The Garden

Posted on February 14, 2025February 14, 2025 by sheila kiely

The Garden Cafe, Mallow, Co.Cork

There is an ethereal quality to the ambience on entering The Garden cafe in Mallow town. A tranquil oasis or paradise found. Look one way and a wall is softly adorned with flowers, in another direction a tree stands bonsai like looking delicate yet statuesque. It is a cherry blossom with Japanese leanings I think and branches entwined with twinkling lights. A feathered owl wisely watches over all. Themes of Ancient Rome with goddess and Roman emperor busts bring a touch of history. Tables are enhanced with flowers, wreaths, candles or perhaps another Greek goddess.

The background music has been a mixture of old classics and jazz when I’ve been in. No jarring tunes, this is a quiet serene place where coffee machines whir from time to time. It is a cafe that serves hot & cold drinks, pastries and cakes, the epitome of keeping it simple.

I wish Morgan every success with her new venture. I’ve been in at least 6 times now and the coffee has been faultless. I do hope you get a chance to go there and try for yourself.

‘Til next time, x Sheila

Recipes

Caesar Salmon Tacos – on repeat all summer long

Posted on June 19, 2024June 19, 2024 by sheila kiely

There is something quintessentially summery about the crisp bite into a taco shell followed by a lusciously tangy mouthful of whatever you have chosen to stuff it with. Perhaps it is the fact that the best accompaniments are a hot day and a cold refreshing beer – preferably one drank straight from the bottle, the neck of which has been jammed with a wedge of lime.

A lusciously stuffed crisp taco shell, this shows large chunks of baked seasoned salmon, topped with pickled red onion slices and generous dollops of a caesar salad inspired tangy sauce — Caesar Salmon Taco by Sheila Kiely – the close up!

This image shows fingers gently closing in on a crisp taco shell stuffed with large chunks of baked seasoned salmon, topped with pickled red onion slices and generous dollops of a caesar salad inspired tangy sauce — Caesar Salmon Taco by Sheila Kiely – delicate handling in motion!

Caesar Salmon Tacos Recipe – HONESTLY one of the tastiest things I have EVER made!
You will need:
Salmon Darnes
A little oil
Bag of ready to assemble Caesar Salad (or chopped ice-berg lettuce and caeser salad dressing)
A few cherry tomatoes halved
Greek yogurt
Crunch Taco Shells – ready to heat
Pickled red onions (or make a quick batch yourself , slice red onions, v generous sprinkling of sugar & white wine vinegar to cover – 20 mins+)
Method:
Roast the salmon darnes drizzled with a little oil for 20 mins (hot oven)
Meanwhile mix 3 tbsp Greek yogurt with the sachet of Caesar salad dressing to create a sauce
Heat the tacos in the oven until warm – 3 mins
Fill the tacos – layer up some sauce, iceberg lettuce, chopped cherry tomatoes, chunks of salmon, pickled red onion & top with some more sauce.
Delicious! enjoy!
x Sheila

Recipes

Because you also need a good Spicy Beef & some sneaky extra protein recipe – aka ‘Mom, eat more protein.’

Posted on October 4, 2023October 4, 2023 by sheila kiely

Yes, I’m being given nutritional advice by my grown up children. To be fair they are muscle bound and fit so I will gladly take it.

This beef recipe will have the protein of the lean minced beef to begin with but I do always like to stretch and ‘healthify’ fried beef by adding tinned legumes – in this case black beans and lentils. The sneaky extra protein in this recipe is to be found when serving it. I like to serve this on a toasted wholemeal flatbread spread thickly with hummus (BONUS protein points) and a good dollop of Greek yogurt (again, kerching!!)

NB – take it easy on the chilli flakes and jalepenos, let you be the judge of how much your audience can tolerate!

Spicy Beef Recipe

You will need:
A little oil
Lean beef mince (5% fat)
2 onions
3 to 4 fat cloves garlic
Tin black beans
Tin lentils
Spices – cumin, coriander, chilli flakes
Tin tomatoes
Tomato puree (i use from tube)
Jalepenos
To Serve:
Wholemeat flatbreads
Hummus (i used red pepper flavour)
Greek yogurt
Fresh Coriander (optional)
Method:
Heat the oil and fry the minced beef in a large frying pan until beginning to brown – approx 8/10 minutes.
Add chopped onions and garlic to centre of pan and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the drained black beans and lentils, mix well and heat through.
Add the spices next and mix well, allow to cook for a minute or two and then add in tin of tomatoes and a good dollop of tomato puree plus a handful of chopped jalepenos.
Add some water – depending on how saucy you like it – mix well and cook until bubbling, then reduce the heat to keep warm while you toast the flatbreads (pittas or any wraps good too).
Serve on a heated flatbread topped with thickly spread hummus then the mince topped with Greek yogurt and coriander.
Wholegrain rice would make a good alternative to the flatbread.

Please Enjoy!

x Sheila

Tray with cooked salmon darnes, cooked cayenne spiced chickpeas and cherry tomatoes with some fresh basil on top before mashing

Recipes

You NEED a 20 minute simple salmon supper recipe in your life & BONUS points for healthy!

Posted on October 4, 2023October 4, 2023 by sheila kiely

Recipe for Cayenne spiced salmon darnes with a delicious chickpea, tomato & basil mash. Throw on some extra easy veggies for extra healthy points.

You need to buy/have:
Oil
Salmon Darnes – 1 or 2 per person
Cayenne pepper
Tinned Chickpeas (1 can for 2 or 3 people, 2 cans better!)
1 small punnet Cherry tomatoes on the vine
Fresh basil – keep this for the end
Easy veg like baby sweetcorn, tenderstem brocolli & sugarsnaps
Method:
Whack on the oven to 200C.
Pour a little pool of oil in the centre of a large baking tray.
Place each salmon darne in the oil to baste, then place the salmon darnes together at one end of the tray.
Drain the chickpeas and place these at the other end of the tray.
Pop the vine tomatoes on top of the chickpeas and drizzle this end with some oil.
Dust the darnes and chickpeas with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper and season with some salt and pepper.
Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
After 10 minutes prepare your easy cook veg (I boiled all three listed above together for 5 minutes, drained and left with lid on to stay hot).
Once the cooking time is up for the salmon, use a scissors to snip the tomatoes off the vines and then snip in a good handful of fresh basil. Use a potato masher to squash the tomatoes and chickpeas together into a mash.
– it should be easy to pick out any coarse tomato skins if there’s any fussiness in the audience!
Delicious!
Please Enjoy

salmon, spiced chickpea and tomato mash with easy cook veg

x Sheila

Recipes

Refried Lentils – 10 MINUTES to Delicious!

Posted on August 21, 2023August 21, 2023 by sheila kiely

Yes, this does exactly what it claims. A deliciously filling meal is available to you in under 10 minutes. To my mind it’s well balanced. It has the ‘good’ fats of avocado, the protein of lentils & cheese and the carb of the wrap. This will satisfy your hunger.

Delicious spicy lentils on a crisped wrap with mashed avocado & grated cheese

Mexican food is one of my favourites and I took inspiration here from refried beans.

Refried Lentils

Serves 2:
You will need:
A little oil
1 tin lentils
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp chilli flakes
Splash water
1 avocado mashed with juice of one lime
2 wraps
Small amount of cheddar cheese grated (or any cheese) – think small handful

Method:
Heat a little olive oil and fry up a drained tin of lentils in a small frying pan for a couple of minutes
Add 1 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tsp garlic granules, 1 tsp chilli flakes & a splash of water and then cook for a couple of minutes more giving it the odd stir.
Heat two wraps in a hot oven until beginning to crisp up (keep an eye on them, you want to pull them out just when their turning from soft to crisp, firm enough to hold content and soft enough to fold without completely cracking)
Heat the grill.
Pile on a portion of avocado mash to one half of each wrap and spread on one half only, top this with the fried lentils and a small scattering of grated cheese. Flash the filled side of the wrap under the grill to melt the cheese.
Once cheese has melted fold over the other half to close the wrap and tuck in.

Enjoy!

x Sheila