I normally use frozen berries straight out of the freezer so that you don’t have to use any ice cubes, but it can be hard on the blades of your liquidiser. However, in light of recent health scares, you might want to follow the FSAI’s advice to boil imported frozen berries for 1 minute, or even better, freeze fresh berries when there is a glut of them in the summer or buy Irish berries. Smoothies can be made up to 2 hours in advance and kept in the fridge, then just given a good stir before serving them.
MAKES ABOUT 1.2 LITRES (2 PINTS)
500g (1lb 2 oz) fResh or frozen berries, such as a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and tayberries
2 bananas, peeled
125g (4½oz) natural yogurt
500ml (18fl oz) raspberry and cranberry juice
handful of ice cubes (optional)
1 Place the berries and bananas in a liquidiser with the yogurt and juice. Process for 1 minute, until smooth. Alternatively, you can put everything into a large measuring jug and blitz with a hand-held blender, moving it up and down until smooth.
2 Half-fill tall glasses with ice cubes, if using, and pour in the red berry smoothie to serve.
MACNEAN SPECIAL PORRIDGE WITH HONEY AND CREAM
This is one of our signature breakfast dishes. It’s amazing how many people going to bed at night tell me that they can’t wait to taste the porridge! On cold winter mornings, it gets you off to a good start and takes no more than 10 minutes to prepare.
Serves 4
100g (4oz) porridge oats (organic if possible)
300ml (1/2 pint) milk (plus a little extra if necessary)
4 tbsp clear honey
4 tbsp Irish Mist
150ml (1/4 pint) cream
Place the porridge oats, milk and 150ml (1/4 pint) water in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 8–10 minutes, until the mixture has slightly thickened, stirring all the time. It’s important that the porridge has a nice soft dropping consistency, so add a little more milk if you think it needs it.
To serve, spoon the porridge into warmed bowls. Drizzle each one with some honey and Irish Mist and serve with plenty of cream poured on top.
COOK AHEAD
One of the last things we do at night in the restaurant is steep the porridge oats in the milk and water in the fridge, as leaving them overnight makes them lovely and soft so that they cook much quicker. They can also be made the night before and reheated gently in a pan on the hob.
Heat a little of the olive oil and sauté the mushrooms for a minute or two and season.
Set aside. Bring a shallow pan of water to simmer, add the vinegar and salt. Break one egg onto a saucer, stir the water to create a whirlpool, tip in the egg and leave to cook for 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, lift on to a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Keep the water hot.
Heat the grill to high, arrange the mushrooms on the untoasted side of the bread, cover with the tomatoes and then the cheese, grill for 5-6 mins until the cheese has just melted. Place the toast on warmed plates. Slide all the eggs back into the hot water and leave for 30 seconds, lift out and drain on kitchen paper, then put one on top of toast. Season and serve.
Brown scones are full of roughage and great for breakfast. And here is a good tip: you can make this mixture, shape the scones and freeze them. You can then cook the scones straight from the freezer to the oven – just give them an extra 5 minutes and make sure the scones are golden brown and well-risen.
Ingredients
Rapeseed or sunflower oil, for greasing
225g (8oz) self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
225g (8oz) coarse wholemeal flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
50g (2oz) wheat bran
25g (1oz) butter, diced and at room temperature
1 tsp light muscovado sugar
300ml (½ pint) buttermilk, plus a little extra if necessary
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F/gas mark 7). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and grease the paper with a little oil.
Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Tip in the bran left in the sieve and stir it in with the wheat bran. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it is evenly dispersed. Stir in the sugar.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk and golden syrup. Using a large spoon, mix gently and quickly until you have achieved a smooth, not-too-sticky dough. Add a little more buttermilk if necessary, until the dough binds together without being sloppy.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 2.5cm (1in) thickness and cut into rounds with a 6cm (2½in) plain cutter. Arrange on the lined baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown and well-risen.
Serve with butter or lightly whipped cream and strawberry jam.
Tuesday is pancake time. In all their shapes and forms, they are a real favourite in our household. It isn’t just our children who get excited – I adore pancakes and love an excuse to make a real feast of them. There’s something so pleasingly simple, so supremely comforting about a perfectly browned pancake, unchallenging and uncomplicated, but always delicious.
We’ll make all different sorts of pancakes on different years, and often on the same day. I love thin pancakes – they’re called crepes in France, where they’re usually made with some buckwheat flour. I like to eat them rolled up with lemon and sugar, or the perennial favourite, Nutella! We like to make thin pancakes as a savoury treat too, omitting the sugar and making a creamy mushroom filling with bacon and perhaps some Gruyere cheese.
If you’d like to make your pancakes a little more elaborate than just a squeeze of lemon and sugar, you can try this divine orange butter recipe, opposite, that we often make at the cookery school.
At other times, we like to make big, fluffy American pancakes, served with rashers and plenty of maple syrup. I’ve written recipes for blueberry and lemon pancakes in these pages before, as well as in a number of my cookbooks.
The Italian recipe here is a totally different take on pancakes that I’ve made on Pancake Tuesday in previous years. It was inspired by a conversation I had with the great Italian chef, Aldo Zilli. He told me a wonderful story about his mother using light pancakes as an alternative to pasta in certain dishes, and I’ve discovered that they work wonderfully with rich tomato sauces. The Italian baked pancakes with tomato sauce recipe, opposite, uses the pancakes in place of lasagne sheets, which adds a fluffiness to the dish. It’s a perfect family dish and would make a great centrepiece to a Shrove Tuesday dinner table.
Tip
Adding melted butter to the pancake batter will make a real difference to the pancakes’ flavour and texture. It also makes it possible to cook them without having to grease the pan every time.
We are sharing Mary Flahavan’s definitive guide to making the perfect bowl of porridge, as it’s been handed down through the Flahavan’s family for seven generations.#PerfectPorridge#FlahavansPorridge#NationalPorridgeWeek
Ingredients:
120g Flahavan’s Oats
875mls of whole milk
Method:
Makes 3 x 40g servings on the hob.
Stir oats into milk.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes stirring continuously.
Pour porridge into serving dish.
Serving suggestion 1
Top with greek yoghurt, mixed berries, coconut flakes, chia seeds
Serving suggestion 2
Top with peanut butter, grated dark chocolate and a chopped banana
Serving suggestion 3
Top diced apple, dried cranberries, honey and cinnamon
We are sharing Mary Flahavan’s definitive guide to making the perfect bowl of porridge, as it’s been handed down through the Flahavan’s family for seven generations.#PerfectPorridge#FlahavansPorridge#NationalPorridgeWeek
Ingredients:
120g Flahavan’s Oats
875mls of whole milk
Method:
Makes 3 x 40g servings on the hob.
Stir oats into milk.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes stirring continuously.
Pour porridge into serving dish.
Serving suggestion 1
Top with greek yoghurt, mixed berries, coconut flakes, chia seeds
Serving suggestion 2
Top with peanut butter, grated dark chocolate and a chopped banana
Serving suggestion 3
Top diced apple, dried cranberries, honey and cinnamon
These Apricot Jam Breakfast Muffins can be prepared the night before and cooked to perfection in the morning – http://ow.ly/8e6w30fDtZV
Ingredients
2 large free-range eggs
150ml pot of natural low-fat yoghurt
50ml rapeseed oil
2 tblsp no added sugar apricot jam
1 ripe banana, mashed
4 tblsp clear honey
1 tsp almond extract
200g of wholemeal flour
50g of porridge oats, plus extra for sprinkling
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
2 tblsp mixed seeds
extra apricot jam
a handful of flaked almonds, for sprinkling
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with 12 large muffin cases.
In a mixing jug, combine the eggs, yoghurt, rapeseed oil, Apricot Jam, banana, honey and almond extract.
In a large bowl, combine the wholemeal flour, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and mixed seeds.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine until you have a smooth batter. Don’t over mix as this will make your muffins tough.
Divide the mix between the muffin cases and place about half a teaspoon of Apricot Jam on the top of each of the muffins. Sprinkle with the extra porridge oats and the flaked almonds.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden. Check that they’re cooked by inserting a skewer into the middle of one of the muffins. They’re done if it comes away clean.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. These will keep for 3 days in a sealed container but they taste best on the day of baking.