Chrimbo Eve

Aaah Christmas Eve. Time for relaxing with nice food and drinkies. No red meat/poultry on the menu for us tonight cos our friend Heidi is a pescatarian. Luckily I've had a monster trout in the freezer awaiting its fate for a couple of months (thank you Annie for the monster trout!). In fact I had nearly all of the ingredients in stock...wahooo! *mental note* must get out more

So on the menu........Italian-style trout en croute......you will need....

1 large trout fillet

200g puff pastry, rolled out nice and thin - freeze the rest for another time

1 tbsp sun-dreid tomato pesto

2 large tomatoes, in thick slices

1 ball mozzarella

Fresh basil

1 egg

And using my handy step-by-step piccies this is how you do it.

1. Spoon the pesto onto the centre of your rolled out pastry, spread out to match the shape of your fillet. Lay fillet on top (Pic 1), tear over the basil, add salt/pepper.

2. Lay the tomato slices down the centre of the fillet, then tear the mozzarella into chunks and place that over the fillet (Pic 2)

3. Now crimp the edges in a very loose/messy way (Pic 3), egg wash the visible pastry bits and bung it all in the oven for 35 mins at 200C(180C fan)

And here's the end result. To accompany Green salad plus Stokesy made couscous salad with loads of herbs, sun-dried tomatoes plus the oil from the tomatoes (hahaha there goes his rough tough builder image...sorry Stokesy!).

Show recipes - Southern and Royal - Part 2

Sticky beef stir-fry with cabbage and cashew nuts - Serves 4

o 2 tbsp vegetable oil
o 2 x 200g Manx sirloin steaks, trimmed of fat + thinly sliced
o 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
o 2.5cm piece fresh ginger, finely sliced into strips
o 50g unsalted cashew nuts, chopped
o 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
o 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
o 3 tbsp light soy sauce
o Pinch of chilli flakes
200g Manx green cabbage

Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over a high heat. Add the beef, in 2 batches, and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Remove the beef and set aside.
2. Add the garlic, ginger and cashews and stir-fry for just a minute, then add the sweet chilli sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, chilli flakes and 100ml water.Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage to the sauce and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then return the beef to the wok to heat through

Queenie stir-fry with spring onion - Serves 4

o 1 tbsp Ellerslie Farm rapeseed oil
o 1" root ginger finely sliced
o 2 cloves garlic finely sliced
o 2 bunches Manx spring onions, finely sliced
o 24 Manx Queenies
o 50ml soy sauce
o 50ml water
o 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, add the garlic, ginger and spring onion and fry for a minute or two until softened.
2. Then add the queenies and cook for a further 2 mins until they have browned slightly, add the soy and water, taste add more water or soy if required then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Eat immediately!

Ground lamb with Hoummos and pine nuts - Serves 4



o 2 tbsp pinenuts, lightly toasted
o 3 tbsp Manx rapeseed oil
o ½ large Manx onion
o 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
o 170g Manx lamb, minced
o 1 tub of hoummos – ooh a Delia-style cheat!
o Sprinkling of paprika
o A few leaves of Manx flat leaf parsley

Method
1. Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat and lightly toast the pine nuts.
2. Remove from the pan and set aside
3. Add the olive oil to the pan and gently fry the onion until golden. Add the cinnamon.
4. Now turn the heat up and when the oil is sizzling add the lamb. Use a fork to the break up the lamb. You want it to be nice and crispy/browned.
6. Add the pine nuts and remove from the heat.
7. Put the hoummos into a serving dish and layer the lamb mixture on top. Sprinkle with paprika and the leaves of parsley. Great with pitta bread

Edith’s choc chip cookies - Serves 4

4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
5oz plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder - thoroughly mix with the flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz porridge oats
6oz chocolate, smashed into big pieces, use your preferred ratio of dark:milk:white

Method
1. Put all ingredients except the chocolate into your mixing bowl and mix/Kenwood until combined.
2. Add the chocolate and fold in gently using a large metal spoon. Arguments frequently occur in my house due to over stirring and the breaking up of the chocolate chunks. Hmmmm
3. Put big blobs of the mixture onto your baking sheet (use silicone paper) then bake in the oven at 180 for 12 minutes. Great with cream

Show recipes - Southern and Royal - Part 1

Kipper and mustard pate - Serves 4

Ingredients
o 1 pair of filleted and deboned kippers
o 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
o 2 tbsp Manx butter, melted

Method
Place all of your ingredients in a medium size bowl.
Simply mash together with a fork. Taste and add more mustard if necessary. Delicious served with crusty bread and green salad

Crab pate - Serves 4

Ingredients
o 100g mixed brown and white cooked crabmeat
o 75g melted butter
o 1 garlic clove, crushed
o Black pepper
o Lemon juice

Method
Place all of your ingredients in a medium size bowl.
Simply mash together with a fork. Taste and add more pepper or lemon juice if necessary. Delicious served with crusty bread and green salad

Mexi-Manx Beef Tacos - Serves 4

Ingredients
o 300g minced beef
o 2 tbsp oil
o 1 large onion, finely chopped
o 2 cloves garlic, crushed
o 1tsp ground cumin
o 1 fresh chilli, finely chopped
o Dash of soy sauce
o Salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar

Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft and golden. Increase the heat and add the minced beef, frying until brown. Add the cumin, soy sauce and chilli. Taste and add salt, pepper and sugar as required.Serve with salsa, grated cheddar and tortillas

Mayonnaise - Makes 250ml

Ingredients
o 2 Manx egg yolks
o ½ tsp Dijon mustard
o 1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar
o Good pinch salt
o 200ml Ellerslie Farm rapeseed oil

Method
Put the egg yolks into a bowl. Add the salt, vinegar and mustard, and mix. Gradually add the oil, drop by drop, whisking all the time. You should start to see the mixture thickening. Keep adding the oil as you whisk until there is none left. Season to taste.
It should be smooth and creamy in texture, looking absolutely nothing like the mayo you buy in the shops :o)
NOTE: If you add the oil too quickly the mixture will split i.e. it will look thin and the oil will just float on top. If this happens, break another egg yolk into a clean bowl and pour the split mixture into it, drop by drop, whisking all the time until it emulsifies

Quesadillas - Makes 1 quesadilla

Ingredients
o 2 tortillas
o 1 large handful of grated Manx cheddar
o Salad – tomatoes and lettuce make a good combo

Method
Place your frying pan over a medium heat and wait for it to heat through. Add one tortilla, then your fillings, the other tortilla on top. Wait for the bottom tortilla to brown, flip it over, brown the other side. Voila! Remove from the pan, cut into triangles and eat.
TIP: Try the different flavoured cheddars i.e. black peppercorn or sweet chilli

Super Berry Smoothie - Serves 1

Ingredients
o 300ml Manx milk
o Large handful of Manx berries – Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blackcurrant all work well
o 1 Banana
o Frozen Ushtey

Method
Put all ingredients into a blender. Hit the button! Drink!

Thai Pork Noodle Salad - Serves 2-3

Ingredients
o 350g minced Manx pork - fried until crispy
o 20 pods of Manx peas
o 1 handful of Manx green beans, boiled for 4 minutes (blanched being the fancy chef term)
o 1 bunch Manx spring onions - finely sliced
o a big handful of peanuts
o 2 tbsp fresh Manx coriander, roughly chopped
o 2 portions of egg noodles - cooked according to packet instructions

Dressing
o 2 tbsp Manx rapeseed oil
o 1" ginger grated
o 1 clove garlic grated
o 1/2 red chilli
o juice of 1 lime

Method
Combine main salad ingredients in a big bowl. Combine dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake well. Add the dressing to the main salad, give it a good stir and leave for 5-10 minutes so that the flavours from the dressing can be absorbed by the rest of the salad.
Tip: For extra flavour pour over the pan juices from cooking the pork over the noodles.

Lunch for Wee Jan

Not wanting to enjoy a weekend off without doing just a little bit of cooking I got roped into doing a lunch party for my ma. She helps me out loads for work so it's a fair exchange.

On the menu was: a side of hot smoked salmon from hot Tim at Island Seafare in Port St Mary, a boned out leg of lamb with garlic from Mark at Teares in Ramsey, a basil and tomato frittata made by me. For side dishes we had some nice, simple summery options of roasted new potatoes, gujurathi green beans, green salad and loads of different bread s from Liz @ The Good Loaf.

For puds: White chocolate and raspberry tart (another special commision from Liz), meringues and loads of summer fruit

I have one bit of advice from that day.......don't put a glass plate in the oven for more than 5 minutes. Due to my tireless experimenting I have discovered that it will explode quite soon after that.....oops

Summery Fish Pie

Facing a weekend of no cooking work I fancied having friends round for dinner. I took charge of dessert (egg custard tart) whilst my guests got on the case with the main. Step up Heidi and Michelle! Oh and Coffee Bean helped out too.

They used a Jamie Oliver recipe for a light fish pie with no cream and loads of veggies. From my position of sitting on my tail at the kitchen table (drinking ginger beer yum) it all looked pretty easy ;o) I can assure you it was absolutely delicious

IOM Today come to school

Rachel (shorthand expert), Annabelle (fishatarian), Mike (missed dessert!) and Gary (queenie virgin) from IOM Newspapers came to the school today to photo and film me teaching them a couple of recipes. They requested local + seasonal....so that's what they got. Who says I can't do as I'm told?!

I'll post links to the video and photos as soon as they're online.

On the menu:

1. Queenie stir-fry with spring onion, ginger and tiny carrots
2. Raspberry shortbread stack with blackcurrant puree

And for once I am actually going to provide you with proper recipes......here ya go...

Queenie stir-fry with spring onion and baby carrots - Serves 4

1 tbsp Ellerslie Farm rapeseed oil - from Pentti on 472717
1" root ginger finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
1 bunch baby Manx carrots - From Ken on 880370
2 bunches Manx spring onions finely sliced - from Bry Radcliffe
24 Manx Queenies - from Desmonds in Ramsey
50ml soy sauce
50ml water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, add the garlic, ginger, carrots and spring onion and fry for a minute or two until softened. Then add the queenies and cook for a further 2 minutes until they have browned slightly, add the soy and water, taste and more water or soy if required then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Eat immediately.

Delicate shortbread biscuits - Makes 25

170g white plain flour - Laxey Glen Mills
110g butter - IOM Creameries
55g sugar

Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the butter. Gather the mixture together and knead lightly. Roll out to 7mm thick. Cut into rounds with a 6cm cutter. Bake in the oven at 180˚C for 8-15 minutes depending on thickness. These biscuits burn very easily so keep a close eye on them.

Serve layered with whipped double cream, soft fruit and fruit coulis. Thank you for Ken Maynard for the lovely fruit too, blackcurrants and raspberries. Thank you to the sparrows for leaving me some!

Queenie Festival....including celeb chefs woohoooo!

Pictures courtesy of Isle of Man Queenie Festival

Queenie Festival 09 was a great success. I was taking care of the Food Theatre where we had a load of queenie/seafood demos. A big thank you to Butlers Choice (ask for Sue on 614805) for sponsoring the demo kitchen, they provided Global knives (yes, you should be jealous), Le Creuset pans, Induction hobs and loads more.

On stage we had Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, top seafood chefs from the UK. There are loads of photos here on flickr. We also had Joan from Tanroagan showing us Queenie Pie with samphire, Anne from The Wine Cellar matching wine and seafood, Paul from Moore's smokehouse with his kippers and crab, plus the Laxey School recipe book crew including their star chef Richard.

Cookery School - Jenny + friends

Jenny and her intrepid followers (Trudi, Simon and Clint) had a day at my cookery school on Sunday. Lucky them! They'd thought long and hard about what they wanted to learn and decided to go for broke with some technical dishes. The day started with slow braising the pork for the main course, making pasta dough for the starter, filleting the fish (with the aid of my special examination gloves) and then a quick break with some Thai noodle soup (it's important to keep your strength up).

Here Jenny and Simon team up to roll out some perfect sheets of ravioli......there was very little marital squabbling which is very different from my house!

The first dish we worked towards was 'Open ravioli with poached trout, creamed peas + lettuce, topped with a dill foam'.......so nice and simple ;o) Everyone worked together to get the dish out. Trudi + Clint on pasta, trout and foam duties. Jenny + Simon doing the honours with the creamed peas and lettuce. As you can see from the picture it was a success. Layers of light pasta with delicate trout and vegetables in between. A lovely summer dish. Nice work team!

Next up.......Slow braised pork with pan-fried gurnard, plus a nice beany tomato-ey stew with a grain mustard sauce and lovely crispy crackling. Did the team keep it together and get another perfect dish out??? Course they did! This time Jenny + Simon were on fish duty whilst Trudi + Clint put the sauce together.

I think Clint was just checking that he had the biggest portion..........very sensible.

A good day for all involved :o)

House of Mannanan

After a quick turn-around after cookery school it was down to Peel to do a dinner at the House of Mannanan. The only small problem being that there was no kitchen to from and initiall...no lighting! You can see me working in the dungeon once we got some lights hooked up


Candy from Finishing Touches had the table all set up.....ooh doesn't it look lovely. Candy was also very helpful with the 'no kitchen' issue. Her house is just round the corner so I finished cooking the main (Lamb Tagine) in her oven and then ferried it to the job where I had a hot cupboard. Easy!
Mmmm canapes. I love canapes!!! I love making them all cute and pretty.......oh and eating them of course. Here we have frittata with roasted tomatoes and wild garlic flowers. I got the idea for these as I was driving home on Thursday and saw the flowers absolutely everywhere. Aren't they gorgeous?

Starter was big sharing platters of hot and cold smoked salmon with pots of dill + mustard mayo and lovely crusty bread. Mmmm mmmmmmmmmmm

Open ravioli with poached trout and dill foam

Okay so the last few dishes from the week. By the way we did way more than I have posted up. Jo is giving Rob a hand with his ravioli. My word, that's a long one.

Peta made this lovely layered sheet of ravioli. Looks wicked doesn't it!

And the finished dish. I think that warrants a ......Ta daaa! Layers of mussels, clams, peas, braised lettuce, cream, ravioli and trout. Topped with a dill foam. Yes a dill foam, check it out! I thought it was some high skill chef thing well out of my reach but it's not too hard to do. Of course you will have to bribe me to tell you the secret.

Shellfish Bisque with spring rolls

Mmm I love shellfish bisque and I love spring rolls. Luckily for me some genius at Ashburton decided to do a starter combining the two. This makes a lovely light summer lunch (until you eat eight spring rolls....oops)

Week 2 @ Ashburton - Red mullet nicoise

So it's back to the stove for my second week of training at Ashburton. What a great dish to start the week with. The colours are just fantastic! Oh and it tasted pretty good too.

We had a new chef today, Stuart. He is lovely. Here he is putting the finishing touches to our main for the evening tasting.

Final dishes - Surf n Turf and Lemon tart

Ponce about for long enough with your presentation and this is what you get (oh and slightly cold food in my case). Beany tomatoey stew into little piles, topped with crispy fried mackerel, slices of pork belly and all finished with a meaux mustard sauce.........oh and don't forget to crush the crackling and add that as sprinkles (ooh I like my sprinkles). Ta daaa! Perhaps Gordon Ramsey should change his catchphrase from 'Done!' to 'Ta daaaaa!'

Nestling in that group as we all looked on in amazement........Penny was putting the perfect brulee crunchy top onto our lemon tart.

The finished lemon tart

Ooh what a motley crew. Here you can see our group in their full.........errmm.......glory

Day 5 - Fish fish fish

We had a new boss today, David. He showed us how to fillet flat and round fish, prepare squid and scallops.

I loved preparing the squid.......hmmm I enjoyed eating it even more though. The tentacles are absolutely the best bit. Pan-fried very quickly with a splash of sweet chilli sauce added at the end.

Ready for a squid fact??? Course you are! Squid is the most widely eaten seafood on the entire planet, so there you go.

Day 3 @ Ashburton - Smoked haddock with poached egg

Day Three.......I tell you all this cooking is tiring. Up today is pork butchery, cooking en papilotte, apple mash, Thai sorbet, tuille biscuits.....*deep breath*......and pastry.

Above you see my lunch. A perfectly poached egg, buttered spinach, smoked haddock and an infused curry oil. A kind of posh kedgeree.

We added loads of nutmeg and salt (no surprise there, prepare to reconsider your position on seasoning if you are a salt-free person)......and a little dash of butter to the spinach.....delicious.

Day 1 @ Ashburton - Smoked salmon risotto

First day at the cookery school....what a day! We covered a lot of techniques. I'll post a pic of each dish and give you a brief run through.

The teaching is fantastic. We had Darrin looking after us today. He has worked in Michelin starred restaurants so I think it's safe to say he knows his stuff. Our group was nicely balanced with really friendly people from a variety of professional backgrounds.

So the risotto......first we had to hot smoke our salmon (as you do)......make a vegetable stock........chop our onion + garlic into teeny tiny pieces......make a saffron infusion. Then began the risotto process adding the stock bit by bit to the rice to a lovely creamy finish. add butter at the end then the peas/dill/salmon. The result was a beautifully balanced dish. A pretty good start to my two weeks of training!

Basil's Valentine Meal

As it is the international night of romance/cards/flowers/expensive meals out we decided to ignore all that commercial b*llocks and have lovely dinner at home with Wee Jan and Basil in attendance. Basil gave me Indian Cooking Made Easy* for Xmas so we broke that out and cooked a few dishes from it.

*It should be noted at this point that the only reason Basil bought me that cookery book was because he wants to do bad stuff with the author, Anjum Anand.

For main it was 1. Coconut and Chilli Halibut 2. Tandoori Salmon

On the side 1. Toasted chickpeas 2. a really refreshing cucumber/tomato/green chilli/peanut/coconut salad combo 3. cucumber raita

Then for puds it was a baked concoction, combining condensed milk/greek yoghurt/ cardamon/raisins. I just love that hint of cardamon. This recipe was taken from Atul Kochar's Simple Indian, if you're into Indian food you have to get this. The flavour combinations are incredible. One thing people often say to me is that they don't like Indian food because they think it is too oily. Aaargh not true.......Get this book people!