Vintage Kitchen

Back in Dublin's finest - The Vintage Kitchen

Crab and chili risotto starter for Aoife and me, San had the smoked fish chowder, mains of beef (fillet and pie), lamb shank and hake on mussels with white beans and caviar.
Desserts of cheese board, Limoncello cheesecake and chocolate pot, good long rests between (huge) courses, Aoife and I have espressos, we took 2 bottles of Ramon Bilboa, a couple of pints in Mulligan's beforehand.  As always staff were fantastic, attentive and helpful.  Need to book again soon!!!

Lack of updates, busy and then Christmas

So,
Wrote nothing for a couple of weeks, since Chicago, done very little in kitchen, other than standards, had a couple of pub meals out, nothing interesting, good or bad to mention and been very busty at work.

Christmas was very busy, 3 of our kids (1 pescatarian) over for several days plus one boyf for a night and my Mam for a week. Either driving to or from airport or making endless meals and / or drinks for the week.  

Fifteen in total for Christmas dinner, only 2 now children, so getting harder to get them around the tables but all went well

Starters:
Smoked salmon and pate on soda bread

Mains:
Roast turkey
Boiled Ham
Roast potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Sausage mash
Marrowfat peas (dried from a packet and steeped in bicarb and water overnight, then boiled)
Carrots
Sprouts (quartered, boiled then tossed into frying smoked bacon before serving)
Gravy (using a Jamie recipe, that worked well before)

Cooked ham and gravy and prepped veg on Christmas Eve, put turkey in at 7:00am - all spot on for 3:30 dinner

Desserts from Paul, 2 great cheesecakes and an apple sponge from nieces.  Few bottles of good Oz wine from our last trip and Ciara

Spent Stephen's Day putting all the furniture back, driving the dish washer, hoovering and mopping the floors


Just booked Nerja and Malaga for mid-Jan, looks like Mozambique end of March and tonight back to the Vintage Kitchen, looking forward to all three and will try and update more....

Home

Very quiet week, trying to get a bit of space in fridge and freezer for Christmas - about 15 for dinner, 1 maybe 2 veggies, lots of spuds etc.

Had Christmas lunch in Fallon & Byrne on Thursday, excellent Pate, good beef and mushroom pie and even a creme brulee, plenty of Tempranillo, went for a few in the Exchequer afterwards, Cute Hoor and more red, I did not hit the cocktails, but the smokey Old Fashioned was going down great guns.

Made a decent roast chicken for Saturday, parents-in-law here Sunday, made a beef cheek, carrot and pea stew and a chicken thigh, mushroom, cream, garlic and mustard stew.  Served with mash, went down well.  Made a couple of simple pancakes for them as dessert, served with butter, sugar and lemon juice - when you forget to buy any pudding, improvise, improvise, improvise.

This week at work will be uber-shite, bit of roast chicken and beef stew left, so that will do next two days.  Ciara back Wednesday, Excellent, Jack maybe Friday, Aoife Saturday, Mam Monday.  Gonna be busy!

Chicago

Quick weekend in Chicago, flew Thursday morning, food on plane not great, lack of seasoning or flavour, cheeseboard plastic crap.

Mediocre chicken wings (beer OK) in faux Irish pub connected to hotel, but too cold and tired to put any effort in.  Manager's canapés average and no drink!!!  Breakfast OK, but very sweet and stodgy, nothing savoury except Philadelphia - hmm

Day got better from there, tacos and quesadilla in the lovely Rocky Bottom with great beer as well.  PF Changs for dinner Lettuce wraps and ribs for starters, pepper beef to share for main.

Saturday, wings and fries in another old favourite Elephant and Castle, with good beer, evening San didn't feel like food, so went to Burger Bar for a burger and couple of pints, she just had a glass of pop and a few chips, I had a rare Big Shoulder Blues, really very good.  Food much better on flight home Sunday, couple of hours sleep, then into work, bit tired now, ragu from freezer, chicken curry from freezer tomorrow.  May be up to cooking by Wednesday, eating out Thursday, should be back on track by Friday.

Last holiday of the year over, really enjoyed it - sleep when you're dead!

Napalese and others

Meeting in Heathrow yesterday, remarkably good office food, chicken on sticks, nice cheese and hams, good sandwiches, crackers, pop, olives - Think it is the Spanish influence in the group.

Out for a meal last night - Sagarmatha Kitchen for the second time.
  Lovely food, Started with prawn fry for her an their take on a seek kebab for me, We both had lamb curries, San had Anapurna, I had Himalayan, my really hot, as I asked for, but not artificial or chemically, tasted long and slow.  Service was great. I  hope it survives, as there are now 4 (2 long standing) Indians in Swords now, so it will be tough.

Made a chorizo tortilla for breakfast, weather is grim and didn't fancy running over to JCs for sausages

scotch(ed) eggs, Dobbins and cooking

Chilli I made last week was very good, was listening to Radio 4's food program, all about scotch eggs, that I love and know the history, not Scottish, but scotched (i.e. changed) invented in the second poshest food shop in the world - Fortnum & Masons in London.  So had a graw to make some.

I made 2 one day and 3 more today.  Soft boiled egg, 6 minutes in boiling water, then straight into iced water, once cold, tapped the egg, the air gap is at the top, so tap there, use a teaspoon to ease shell off.  Mixed pork mince, blitzed chorizo, fresh thyme (no seasoning, because of chorizo) moulded around egg, drenched in flour, beaten egg then breadcrumbs, twice.  Rested in fridge, turned a couple of times to prevent flatspots. Deep fried in veg oil, very wasteful, as I don't have a deep fat fryer, but  reusing any fat except lard is really bad, which is wacky, but true!!

Made a good roast dinner yesterday, unfortunately beef was tasty but horribly chewy...

Saw a recipe for mini quiches, using Serrano (I used jamon) instead of pastry, mine look messy, will taste them tomorrow, spinach, cherry tomato and cheddar filling.  Cooked a few chicken thighs for lunches.  Lamb stew, garlic potatoes for in-laws and found a no churn strawberry ice cream in the freezer, that I'd made when I picked them at the allotment early summer.

On Thursday went to Dobbins in Dublin, guests of Threatscape and TrapX couple of pints first in the School House on the cana with friendsl.
At Dobbins, great wine, I had ham hock terrine, brioche (preferred the bread from basket), fantastic pork belly, with sublime crackling,  sticky toffee pudding and good espresso, great company and learned plenty of techie stuff

Good weekend

Last weekend, quite busy, leg of lamb, 2 chickens, kilo carrots, a cauliflower, a broccoli and a couple of kilos of potatoes.  Roast meat, roast and mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauli in white sauce with cheese, lamb and chicken gravy - fed 13, only scraps of chicken left and made stock from both lots of bones.


This weekend, stayed at Royal Marine in Dun Laoghaire on Friday night, ate at Rasam in Glasthule , definately the best Indian in Ireland.  Early bird, she had Aloo Tikka and Rustic Chicken I had calamari and mixed veg curry, as always came with rice, naan and spiced potatoes.  She loves the padadoms and sauces, me less so, but I like lots of heat and these are much more crowd pleasers.   House red (a Chilean Cab Sav) really lovely, food perfect quantity as well as quality.

Couple of glasses of wine in Forty Foot Wetherspoons on way back.  Swim and lovely full Irish breakfast Saturday morning.  Standard roast chicken Saturday night.  Made stock Sunday morning.

Out Sunday morning to RDS for Charity Bazaar, go every year, had a Slovakian sausage with great horseradish and mustard with rye bread, almost chorizo-like.  Won a bottle of very plain label German apple brandy, could be interesting.

Round to the main hall of RDS for Art Source, again, an annual event, bought another picture, our art walls are getting full!

Chilli tonight, just about to start, last one was crap and flavourless, need to concentrate more, left over chicken tomorrow and a meal out on Thursday

Baba ganoush

 

Had the quiche I made on Saturday, with some baba ganoush - I had a couple of aubergines that were nearly gone, simple recipe, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini, parsley and salt.  Aubergines had been roasted on high for about 40 minutes, scooped out when cool and mashed in - probably next time would roast the garlic as it was a bit strong.

Made a side salad of wild rocket, feta, cherry tomatoes, dry roasted a handful of pine nuts, dressed with EV olive oil and  lemon juice

Weekend Cooking

Wanted pizza, so need to make tex-mex chilli topping, so bought plenty of mince, also had a bit of quiche at a lunch this week (and had some shortcrust in the freezer for ever)

Made standard tex-mex chilli for pizza, roasted a red pepper on the ring, peel off the blackened skin and sliced.  Did tuna and roast red pepper on the second (mozzarella on both) and had some spicy chicken thighs I'd cooked in the week, so chopped that up, bit of jamon and feta with a bot of thyme on the third.

While I was cooking I used the rest of the beef to make a simple cottage pie - fried onion and celery, once sweated down added the mince then diced carrots, 3 bay leaves once all in, added beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, English mustard powder and then pressure cooked for 40 minutes, remember to remove bay leaves.  Added frozen peas in once cooled, but into ovenproof dishes.  Mashed potatoes then poncily piped it on top  - made 2 for 2 people and one small one and froze all three.

Quiche tin - blind baked the pastry, baking paper, pastry, baking paper, baking beans (actually ancient chick peas I've had for a least a decade) gas 4 for about 45 minutes, with a couple of slices of bacon on the top shelf to roast. mixed 4 eggs, single cream, thyme, splash of milk, salt and white pepper.  Chopped up bacon once cooked, a couple of spring onions and some Spanish queso.

Once the pastry was ready, take off beans and opt greaseproof, back in oven for 5 mins to dry it, put time on a flat tray pour in egg / cream mixture, drop in bacon, onions and cheese and bake until brown and solidified.  Took about 1/2 hour.  Had some for lunch with a homemade coleslaw

Nerja and Malaga and a bit of a rant about self catering

From Seville train to Malaga and bus to Nerja just for the night, went to all our usual haunts, hit about 9 or 10 bars, Pepe Moles best food as always, great welcome in Rincon de Sabor and Los Barillas, like being at home, the three Spanish Troubadours played in Barillas along with the great cheese tapas made it a highpoint.

Back to Malaga the next morning, dropped bags off went for a stroll, bit of shopping and some great food.  Had nothing bad but as always  Cortido de Pepe was a highlight, surprisingly quiet and Tapas de Cervantes, possibly even better than it's usual "favourite tapas bar in the whole world" label - again a friendly welcome back from the owner and great recommendations.  Had a glass in La Tranca to finish - absolutely rammed, great atmosphere.

<RANT>
Self Catering - do this a lot, especially, Oz, Spain and USA, I love cooking and am happy to do it on my hols - however there should be a minimum set of things, some which I didn't get in Seville:

Salt
Pepper or chilli

oil of some sort, preferably olive
vinegar - unless citrus fruits grow abundantly

frying pan
couple of pans with lids
wooden spoon
reasonable sharp knife
chopping board

A few staples wouldn't go amiss - pasta, rice, tea, coffee

Most places I go to have most of these, but I to buy salt, a knife and oil last week, not expensive (all told less than €3) and I left them all for next visitor, but I think there should be an acceptable minimum
</RANT>