Using Ingredients from Sheridans Irish Food Festival Sunday 27^th May 2012

Listen to Today with Pat Kenny (25/05/2012)

Peppered Smoked Tuna

• 1. Roast your pepper under a grill or on bbq until completely black all over, put in a bowl cover with cling film. This helps to remove skin.
  2. Boil a pot of water with a little salt put in nettle leaves for 5 seconds , remove and place in a bowl of cold water (this takes away the sting of the nettle).
  3. Remove nettles from water and pat dry with kitchen paper, chop finely.
  4. Take the pepper from bowl , remove skin by simply rubbing off by hand or with some kitchen paper. Remove seeds and chop in to bite size pieces.
  5. Mix together nettles, pepper, and cream cheese and lemon juice.
  6. Present cream cheese on plate with tuna resting on top (here we used a garnish of fresh cut pea shoots from the forge garden, but anything pretty and green will work!)

Can also serve as a Canapé, if the tune is broken in to smaller pieces, individually placed on top of a brown bread cracker with a dollop of the nettle cream cheese underneath!

Loin of Lamb with Herb & Mushroom Crust
(Accompanied by Hazelnut Mash & Wilted Spinach)

• Loin of lamb, trimmed back to just meat (we used lamb from Ryan's Farm in Ballinlough)
• Small tub seasoned flour
• 2 Tablespoons Irish Mustard
• 2 Slices of batch loaf made into bread crumbs, crusts included
• Fresh chopped Parsley
• Fresh chopped Thyme
• 2 Large Mushrooms chopped finely (we used two lovely wild browncap mushrooms foraged in the garden of the Forge Restaurant
• 1 tablespoon Irish Rapeseed Oil
• Knob of Butter

Other cuts to use would be cutlets or lamb steaks from the leg

Hazelnut Cream Potato

• 2 peeled Roosters
• 2 tablespoons Hazelnuts (these give a lovely texture and finish to potato)
• 1/4 pt cream

1. Boil potato until soft
2. Mash well and season with salt & pepper and as much cream as needed to form a creamy but still relatively firm texture (this can vary, depending on the potato and time of year)
3. Place hazelnuts in warm pan and roast In oven for 6/7 minutes @ 180C / Gas 5. Allow to cool and rub in hands to take off outer shell , then blend the nuts in a food processor.

Wilted Spinach

• Spinach
• Knob of Butter
• Rapeseed Oil

1. Wash spinach well
2. In a frying pan, melt the butter with a little rapseed oil, add the spinach until just warmed, season and take off the heat , toss gently and serve

Assemble the dish: Herb crusted loin of lamb, hazelnut cream potato & wilted spinach

Sheep’s Milk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb

• 3 Gelatine Leaves
• 250ml Milk (we used Sheep’s milk from J&L Grubb, the makers of Cashel & Crozier Blue Cheese)
• 250ml double cream
• 1 Vanilla Pod (split lengthways, seeds scraped out)
• 25g Sugar

1. Soak the gelatine leaves in a little cold water until soft.
2. Place the milk, cream, vanilla pod and seeds and sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer. Remove the vanilla pod and discard
3. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves, then add to the pan and take off the heat. Stir until the gelatine has dissolved
4. Divide the mixture among four ramekins and leave to cool. Place into the fridge for at least an hour, until set.

Stewed Rhubarb

• 4 Stems of Rhubarb
• 150g caster sugar
• Zest of ½ orange
• Juice of 1 orange
• 25g Root Ginger

1. Clean rhubarb and chop
2. Place in a pan with rest of ingredients
3. Cook on a low heat for 12/15 mins let cool and serve alongside the set Panna Cotta