An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea (65 page)

Homity pie is one Doctor O'Reilly brought back from the war like his corned beef curry. Crème brûlée was taught to me by an Irish girl who'd worked in the Café de Paris before she took service with his lordship. Eton Mess comes from the same lass. It's very highheejun and served at the Eton and Harrow cricket match. Mind you, I've no time for cricket. Give me a good game of hurling or camogie any day.

And my own ma showed me and my two sisters, Sinead and Fidelma, the making of the orange sponge cake.

Have fun with the recipes and I hope you enjoy the results.

D
UBLIN
C
ODDLE

This is a traditional Irish dish and was often made on a Thursday evening to use up all the leftover meat products in the days when Catholics were not meant to eat meat on Fridays. Doctor O'Reilly remembers seeing and indeed smelling it being cooked when he worked for Doctor Corrigan in Dublin in the 1930s, and he tells me that the great Irish writer James Joyce made several references to it in his books.

This is a very simple one-pot meal and can be cooked on top of the stove or in the oven. Just make sure that the pot has a tight-fitting lid.

Here's what you need:

500 g / 1 lb. pork sausages cut into ½-inch pieces

250 g / 8 oz. rashers of bacon, roughly chopped

300 mL / 10 fluid oz. chicken stock

2 onions, sliced

8 medium potatoes, cut into thin slices

½ stick / 2 oz. butter

Salt and pepper and a good handful of chopped parsley

If you plan to cook the coddle in the oven, preheat it to 180ºC / 350ºF.

Put the sausage, bacon, and stock into a pan and boil for about 5 minutes. Remove the meat from the pot, reserving the stock.

Spread a layer of sliced onions on the bottom of a casserole dish and continue with a layer of potatoes. Next half of the bacon and sausage mixture, and season well with salt and pepper. Repeat the layering process again, and pour the stock in last. Add half of the chopped parsley and dot the top with butter. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for about an hour. Finish with the remaining parsley and serve with some nice bread. My Guinness bread is particularly good with this (see
A Dublin Student Doctor
).

H
OMITY
P
IE

This recipe was given to me by Doctor O'Reilly when he came back from the war. He said that Mrs. Marjorie Wilcoxson used to make it and that it was invented by the Land Girls, using ingredients they could grow in the fields.

The pastry recipe is my own. I started using in it 1948 when Doctor O'Reilly bought us a fridge with a shmall-little freezer. He was a terrible man for keeping some of his medicines in the fridge, so.

Pastry

113 g / 4 oz. butter

180 g / 6½ oz. plain flour

Pinch of salt

Pinch of baking powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

85 g / 3 oz. strong Cheddar cheese, grated coarsely

2½ tablespoons ice water

1½ tablespoons cider vinegar

Cut the butter into small, ¾-inch cubes. Put into a plastic bag and freeze until solid. Place the flour, salt, baking powder, and cayenne pepper in another plastic bag and freeze for at least half an hour.

I used to beat the pie crust dough with my old Sunbeam cake mixer, but today's cook should place the flour mixture into a food processor and blend for a few seconds to combine. Add the cheddar cheese and pulse for about 20 seconds. Now add the butter and pulse until the butter cubes are as small as a pea. The mixture will be in particles. Add the water and the vinegar and pulse again. Spoon it all back into the plastic bag. Hold the open end of the bag closed and knead the mixture with your other hand until it all holds together in one piece and feels stretchy when pulled. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, but better if you can leave overnight.

Line a deep 8-inch pie tin with the pastry and leave covered in the refrigerator until needed.

Filling

800 g /1 lb. 12 oz. potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

25 g / 1 oz. butter

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

3 onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

110 g / 4 oz. spinach or broccoli

175 g / 6 oz. strong Cheddar cheese, grated coarsely

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Pinches of nutmeg, black pepper, and salt

250 mL heavy cream/½ pint/10 oz.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 15 minutes or until just tender. Drain them and slice them and set aside to cool.

Melt the butter and oil in a frying pan and fry the onions over a low heat until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook gently for a couple of minutes, being careful not to let it burn.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC / 350ºF.

Combine the potatoes, onions, garlic, spinach (or broccoli), half of the cheese, parsley, and seasonings and mix everything together well. Leave to cool. Then place this mixture on the pastry base in the pie tin. Pour the cream over and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Place the tin on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Leave it to cool for about 5 minutes before cutting into thick wedges. Serve with a salad.

C
RÈME
B
RÛLÉE

You may wonder what a woman from County Cork knows about foreign geegaws like this. I learned it like I told you from a friend of mine, Emer Cullen, who had worked at the Café de Paris . Himself loves to surprise visitors who think they'll be getting a traditional County Down dinner at Number One. It's fun to make. Give it a try.

50 mL / 2 fluid oz. / ¼ cup whole milk

450 mL / 16 fluid oz. / 2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla essence or the seeds from 2 vanilla pods

5 egg yolks

75 g / 2½ oz. brown sugar, plus 40 g / 1½ oz. more for the topping

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF.

Pour the milk and the cream into a heavy-bottomed pan and bring it to almost a simmer, ever so gently. Add the vanilla to the mixture and give it a good stir round. Now you whisk in the egg yolks and 2½ oz. of the sugar, and pour the mixture into a serving dish or individual ramekin dishes. If you don't have time to finish them now, you can pop them into the fridge and finish them later.

When you are ready to continue, put the dishes into a deep baking pan and pour hot water into the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the dishes. This is called a
bain-marie
. Himself explained that this was used in an early form of chemical science to heat things very slowly and gently. But I digress. Now put the pan in the preheated oven and cook the brûlées until they are set. This should take about 30–35 minutes. Now let them cool. You can leave them in the fridge if you do not need to serve them immediately.

Now for the topping. All you need to do is to sprinkle the remaining sugar on top of each dish and caramelise it. I just love to use my blowtorch that Donal Donnelly got for me from Belfast, but if you don't have one you can brown them under a hot grill.

E
TON
M
ESS

After you have made the créme brûlèe you will have five egg whites left over. These can be frozen for later use or refrigerated. You could make a simple pavlova, of course, but I think this recipe is more unusual and simply delicious, and dear Doctor O'Reilly with his sweet tooth just loves it. He tells me that it may have been invented by a dog at a picnic, but that's another story. You'll need a meringue to start with.

Meringue

5 egg whites

285 g/10 oz. fine white sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon vinegar

The secret for successful meringue is to make sure that not a single drop of egg yolk gets into the mixture and to ensure that your bowl and beaters are perfectly clean and grease free. I rub a splash of vinegar on a paper towel round the bowl and beaters.

Whisk the egg whites just long enough to see them turn a greenish colour, then, still beating, add ⅓ of the sugar and continue beating for another couple of minutes before adding the next ⅓. Beat again and add the rest of the sugar. Now you should beat until it's as stiff and glossy as can be and then add the cornstarch and vinegar.

Place the mixture on a baking tin which you have greased and dusted lightly with flour. This stops the meringue spreading. Now bake it in the oven at 160ºC / 325ºF for ¾ of an hour. Turn oven off and leave for half an hour.

To complete the Eton Mess you'll need

450 g /1 lb. strawberries and raspberries, mixed

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

2 cups /480 ml whipping or heavy cream
or
a mixture of cream and crème fraiche if you are trying to reduce the calories

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

Mash half of the fruit with the sugar and balsamic vinegar and leave to marinate. Whip the cream with the vanilla until stiff. Take a large serving dish and create layers of meringue, cream, and fruit (mashed and whole). Decorate the top with whole strawberries and raspberries.

O
RANGE
S
PONGE
C
AKE

This cake is very easy and quick to make using the “all in one” method.

Cake

175 g / 6 oz. butter

3 large eggs

175 g / 6 oz. self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

175 g / 6 oz. sugar

rind of 1 orange, grated, and ½ the juice of the orange

Preheat the oven to 170ºC / 325ºF and prepare 2 round 8-inch cake tins by greasing them with margarine and then a dusting of flour.

Soften the butter and have your eggs at room temperature. Sift the flour, baking powder, and sugar into a large bowl. Add the eggs, orange, and the butter, and beat with an electric mixer for about a minute. The mixture should now be a soft dropping consistency, but if it is not, just add a little more orange juice. Now divide the mixture between the prepared tins, smooth the tops, and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes in the centre of the oven. You'll need to test to see if they are ready. My ma used to stick her hatpin into the centre and if it came out clean they were ready, but we don't seem to have hatpins anymore so with your finger lightly touch the centre and if it leaves no impression and the cake springs back they are done. Leave to rest for a shmall-little minute. Gently loosen the sides of the cakes with a palette knife and ease them carefully out of the tins onto a wire cooling rack.

Icing:

50 g / 2 oz. butter

175 g / 6 oz. icing sugar

250 g / 9 oz. mascarpone cheese

rind of 1 orange, finely grated

Have the butter nice and soft and beat everything together. Spread on cakes and sandwich together, reserving just enough icing to cover the top.

 

G
LOSSARY

acting the goat/acting the lig:
Behaving foolishly.

all ears:
Paying attention.

and all:
Expression eqivalent to et cetera

Andrew:
Naval slang for Royal Navy, also known as the Grey Funnel Line.

anyroad:
Anyhow.

arra be wheest:
Dublin
. Hold your tongue.

arse:
Backside (impolite).

away off and feel your head:
How can you possibly be so stupid?

away off and chase yourself:
Go away, or I don't believe you.

away with the fairies:
In a brown study, daydreaming, has lost touch with reality.

banger:
Sausage, usually pork.

banshee:
Irish. Beán
(woman)
sidhe
(fairy)
.
Female spirit whose moaning foretells a death.

bantam:
A miniature chicken (originally from Indonesia) which lays miniature eggs.

beagle's gowl:
The beagle dog's gowl (not howl) or baying can be heard over a long distance. Not to come within a beagle's gowl is to miss by a mile.

Beal na mBláth:
Irish.
Pronounced “Beeuh nuh Blaw.” Literally “the mouth of the flowers.” A five-road crossroads in West Cork where Long's pub stood in the 1920s. In August 1922 Michael Collins was ambushed near there and shot dead.

beezer:
First-rate.

black as old Nick's hatband:
Black as the hatband of the devil's hat; very dark.

blether/och, blether:
Expression of frustration.

blethering:
Talking nonsense.

bletherskite:
Someone who never stops talking.

bobby dazzler:
Yorkshire and Tyneside.
Stunningly beautiful woman.

boke:
Vomit (noun or verb).

bollix/bollocks:
Testicles, or more accurately, the impolite “balls.” Used to imply “rubbish.”

bollixed/bolloxed:
Ruined.

bore (twenty, twelve, ten, eight):
Of a shotgun. Calculated by noting the numbers of balls, each fitting exactly into the muzzle, that could be cast from one pound of lead. In American usage, gauge.

bowsey/bowsie:
Drunkard.

boys-a-boys/boys-a-dear:
Expression of mild surprise.

brave:
Very.

bravely:
Feeling well.

Brian Boru:
Last Ard Rí, High King of all Ireland, who beat the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. He was killed there.

bridge roll:
Bread roll longer than it is wide. Ulster's answer to a hot dog bun.

brill:
Short for “brilliant,” meaning terrific.

British Legion:
National ex-servicemen's (veterans') association.