Hot Italian Sausage On Jalapeno Mash, Sweet Peppers And Deep Fried Okra Fritters.

To make the  fritters you top and tail the okras and then marinate them in buttermilk spiked with lime, garlic and salt and pepper for a good 15 minutes. Drain them and roll them in some cornmeal and then into a batter made up of milk and flour. Deep fry them in a medium oil. When thy are cooked you toss them in a bowl with some chopped parsley, chopped garlic and S&P.

Lettin' On Dublin Coddle

This is a take on the real Irish Dublin Coddle. It us usually made with pork sausages and bacon. I used bock wurst here and cheated a little bit. It was very good all the same.

This is a variety of vegetables , usually root vegetables plus cabbage, onion  and leeks that are boiled with thick slices of Irish bacon and Irish pork sausages. You add a good sprig of fresh thyme and some bay leaf and let simmer for a good 45 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked. This is one dish that benefits from a little chicken stock or a cube because the cooking time is relatively short.

Season well and let stand for another half hour on a warm part of the stove to allow the flavors to combine. Sprinkle with a good helping of freshly chopped parsley and you have the making of of a great meal. Goes well with a pint of Guinness .

Bottom picture is an old kitchen method for adding bay leaf, thyme and pepper to a dish without having to pick them out when the dish is cooked. I don't know if people ever use this. If you don't have leeks then you can use a muslin cloth and just discard it when it is time to serve the dish.

Chef Eileen Walsh

Eileen had a nice dinner party the other night and she made everything herself. As you can see she did a really nice job . She made a nice little hors d'oeuvre platter, a nice beef bourgignon and what looks like a vegetable gratin. A chip off the old block. .

Beef Bourgignon.

This is not the first posting of this dish. It is a very time consuming but delicious dish. I will post a recipe shortly. Inch Allah.

Chicken Spinach And Tomato Casserole

This is pretty self explanatory. Once you have all the ingredients together and ready the dish just has to be assembled and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes or so. All of these ingredients are interchangeable, zucchini can be used instead of spinach. the potatoes can be substituted with thick tomato slices. The was great as it is. This is layered with spinach on the bottom of the dish, chicken breast or thighs on top of that. Next pre-sauteed onions and sweet pepper and then the stewed tomatoes and mushrooms. Finally a layer of potatoes and some stock and it is ready to be baked. Very important to season as you go because once the dish is finished you can't season it until it is on the plate. I used a lot of garlic in each stage of cooking here.

For the last five minutes or so the oven should be put on ' broil ' and the potatoes can be brushed with a little melted butter to help the color.

Mushroom And Onion Reuben Sandwich

Fricassee Of Chicken And Vetetables.

Lemon Pepper Pork Chop, Red Cabbage And Golden Yukons.

Another Tajine

This was forgotten in the oven and overcooked by about an hour. It was still delish.

Beef Curry, Lemon Pepper Rice.

This was good.

Baked Polenta With Italian Sausage

This dish is enough for Graham or a family of four.

You need these basic items:

Tomato sauce

1 large zucchini

3 large mushrooms

8 oz. Italian sausage

2-3 oz. Italian cheese/ mozzarella

I whole tomato

Chopped garlic, salt and pepper, polenta. Prepare everything and follow the video. You can put anything you like on top of the polenta . These are just suggestions.

Tomato Sauce

Slowly cook a little carrot, onion and celery in some olive oil. When the vegetables are cooked add a dash of white vinegar and reduce to dry. Then add a little white wine and reduce that to dry. Then add tomato paste and mix very well with the vegetables. Add a little flour to make a roux and finally add some chicken stock. Throw in a bulb of garlic cut in half sideways, a couple of bay leaves and a few sprigs of thyme. Add stock and cook to a sauce like consistency. Strain and put a aside for use.

You can also add a can of whole peeled tomatoes to this sauce while it is cooking then remove the whole tomatoes before you strain the finished sauce, chop them up and add them to the strained sauce to give it a chunkier consistency.

You should always add a pinch of white sugar to tomato sauce.

Hungarian Goulash, Creamy Polenta And Jalapenos

Creamy Polenta

This is how I make creamy polenta. It is very easy and it is a great substitute for potatoes or pasta. You can put anything you like into it or you can put nothing at all into it. I particularly like this with stews and the like. In this case I made it for the goulash and it was fantastic.
You also add a little Italian cheese to this to finish it off.


Diced Red Pepper
Diced Onion
Chopped Garlic
1 Cup Cornmeal
3 Cups Stock Or Water( or a mix of both)
1/2 Chopped Jalapeno
Salt And Pepper

Small Barbeque Smorgasbord Of Bacon And Chicken, Cold Ratatouille And Potato Salad.

Simple and tasty.

Braised Lamb Shank, Red Cabbage And Parslied Potatoes.

One Of My Favorite Midnight Snacks.

Baked beans in a soup plate with a couple of soft poached eggs and ground pepper and some bread.

Provencale Meatloaf, Spicy Tomato Sauce, Spinach And Mashed Pratais.

For this I used about 8 ozs of ground beef and 4 ozs of Italian sausage. I soaked a couple of slices of white bread in a little mile and then squeezed the milk out and added the bread to the mix. I rough cut some onion, zucchini and red and green pepper and cooked them slowly without coloring them in a little olive oil. When they were cooked and translucent I added a little thyme and a lot of chopped garlic. About six large cloves. I then added chopped parsley and a whole egg. Season and mix well but not too well and put in baking pan. Cook in a water bath for about an hour at medium temperature, allow to cool and slice. This was very good.

Labour Day Porterhouse Steak

Did a little traditional Labour Day fare today.

Sausage, Bacon And Savoy Cabbage Hotpot.

This is a great little winter's evening dish. I saw it on blogsite http://reciperifle.blogspot.com/ and decided to make it tonight on a whim. You will get the recipe there. I like cooking but I hate writing recipes. As you can see it is straightforward and it has all the ingredients of dishes all over the world from the Dublin Coddle to the french Potee. I added some salt pork and some potatoes to this one. Make sure you have plenty of dijon mustard or even Colmans.