I’m very pleased to present forkful, a series of food videos that I’ve been making with my friend Mark Duggan. We’ve highlighted a simple winter-meets-summer recipe for our first outing and we get a little help from Daffodil in the kitchen. We’re proud to present them in partnership with Le Cool, who featured us in today’s Food Issue.

Get the recipe in all its sweet detail on www.forkful.tv.

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My beautiful sister Niamh is getting married in July to her wonderful French fiancé Francois (or as we like to call him – France-WHAH?! Oh, how we laugh!). As Maid of Honour, it was my duty to host her hen night on Friday the 26th of April.

My sister is one of the best people I have ever met in my life. She is one of the kindest, most generous and caring people I have had the pleasure to know. I’m not the only person who thinks so, either. And how lucky am I that she’s actually my sister!

So when it came to organising her hen night, I knew all she cared about was having her favourite women in the same room at the same time. It doesn’t happen often as she lives in California and has spent her working life living in Saudi Arabia, the Caribbean, Poland and Dublin. And probably somewhere else that I’ve forgotten. So I knew I could have thrown a party for her in McDonalds and she would genuinely have been thrilled if it meant that everyone would be together.

But I couldn’t not go out of my way to do something special for her, could I? No, I certainly could not. Have a look after the jump to see what we got up to.

In the weeks leading up to her hen night, I had been playing down the night big time. “NiNi, I’m so sorry. I have just been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to really organise anything special, so we’re just going out to dinner in town, ok?”

Meanwhile, I had notebooks FULL of scribbled plans for the night, planning everything down to the minute. Mwah mwah mwah!

So, on the day, I told her I had managed a small little surprise for her and that she had to be at Trinity College at 7pm sharp with Mum in tow. When she arrived, a group of our cousins were there waiting for her. Once the totes emotes hellos were out of the way, she was shown a video message from her fiancé Francois (France-whah?!) welcoming her to her hen night and sending her on a mini-treasure hunt. Because Nialler is such a legend, he not only designed special menus for the evening but he also secretly followed Niamh on her mini-treasure hunt taking iPhone pics of her surprises along the way.

She had to go to the Stag’s Head (the scene of Niamh and Francois’ first date) where some school and work friends were waiting for her. Then they had to go to The Palace Bar (where Niamh took me for my first pint) where the rest of her school friends were waiting for her. They walked around to Westmoreland Street and a hummer was waiting to take them all to my house in Dublin 8.

My aunties and other cousins were waiting with me at my house to welcome the hens to Niamh’s Coop, her pop-up restaurant for the evening. My cousins had helped me decorate the room with pictures of Niamh hanging up by twine above borrowed tables that seated 23 people.

We ushered all the hens into my little back garden and served The NiNi Cocktail – Zubrowka vodka mixed with ginger ale and apple juice. We also had canapés of smoked salmon blinis with mustard and honey creme fraiche and crushed pea crostinis made by whizzing up some frozen peas with ricotta, mint, salt and pepper and topping with salty feta.

Then we got everyone to sit down (miraculously fitting everyone in my kitchen!) and we served dinner after another special video message from Francois.

My Mum and I cooked a meal inspired by my amazing sister’s life. We had beetroot hummus, goat’s cheese and pomegranate dip and roasted aubergine as a kind of Middle Eastern inspired mezze to start. I made a Caribbean Jerk Chicken which we had with salad and Mum’s delicious spinach rice pilaf. For dessert, Mum made her world famous pavlova and my aunts brought lots of their amazingly delicious baked goods.

As the final surprise of the evening, my gorgeous friend Robbie (who is my goddaughter Freya’s uncle) took a break from rehearsing for Carmen to come in and sing Eidelweiss from one of Niamh’s favourite movie of all time The Sound of Music. And that’s when the waterworks really started!

So as not to push my luck with my lovely neighbours – I had NOT anticipated quite how noisy 23 hens would be, particularly during our group rendition of Doe! A Deer! –  I had booked taxis into town at 11.30pm and most of the party moved on to The Workman’s Club, which was the perfect spot to dance away til the early morning.

I’m so glad that we were able to pull off a tailored hen for my sister. The cherry on top was that we only had to charge the hens €20 each to cover the hummer, drinks and dinner. And I genuinely got such a kick out of cooking for so many people.

Apart from being able to delegate to my Mum and having her share the workload by making one of the starters, the rice and all of the desserts (she is so amazing), a major part of the food’s success was the starters and desserts were ready way in advance. The choice of chicken made things very easy too because I had them marinated in their roasting dishes in the fridge for a few hours before the party and it was just a case of whacking them in the oven when the party arrived, re-heating the rice and bunging a few bags of salad leaves into big bowls and making a big batch of honey lemon dressing.

I used Jamie Oliver’s Jerk Chicken from his 30 Minute Meals, which I’ve cooked for four people before following the exact recipe below. It’s absolutely delicious. I’m quite bad at maths so when I was quadrupling it or whatever to cater for 23 I got a bit confused and just kind of threw all the ingredients in with wonky measurements but it turned out great! Point is this is a great recipe that’s easily doubled, tripled or quadrupled – as long as you can do the maths! And even if you can’t it doesn’t really matter.

What you need for Jamie Oliver’s Jerk Chicken for 4 people

(From Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals – buy it here)

4 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped

A small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked

3 fresh bay leaves (or dried if you don’t have fresh)

A pinch of ground cloves

A pinch of ground nutmeg

A pinch of ground allspice

2 teaspoons of salt

6 tablespoons of golden rum 

6 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of runny honey

1 Scotch bonnet chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, grated

4 free-range chicken legs (ask your butcher to butterfly them as it helps them stay really juicy and tender)

Put all of the ingredients, except the chicken, into a food processor. Whizz until you have a thick, green sauce – that’s your jerk! Add a bit of olive oil or a drop of water if you’d like it to be a bit more liquidy.

Put the chicken legs into a roasting dish and spread the jerk sauce evenly over the chicken legs. Top with a bit more runny honey and you can even add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice if you like. You can cook it immediately or you can let it marinade for up to 24 hours if you want. 

Pre-heat your oven to 200c/180c fan/Gas Mark 6 and cook covered with tin foil for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the tin foil and cook the chicken for another 10 minutes or until the skin is crispy and golden and the chicken is cooked through. 

Serve with green salad and rice (this brilliant yellow rice has become my foolproof recipe). And a nice cold beer. Or Prosecco. Or even A NiNi!

Thanks to all the hens who made Niamh’s night so memorable and thanks to my amazing Mum Pauline for all her hard work in helping me pull off my plan and never once saying “WHY CAN’T WE JUST GO TO A REGULAR RESTAURANT LIKE A NORMAL FAMILY?!!”  And finally thanks to my sister NiNi for always being there for me and for being such a gorgeous person to throw a party for. Love you!

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Our Irish weather is being as predictably unpredictable as it ever has been this spring. We’ve had winter, spring and a hint of summer in the last couple of weeks. What’s new? I hear you say. Your weather is cray! Deal with it!

I like to deal with it by combining seasonal ingredients with weather appropriate recipes. Take my broad bean and goat’s cheese risotto, for example. You have the brilliant bright greens of spring in the form of our lovely friends the broad bean, while the oozy, cheesy risotto is about as comforting as pasta can get. Yum indeed.

You can use your own basic risotto recipe if you don’t want to follow mine below. And of course you can leave out the bacon to make this a vegetarian spring-summer transitional treat.

What you need for Broad Bean and Goat’s Cheese Risotto 

Butter

Olive Oil

100g of bacon lardons

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

250g of arborio rice

1 glass of white wine (around 100ml or so)

750ml of good quality vegetable stock

1 large handful of finely grated Parmesan cheese

A bunch of broad bean pods, about 20 or so (they don’t go a long way unfortunately)

A few slices of lovely hard goat cheese

A tablespoon or so of freshly chopped mint

First, heat a knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the bacon and fry for 3 to 5 minutes, until starting to brown. Finely dice the onion and garlic and add to the pan, cooking for 3 minutes, stirring. 

Add the rice to the pan and stir so the rice becomes glossy and coated with all that lovely bacony buttery yumminess. Throw in the glass of wine so that it sizzles. Let it bubble away, stirring occasionally, until the wine has completely evaporated. This will probably take around 5 minutes. 

Now it’s time to get your stock ready. Put it in a saucepan over a medium high heat, so that it’s at a simmer. Add the stock to the risotto, one ladelful at a time, and stir until the stock has been absorbed by the rice. Repeat this, stirring pretty much constantly, for about 15 – 20 minutes, until the rice is oozy and rich but still a little al dente, if that’s what you’re into. I know I am.

I depodded the broad beans and took them out of their skin while I was doing the risotto. But if you prefer to just focus on the risotto, you can do this before you start the risotto at all. It’s a laborious job to get the broad beans out of their skin but I actually do think it’s worth it. Although I’ve been too lazy to do it in the past, it shows the broad beans at their greenest which really is a treat. And the texture is purer. So, if you’re arsed, go for it.

The broad beans need 1 or 2 minutes in a saucepan of boiling water, so cook them at the very last minute.

To finish off the risotto, add in the handful of Parmesan and a modest knob of butter, mixing well. Serve scattered with the cooked broad beans, a few shavings of lovely goat cheese and a sprinkling of freshly chopped mint. Sprummer!

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Well, why the hell not?

Of all of the vegetables that lurk around my fridge, courgettes are probably one of the least popular. I quite like these tubular squashes but I just find them ever so slightly uninspiring. I’ve made Jamie O’s lovely bish-bash-bosh courgette carbonara innit a number of times and it is lovely. I’ve chucked them into ratatouille which I’ve found to be less lovely upon my tendency to overcook things. I’ve been more successful when using them in salads, revving up the lemon and chilli to bring out the courgettes’ natural loveliness rather than highlighting their potential for banality.

My Mum came over to ours recently laden down (as usual) with delicious cakes. One was a courgette cake that she found in Good Housekeeping magazine. It was light, flavourful and, I felt, a damn good way to use up those sad old courgettes lurking at the back of the fridge.

Rather than make them into a cake, I decided to make some cupcakes with a heavy courgette bias. And, I’m pleased to report, they were quite lovely indeed.

I adapted my favourite carrot cupcake recipe for these little guys. Do you reckon sweet potato might work too? I’m going to try those next time.

What you need for some Courgette Cupcakes 

I got 18 muffins out of this mix, which was an unexpected bonus of six buns to stuff in my facenomnomnom.

175g brown muscovado sugar 

100g wholemeal  flour 

100g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Zest of 1 lemon

2 free-range eggs

150ml sunflower oil

About 1 and a half courgettes (I used a green and a yellow one just to be fancy)

About 100g of cream cheese

About 100g icing sugar, sifted 

Handful of shelled pistachios

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder.

Whisk together the eggs and oil, and then grate in the zest. Finely grate in the courgettes. 

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. But don’t over-mix! as all pro bakers say (I’m still not sure what this means – when is a batter too mixed?!).

Divide the mixture between the cases and bake for 20 to 22 minutes until a skewer poked in to the largest muffins comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing, mix together the cream cheese and the icing sugar until smooth. Really finely chop the pistachios. 

When the cupcakes are cool, slather some of the cream cheese on top of each muffin and finish with a sprinkling of pistachios.

Never let it be said that vegetables don’t belong in desserts!

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One of my dreams is to own a B&B in Dublin’s city centre. I’d cater for all manner of lovely people but I would especially want to  open my doors to travelling bands and musicians who usually have to put up with generic hotels and terrible food when on the road. I’d have great food and comfy beds, books everywhere and lots of comfy sofas for bands to kick off their Toms in front of. It’d be a home away from home, a place for bands to recuperate on the road. And a place they’d be guaranteed a really lovely home-cooked meal or two.

There are three things, in my opinion, that make a Bed & Breakfast worth leaving your own home for. There’s the bed aspect – are the pillows fluffy, is the bed marshmallowey, does the house have character? Then there’s the breakfast part – it’s almost laughable how many Bed & Breakfasts get this so horribly wrong if it weren’t for the fact that there’s nothing funny about a bad breakfast. Finally, there’s the unspoken hospitality part – do you feel at home? Do you feel relaxed, rejuvinated and welcome?

I was lucky enough to be a guest of Cloughjordan House in Tipperary last weekend. For me, their B&B has got it all. The comfort, the food and the hospitality. They’ve even got more than that – they’ve got a cookery school, a reclaimed ballroom that makes a stunning settting for weddings, three dogs (Richard, Rupert and Louis) that roam around being friendly, and then there’s the pair of pigs called Barbie & Ken. Best of all, the entire family behind this B&B get stuck in and are a huge part of what makes this place so special.

I travelled by rail to Cloughjordan train station where Sarah Baker, the Mum of the house and head of the cookery school, picked me up from. A short drive in the car followed before we pulled up the gravel drive to the country house that houses her family business. Sarah and her husband Peter Baker inherited the house from Peter’s family about 20 years ago. They had 15 years of running a dairy farm on the land before they opened the B&B and cookery school in and around 2006.

Barbie & Ken, the Cloughjordan pigs.

 Dusty & Mocha, the Cloughjordan horses

After laying my luggage down in my beautiful room – tall, sashed windows letting the evening light into my carefully furnished and flowered room – I was ushered in to the family kitchen to join Sarah and Peter’s family for dinner. Their three teenage children Sam, Holly and Julie told me what is like to live in a B&B while Sarah cooked us up a pork stir-fry using pork shoulder from their last pigs, Peppa & George. I was struck by the work ethic that Sarah and Peter have obviously instilled in the kids, as well as a respect for food and the environment. I really felt at home.

Granted, being welcomed into the family kitchen is probably not the usual treatment guests get but the children are a big part of the B&B. Holly was there to serve breakfast in the morning, while Sam introduced me to their pigs Barbie & Ken and their horses Dusty & Mocha. Julie, meanwhile, is part of the cookery school team and made sure our class ran smoothly and that none of us were without a clean chopping board at any point.

Cloughjordan House have teamed up with Glenisk to offer a monthly competition to win a Cloughjordan Mini-Break. You’ll notice Sarah on the sides of most of Glenisk’s cartons in the next year. It’s a great match, with both companies sharing values of sustainability and good taste. If you’re a lucky winner, you’ll get the Bed & Breakfast as well as the cookery masterclass with Sarah and her team.

The class runs from about 10am to 2pm and takes a straight-forward approach to good cooking. Simple recipes made delicious and tricky recipes made simple seems to be the key.

We started with a brilliantly simple yeast bread, moving on to a quinoa salad, pan-fried salmon and asparagus, an apple strudel dessert and a cinnamon ice-cream. After the morning’s work, the class of twelve sat down in the cookery school to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Before I left for my trip back to Dublin, I walked through the door in the old house’s wall that leads to the Eco-Village at Cloughjordan. The land this community is built on used to belong to Cloughjordan House and was where the family had their dairy farm. Now the eco-village are in the progress of building a new type of sustainable, green environment that could be a future model of how we can all live with a better relationship with our environment. It’s a work in progress and certainly a place I would like to explore further. But next time with a guide to tell me more about what’s going on there and what are the community’s plans for the future.

I bid a somewhat sad farewell to Sarah, Peter, the kids, pigs, dogs and horses as I made my way back to the big smoke. I’ll definitely be back, this time with Nialler (and maybe even Daffodil if she’d be welcome) in tow, as the hospitality at Cloughjordan House is one that makes you look forward to your next visit.

I was a guest of Cloughjordan House & B&B and Glenisk and all aspects of my stay were complimentary. 

Cloughjordan House

Cloughjordan

Co Tipperary

www.cloughjordanhouse.com 

For more details on Cloughjordan House, visit their website.

For more details on the Cloughjordan Mini-Break competition with Glenisk, visit their website.

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A few weeks back, I challenged my friends Lucy and Ferdia to a Come Dine With Me 2013. Very 2011, I know, but we had been talking ALL year about cooking for each other last year and it never happened. I thought putting a competitive spin on it might get us all together long enough to cook a meal for each other.

Seeing as they’re both better cooks than I – Ferdia makes his own ginger beer and jams while Lucy can cook full meals in camper vans – I thought I’d push the boat out a bit with my own menu, seeing as I was first to host.

I went a bit over the top. We had gin cocktails and quail scotch eggs as canapés before delving into teacups of beetroot soup with horseradish creme fraiche and cubed salmon. Then we had Barney Desmazery’s country terrine followed by his oxtail stew, complete with basil dumplings and served with some honey roasted root vegetables. Dessert was a rhubarb and custard tart using Jamie Oliver’s lovely sweet shortcrust pastry recipe, but I used orange zest instead of lemon zest.

I had planned the menu quite well in that everything was ready before the guests got there. Including the very final course of cheese (Glebe Brethan and Ardrahan) which I served with my own apple chutney and my very own homemade crackers. Which kind of blew my mind.

It turns out that making your own crackers is stupendously simple. Of course, shop-bought ones are fabulous but if you have an extra 20 minutes in the kitchen why not give this little recipe a whirl? I personally got a real kick out of making my own little batch of imperfect crackers.

I followed this basic recipe but added my own fennel twist to things. You could add chilli flakes, rosemary needles, dried basil or other dried herbs to personalise your own crackers.

What you need for a batch of Fennel Sea Salt Crackers (makes about 20 crackers)

200g plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

50g of cold butter

Flaky sea salt

Fennel seeds

Heat your oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Put the flour, baking powder, butter and 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt in a large bowl or on a clean surface. Use your hands to rub the flour and butter together until you have a breadcrumb-like texture.

Not very well rubbed together but feck it, it’ll do!

Add 4 tablespoons of cold water and work the dough gently until it comes together.

Add another teaspoon of water if it still feels dry. You want a soft but not sticky dough. (Alternatively, put the flour etc into a food processor. Whizz for a minute until the mixture is kind of breadcrumby and the butter is fully mixed with the flour. Add 4 tablespoons of cold water and pulse until the dough comes together.)

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. You want to roll it out as thin as possible. When you think it’s thin, keep rolling so it’s thinner. You can see that mine aren’t that thin – they were still lovely but next time I will be getting them even thinner.

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If you’ve been hanging around this blog for long enough, you’ll have realised by now that I tend to be somewhat uneasy when it comes to baking. I’ve had lots of recent successes (especially since this breakthrough) but my cakes, pies and buns still leave a lot to be desired.

Take these banana muffins, for example. They looked right and they tasted right. Except for one important little factor – the texture. Herein lies the dominant dilemma of my baking life. My muffins are tough and dense, rather than light and airy. I wonder what I can do about that?

All muffin recipes highlight the importance of not over-mixing. I don’t know how I can mix any less. Perhaps these muffins could have benefited from a bit more oil? I thought I’d share the recipe with you as the flavour combination of coffee, banana and pecans worked really well. Maybe you can help me with the muffin base recipe?

These are kind of healthy muffins, inspired by these Breakfast Muffins, being that they’re made with wholemeal flour. Although I don’t really think there is any such thing as a ‘healthy’ muffin, is there?

What you need for Breakfast and Coffee Muffins (makes about 18 cupcake-sized muffins)

Below is how I made the muffins. Notice anything that might cause a tough muffin?

125g wholemeal flour

125g plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking pwder

100g brown sugar

100ml sunflower oil 

4 very ripe bananas

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of coffee essence (I used 2 tablespoons of the mild Irel coffee stuff – it reminds me of my Nanny B so much!)

A handful of pecan halves

Heat your oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4. 

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake holders

Sift the two flours and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and lightly mix. 

In another bowl, mash the banana and then mix in the sunflower oil, the eggs, milk and coffee essence. 

Fold the wet mix into the flours with a large metal spoon. Don’t over mix it! Or they will be tough like my muffins.

Is this over-mixed?! I don’t even know anymore.

Divide the mixture between the muffin tins. You’ll have enough mix to fill all 12 and then another 6, which you can complete as a second batch. 

Finely chop the pecan halves and sprinkle over each muffin. 

Cook the first batch of 12 muffins in the oven for 20 minutes or until they’re cooked through. 

Cool briefly and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

So if you have any advice on how to get my muffins right, that would be amazing!

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Like many other food lovers before me, I fell in love with Jerusalem last year. Thanks to the evocative writing and mouth-watering recipes in Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s book dedicated to the food of their home town, I am able to transport my kitchen to this endlessly fascinating part of the world with their cookbook as a culinary tour guide.

Niall had left Jerusalem under our Christmas tree for me and it wasn’t long before we were knee-deep in hummus and za’atar, starting the new year off with a distinctively Middle Eastern flavour.

A lot of the aromas and flavours coming out of my kitchen through Jerusalem bring me back to my own childhood spent in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. When I popped off the lid of the za’atar spice mix and inhaled its herby scent, it awoke a distant memory of evenings spent in the souk surrounded by freshly baked manakeesh. Likewise, a tahini sauce made with tahini paste thinned with water and flavoured with garlic and lemon juice brought my tastebuds on a journey back to the street shawarma stall we went to for weekend treats. What amazing memory our taste buds hold!

Always on the look out for new ways to bake eggs for a lazy brunch, I was inspired by the flavours of Jerusalem to make a batch of baked eggs that were both sweet and spicy with a hint of Middle Eastern influence to add to the enjoyment of the dish.

Not a million miles away from my other fave way with baked egg, this recipe is vegetarian but also boasts more layers what with the chickpeas, Middle Eastern spices and dollops of cooling yoghurt served on top.

What you need for Ottolenghi Inspired Eggs for 2 (or 4 if you’re feeling generous)

For the tomato sauce

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 red chilli

1 tablespoon of Ras El Hanout spice mix (available in Middle Eastern shops and most large supermarkets)

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon of harissa paste

Salt 

Pepper

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas

4 free-range eggs

To serve

About 3 generous tablespoons of natural yoghurt 

1/2 teaspoon of harissa paste

Handful of fresh mint

1/2 teaspoon of sumac (a lovely spice made from ground berries)

Start by heating a drizzle of olive oil in a large, oven-proof skillet. (If you don’t have a skillet, make the sauce in a regular frying pan and then transfer it to a roasting dish before cracking in the eggs and cooking in the oven.)

Finely chop the onion, garlic and chilli. Fry the onion in the hot pan for 3 minutes until starting to take on a golden colour.

Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a further minute, stirring well. Add the Ras El Hanout and stir well, cooking for less than a minute. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes. Fill the empty tomato tin halfway with hot water and add the sauce. Finally, mix in the harissa and leave this sauce to simmer for about 15 minutes, until thickened and glossy.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the chickpeas and add them to the sauce, allowing them another 5 minutes or so to bubble and heat through.

Heat your oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas Mark 6 and make sure it’s good and hot when the eggs go in.

When you’re happy with your sauce, make four spaces in the sauce and crack the eggs into them. Now put the lot into the hot oven and cook for about 15 minutes, until the egg has set but is still a little runny – easier said than done! My oven usually gets the eggs there after around 12 minutes so you may have to experiment with your timings according to your own oven.

Meanwhile, mix the natural yoghurt and harissa. Finely chop the fresh mint.

When the eggs are done, remove from the oven and serve with dollops of the harissa yoghurt, scatterings of the freshly chopped mint and a sprinkle of the sumac. Yum yum!

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As with many January’s that have come before, 2013′s has begun with the optimism and promise of a detox diet. I’ve renounced my double-threat vices of booze and smokes and am laying off the naughtier things in life for a while. With one cup of coffee a day to keep me going, I’m stuffing my face full of spinach, sprouts (not the Christmas kind) and seeds. A week in and I’m feeling very righteous indeed.

I don’t like to be a defeatist but experience tells me that my new found kitchen virtue will have to fight hard to survive throughout the year. I don’t want to give up all my naughty treats this year (I haven’t gone bananas) but I’m planning on making 2013 a healthier one by restoring a bit of balance.

Somehow, in all the time I’ve spent learning about cooking, I had neglected to make my own granola. It’s an absolute dodlle to make and, if you are worried about processed sugar and the like, making your own means you can completely control what goes in to it.

I made the school girl’s error of adding the berries and raisins into the mix when I was baking it. It was still lovely but the berries took on a slightly bitter taste having been toasted and they should be only mixed through the granola after the oats and all have been toasted. Just another reminder that I still have a helluva lot to learn about cooking.

I used what I had in my kitchen cupboards for this granola, which meant I had a berry, nut and seed mix, giving the end result a lovely texture. You can use any dried berry (remember to put them in at the end of cooking), your favourite nuts and seeds.

My brother Peter lives and works in Saudi Arabia where we both grew up. He was back in Dublin for Christmas and brought me the most amazing gift of Yemeni Sidr honey, a beautifully pure and caramel-esque treat. Myself and Niall’s shelves are stacked with delicious honey from around Ireland (including our local Rialto honey, which is our favourite) but we’re now referring to this Yemeni honey as “the good honey”. It’s that awesome. I used this sparingly in my granola so if you’re using a lighter honey feel free to add more than what I’ve stated below.

What you need for a batch of granola (makes about six servings, easily doubled)

About 200g of jumbo oats

1 handful of chopped pecan halves

1 handful of sunflower seeds

1 handful of pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon of linseeds

6 to 8 tablespoons of honey

3 tablespoons of light sunflower oil

1 handful of mixed dried berries (I had raisins, sultanas and cranberries)

Start by heating your oven to 190C/170C fan/Gas Mark 5.

Spread the oats in a layer in a large roasting dish and add the nuts and seeds. Drizzle over the honey and sunflower oil. (You can see I added berries here in the photo but you should leave those out til the end – my mistake)

Mix everything together, using a fork to break up any larger clumps.

Now bake the mixture in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, mixing it two or three times during that process to make sure the oats are evenly baked.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a bowl to cool.

Finally, transfer to an air-tight container. This will keep for up to a month – not that it will last that long Best served with natural yoghurt and an extra drizzle of honey. Also lovely with fresh fruit or even some lovely, cold milk.

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I love giving friends edible gifts around this time of year. In the past, I’ve given Christmas spiced cupcakes and chutney, or simple bundles of cheeses and crackers. Finding myself a little stretched for time this year, I was looking for something simple yet special to help pals and colleagues ring in the festive season.

I was reading Edible Ireland’s post on matching craft beers and Christmas dinner and had a recollection of her Chocolate Bark with Almonds and Candied Bacon that had been on my list to try ever since drooling over it on her blog on February 2011. They sound a little cray-cray but the combination of the salty bacon and the velvety chocolate has won over many a disbelievers since I started delivering packages of these broken bits of loveliness last week. Best thing is, they’re terrifically simple to make. I’ve adapted Kristin from Edible Ireland’s original recipe a little bit but a huge thank you to her for sharing the recipe with us – can’t believe it took me nearly two years to try it! The success of these bite-sized pressies really relies on the quality of chocolate you use so be sure to use your favourite stuff on this.

What you need for Chocolate, Bacon and Orange Bark (makes about 16 to 20 pieces)

About 100g of good quality bacon/pancetta lardons

3 x 100g of good quality milk chocolate

1 x 100g of good quality orange-flavoured dark chocolate

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

A handful of flaked almonds

A handful of roughly chopped dried cranberries

Start by dry-frying the bacon/pancetta lardons in a small frying pan over a medium heat until crispy and browned. This will take about five to eight minutes. Once browned, transfer to a plate to drain on kitchen towel.

Meanwhile, break the chocolate into chunks and put into a large, heat-proof bowl. Melt the chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring constantly until the chocolate is smooth and glossy.

Once the bacon and chocolate are done, cook the brown sugar in a small frying over a medium heat until it has caramelised. Let it melt for three minutes or so, stirring a lot, being careful not to let it go too far. This is easy to do! So keep an eye on it. Once it’s nice and melty and golden, it’s done. Mix this with the cooked bacon until the lardons are well coated and sticky. Yum.

Now mix this bacon into the melted chocolate, blending well.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment/greaseproof paper. Use a spoon to spread the chocolate and bacon mix evenly over the baking sheet so that you have a large rectangle of glossy bacon chocolate.

Sprinkle the handful of flaked almonds and handful of cranberries over the top. Leave to cool before putting in the fridge for an hour (or overnight). Chop roughly into squares and divide them as equally as you can between friends!

Just in case I don’t get to check in before Christmas to say hello, wishing you and yours a very happy holiday and a delicious New Year!

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