Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Donegal Chef Cooks with Chef Richard Corrigan of Bentlys, London

Last friday i had the chance to cook with richard corrigan the chef/owner of bentlys oyster bar london, we had already selected some ingrediants from local suppliers but on arrival he did what any chef would have done ! take me to a farm shop ,fish monger ! after a wee trip to ramelton he came back with a selection of ingrediants and i went about doing his mise-en place , after a bit of organizing and a few opening speach's we went to cooking, well he cooked and i bowed to the role of commis chef, a long time since i'd done that i might add. for starter richard did a simple rissotto of local mussels , cumin and roasted cauliflower, it was light , tasty and very pleasing on the eye, the leaves from the cauliflower were lightly steamed and folded into the rissotto at the last moment.
the follow was a piece of rump steak cooked medium rare with pieces of roasted bone marrow which was tossed in chopped garlic, parsley and cracked black pepper. the steak was cooked in a good hot pan with a little of rape seed oil produced here in raphoe county donegal. the marrow was  sliced and just finished in the pan , the steak was sliced and topped with the marrow, all this came from the farm shop in ramelton.juicy,tender and full of flavour.
john boyle of killybegs supplied a couple of fillets of smoked haddock which where cold smoked and not the usual dyed orange crap that you get, butter poached and just done ,richard sauted off a couple of slices of dry cured bacon and sliced them, i had already diced and cooked some parsnips from the farm shop and these were lightly warmed with the bacon, the fish was layered with the parsnip and finished with a little of the cooking liquor, the delicate flavour of the fish took a good hit with the bacon and the sweetness of the parsnip just finished the dish off.
there was already a beef wellington cooking in the main oven of the tassie, this was supplied by willie houston of edenmore farm meats from lifford, 28 day aged irish beef, hand reared and slaughtered here in donegal , it never got to leave the county in fact it was reared and slaughtered within a 30 mile radius of where it was cooked.
we cooked the wellington medium and when sliced you could see the quality of the meat , when tasted it just melted in the mouth, fantastic ! all in it was a great night and we look forward to the food coast programme from donegal enterprise.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Launch of the Brunch

over the years i have had many request to start serving my own food in my own dining room , up until now i only cooked for residents and for catering clients, we have decided to open the crest dining room to the public for a trial basis and serve a sunday brunch, 11-2pm starting from this sunday the 14th of march.
booking is by phone reservation only and the numbers are on my site.
looking forward to cooking for you all.
we will start posting recipes as well from next week here on my blog. take care.