Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter. So easy. So amazing.

by Cake in the country

I came across this whilst trawling through my beloved google reader. I am, of course, subscribed to steamykitchen (Jaden, should you ever read this: You are amazing). I looked at it.. I read it. I reread it. Surely, surely a perfect tomato sauce couldn’t be this easy.. Interest roused, I had to try it! And I did. And then I spent the next hours gobbling tomato sauce with anything that it could be put on. And texting/emailing/tweeting Mary about how amazing it was. And it is. And it is now a staple. Love it.

It takes a whopping 3 ingredients.

An onion
Butter x a big chunk. Specifically 5 tablespoons. I eyeball it.
2 tins of tomatoes
(I also put in a semi crushed clove of garlic. Cos.)

Here goes.

  1. Cut your onion in half. Put it, the butter and the tomatoes in a saucepan.
  2. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer.
  3. Leave for 45 mins to 1 hour.Until it’s thickened and beautiful.
  4. Scoop out your onion and garlic. Pure tomato goodness left.
  5. You don’t need to add sugar, the sweetness of the onion comes right out. Its amazing.
  6. Thats it. Seriously. AMAZING.

Butter is class.

Sin e.

Serve with garlic bread for food joy.

Here’s the update:

by Cake in the country

Right. So I have entered study weeks, and therefore I may not be as active online. I kinda broke up with the internet today. We’re still friends tho. We were going through a rough patch though, what with its constant ‘page not found’. So we’re just going to have some time apart.

I will, however, post a picture a day, if not accompanied by many words! Mostly of farm type shenanigans. Just cos. It’s pretty here occasionally. And there are lambs. They are cute. I do have a recipe or two up my sleeve that I may post during a study break! Study friendly recipes if I can get em 🙂

Here’s my photo of the day:

Isn’t aperture a wonderful thing?

Banoffeeee and also (cos I love ya) Dulce de Leche instructions.

by Cake in the country

I am now a banoffee convert. I love it. I mean, the years I’ve wasted not making/gorging on banoffee.. It makes me sad to think of it.I should be packing for study week, but am being completely generous and giving you Banoffee recipe instead.

Go and buy/root out
approx 35 digestive biscuits
1 pack of butter. The wee one. i.e. 227g. You can use 225 I suppose. If you insist. Sigh.
2 tins of condensed milk
4-5 bananas
450 mls cream (double cream. The real shtuff)

First off, get a big saucepan. If the only saucepan you possess that will fit tins of condensed milk is leaking, as mine was, call Emily. She has a giant saucepan. Dulce de leche for all!

Also, grease a nice tin. If you plan on cutting slices use one with a removable base. You’ll need a big tin. This is a big recipe. Or two tins. You could half it but where’s the fun in that (and where’s the other half of the banoffee!?)

  1. For the dulce: (PS. You shouldn’t do this. It’s very dangerous. This is my disclaimer. If it goes wrong I accept no responsibility. Just sayin’.)
    1. Take off the labels. Your tins ain’t gonna need em where they’re going… Put your tins in the saucepan and fill it up 1 inch past the top of the cans with water.
    2. Bring it to a boil, and then turn down heat til it’s simmering.
    3. Leave it to simmer. However, check on it every twenty minutes. You want the water to stay above the top of the tins by an inch or so at all times. Unless you’d like some new shrapnel and caramel style wallpaper.
    4. (Make your biscuit base as no. 2 below)
    5. While you are making your base and cleaning the bowls (Ha, I’m a regular comedian) wonderful things are happening to your condensed milk.. Trust me on this.
    6. After 3 hours of these wonderful things happening you will carefully and gingerly take your pan off the heat. You will not drop or bump the tins. These tins are now under a fierce amount of pressure. you drop it, you got a dulce de leche explosion. You will carefully take the VERY HOT tins out of the pan with a non slip tongs. Actually I ladled out most the water and left them there for a while til they cooled a little. Then I took them out and backed out of the kitchen. Slowly. Tiptoed in fact. Bowing to the tins to show respect lest they get angry and explode.
    7. Leave them. Despite your complete lack of willpower. And you will have a lack of willpower when it comes to this stuff. You must leave them alone for many hours. I left mine overnight. It was about 7 hours.
  2. For the biscuit base
    1. Melt your butter
    2. Crush your biscuits into lovely jubbely digestivey smush. Don’t eat it. It needs to be a base. Thats its destiny.
    3. Mix the two. I know, rocket science alert.
    4. Topple the mix into your prepared tin and squish it down so its nice and firm and flat.
    5. Cover and pop it in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours.
  3. Next: the fun part. Open your tins (hiding under the counter – trick learned from Mary). Oogle the caramel coloured glorious dulce. It’s amazing.  Then you may spread it over the biscuit base. And lick the spoons.
  5. Then you need to cut up your bananas – not too thick, you don’t want all ban and no offee. Put them, nicely layered, on top. Admire your handiwork.
  7. Whip the cream until its thick enough to hold a peak. I made my first one too thin and it was a bit messy. Spread it completely over the bananas.
  8. I then crumbled a flake over it. Yum. But that’s optional.
  9. Sing a happy song. Your Banoffee is complete. You should probably put it in the fridge for a while and it kinda sets a bit but who has that kind of patience?!

Serve with a second helping of banoffee, and, as always, enjoy it!

Things that have been said, word for word. Part 1: Hannah

by Cake in the country
I feel like I should maybe put a note in here explaining these are reasonably old.. but still priceless 🙂
While mum was recounting their holiday in Morocco, Hannah with a look of horror on her face: Oh my god, were there like foreign people there?!

Dad: whats the coldest country?
Hannah…. what…
Dad: Chile
Hannah: …..Thats not even a country….

Hannah: ……… After a longish silence in the kitchen…… Clare is a county you know.

Hannah’s honours maths teacher: The summer exam is going to be two hours long
Hannah: OH MY GOD Sir, 2 HOURS?
Teacher: Sure thats not as long as your junior cert!
Hannah: Oh my god How long is the junior cert..?
Teacher: Its 2 and a half hours long. And thats per paper!
Hannah: OH MY GOD SIR how many papers are there..?
Teacher: Theres 2 papers.
Hannah: OH MY GOD SIR THATS LIKE 6 HOURS OF MATHS!!

Vera: Whats the name of that singer…
Hannah: Damien Rice!
Vera: Thats it!
Hannah: Oh my god I must be like telepathic!
Sarah: Oh well done Hannah that must be like 4 syllables!
Hannah:…(confusion registers) …. What.. Damien Rice?

Hannah: No see, we were walking through the carpark, and there was this like red button.. and you know if something is red you just HAVE to press it!

Hannah: Where is Hollywood?
Sarah: Its in California..
Hannah:…… What- Is Hollywood not a country!?

Hannah: Why would we have to go through Galway going to Cork, its in thetotal other direction!

Sarah: So what do you want to do after school anyway?
Hannah: I dunno… Whatever..
Sarah: Like would you be vet?
Hannah: Yeah.. maybe yeah
Sarah: What about a doctor?
Hannah: Eww no I couldn’t do anything with blood!

Paddy: my mother and I have a fight every day cos she calls me ‘patrick’ n my name is paddy!
Hannah:does your mum not know your name?!?!

Eimear:They’re gone up to belleek getting fireworks.
Hannah:Is belleek not a country?!?!

Clare: Whats the 411?
Hannah:………………6……..
………….no- wait-…….. what?!

On seeing 3 boys picking out the same t-shirt:
‘Oh my god, ye’re like 3 twins!’

Marina: I am not running that way I’ll fall!
Hannah: no you won’t come on…
HANNAH FALLS AND SLIPS ON HER FACE!!
Marina: how you mange to fall?
Hannah:…. well I lifted 1 leg but forgot to put the other one down!!

In MIDNIGHT MASS at Christmas, the priest mentions he had been to bethlehem..
Cue Hannah: Oh my God is Bethlehem a real place?????!!???

Hannah: Where are you going?
Sarah: I dunno might be going to fureys
Hannah: Oh right wheres that?
Sarah: Town
Hannah: Wheres fureys?
Sarah:…. Town
Hannah: where is it though?
Sarah (wondering what wonderful memorably quote could possibly be exclaimed next) Town.
Hannah: Oh… is Fureys like.. another word for town or something??!

I feel like I should explain:

It’s the fault of the parents. She had no chance…

Risotto: Carbonara style

by Cake in the country

So on a windy night long long ago (Sunday) I had just returned from Iron Man 2 (V.Good) and was craving comfort food like a madwoman. I turned away from brownies in despair- they’re no comfort food. Hang on, I’ll give you a minute to reread that. It’s true.

And it came to me. Risotto. I knew there was Arborio rice downstairs from one of those shopping trips that I lumped everything I felt like into the trolley (was overflowing), but I knew we were painfully short on things that weren’t pasta or rice. But unthwarted, I crept downstairs at 11.45 and opened the fridge.. and came across a sad selection of foodstuffs. However, hidden at the back I saw a forgotten pack of rashers and was instantly struck by stroke of genius. Carbonara Risotto! (As endless supply of garlic, stock,  and parmesan). And I made it. And it was nice. Like really nice! I have a lovely easy carbonara recipe which I will post soonish-  the real non-cream type! But for now:

Here’s whatcha need:

Tsp butter, tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
Half an onion, finely diced
6-8 thick rashers, cut into pieces and fat cut off
300g arborio rice (risotto rice)
1 Vegetable stock cube & 1 Chicken stock cube (I used oxo- makes 200 ml of stock)
1.2 litres of water (you may need a little more/less depending on your rice and such)
A biteen of oregano
about a handful or 2 of good parmesan cheese.
Optional: 1 cup of cream (I left it out)

Here’s whatcha do:

Heat butter and oil in pan and put in your garlic onion. Cook over a light heat until just tender.

Add your rashers and fry until nicely cooked. You may want to pop your rashers, onion and garlic out on a plate and wash the salt off your pan or you’re risking a heart attack at this point. I did not do this and found it on the verge of too salty despite using very diluted stock. But it’s up to yourself!

Rinse your rice until water runs clear. You don’t want your risotto to be over starchy and thus over sticky!

Put the garlic, onion, rasher and rice back into your saucepan with another tsp of  and stir around and let the rice absorb the loveliness. Do that for about 3 minutes, and then here comes the patience needing part.

Make up your stock- I think the stock is overpowering in this recipe if you make it strong so I just used 2 oxo cubes in 1.2l of hot water. Even then it was quite a strong risotto!

So, stock at the ready- you need to put it in a cup at a time- NO MORE! Yes. I am adamant about this. Because that is the only way to make lovely risotto! You add a cup, stir it around until its absorbed or almost all absorbed, and then you add another cup, and you stir etc, and it goes on like this until your rice is just done i.e. has a light bite to it. You don’t want it to be gooey and sickly, you want it to be beautiful and not groggy looking!

Nexsht: Its time to add the good stuff: i.e. oregano and cheese, lovely lovely cheese. Pop it in stir it around. let it melt into the sauce as yummy lovely cheesy goodness. You may, if you reeeeeally wish, add cream here, right before you serve, but there’s no need, so don’t 🙂

Sin e! This is best served straight away with a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan and a few pieces of crisp bacon on top. Enjoy. I did. You will..

Name the lambs poll

by Cake in the country

As those of you that have been following (and I’m pretty sure that number is well up in the thousands) will know, I promised a poll. And now, that time has come. I have taken your suggestions and created THIS:


So let’s have your votes ladies and gentlemen 🙂

EDIT

And the votes are in. Lambs are now referred to as

Wonton and Oreo!

Bootyful names 🙂

A morning in the life

by Cake in the country

I should be studying right now.

Let me fill you in: I am on the train. It is reasonably early. It feels much earlier due to the significant lack of sleep on my part.

Nevertheless, I got on the train happily and took out my mound of notes, ready to settle into some productive learnin’ time.

Little did I know what fate awaited me two stations later.

I knew as soon as I heard the accent as they came on, talking at a volume somewhat similar to the bass at an outdoor rock festival. I knew that my lovely learning would suffer at the hands (or voice) of these people.

You know the type.

There were two of them, or so I thought. But then they merged with a guy in a suit who was sitting a mere one seat down from me. They quickly took over 2 whole tables and whipped out 2 laptops and, I kid you not, a large printer, and began a rather thunderous discussion about screen sales. Now let me tell you, I’m sure screen sales is a fantastic topic and I would, of course, be prepared to have a lively debate on the topic someplace someday, but the early train to Dublin isn’t quite the place I had in mind.

Not that this hasn’t been an educational experience. I’ve now learned that ‘hmmmmmmmmmmmm, if the production were to be reduced next month, the FDS would approve the more favourable sales, more favourable products, and this has no bridging in there at all’. Apparently this cryptic speak makes perfect sense as much nodding and agreement ensued. The whole fiasco seems to be run by the loudest of the three: the female. Seems to be that this lady could be followed around with a camera and David Attenborough style speaker in whispering narration:

‘Watch as the female raises her voice to speak, a known sign of lower intelligence in the species. See the indication of her clear impatience as she shows the older male how to print from the laptop computer apparatus, and notice the scathing remarks that will surely follow’.

Icing on the cake: she has a throat-clearing tic. Am now convinced this is person JK Rowling based character Delores Umbridge on. Am stealthily looking for pink bow but have not seen one as of yet. Must be in disguise.

Have I mentioned mt ability to attract all the crazies on the train? I have yet to have a completely uneventful train journey to Dublin. They’re normally relatively innocent but completely bonkers, and spend much of the journey talking to the person reflected in the window in a lively fashion (or a half bottle of water that received a multitude of insults in one case), pausing every so often to laugh dementedly. This will only happen when there are no other seats available on the train. In Italy I ended up sitting beside a loud middle-aged man who whistled and loudly expressed his appreciation at any person of a vaguely female status shuffled by. It appeared he was in some pain as he exclaimed ‘Aw, bella! Bella Donna!!’ (Yes, the two exclamation marks are quite justified) and a tumbling stream of Italian that I neither understood nor cared to judging by the semi-shocked look on these people’s faces. He really defined the stereotype. I felt as though I should probably have changed into something green, started drinking Guinness liberally, and singing rebel songs in a delightfully red faced and out of tune manner, just to keep with the general swing of things.

Update: They have printed about 6 trees worth of very exciting looking spreadsheets and are now talking about payrolls. Ah, yes indeed, it appears that they are to reduce their cash-flow. Apparently the FDS will approve of this. Also, if they reduce the margins on the June spending, they may be able to keep James on full-time. Now this had been worrying us, as James has become the popular character amongst the other passengers and I. This is probably because he’s not here and couldn’t possibly be quite as deafening as the others. I think we collectively (and affectionately) think of him as the joker/popular man of the lot (Because there has to be one and these three are as dull as ditchwater). Oh James! James is a real George Clooney character in our eyes. His fate has become the talk of the carriage. I can hear all of the passengers in the near and far surrounds breathe a sigh of relief at the welcome news that he shall retain his job. It was iffy for a wee while there.

On that note, I think I shall leave you. It appears there’s a celebratory party happening down the other end of the carriage in honour of James, and I think he’d want me to be there. Must dash, see ya later!

Brownies. These are my pride and joy.

by Cake in the country

Dear world. I am a brownieaholic. A hardcore brownieaholic. A brownie purist. And now a maker of the best brownies ever. In the world. Or so I like to believe. If you don’t believe me try em..

I used Jamie Oliver’s brownie recipe as a base and tweaked a wee bit here and there. Here is what happened

And because I am soo good to you, if not for you, here is my recipe. May I just say – If you add nuts to this, we can’t be friends. I am one of those people. This is for PURE chocolate brownies. They are bestest.

200g of chocolate. THE GOOD KIND i.e. 70% cocoa solids. Yeah. Bring it on
250g butter. Ha. Bet you hate me now. You will when you see how much butter this is.
70g  good cocoa powder
75g flour
1 tsp baking powder
340g caster sugar
1 tbsp of golden syrup. A meagre one. Not too much. (Use a hot spoon- will help get it out)
4 large eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract (not essence. Essence is illegal in a good kitchen)

Ok. Here we go:

Grease and prepare a good lookin’ brownie tin. About the 25×25 ish mark. I didn’t have one this side so I used my standard one and poured a few spoonfuls excess into a 2lb loaf tin (Which you can then eat with a spoon. Or smooth some squidgey vanilla ice cream on and pop in freezer for about 20 mins and scoop out together. You may thank me later). Preheat the old oven to the 180 degree mark (or if you have my oven ‘130 degrees’ which is actually 180 degrees. As many a burnt cookie will inform you)

Right. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Appreciate.

Sift all your dry ingredients together into another bowl – i.e. flour, cocoa powder, baking powder; and add your mountain of sugar in there too.

When your chocolate/butter goodness is melted, stir your dry ingredients in, and add your golden syrup.

Then you would like to beat in your eggs and wee tsp of vanilla extract until the whole mix looks silky smooth and beee-aaaa-you-tee-fal.

Then you would like to taste it. But you will resist. Instead you will pour it into you prepared tin(s) and place it lovingly in the oven, where you will be separated from it for about 25 minutes.

It is done when it’s still a bit squidgey but nice and springy on top and at the edges.It may have risen up a wee bit but it will fall back down and get all cracked-like and scrumptious.

Now let it cool in the tin. Let it. Put that fork down!

It will cool. It will be amazing. It will rock your world. Then cut into little portions – this stuff is heavy! – and serve slightly heated with vanilla ice-cream. When my ice-cream maker paddle arrives I will put up my recipe for gelato. Then, then you will actually love me. Trust me on that.

Bread. Even better: Sun-dried tomato and Onion Bread

by Cake in the country

Bread = Yum. Sun dried tomatoes = Yum. Onions = Yum. Hmmm, what if we were to put them together to make something magical.. Answer: this would happen…

Sun Dried Tomato and Onion bread

450g Strong white bread flour (Don’t use cream/plain/self raising, it won’t work, you need the gluten in this flour)
1 package dried/quick acting yeast. Thats 7g for those of you with non pre-packaged 🙂
1 tsp sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 level tsp salt
330 mls warm water (Just tepid, not too hot!)
6 sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped (Alternatively, you can use a few handfuls of extra mature cheddar cheese for cheese and onion bread. If you’re into that sort of thing. And I am)
About half a small onion finely diced

Heres the plan man:

Take flour, sugar, salt and lob it in a bowl. Rub in the olive oil and pop in the yeast.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in your nicely warm water and give it all a stir until it comes together. Topple the whole lot onto a nice clean floured surface. Now here’s the fun part: It’s kneading time 🙂

Kneading. Think of this as your workout for the day. You need to spend a good 10 minutes kneading until you get a lovely elastic smooth dough. Then take a minute and appreciate its loveliness. When it’s all kneaded out, you want to put the dough back in a clean lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled clingfilm/a clean teatowel (P.S. Using cooking spray oil for this is so handy) and leave in a nice warm non-draughty place for a good hour or so or until it has doubled in size. Oh the magic of yeast. One must love yeast and appreciate its ability to make lovely bread!

Nexsht: Back outta the bowl with your dough onto a lightly floured surface, punch the air out of it ( i.e. get rid of the CO2- pull up the sides, fold them over the middle and press down) and stretch it out . Then take your chopped tomatoes and onions and scatter them over the dough. Then fold it over a few times and give it a light wee knead to mix it up 🙂

Shape it into 2 loaves/multiple dinner rolls/whatever you feel like and place on an oiled tray that you’ll be cooking on, bearing in mind that each will double in size. Cover again as before and leave in a warm place until doubled in size again. More bread! Yumminess 🙂 Also, you want to give it a few light cuts with a sharp knife on top so it doesn’t just break up.

When your bread looks like it’s well on the way to doubling you may preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Place an empty tin on your bottom shelf – Moisture is important for baking proper bread and not just crust with a bit of bread in the middle, and so a few minutes before you put your bread in, pour a small cup or water into the pan – watch out for steam! So with the moisture the crust doesn’t get hard too fast, allowing a nice light bread as opposed to a heavy doughy one!

When it’s ready and the bread is ready pop bread in oven (I know, I know,  you never saw that coming did you!). Now depending on what you made, there’ll be different cooking times. E.G. my 2 long loaves of bread take about 25-30 minutes, rolls take 15-20. You’ll know your bread it done when you tap it underneath and it sounds hollow. Cool on a wire tray.

Try resisting yummy warm bread. Impossible. Enjoy, I suggest as an accompaniment to salad or some such light meal. Or on it’s own 🙂

Oh and did I mention you could totally drop the onions and tomatoes and

(A) Spread some pesto in there instead.

(B) Butter and fresh chopped rosemary

(C) Anything you desire.

This recipe rocks.

Ode to Cuteness (and Name suggestions?)

by Cake in the country

So I was dutifully completing a project for Colaiste when my phone began to ring.  It was farmer Richie, who informed me of 2 additions to the farm.

Lambs! 2 lambs!

So at a pace approaching the speed of sound, I was up and grabbing the nearest camera and hopping about whilst simultaneously trying to get a coat and farm shoes on (my farm shoes are an asics graveyard, all my old ones!) and not drop aforementioned camera. Having completed all of the above to the best of my ability (i.e. coat buttoned up wrong and 2 left shoes on) I flew out the door looking wildly for fluffball looking mini sheep. Up the hill and over the gate and there they were in the far corner. I didn’t want to panic mammy sheep as she may actually have another lamb, these are just born, so I just snapped a few photos.

We got a new Ram this year, and I call him Panda-ram.

Guess why?

Ok I’ll tell you, he looks like a panda. I know, I know, it’s seriously cryptic. But this here ^^ is like a genetics lecture. He has panda lambs too. It’s a panda phenotype.

I just.. They are so so cute.

Awww, it fell down! Mammysheep is quite concerned.

After this I decided to give them all a bit of a break and left them in the corner. We’ll go up later and bring them into the hayshed for the night where its all lovely and warm and dry!

Right. So. We do need to name our lambs so I am looking to you for suggestions!

Leave a comment with your ideas and I’ll choose 2 out of them for these. Remember to make appropriately cute 🙂