Celtic Pork Tart

Celtic Pork Tart is another incredibly easy dish to prepare, but tastes like you worked all day on it!  I like to make my own tart dough, and have included the recipe I use. But if you are pressed for time, a store-bought 9″ pie crust works just fine. Basically you just mix all the ingredients together, spoon it into your baking dish and 45 minutes later you have a fantastic dinner. Although the recipe indicates that either dates or apples are fine, I must say that I have tried both and think that dates give it that extra sweetness that makes it unique. When you think of a meat pie, generally sweet is not what you are expecting. But let me tell you the sweet and savory combination works! And its great straight out of the oven as well as straight out of the fridge. If you want to try something different than the ole Corned Beef and Cabbage for your St. Patrick’s Day feast, give this dish a try!

Pork Tart

Ingredients:

For the Tart Dough:

1 large egg yolk

2 Tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 Cups (6 1/2 oz./200g) all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 Cup (4 oz/125g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 ” cubes

For the Pork Filling:

1 1/2 pounds ground pork

1/2 cup chopped dates (or apples as you prefer)

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

4 eggs, beaten

Pinch of salt and black pepper

1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. cardamom

Zest of 1 lemon

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 375° F

In a small bowl, stir together the egg yolk, 2 Tablespoons water, and vanilla.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, and salt and pulse to blend.

Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal with butter pieces no larger than small peas.

Add the egg mixture and pulse just until the dough pulls together. If the dough is dry, mix in more water 1 Tablespoon at a time.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. The dough can be used right away or wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated until well chilled, about 30 minutes.

Lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the disk and roll out to 1/8 inch thickness 2-3 inches larger than your pan.

Fit dough to your 9 1/2 ” tart pan.

Mix together pork, dates, parmesan, eggs, seasonings and lemon zest.

Spoon mixture into uncooked 9″ pie shell or into 9 1/2″ tart pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 155° F

The tart may be served either hot or cold.

Tart Dough Recipe from The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book

Celtic Pork Tart Recipe from Celtic Folklore Cooking by Joanne Asala

Curry Chips

Have I mentioned that I love french fries? I do. One of my favourite foods. In fact, “fry-fry” was among the first words I ever uttered. Love ‘em. Not those skinny little shoestring things, but thick, hefty steak fries, or as they are called in Ireland “Chips”. Which brings me to my second offering in my month of Irish food recipes…Curry Chips. A delicacy found in many chip shops in Ireland, though not so often found here. I will mention though that Eamonn’s, a Dublin style chipper in Old Town Alexandria offers a curry sauce on the side, should you so desire. This certainly is not a difficult dish to prepare, you just fry up a batch of chips and cover them with a curry sauce.

When deep-frying chips previously I had just popped them in the fryer once the oil reached 375° F and let them sizzle away for about 15 minutes. I recently have come across several recipes though claiming that you should twice fry if you really want crispy chips. What you do here is prepare your chips by slicing the potatoes and then placing them in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Remove them from the water and dry them well. Heat the oil to 320° F and fry them for 4-5 minutes. Remove them from the oil and place on a rack to drain. The chips will not be browned at all and will be somewhat softened. Allow them to stand until they are cool. Heat the oil up to 365° F and cook for 5-6 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to rack and sprinkle with salt.

Now for the curry sauce. I looked around online and tried to find a “chip shop” curry sauce recipe. That is where I first encountered some difficulty. It seems there is a controversy about how to make this sauce. One recipe claims you should chop up apples and onions in the sauce. (I don’t ever remember chunks of apples in my curry) Another claims that chip shops use a more Chinese take-away curry recipe. I was hoping I would just be able to find some sort of pre-made sauce. I had to search far and wide but found this mix at Giant.

Elusive mix

Just add water and boil. Easy-peasy, right? Unfortunately, I was raised in America and have significant difficulties with the metric system. McDonnells Curry Sauce mix is made in Ireland and therefore lists metric measurements in its directions for use. What is half of 125 grams and how do I measure that out? Arghhh!!! President Carter was right! I should be able to deal in metric measurements, along with the rest of the world. Well, I finally figured it out and my curry chips turned out quite nice. My husband really liked them, saying he had never thought of putting curry on chips before, but found it quite yummy. Give ‘em a try.

Scotch Eggs & Chips

Its official. I definitely did lead a somewhat food deprived youth. Until last week I had never heard of a Scotch Egg. Indeed I have spent a lot of time in Ireland and have never stumbled across one there either. (Disclaimer: I do not mean to imply Ireland is anything like Scotland and certainly not part of the U.K.-I just thought encountering said egg might have been more likely due to the proximity of the countries). Any hooo……Whilst browsing recipes last week I found one for Inside-Out Scotch Eggs at 8.ate@eight. The author was planning a menu for a Robert Burns night and mentioned a Scotch Egg. She described it as “enrobing a hard-boiled egg with ground meat, breading and deep-frying the sucker”. She also indicated that it ends up “the size of your fist”. Deciding that it would likely not be appropriate as an appetizer for the menu she was creating, she went on to create what looks to be a very tasty and diminutive alternative to the unwieldy scotch egg, her Inside Out Scotch Eggs w/Ground Lamb, Harissa Yolk & Panko Gremolata. Don’t get me wrong…that recipe sounds fantastic, but I couldn’t pay it the attention it deserved. I just couldn’t get past the Scotch Egg. Somewhat obsessed, I searched around online to see what I could find out about them. They were introduced in 1738 by the London Department store Fortnum & Mason. In the UK they are regarded as a picnic food and are usually eaten cold. You can often find them pre-packaged in convenience stores. In the US they are usually found in “British” style pubs and are served hot with mustard or ranch dips. The Minnesota State Fair apparently serves them up on a stick. Again, I ask-Where have I been! I just have to have one of these things! So I set out to make it so and will tell you how you can as well.

You start by hard-boiling the eggs and then removing the shells. Cover your work area with a piece of wax paper and flatten approximately 1/4 lb. of sausage into a thin circle. This is easier to do if your hands are wet-the sausage won’t stick as much. Jay and I love spicy food, so I used “Hot” breakfast sausage. Place an egg in the center of the sausage round and work to enclose the egg entirely in the meat.

Eggs enclosed in sausage

Once this is done, dredge the sausage-coated eggs in flour, dip them in the raw eggs and then roll them in Panko (Japanese Bread flakes), making sure they are well coated.

Panko coated egg

You are ready to fry at this point. I just recently received a Breville deep fryer from my parents (thank you so much guys!) and I am always excited about frying anything! I decided to use peanut oil for frying. I know, I know….peanut oil is supposed to be just awful for you right? I’m not so sure I think thats true. It seems all of our ideas about what oils are healthy and what oils are not are always changing. Peanut oil is high in monounsaturated fat, which is the kind we want. In addition it has resveratrol in it. That is the stuff that you find in grapes and red wine which has been linked to reduced cardiovascular disease. I am sure you shouldn’t be eating fried foods all the time, but we don’t actually eat them often. So when we are breaking out the deep fryer, I am going to use an oil which I know will give me a great tasting treat. The other very important thing to remember when frying things is that the oil needs to be at a pretty high temperature 350-375° F. If the oil is at the correct temperature, the food you’re cooking releases steam, which travels out and prevents oil from seeping back in. The result is food which is light and crisp rather than soggy and greasy. Remember not to over-load the fryer basket as well. Too many items can cause a lower oil temperature, which will result in the soggy, greasy dilemma. We cooked our Scotch Eggs at 365° F for 10 minutes.  Voila!

Finished goodness

We ate these with Coleman’s Original English Mustard on the side. They were nothing short of stellar! Since the deep fryer was already going, we decided to make some french fries or rather chips as well to go along with our eggs. Nothing fancy here. We just cut up some russet potatoes

Fries ready to go

and popped them in the fryer at 375° F for 15-17 minutes and sprinkled them with kosher salt and malt vinegar.

Yum!

Awesome!  Unbelievable! Don’t deprive yourself-make these today!

Scotch Eggs

1 lb. bulk sausage-we prefer “hot” but  country-style or herbed would work just fine.

4 hard-boiled large eggs-shells removed

1/2 Cup all-purpose flour

2 raw eggs, beaten lightly

1 Cup Panko

Peanut oil for deep frying

Divide the sausage into four equal portions. Flatten into thin circles. Place an egg in the center of each round. Enclose each egg completely in the sausage. Dredge the sausage-coated eggs in flour, dip them in the raw egg and then roll them in the Panko until they are entirely coated. In a deep fryer heat peanut oil to 365° F. Fry Scotch Eggs two at a time for 10 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and salt and pepper as desired.

Caramelized Rum Banana-Stuffed French Toast

So while we’re stuffing things into other things, à la the oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies of my previous post, I thought you might like to see some french toast stuffed with caramelized rum bananas. I know my husband was very happy at its appearance. It’s unbelievably yummy! If the words “caramelized rum bananas” didn’t capture your attention, I don’t know what you’re like. I must admit though, the original recipe that I consulted for this dish did not include rum as one of the ingredients. That might have been all me-with no regrets though! Bananas and rum are without a doubt a match made in heaven.

Rum Bananas Caramelizing

In order to be able to stuff the lovely caramelized run bananas into the toast, you have to start off with a pretty thick piece of Challah bread, about 1 1/2 inches.

Big ole hunk o'bread!

You cut a  2 inch long slit in one side of the bread slice, extending down three-fourths of the way, to create a pocket. Once done you stuff that pocket full of the rummy banana bliss,

Stuffed toast slices

dunk it in the usual french toast egg/milk mixture and then pop it into a Panini maker to cook.

Panini Maker in action

Oh my giddy Aunt! Soooooooo good! The recipe I used recommended topping it with not only a toasted pecan maple syrup, but also a whipped crème fraîche. We were happy topping ours solely with a simple whipped  cream, minus the crème fraîche, and a few extra of the caramelized bananas. We did not feel that any syrup was necessary-as if “necessary” is a word that should come anywhere near this dish. It is pretty darn sweet. However, to each his own and who am I to judge an individuals sweet tooth. So, I have included the toasted pecan maple syrup in the following recipe. Enjoy!

Caramelized Rum Banana-Stuffed French Toast

 

Ingredients:

For the toasted pecan maple syrup:

1 Tbs. unsalted butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Pinch of kosher salt

1 cup maple syrup

For the whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream

2 Tbs. confectioners’ sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

For the French toast:

2 Tbs. unsalted butter

2 Tbs. light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

2 Tbs. dark rum

1-lb. loaf day-old challah, ends trimmed, bread cut into 6 slices, each 1 1/2 inches thick

2 cups milk

6 eggs

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. honey

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the toasted pecan maple syrup, in a fry pan over medium heat, melt the butter and cook until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Add the salt and maple syrup, increase the heat to high and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and keep warm.

To make the whipped cream, place the cream, confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip until stiff peaks form. Set aside until ready for use.

To make the French toast, in large sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. When the foam subsides, add the 2 Tbs. light brown sugar and the rum, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the banana slices and gently toss. Cook until the mixture is lightly caramelized and the bananas are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool. Using a small, sharp knife, cut a slit 2 inches long in one side of each bread slice, cutting three-fourths of the way. Stuff the pockets with the banana mixture, dividing evenly.

Preheat an electric Panini maker. Set a wire rack on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, combine the milk, eggs, cinnamon, honey, the 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the vanilla extract and whisk together. Pour into a baking dish. Soak half of the bread slices for 5 minutes, turning occasionally.

Place the bread on the Panini maker and cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to the rack-lined baking sheet. Soak and cook the remaining bread slices. Serve the French toast topped with whipped cream and the maple syrup should you desire. Serves 6.

Adapted from a Recipe by Chef Bryan Voltaggio found on William Sonoma Recipes.