You may be tired after a long day and want something filling to eat but not another stodgy pizza that’s going to make you feel like a beached whale later and have you trying to ‘be good’ tomorrow. It needs to be quick too. So how quick is this? It takes about 20 minutes all in so that’s fairly quick I would say and it’s not only delicious and nutritious it’s also incredibly tasty and filling. The ciabatta croutons are an optional extra that will add crunch and vary the texture but leave them out if you want to err on the side of super healthy.
By the way, I didn’t know what to call this soup and was going to call it a veggie soup but then chickpeas and kidney beans aren’t vegetables hence ‘legume’ which to me sounds a little bit pretentious (’twas far from a legume I was reared) but didn’t know what else to call it so there you go.
Roast Squash & Legume Soup
You will need:
1 butternut squash
2 tbsp rapeseed oil or olive oil
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 400g can plum tomatoes peeled
1 400g can chickpeas
1 400g can kidney beans
2 tsp herbes de Provence
500ml vegetable stock (from a cube is fine – low salt, organic if possible)
Flat leaf parsley
Ciabatta croutons (see below) – optional
Method:
Heat the fan oven to 180C / Gas Mark 6.
Peel and cut the butternut squash into chunks (click how to prepare butternut squash for prior post).
Roast the butternut squash chunks drizzled with 1 tbsp oil on a baking tray in the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.
Meanwhile peel and chop the onion into smallish chunks.
Heat 1 tbsp oil over a low heat in medium/large-sized saucepan and then add the onion chunks and leave to soften for 5 minutes.
Peel and crush the garlic cloves and add to the onion to cook for a further 2 minutes.
Whizz the plum tomatoes in a mini chopper/ food processor or break up with a fork and add to the onion and garlic.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas and kidney beans and add to the saucepan along with the vegetable stock and the 2 tsp of herbes de Provence.
Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Finely chop and stir in most of the flat leaf parsley, reserving some to garnish.
Add chunks of roast butternut squash and garnish with some ciabatta croutons and finely chopped parsley to serve.
Ciabatta croutons
You will need:
Day-old ciabatta
1 or 2 tbsp sunflower oil
Method:
Cut the ciabatta into bitesize chunks.
Heat the oil to medium/high in a frying pan and lightly brown the croutons on both sides.
Drain the croutons on kitchen paper to minimise oil content.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Uncategorized, What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged Ciabatta Croutons, Hearty Soup, Simple Supper | Leave a Comment »
Fancy cooking a magnificent Valentine’s Day feast in less than 20 minutes?
All you need is some first-class Irish ingredients and off you go; Portobello mushrooms from Monaghan, succulent Irish Angus Fillet Steaks from your butcher and handmade country butter from Glenilen farm.
To up the flavour stakes in the portobello mushrooms Glenilen butter is mashed with parsley to make parsley butter and then crushed garlic added with a dollop being placed in each mushroom. Garlic bread is made by rubbing the cut side of a garlic clove onto one side of the crusty bread and then buttering generously with parsley butter.
If you’re after a wickedly indulgent dessert to go with this then check out last week’s Chocolate & Raspberry Fondant. Happy Valentine’s Day.
Irish Angus Fillet Steak with Portobello Mushroom.
Serves 2.
You will need:
50-75g Butter (real Irish butter)
Curly parsley
2 cloves garlic
Rapeseed or olive oil
2 portobello mushrooms
Crusty bread
2 Irish Angus Fillet Steaks
Rocket leaves
Chives to garnish
Method:
Heat the fan oven to 200C / Gas Mark 7.
Mix 50g-75g of butter with finely chopped parsley using a fork to mash well.
Take 2 tsps of the parsley butter and mix it with a crushed garlic clove to make a herby garlic butter.
Put two small drops of oil on a baking tray and place the upturned portobello mushrooms (stalks facing up) on the oil on the tray.
Place a knob of the herby garlic butter onto each mushroom and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile cut a garlic clove in two and rub the cut side onto thick cut slices of crusty bread. Butter the bread with parsley butter and set aside.
When the mushrooms have been cooking for 10 minutes place the steaks on a plate and drizzle over with a little oil and season with ground sea salt and black pepper.
Heat a dry non-stick griddle pan or frying pan to high and sear the steaks for a minute on each side.
Turn the heat to medium and continue to cook for approx. 2 minutes more on each side for a rare steak. (The steak I cooked was fairly thick and with a 6 minutes total cooking time was rare. Cooking time will vary according to thickness and your preference so ask your butcher for advice on this.)
Toast the garlic bread under a hot grill for a minute or two until the butter melts and edges are getting crispy.
Serve the steaks on a bed of rocket leaves, spoon some of the garlic butter juices in the mushrooms over the steak and garnish with finely chopped chives.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Dinner Party | Tagged Garlic Bread, Garlic Mushrooms, Glenilen butter, Irish Angus Fillet Steak, Portobello Mushrooms, Valentine's Day Recipe | 1 Comment »
A chocolate fondant, a falling down cake, a molten lava cake, call it what you will what we’re talking of here is an individual pot of chocolatey heaven with a gooey, still warm centre.
mmmmmmm I hear you say. Double mmmmmm. Not only does this pot of chocolate glory have an oozing melting chocolate centre it is sumptuously combined with the tangy sweetness of raspberries.
There is nothing more to be said other than bake and enjoy.
Chocolate & Raspberry Fondant
Makes 4 large or 6 medium individual ramekins
You will need:
150g unsalted butter
150g chocolate 70% cocoa
3 eggs + 3 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
30g plain flour
20/30 raspberries
a little extra butter for greasing ramekins
Method:
Pre-heat the fan oven to 180C / Gas Mark 6.
Prepare 4 large or 6 medium sized ramekins by greasing them with a little butter.
Break the chocolate into a bowl along with the roughly chopped butter and melt in the microwave together (1.5 to 2 minutes)
Meanwhile whisk the eggs and yolks together with an electric mixer until beginning to thicken and add in the caster sugar and mix well.
Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture and mix well and then mix in the flour.
Fold in the raspberries by hand so that they remain whole keeping back a few to decorate.
Pour the mixture into the ramekins and bake in the oven for 12 minutes.
To serve, turn out from ramekin and serve with some raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Baking Day, Dinner Party, Uncategorized | Tagged Chocolate & Raspberry Fondant, Valentine's Dessert | 6 Comments »
Over the past few weeks we’ve been watching Heston Blumenthal doing crazy stuff in the kitchen. Things that have my 10-year-old twin boys looking for aerosol cans in the supermarket and dreaming of dry-ice. While I love watching the show and admire the genius that he is, there is no way that I’m transporting any of that into my kitchen. Why? Much of it just takes too much time. I know that I’m not going to spend hours brining chicken or making stock or freezing the worktop so I can get creative with some chocolate. I’ll keep watching though and ‘one of these fine days’ might even get to visit the Fat Duck to taste the fruits of his hard work.
Somewhere else that I’ve added to my list of places that I’d really love to go to is Hobbs House Bakery. With a bakery, butchery and bistro as well as sampling their wares you can also go there to learn to make bread. I’ve discovered its existence from yet another Channel 4 cooking show – The Fabulous Baker Brothers starring Tom & Henry Herbert. They also have an on-line shop and if you were so inclined you could buy a jar of their sourdough starter. But that is something else I can’t see myself doing for a while. I’ve seen Tom lovingly knead and rest his sourdough but again too much waiting required to fit in with my lifestyle right now.
One thing I was determined that I would try out though after last week’s episode of The Fabulous Baker Brothers was Tom’s Tri Pie. I loved the way the pastry was made so quickly and easily and it was all slapped together in a very rustic fashion, no cutting the pastry to make a lid for the top, no fancy crimping around the edges and made using an almost forgotten ingredient – beef suet.
My life is all about convenience which means most of my shopping is a mad dash through the supermarket, swiping at the shelves as I go. My quest to find beef suet slowed me down though. A survey of the baking aisle revealed boxes of Atora light vegetable suet but no beef variety. The butcher at the supermarket told me I’d need to go to a traditional butchers so being a Saturday afternoon The Gravy Man made that trip and came home with a big bag of beef fat some still clinging to kidneys.
I pulled out the aged box that contained the mincer attachment for the Kenwood Chef. I had never used it before and I suspect my mother who had given it to me had never used it either.
After some investigation we figured out the fitting of it to the Kenwood and after the Gravy Man roughly chopped the fat we gave it a go. Wow. If you’ve never minced beef fat before give it a whirl, it is beyond easy and super satisfying. Butchers are throwing away this beef fat as there isn’t a demand for it so there’s plenty to be had – in our case at Anthony O’Sullivan’s Traditional Butchers.
As it had become a joint venture the Gravy Man decided to give the pie a go as well so we ended up having our own Baker Brothers style pie-off and …….. he won! (his is pictured at back in these 2 pics and in front on last pic)
He worked his pastry more than I did which resulted in a much smoother finish where mine remained on the rustic side though still delicious of course.
This was slow cooking done at the weekend when there was time. First up you had to make the stew. Then your pastry (after mincing the suet). Then potatoes and turnips were boiled and mashed together and finally spring greens were wilted with lemon zest. You may well ask what are spring greens, as did I and they are very early cabbages with just soft leaves and no hard heart. I examined the nearest thing at the supermarket which were york and sweetheart cabbages but as they were foreign imports I instead opted for their more robust looking friend, the Irish cabbage.
With the pastry rolled and lining a large springform tin with a good overhang of pastry around the edges you layer up the meat then the potatoes and the greens on top before folding in the flaps of pastry to encase the lot.
For the complete Tri Pie recipe click on the link above, here I am just giving Tom’s recipe for the suet crust pastry. This is an amazing pastry that you can use for any savoury pie.
Suet Crust Pastry
You will need:
500g plain flour
250g beef suet
Good pinch salt
250 ml cold milk
Method:
Put the flour, suet and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the cold milk.
Use a fork to combine the pastry and when it begins to come together use your hands to form it into a ball.
Give it a light knead on a flour dusted worktop. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before use.
The pie was cooked in a hot oven for an hour and the pastry was brushed over with beaten egg and a sprinkle of thyme leaves.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged Beef Suet, Heston Blumenthal, Savoury Pastry, Suet Crust Pastry, The Fabulous Baker Brothers | Leave a Comment »
Tonight (25th January) is Burns night in Scotland celebrating their famous poet Robert Burns and this is traditionally done with a Burns Supper. If you are unfamiliar with the name you will be familiar with his most famous song ‘Auld Lang Syne.’ Anyway in Scotland they will be cooking up plenty of haggis this evening and those who keep with tradition will welcome the haggis with a piper playing on the pipes and with a speaker reciting the ‘The Address to a Haggis’ in praise of the pudding.
The traditional accompaniment to the haggis would be ‘champit tatties and bashed neeps’ – mashed potatoes and turnip.
In Ireland the closest we have to a haggis is what we call pudding and they are generally made a lot smaller in Ireland than they are in Scotland and here they are made from pork meat whereas the Scottish haggis is made from sheep.
We do have champ potatoes though, or at least I grew up on my mother’s version of them which is creamy mashed potatoes mixed with butter and milk and lots of chopped up spring onions.
This simple supper is perfect for a cold January evening. Tasty pudding accompanied by comforting champ and a side of pea and parsley puree. Preempting the calls of ‘where’s the gravy’ from the heathens who will not be satisfied with melting butter (yes – you Gravy Man) I put a dollop of lemon & parsley creme fraiche on the side which got the thumbs up and gives the dish a nice little twist.
Serves 4
White Pudding & Champ Potatoes and Pea Puree
You will need:
8-10 medium potatoes
3 or 4 spring onions
Butter and milk to mash
1 tbsp sunflower oil (or olive or rapeseed)
1 x 300g Traditional White Pudding ( I used Rosscarbery Recipes)
300g frozen peas
5 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tbsp chopped parsley
zest 1 lemon
Method:
Peel and boil the potatoes until tender enough to mash.
While potatoes are boiling slice the pudding lengthways in four long slices and cook over a medium heat in the heated oil in a large frying pan until golden on both sides.
Cook the frozen peas in boiling water, drain and then blitz in a processor or mini-chopper with one tbsp creme fraiche and 1 tbsp parsley. (Don’t over process as you want it to have a little bit of chunky texture.)
Make up the zingy creme fraiche by mixing 4 tbsp creme fraiche with 1 tbsp parsley and zest of 1 lemon.
Mash the potatoes with butter and milk and then stir in chopped spring onions.
Slice the 4 lengths of pudding in two and serve two pieces each on top of a bed of champ with a side of the peas and creme fraiche.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged Burns Night, Burns Supper, Champ Potatoes, Haggis, White Pudding | 2 Comments »
Little by little I’m getting to try out making things that I’ve never made before and over the past few months that has included a couple of preserves in the form of chutneys ( blackberry & apple, date & apricot ) and pickled cucumber . It’s one of the exiting things about food, there’s always something new to try. What surprises me most though is how simple a lot of these things turn out to be when you finally get around to trying them. If I’d grown up on a farm perhaps with a glut of onions or apples to be used up I probably would have learned the art of preserving somewhere along the way but it has evaded me until now.
I love most foods both savoury and sweet but one of my favourite taste experiences is a mixture of the two and that tangy yet sweet combination is to be found in a jar of this onion relish.
Any relish that you don’t use up with your crackers and cheese can be smeared on a pizza, pastry or pitta base topped with some crumbled cheese and cooked to create a sophisticated pizza. You can use any onions that you have, red or white for the relish and I used a combination of both when I was making mine.
Yesterday I had some of the onion relish in a thickly sliced cheddar cheese sandwich with a side of Tayto Cheese & Onion crisps for my lunch with a big mug of tea. (Barry’s of course, I am from Cork like). Divine.
Onion Relish
You will need:
4 medium-sized onions
4 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar (or any brown sugar that you have)
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Method:
Peel and thinly slice the onions.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low heat and add the onions and salt. Leave to cook and soften for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar and stir well. Increase the heat until it begins to bubble and then reduce the heat to low again for another 5 minutes until sticky and syrupy.
Take off the heat and leave to cool in the saucepan.
Store in sterilised jar in the fridge.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila
Posted in What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged Onion Marmalade, Onion Relish | 5 Comments »
No, that doesn’t mean pasta that is good for the soul but hopefully translates to mean ‘Pasta in the light of the sun.’ I’ve googled it and haven’t seen a recipe with this name yet so it’s mine, all mine, an original. 2012 is looking like a very exciting year for me with the publication of my recipe book ‘Gimme the Recipe‘ with Mercier Press in March and the remainder of the year is peppered with various family celebrations throughout the year the highlight of which will be my sister Eimear’s wedding in Sicily in August. I’ve even started learning Italian.
In the meantime I have been conjuring up a taste of Italy at home and I’ve been helped along by Sacla’ who very kindly sent me a selection of their vast range of pasta sauces etc. to try out. I’d been eyeing the jar of Sun-dried Tomatoes for a while anticipating the release of their lusciousness and in this recipe they more than lived up to all my expectations.
With tomatoes and balsamic being a classical pairing this dish revolves around that with any zinginess being balanced out with the creamy coating of creme fraiche.
As the days begin to lengthen and brighten this dish is one of longing. It is a taste of sunshine and summer with fruity sweetness bursting in your mouth mingling with refreshing bitey courgette. It is important not to over-cook the courgette, it gets just a minute on each side – just long enough to lightly colour it and mop up some succulent bacon juices from the pan but still retain its crunch.
This is the first time that I have ever weighed out pasta before I’ve cooked it, usually judging with my eye. 75g (the recommended portion size on the pack) X 4 being 300g looked meagre on the scales but as I wanted this dish to err on the healthy side, bulking it up with extra courgette, I denied the temptation to throw in a fistful or two more of pasta. Rashers of bacon were modest in portion size too but enough to impart just enough fat and flavour to lean towards indulgent. This is delicious.
Serves 4.
Pasta alla luce del Sole
You will need:
1 tbsp olive oil
6 rashers of bacon
300g pasta shells – conchigile
100g sun-dried tomatoes (I used two-thirds of a Sacla’ jar – drained weight)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 courgettes
4 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp semi sun-dried tomato pesto (I used Sacla’ Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto )
Fresh parsley to garnish
Method:
Bring a large saucepan full of boiling water to the boil for the pasta
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan
Roughly chop the rashers and put them on to cook in the frying pan over a medium to high heat
Put the pasta shells into the boiling water to boil (follow cooking time of pack, it varies depending on size)
Once the rashers have begun to brown push them to the side of the pan, roughly chop the sun-dried tomatoes and place in the centre of the frying pan.
Spoon the balsamic vinegar on top of the tomatoes and stir them around a little as they cook for a couple of minutes.
Push the tomatoes out to the side of the pan and fry thick slices of courgette for a minute on each side.
(Meanwhile drain the pasta when cooked and drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent sticking)
Pour the creme fraiche on top of the courgettes and bacon etc. and mix, cooking until heated through.
Serve bowls of pasta shells topped with the creamy bacon, tomato and courgette mixture and garnish generously with chopped parsley.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Uncategorized, What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged bacon and sun-dried tomatoes, Pasta with courgette, Sacla' | 5 Comments »
So firstly a Happy New Year to you.
While writing this it’s bright and dry outside and we’re thankful to have come through the holidays without a hint of ice or snow this year (sorry kids). I’ve been crazy busy with family celebrations and I’m looking forward to finally making it to a couch one of these days to loll and watch TV before the kids head back to school. Before they go back we will be making our way through some of the goodies that still lay around tempting me, especially the ones in the shiny wrappers. And then there’s the cheese that needs to be used up.
It has to be a good time of year for the cheese-makers as I’m sure that like me you’ve stocked up on all kinds of varieties. I’ve written recently that all you need for a really good lunch is some really good cheese and bread so for a lunch par excellence just add some really good chutney.
My Secret Santa (thanks Donal) was very kind to me and gave me a beautiful book Farmhouse Cheeses of Ireland – A Celebration by Glynn Anderson & John McLaughlin along with this amazing slate cheeseboard with a variety of knives, slicers and prongy things with which to cut and select my cheese along with little dishes for chutneys etc.
As you can tell from the name of this post I’ve been experimenting with Chutney making. I’ve done my usual and started with what looked like an interesting recipe from The Hairy Bikers’ 12 Days of Christmas and then substituted in what I actually had in my cupboards. Making a chutney is a great way of using up left over dried fruit. I’d almost a full box of dates that I’d been using to make sticky toffee pudding and some dried apricots that I’d used in tagines and florentines and as the best before dates was looming (well okay it had passed, shhhh…) on both of these it was time to use them up.
You will need:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium or 3 small red onions
2 garlic cloves
thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger
150g dates
150g dried apricots
100g raisins
150g light muscovado sugar (or any brown sugar)
150ml white wine vinegar
half tsp nutmeg
half tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt flakes (or any salt) and ground black pepper
Method:
Peel, halve and thinly slice the red onions.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onions, cooking over a low heat for 10 minutes until they soften.
Finely chop or grate the ginger and crush the garlic. Add to the onions and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and cook for a further 5 minutes until the onions being to brown.
Roughly chop the dates and apricots and add these along with the raisins to cook with the onions for 2 minutes.
Add the brown sugar, vinegar, nutmeg and cinnamon along with the salt and a good seasoning of ground black pepper.
Allow the chutney to cook at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
Take the pan off the heat and leave the chutney to cool before storing in sterilised jars.
Enjoy with some great cheese and crackers or bread.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Uncategorized, What's for Dinner Mom? | Tagged Christmas Recipes, Chutney, Date and Apricot Chutney | 1 Comment »
‘When can we have some, when can we have some?’…is what I’m being implored since I iced up this Christmas cake.
This time last year we would have been admiring a royal icing decorated traditional Christmas Cake which looked equally as beautiful but there’s not much point in admiring something and saying it looks wonderful if nobody is going to eat it. It’s a fact that lots of children do not have a love of dried fruit and it naturally follows that they are not going to be huge fans of fruit cake and that’s why this year I’m giving them what I know they will eat. Chocolate!
The recipe for this biscuit cake is more or less the same as the one I did earlier in the year for the Royal Wedding. I’ve taken the egg out as it binds fine without it and I don’t want to take any food safety chances. To cover the cake I used three 100g bars of white chocolate and this is layered over a melted mars bar topped biscuit cake base.
You will need (for the cake):
110g dark chocolate (I used 70% Aine )
110g caster sugar
110g unsalted butter (softened)
225g McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits
Cake ring – springform release preferably.
Method:
Line a baking tray with some parchment paper.
Place the cake ring on the parchment paper – you are not using a cake tin, just the ring of a cake tin with base removed to shape the cake.
Beat the unsalted butter until smooth and then beat in the caster sugar.
In a separate bowl break the biscuits into almond sized pieces.
Melt the dark chocolate and gradually beat it into the butter mixture until smooth.
Add in the broken biscuits and stir well to cover with the cake mix.
Spoon the chocolate biscuit mix into the cake ring and press it down and out to the sides with the back of the spoon.
Place the cake in the fridge to set overnight.
You will need (for the topping):
5 x 58g Mars bars
3 x 100g White Chocolate
Assortment of finger biscuits and sweets to decorate.
Method:
Remove the ring from the cake and turn the biscuit cake upside down (as the bottom is smoother – this will now be the top) and place it on a wire cake rack. (Put some parchment paper underneath to catch dripping melted mars & chocolate!)
Cut the Mars bars into small pieces and melt them in a saucepan with a couple of tbsps of water – mixing well to form a smooth topping.
Pour the melted Mars topping onto the biscuit cake and chill it for an hour.
Break the white chocolate bars into small pieces and melt them in a bowl in the microwave.
Pour the melted chocolate over the chilled Mars topped biscuit cake and then carefully move the cake from the wire rack onto a cake display/plate.
Have fun decorating with sweets and finger biscuits.
Enjoy.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, Sheila
Posted in Baking Day | Tagged Biscuit Cake, Christmas Cake, White Chocolate | Leave a Comment »
The excitement is palpable now and it’s time to dust off the old reliable recipes that go to make Christmas Dinner in our homes. For as long as I’ve been making Christmas Dinner I’ve been using this Darina Allen recipe for Grape and Melon with Mint as a starter and it’s a tradition for us now.
I’m hopeful that it will bring warm memories to my children of their childhood Christmases when they eventually leave to create their own celebration of Christmas. Memories of Christmas music playing in the background as I sit up at the counter to peel the grapes and some of them join in as they drift in and out of the kitchen.
Yes, you read that correctly PEEL the grapes!!
I forgive you if you think I’m an absolute nutter for going to those lengths but I do it because Darina says so in her recipe. She also says to ‘remove the pips with the hooked end of a sterilised paper clip or hair grip.’ Bordering on lunacy I may be at times, but as I am not a complete ‘head the ball’ I opt to buy seedless grapes instead of removing the pips by hand. But peel them I do. It’s a tedious chore but it doesn’t take long to do especially if you’ve some little hands to help you. I have also made it without peeling the grapes too and it still works fine but it is lacking that tiny bit of effort that makes it extra special and more enjoyable.
Dipping the rim of the glass in juice and rolling in some sugar gives the glass a lovely frosted looking, wintry touch.
Grape and Melon with Mint
You will need:
1 small melon
2 medium oranges
1 lemon
1 tbsp caster sugar
225g green (seedless) grapes
1 tsp fresh mint
Extra sugar to decorate glass
Method:
Cut the melon in half, scoop out the seeds and use a melon baller to create mini balls of melon and place them in a large bowl.
Squeeze in the juice of the two oranges and the juice of the lemon and stir in 1 tbsp caster sugar.
Peel the grapes and add them to the melon and juice.
Finally add some finely chopped mint and mix well.
Serve this as a starter in some pretty glasses, first dipping the glass rim into the juice and then rolling the rim onto a plate of caster sugar to coat it.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
Posted in Dinner Party | Tagged Christmas Day Starter, Darina Allen, Grape and Melon with Mint | 4 Comments »
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