Last week, we had a great time at the cookery school. We had two one-day courses and both were themed ‘Cooking for Family and Friends’. This is always the most popular cookery course we put on. It was actually this course which put the idea for my latest cookbook – Eat Out at Home – in my mind, because I wanted to make a book for people who love entertaining and feeding their family and friends.
On our cookery school days, we welcome 12 people per class. In recent times, I have noticed that there are almost always as many men as women in attendance. They come from all over. This time around, we welcomed people from Belfast, Dublin, Galway and even some from closer to home – Cavan.
At the cookery school, we have a small team of staff. Chef Clare Beesley is at the centre of it all, along with Marian Fee, who has been with us in MacNean House since my mother’s time.
We make it easy for our guests: when they arrive, the ingredients are already weighed out and well-organised. We start the day with some essential kitchen skills – most importantly, how to use and care for your knife. There is a lot of chopping to do, and this provides great opportunity to learn or improve knife skills.
Of course, we eat everything we cook on these days and make sure our guests bring home any leftovers. This time, we made delicious potato, leek and blue cheese soup, goat’s cheese puff pastry pizza, a chicken and chorizo rice bake, brown butter madeleines and a mulled fruit trifle, among other dishes.
We love to see new faces on our cookery school days and the details on all the courses we offer can be found on our MacNean website. It really gives me great pleasure to see a growing interest in cooking at home.
People have become more curious about different kinds of cuisine and ingredients, they want to better understand the foods we eat every day and luckily for them, we have so much great Irish produce to be able to choose from.
I have often said that the Irish palate has become a lot more adventurous – I suppose part of the reason for this is due to the fact that we are travelling abroad a lot more than we used to. People always get new ideas for food from the places they visit – myself included.
Festive entertaining
As we officially enter into the festive season, we are getting into the mood to really celebrate with friends and family. In the spirit of the season, I have some great recipes for party dishes everyone will enjoy, whether they’re young or old. I actually like to make these recipes all year round, not just during the festive season, as they are the perfect snacks for entertaining.
We love family movie nights in our house – it’s a great time to come together and snuggle up. The DIY movie night popcorn bar is one we enjoy on a regular basis. It’s quick and easy to put together and there is something for everyone.
The smoked trout rolls make great canapés for a party. I find that I use smoked trout as often as smoked salmon, these days, and indeed sometimes use both. Made with an addictively savoury cream cheese filling with plenty of fresh herbs and a zing of lemon, these rolls are a very useful dish which can easily be made ahead of time.
We have a great smoked trout supplier in Ireland: Goatsbridge Trout Farm in Co Kilkenny. It’s run by Mag and Ger Kirwan, who have done a fantastic job of promoting their product to chefs and consumers.
The sticky cocktail sausages are a favourite festive recipe of mine – they have a really lovely sweet and sour taste and are easy to throw together if you have some unexpected company.
Ingredients
Bags of microwavable popcorn
Smarties
Maltesers
Jelly beans
Gummy bears
Chocolate buttons
Skittles
M&Ms
Method
1 Cook one bag of microwavable popcorn per person according to the packet instructions.
2 Tip the cooked popcorn into bowls and let cool for five minutes (to ensure the candies don’t melt in the heat).
3 Give each person their bowl of popcorn and set the different add-ins all around the table; letting each person dress up their popcorn with the sweets that they like.
Variations
Whether you like to use a lidded pan or bowl in the microwave, all of these ideas can be rustled up in minutes.
Gourmet chocolate & sea salt popcorn
Pop your kernels in olive oil. Melt plain chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), then stir in some olive oil. Drizzle over the popcorn and sprinkle with sea salt to serve.
Curried popcorn
Start off the popcorn in oil and butter. While it’s still warm, pour over melted butter that has some crushed garlic, a pinch of chilli flakes and enough curry powder to taste. Season with salt and pepper before serving.
Sweet and spicy popcorn
Cook the popcorn in oil and butter. While still warm, sprinkle over chilli powder and ground cinnamon to taste. Drizzle with honey or agave syrup and fold in to serve.
Fennel and chilli popcorn
Use olive oil to pop the kernels. While still warm, add fennel seeds and dried chilli flakes to taste.
Banoffee popcorn
Pop your kernels in oil and butter. Crush some banana chips, then stir them through the popcorn with some dulce de leche or caramel from a can.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 small red onion, finely diced
75g soft cream cheese
2 tbsp crème fraîche
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
350g sliced smoked trout
8 large slices of wheaten bread
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon slices, to garnish
Method
1 Put the red onion in a small bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover, then drain off immediately. This softens the raw flavour of the onion.
2 Return the red onion to the bowl and add the cream cheese, crème fraîche and chives. Season to taste and mix well to combine.
3 Put three overlapping slices of smoked trout on a sheet of cling film. Spread the cream cheese mixture, a few millimetres thick, over the top of the trout, right out to the edges. Roll up into a neat sausage shape.
4 Repeat this process with the remaining slices of trout and cream cheese filling. Keep chilled in the fridge until ready
to serve.
5 Using a straight-sided scone cutter that is 5cm in diameter, cut out two rounds from each slice of wheaten
bread. You could use the leftovers in brown bread ice cream.
6 Slice each chilled smoked trout roll into four small rounds and lay each roll sideways on a bread round. Arrange on a serving platter and garnish with the lemon slices to serve. Then enjoy with family and friends.
Ingredients: Serves 4-6
20 cocktail sausages (about 350g in total)
2 tbsp hoisin or plum sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp runny honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2 Put the sausages in a non-stick roasting tray in a single layer. Mix together the hoisin or plum sauce, soy sauce, honey, mustard and 2 teaspoons of water in a bowl, then pour over the sausages, turning to coat.
3 Bake the sausages in the oven for 15 minutes, then drain off any excess fat and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Cook for another five–10 minutes, until golden and sticky.
4 To serve, skewer with cocktail sticks.