, but I’ve included the recommended amounts (the ones on the canister) below in U.S. measurements so you can make it the way it's intended to be.   

Birds Custard

1. Put 2½  tablespoons* of custard powder and 1½-2½  tablespoons of sugar in a heatproof bowl or measuring cup.

*Technically, the proper amount of custard mix is 2.4 tablespoons but I rounded to 2½ for the sake of simplicity.  Like I said, I'm not much of a measurer.

2. Mix into a smooth paste with a little (approx. 2½  tablespoons) milk taken from 1 Imperial pint (568ml/2.36 cups/19.2 ounces).

3. Heat the remaining milk to nearly boiling and pour onto the custard mix; stirring well.

4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to the boil over a gentle heat; stirring continuously.

NOTE: Because I wanted to fill my éclairs with a thick, vanilla-flavored custard, I adapted the ratio of ingredients a bit.  I ended up using about 3½ tablespoons of custard powder, 1½ tablespoons of sugar and only 2 cups of milk and stirred in ½ a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste after I took the custard off the heat.  For a pourable custard, the kind we usually eat, I would go with the measurements provided on the canister.

Once the custard is ready - it will thicken more as it cools – cover it with a piece of plastic wrap so that it does not form a skin and refrigerate until cold.

On to the choux pastry.  This is the stuff profiteroles (cream puffs) are made out of. When shaped into round balls they are called profiteroles and when shaped into logs they are known as éclairs.

Pâte à Choux (cream puff dough)

makes about 16 3-inch éclairs

¼  cup whole milk

¼ cup water

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

½ tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment.  Pour milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Dump in all of the flour at once and turn the heat down to low.  Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together in a smooth ball.

Now, take the dough out of the saucepan and place it in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Mix the dough at medium-low speed until it cools down a bit and add the first egg.  The mixture breaks each time you add an egg.  Don't be scared, just keep mixing. It will come back together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the second egg.  Scrape down the sides again and continue to mix until a smooth paste is formed.

Place a pastry bag with a large pastry tip or a plastic ziptop bag in a large glass.  Roll the sides of the bag over the glass and use a spatula to fill the bag with the dough.  Cut the tip of the bag off and pipe the dough in 2½ inch logs onto your prepared sheet pan.  

Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for 10 more minutes. Leaving the oven ajar just a bit, bake 5 more minutes until the éclairs are a light golden color. Cool completely on a rack.  

Once éclairs have cooled completely, cut them in half length-wise and fill a pastry bag (or a ziptop bag with the tip cut off) with your chilled custard.  Pipe a generous amount of custard onto one half of each éclair and sandwich the filled half and the unfilled half together. Place éclairs back in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Let your baby suck the extra custard out of the pastry bag to instill an early love of baking. 

Ganache

4 ounces heavy whipping cream

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

When you are ready, make the ganache.  Heat the whipping cream in a saucepan or in the microwave until simmering and pour over the chopped chocolate.  Wait a couple of minutes before gently stirring, taking care not to incorporate too much air. Now, dip your éclairs in the ganache and place back in the fridge until you are ready to leave the house.  

Look how shiny they are! I sprinkled sea salt on about half - for the adults- and left the rest plain.

Good luck getting them all into the fridge!

Sunday Breakfast: Irish Scones

Hi. My name is Michelle and I am married to Paul Barry, son of Paddy and Linda Barry who opened the Irish Boutique and Paddy's on the Square in Long Grove about 40 years ago. My husband's brother John, my brother-in-law and uncle extraordinaire to our two (plus one due in June) children now manages the three family stores in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. Today we are blogging about Irish Scones and baking with kids.  You can find all of the products we are using today at the Irish Boutique in Long Grove and Crystal Lake.

Yesterday we took a trip to the Irish Boutique (AKA "Ireland" or "Uncle John's House", according to my three-year old son Emmett) and picked up this scone mix. Perfect for breakfast on a cold day in April that feels more like a winter morning than a spring one. 

Emmett was excited about being the chef. Once we washed our hands and put on his apron we were more than ready to get started.

The beauty of making these scones is that there' s not too much preparation to take care of before you get to the fun part of kneading, shaping and baking.  Just pour 3/4 cup water in the biggest bowl you can find (if you happen to be doing this with a three-year old, otherwise any bowl will do) and add the mix. 

We set the bowl on the floor when we added the mix because the stool we were using wasn't tall enough for Emmett to get to a comfortable chef height. Then we wised up and brought a chair over to the counter.  Much better. 

And stir.

Once a shaggy dough has formed, turn it out onto a countertop lightly dusted with flour (or not so lightly, I am only the sous-chef here). If I am being honest, there was a teensy tiny part of me that worried about getting too much extra flour in the mix and making the scones tough but they came out just fine. Note to self: baking with children is NOT the time to give into your Type A tendencies.

Shape into scones. We don't have a biscuit cutter but we did have this nice "B" cookie cutter that worked just fine. 

All that's left to do is pop them in a 400F oven - we threw a tray of bacon in there for good measure - and wait 15-20 minutes. Just enough time to clean up and make a cup of tea.  

We couldn't help but take a peek once the kitchen started to smell amazing. 

Serve with butter and Mileeven Irish Whiskey Marmalade.

Baby sister approved. She was feeling under the weather but didn't let that stop her from eating a whole scone. Yum.