The Irish Farmers’ Market Cookbook

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

400g (14 oz) tomatoes, chopped

250ml (9 fl oz) white wine salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 spring onions (scallions), sliced

1 bunch of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped

juice of 1 lemon

How do I clean and prepare mussels?

First, check if the mussels are alive (dead ones should be discarded). To do this place them under cold running water, if they close they’re good to eat, if they remain open throw them away.

Clean the shells by placing them under cold running water and scrub off any dirt. Pull the beard off the closed shells

Place a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and chillies and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and white wine, cover the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, and then add the cleaned mussels and spring onions. Cover the pan and cook over a medium heat until all the mussels have opened – this should take about 8–10 minutes, shaking the pan gently and tossing them in the tomatoes every couple of minutes. (Throw away any mussels that do not open after cooking.)

Scatter the coriander over the mussels and pour the lemon juice over the top just before serving. Eat with a big basket of sourdough (see page 27) to soak up all the juices!

Seafood Risotto (#ulink_1807ab98-1d9d-5954-9c26-d9f1c21d4e71)

For centuries, seaweed has been part of the Irish diet, which is not really surprising as we have a coastline of over 3,000km (1,864 miles). It is renewable, plentiful and packed with nutrients, potassium and iodine. It sustained communities throughout the famine and is still eaten in pubs in the north, dried and fried, as an alternative to crisps. Smoked dilisk adds a subtle flavour to this risotto, and is widely available in health food stores and fishmongers (see Directory for suppliers).

Serves 6

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 red pepper, deseeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

500g (1lb 2 oz) risotto rice

salt and freshly ground black pepper

500ml (17½ fl oz) hot fish stock

100ml (3½ fl oz) dry white wine

300g (10 oz) white fish (e.g. cod, haddock or ling), cut into 2.5cm (1in) pieces

5g (

/

oz) smoked dilisk

500g (1lb 2 oz) fresh, cleaned mussels (see page 44 for guidelines)

500g (1lb 2 oz) langoustines, whole in their shells

50g (2 oz) Desmond cheese (or Parmesan)

lemon wedges, to serve

Place a saucepan over a medium heat, drizzle in the olive oil and add the onion, pepper and garlic. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir the rice into the pan and season with salt and pepper. Slowly add in the hot fish stock and white wine, stirring as you do, then add in the white fish and smoked dilisk. Continue to cook until the rice has absorbed all the liquid, stirring often. When the rice is al dente (still a bit of a bite) stir in the cleaned mussels and langoustines. Cover and leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the mussels have opened.

Grate some Desmond (or Parmesan) cheese over the top, and serve hot with lemon wedges.

Olivier and Maja (#ulink_60b15135-5aa8-5cc7-9854-5738a80fb014)

Olivier Beajouan and his partner, Maja Binder, are a marriage made in gastro heaven! They live and work in Castlegregory, overlooking the Atlantic, in a commercial kitchen, smokehouse and dairy, which was built and renovated entirely themselves. Maja produces Dingle Peninsula cheese and Olivier makes Irish seaweed-based products. Their separate passions come together in Maja’s cheese, which is flavoured with Olivier’s seaweed.

Olivier came to sea vegetables through a course he was taking in shiatsu. As part of the course he studied nutrition and foraged for wild food in the forest and sea. He became fascinated by the possibilities of seaweed and of reviving the seaweed food culture. He started out making seaweed pâté, but as his success has grown he has expanded his product base to include a sensational tapenade of sea vegetables, pickled kombu, and my favourite: spaghetti-shaped seaweed marinated in fresh ginger, tomato and vinegar. It is wonderful with fresh taglioni, a drizzle of olive oil and grated Desmond cheese. Olivier also produces fantastic fish sausages with lemon, spices, seaweed and onion. They taste great and are very low in fat.

Traditionally, seaweed was washed, cut into strips and cooked with boiled potatoes and bacon, or used in soups and stews as a thickener. It sustained communities throughout the famine, but people stopped eating it regularly when other vegetables became more readily available. Today, thanks to producers like Olivier, seaweed is enjoying a renaissance as a vegetable in its own right.

Maja made cheese in Italy, the Swiss Alps and Germany before coming to Ireland to produce hard and semi-hard cow’s milk cheeses. Maja follows the ancient Irish tradition of flavouring cheese with seaweed. Her gold award-winning Dilisk cheese is flavoured with dark red sea grass, which speckles the cheese’s pale yellow hue and adds a hint of salt.

Maja uses raw cows’ milk, all from one herd, to make the cheese. Like all the great cheese producers, she believes you cannot get the individual flavours that make a cheese unique to a particular place if you don’t use unpasteurised milk. When she first started selling the cheese, customers were unaccustomed, and a little scared, by the mould that grows on the outside of the cheese. However, the cheese tasted so good they kept coming back. Next time you’re at the farmers’ markets look out for raw-milk cheeses and seaweed products.

Maja and Olivier with all their fantastic cheeses.

Seared Scallops with a Madeira Dressing on Rocket (#ulink_2dd284ca-43b8-5b1e-9926-6807eb3903c1)

Terry Sherran, chef at Mackerel in Dublin, cooked this dish for me. It is the most delicious way I have ever eaten scallops – the tastes are so beautifully delicate.

Serves 2

240ml (8¼fl oz) dry sherry

350ml (12 fl oz) Madeira

25g (1oz) brown sugar

1 shallot, diced

5 star anise