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Well, all of us here at MacNean House have had a great Christmas break. We hope you all did, too. We are feeling refreshed and excited to be back open again, and look forward to welcoming our first guests of 2025.
For the past few years, we have been closing the restaurant for a short time each January and the break is wonderful for our staff, but it also allows us to get a lot of planning done for the year ahead.
Our gardener, Kevin Ashley, has been working with us for 15 years. Each year, we sit down with him to discuss what worked well over the previous year and talk about what we might try to grow this year.
Basil is always a difficult plant to grow in Ireland – it needs warmth, humidity and a lot of sunshine, which we know isn’t always in regular supply here. However, there are so many other types of salad greens, herbs and microgreens which do extremely well in our climate and we love to incorporate as many ingredients from the garden into our menus as possible.
Kevin lives just two minutes down the road from MacNean, and he does a fantastic job of growing the plants for us all year round.
Our time off in January is also an ideal time to freshen things up in the restaurant and in the cookery school. There is always painting to be done, for example, and there are other jobs on the list, as well, like fitting new carpets and ensuring everything is spick and span for a new year of hospitality.
With the cookery school, we also like to take a look back over the previous year to see what worked well and decide which courses we would like to put on in the coming months. I always enjoy our classes; we welcome cooks of all levels and they are always so keen to try out new foods and techniques. It will be exciting to welcome our next batch of cooks.
If you look at the MacNean menu, two things which are never taken off are the beef and Thornhill duck. These two items will always be popular, but I am also noticing much more fish being eaten. We get our fish in Killybegs, and whatever fish we feature on the menu reflects what has been freshly caught.
And a fresh start is always the main theme of the new year. After so much feasting on rich foods over the Christmas season, January is perfect for something a bit lighter.
Get fresh vegetables
With that in mind, I am featuring two vegetarian recipes. This mushroom risotto is an easy, one-pan dish. I just love dried wild mushrooms, and where before this ingredient might have been difficult to find, they are now available in supermarkets all year round. They add a beautifully intense flavour to the risotto.
The cheese is optional, but if you have some leftover Brie from Christmas, this is a handy way to use it up – it adds a lovely, creamy richness. The cheese shouldn’t melt entirely – rather, it should soften from the heat. If you don’t have Brie on hand, you could use Camembert or any other soft, ripened cheese.
For our second recipe, cauliflower is very much in fashion these days and roasting it whole is an interesting way to cook it. The nuts and seeds in the recipe add a nice pop of texture and crunch.
If you don’t like chilli, I sometimes use sundried tomatoes as an alternative, but this Calabrian chilli paste is packed full of flavour. You can find it in Dunnes Stores nationwide. Dukkah is a delicious blend of nuts and spices which originates in the Middle East. It is a handy spice blend to have on hand and will keep in your cupboard for several weeks.
Sprinkle it over roasted butternut squash or potatoes, on eggs or as a garnish on soup.
Ingredients: Serves 6-8
50g dried cep or porcini mushrooms
1¼ litres chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
2 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
350g risotto rice
150ml dry white wine
350g mixed fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ lemon
2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
200g Brie
25g freshly grated Parmesan
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1 Soak the dried cep or porcini mushrooms in 150ml of warm water for 15 minutes. Pour the liquid into the chicken stock and chop the mushrooms. Set aside. Pour the stock into a pan and bring up to a gentle simmer.
2 Place half the oil and a knob of the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and thyme, and sauté for 4–5 minutes until softened but not coloured.
3 Increase the heat to medium-high and add the rice along with the soaked mushrooms. Cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously.
4 Add the wine and let it bubble down to nothing, evaporating the alcohol completely. Reduce the heat to medium, then add a ladleful of stock and allow it to reduce down, stirring until it is completely absorbed.
5 Continue to add the simmering stock a ladleful at a time, stirring frequently. Allow each stock addition to be almost completely absorbed before adding the next ladleful until the rice is al dente. This should take 20–25 minutes.
6 Heat the rest of the oil with another knob of butter in a separate non-stick frying pan, and sauté the fresh mushrooms for 3–4 minutes until cooked through and tender.
7 Season to taste and add a squeeze of lemon and most of the chopped parsley, reserving a bit for garnish.
8 Cut about 50g of the Brie into cubes and the rest into slices. Stir the Brie cubes into the risotto with most of the Parmesan and half of the sautéed mushrooms. Cover and leave for a few minutes so that the rice can cool slightly.
9 Give the risotto a final stir and pour on to a platter, then scatter with the remaining mushrooms, the slices of Brie, some more Parmesan and the reserved parsley to serve.
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 large cauliflower, leaves removed and stalk trimmed
50g cashew nuts
50g hazelnuts
2 tbsp black and white sesame seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp Calabrian chilli paste (from a jar)
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
250g authentic Greek strained yogurt (10% fat)
100g pomegranate seeds
1 tsp sea salt
Method
1 Put 3cm of salted water in a lidded pan large enough to fit the whole cauliflower and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Carefully lower the cauliflower into the pan, then cover and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave for another 10 minutes to steam dry. Lift out the cauliflower and dry well with kitchen paper.
2 Preheat the oven to 170°C.
3 Meanwhile, make the dukkah. Roughly chop the cashews and hazelnuts and place them in a small baking tin. Roast the nuts for 5 minutes, then stir in the sesame, sunflower and fennel seeds. Roast for another 2–3 minutes, being careful that the seeds do not burn.
4 Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the cumin, coriander, cayenne and 1tsp of salt. Stir well and set aside until needed. This can be kept in a clean jar for up to two weeks.
5 Increase the oven temperature to 200°C.
6 Rub the cauliflower all over with the Calabrian chilli paste, making sure you cover the bottom, too. Place in a baking tin lined with parchment.
7 Drizzle over a little oil and roast the cauliflower for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven, give it another drizzle of oil, then a good baste and roast for another 25–30 minutes until the cauliflower is golden and crisp in places.
8 Transfer the cauliflower to a plate. Spoon over about 6 tablespoons of the yogurt and scatter with some of the dukkah and the pomegranate seeds.
9 Carve into wedges or steaks to serve. Have an extra bowl of the yogurt and dukkah on the table for extra topping.
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