RECIPE: Irish Beef Stew

Beef stew recipe:

• olive oil

• 500g chuck steak, cubed

• 2 onions, roughly chopped

• 1 carrot, roughly chopped

• 1 celery stalk, trimmed, roughly chopped

• About a 1/4 of a turnip, peeled, roughly chopped

• 2 tbsp plain flour

• 1 litre beef stock

• 400ml porter

• 2 bay leaves

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Start off by measuring out 400ml of the porter. You’ll figure out what to do with the other 100ml yourself…

2. Heat the oil in a large, lidded casserole pot over a medium heat. Cast iron is best. Fry the chuck steak until browned on all sides. Remove and set aside. Do not eat it yet!!

3. Add the onions, carrot, celery and turnip and fry until golden-brown, adding a little more olive oil if need to. Season with salt and pepper.


4. Add the plain flour and stir well. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until it turns a nut-brown colour. Pour in the hot stock and stir well until the sauce thickens.


5. Return the beef to the pot, add porter and bay leaves and bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering, then leave to simmer gently for one hour with the lid slightly ajar.


6. Check the seasoning and serve with chopped chives and parsley.

RECIPE: Fire cooked grilled cheese and brown sauce with a smoky irish whiskey!

BROWN SAUCE

• A dash of oil

• 1 tin of tomatoes

• 2 medium onions, finely diced

• 15 g ginger

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/2 star anise

• 2 cloves

• 1/2 chilli

• 2 pinches white pepper

• 1 pinch of salt

• 5 juniper berries

• 12 fennel seeds

• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

• 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and finely diced

• 100 g tamarind paste (or 50 g dried apricots)

• 700 ml water

• 4 teaspoons molasses

• 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• 100 ml red wine vinegar

• A dash of Blackpitts

1. Sauté the onions in the oil in a pan over a medium heat until translucent, then add the spices, chopped tomatoes, apples, molasses and Worstershire sauce, heat briefly and deglaze with the water. Add the vinegar and simmer over a gentle heat until the sauce has a creamy consistency.

2. If you want the sauce to be really velvety, you can put it in a blender, puree it and then pour it through a fine sieve.

3. Season to taste and enjoy.

4. If you have cooked for stock, you can pour the cold sauce into a clean jar and seal it airtight. This way you can store the sauce in the fridge for about a week.

5. My tip for the full flavour: Cook it in advance and leave it in the fridge for 2-3 days, then heat it up slowly.

"GRILLED CHEESE" SANDWICH

• 2 evenly sized slices of sourdough bread.

• 200g provolone and Irish cheddar cheese

• Butter

1. Crazy stuff here: take the butter and spread BOTH sides of each slice of bread.

2. Fry the two slices of bread in the pan on one side each until nice and golden brown. Now place the bread on a plate with the golden brown side up and top with as much grated cheese as you can and cover the sandwich with the second slice of bread with the toasted side on top of the cheese. For the finale, put the whole sandwich back into the pan and fry the last two sides until golden brown. You can see it best when the edge of the bread turns a dark brown colour. Not black!

3. Turn once more - and you're done! Dip the crispy grilled cheese sandwich into the sauce, take a bite and cheers! Don't forget to drink a glass of Blackpitts with it!

My tip: It always works best in a cast iron pan.

///GERMAN///

REZEPT FÜR BROWN SAUCE

• Ein Schuss Öl

• 1 Dose Tomaten

• 2 mittelgroße Zwiebeln, fein gewürfelt

• 15 g Ingwer

• 1 Lorbeerblatt

• 1/2 Sternanis

• 2 Gewürznelken

• 1/2 Chili

• 2 Messerspitzen weißer Pfeffer

• 1 Messerspitze Salz

• 5 Wacholderbeeren

• 12 Fenchelsamen

• 1/4 Teelöffel Piment

• 2 Braeburn-Kochäpfel, geschält, entkernt und fein gewürfelt

• 100 g Tamarindenpaste (oder 50 g getrocknete Aprikosen)

• 700 ml Wasser

• 4 Teelöffel Melasse

• 4 Teelöffel Worcestershire-Sauce

• 100 ml Rotweinessig

• Ein Schuß Blackpitts

1. Die Zwiebeln in dem Öl bei mittler Hitze in der Pfanne glasig anschwitzen und dann die Gewürze, gehackten Tomaten, Äpfel, die Melasse und die Worstershire - Sauce hinzugeben, kurz alles zusammen erhitzen und mit dem Wasser ablöschen. Den Essig dazugeben und unter rühren bei leichter Hitze einkochen bis die Sauce eine cremige Konsistenz bekommt.

2. Wenn Ihr die Sauce richtig samtig möchtet könnt ihr sie in den Mixer geben, pürieren und anschliessen durch ein feines Sieb giessen.

3. Abschmecken und guten Appetit.

4. Wenn ihr auf Vorrat gekocht habt, könnt Ihr die kalte Soße in ein sauberes Glas füllen und luftdicht verschliessen. So könnt ihr die Soße ca eine Woche im Kühlschrank lagern.

Mein Tipp für das volle Aroma: Vorkochen und 2-3 Tage im Kühlschrank ziehen lassen und langsam erwärmen.

“GRILLED CHEESE” SANDWICH:

• 2 gleichmäßig große Scheiben Sauerteig-Brot

• 200g Provolone und irischer Cheddar

• Butter

1. Verrückte Sache, nehmt die Butter und bestreicht BEIDE Seiten jeder Brotscheibe.

2. Bratet die beiden Brotscheiben auf je einer Seite in der Pfanne schön goldbraun. Jetzt legt ihr das Brot mit der goldbraunen Seite nach oben auf einen Teller und belegt diese mit so viel gerieben Käse wie es geht und deckelt mit der zweiten Scheibe Brot mit der angerösteten Seite auf dem Käse das Sandwich. Zum Finale nun die ganze Stulle wieder in die Pfanne geben und die letzten beiden Seiten goldbraun braten. Ihr erkennt es am besten, wenn der Rand des Brotes eine dunkelbraune Färbung bekommt. Nicht schwarz!

3. Noch einmal wenden - und fertig! Teeling uns Glas, das knusprige Grilled Cheese Sandwich in die Soße stibben, abbeißen und cheers! Vergiss nicht, ein Glas Blackpitts dazu zu trinken!

Mein Tipp: Am besten gelingt mir das immer in einer gußeisernen Pfanne. Wenn Ihr angst habt, das der Käse in eurer Pfanne verbrennt, macht die Pfanne nicht zu heiß und legt Backpapier rein, denn brennt wirklich nichts mehr an…

Recipes

Gearóid O’Callaghan, Whisky Expert

• Distillery Visit
• Events
• Recipes
• Tasting
• Whisky reviews

RECIPE: Pickled and marinated mushrooms, onions & fennel

This is the recipe from the food pairing & whisky tasting. It’s originally a Jamie Oliver recipe that I’ve adapted. On the evening we had large jars but if you can you should use smaller ones because once a jar's been opened it will only last for a week in the fridge. It makes about 2 litres

pickling liquid:
1 litre cider or white wine vinegar
1 litre water
2 tablespoons sea salt

pickling marinade:
500 ml extra virgin olive oil 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 fresh chilli, deseeded and chopped

1 kg mixed mushrooms (cleaned) like chestnut, chanterelle shitake, enokitake - anything you like really just don’t use regular white mushrooms
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, rosemary and sage

Make sure you sterilize your jars before you start. Bring all the pickling liquid ingredients to the boil in a large pan. Slice your vegetables any way you like, I normally use a mandolin on a thick setting. Like maybe 5mm to 10mm. You need to do this so as the flavours and pickling liquid will penetrate enough. Smaller pieces, like baby mushrooms or really small onions, can be left whole. 
Put the pickling marinade ingredients into a large bowl with the herbs and mix. 
Put the sliced vegetables in the boiling pickling liquid and leave for around 3 minute. Push them down to ensure they are all immersed. Lift the pieces out with a slotted spoon and place them into your bowl of pickling marinade and toss them together.
After 3minutes, put the hot vegetables and pickling marinade into your sterilized jars. Make sure you fill them to the top. Cover everything completely with the marinade and put the lids on tightly. 
Put the jars to one side until they're cool. Clean the outside of jars, attach sticky labels and write the date and the contents on them. Store the jars somewhere cool and dark - it's best to leave them for about two weeks before opening so the veg really gets to marinate well, but three days later is also fine. The longer you wait the better everything tastes.

If you want to make pickled onions & fennel then use the following instead of mushrooms:

500 g fennel bulbs and their tops
500 g of small mixed onions & shallots and 4 bay leaves