Those early mornings are back 🥱and there’s nothing quite like a post-school run brekkie 🎉 Todays Ready brek bowl is served with frozen berries, a dollop of greek yogurt, a chilled glass of orange juice and some mixed nuts 😍
Place breadcrumbs, pecans, pepper and salt in food processor
Pulse until pecans are finely ground
Add butter and pulse a few times until mix begins to come together
Line mini cupcake tins with paper liners
Fill each cup with a teaspoon of crust mix
Press down hard with fingertips or water bottle cap to make a firm, flat layer
Chill tins and make the filling
For Filling:
Using a stand or a hand mixture, beat cream cheese and cream together until smooth Note: Cream cheese must be room temperature or mixture will be lumpy
Add egg, beat until fully incorporated, add second egg, beating until fully incorporated
Watch Neven’s Christmas in Limerick on Thursday, 4 December on RTÉ One at 8pm.
Ingredients
In the first of this two-part special, Neven’s Christmas in Limerick, Neven Maguire prepares Smoked Salmon Galettes, Glazed Rack of Pork with Creamy Roast Potatoes, and No-Bake Chocolate Tart.
Serves 8-10
For The Tart
300g Shortbread biscuits
150g Butter
1 Jar White Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
200g Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100g Milk Chocolate (38% cocoa solids)
250ml Irish Jersey Cream
For The Citrus Caramel
225g caster sugar
1 tbsp glucose (liquid or powdered)
300ml orange juice
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1 clementine
For Decorating
Amaretti Biscuits, to serve
Crème Fraiche, to serve
Sea Salt, to serve
Citrus Caramel, to serve
Method
For The Citrus Caramel
Place the sugar, glucose and 250ml of water into a heavy-based, high-sided pot.
Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until you have achieved a golden caramel colour. The sugar syrup should be a thick honey consistency, but not too runny.
Add the orange juice slowly, it will boil up vigorously, so take care at this point, whisk until the sugar has dissolved and you are left with a smooth syrup. Whisk in the vanilla seeds, lime juice and clementine juice.
Set aside and allow to cool and use as required.
For The Tart
Blitz the shortbread to a fine crumb (in a food processor or with a rolling pin and zip lock bag) and tip into a large bowl. Melt 100g of the butter in a small pan or in the microwave, then stir into the shortbread crumbs and mix until evenly combined. Press into the base and sides of a 10″ loose base tart tin.
Open the jar of white chocolate hazelnut spread into the microwave for 10-20 seconds (or you can use a pan) to loosen it up, then give it a good stir until smooth. Pour about half of the jar on to the shortbread base and use the back of a spoon to spread it out evenly. Place in the fridge to chill down.
To make the chocolate ganache, put the rest of the white chocolate hazelnut spread into a heatproof bowl along with the dark chocolate, milk chocolate and the remaining 50g of butter. Set over a pan of simmering water and allow the chocolate to melt.
In a small saucepan, gently heat the cream. Once the chocolate has melted completely add the warmed cream. Using a stick hand blender gently blend until combined and silky smooth. Pour into the prepared tart tin, place in the fridge for 2 hours until the ganache is set firm or overnight.
Remove the tart from the fridge 30 minutes before serving. To serve, carefully unmould the tart and put on a plate or cake stand, decorate with the Amaretti biscuits (if desired) cut into slices and serve with a quenelle of crème fraiche and sprinkle of sea salt.
4 x 120g fillets of smoked haddock (undyed if possible)
250ml cream
100ml milk
1 tsp prepared English mustard
1 tsp curry powder
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Brush a shallow casserole or baking dish with the melted butter. Put the cooked and halved potatoes on the bottom, then cover with the leek and raisins. Put the fish on top.
Whisk your cream, milk, mustard and curry powder together, then pour this over the fish and season with salt and pepper.
Cover tightly with a lid or foil and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve straight to the table.
Next add the fruit mix, grated apple and ground almonds. Mix well.
Finally, add the breadcrumbs and bottle of stout.
Stir well, cover and leave to stand overnight. Transfer to a 3 pint greased pudding bowl. Steam for 5 hours.
To steam pudding in oven:
Put two long strips of tin foil crosswise on work top or table. Place roasting tin on foil. Sit pudding bowl into the tin and fill with boiling water to within 1″ of top of tin. Then bring tin foil around to form a parcel, which should be airtight to prevent any steam escaping.
Place in preheated oven at 150°C/300°F/Gas 2 for the same length of time as above. There is no need to top up with water during cooking.
Recipe Notes:
The quantities may be doubled if more than one pudding is required.
1 tin Condensed Milk, simmered for 3 hours and cooled
Topping
3 Bananas, sliced
1 carton Cream, whipped
Grated chocolate or crushed Cadbury’s Flake
How to:
Shortbread
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4. Grease and line a loose bottomed 23cm / 9″ cake tin.
Sieve the flour, icing sugar and cornflour into a bowl. Rub in the butter/margarine until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Press into the prepared tin and bake in preheated oven for approx 20 minutes until golden in colour. Leave to cool in the tin.
Toffee
Place the unopened tin of condensed milk in a saucepan covered with sufficient water to cover top of tin.
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a low simmer for 3 hours. Make sure the level of the water does not fall below the tin of condensed milk during simmering.
Remove tin from saucepan and allow to cool. This can be done a few days in advance.
Topping
Spread toffee over the cold shortbread. Gently remove from the cake tin and place on a serving plate. Arrange the sliced bananas on top of the toffee, cover with the whipped cream and decorate with grated or flaked chocolate.
This is a very filling soup that is actually a recipe of my mum’s that we have been making on and off in the restaurant for years. Use the very best quality fish and shellfish for the best flavour
Ingredients
1 tblsp rapeseed oil
1 tblsp butter, softened
2 large potatoes, cut into 1cm (1/2in) dice
1 small onion, cut into 1cm (1/2in) dice
1 carrot, cut into 1cm (1/2in) dice
1/2 small leek, cut into 1cm (1/2in) dice
1 tblsp plain flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
150 ml (1/4 pint) dry white wine
300 ml (1/2 pint) fish stock (page 254)
100 g (4oz) skinless salmon fillet, cut into cubes
100 g (4oz) smoked coley fillet, cut into cubes
100 g (4oz) cooked mussel meat
100 g (4oz) cooked peeled prawns
150 ml (1/4 pint) cream
1 tsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh dill
1 tblsp parsley oil (page 250), to garnish
fresh micro salad, to garnish
makes about 1.2 litres (2 pints)
250 g (9oz) white fish trimmings and/or bones (such as lemon sole, brill or plaice bones)
3 leeks, trimmed and chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
large handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
175 ml (6fl oz) dry white wine
100 g (4oz) fresh flat-leaf parsley
100 ml (3 1/2fl oz) rapeseed oil
sea salt
Method
Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat and then add the butter. Once it stops sizzling, tip in the potatoes, onion, carrot and leek and cook for 5 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add the flour and cook on a low heat for 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Season to taste.
Gradually pour the wine into the pan and allow it to bubble down, stirring continuously. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the salmon and coley and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the mussel meat, prawns and cream and simmer for another 2–3 minutes, until warmed through. Stir in the herbs and season to taste.
To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls and garnish each one with the parsley oil and micro salad.
Method
Rinse the fish bones and trimmings of any blood, which would make the stock look cloudy and taste bitter. Place into a large heavy-bottomed stockpot with the leeks, carrots, fennel and parsley.
Pour in the white wine, then add 2.4 litres (4 pints) cold water to cover the fish and vegetables. Place on a high heat and bring to a simmer. After 5 minutes, remove the scum that forms on the surface with a spoon and discard. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes, skimming as necessary.
At the end of the cooking time, remove the stock from the heat and strain, discarding the fish trimmings and the vegetables. Cool and store in a plastic covered jug in the fridge and use as required.
Method
Pick the leaves from the parsley and place in a mini blender, discarding the stalks. Add the rapeseed oil and a pinch of salt and blend for 5 minutes, until completely smooth.
Pass the parsley mixture through a fine sieve into a jug and then transfer to a squeezy bottle. Use as required.
Notes
Neven’s tips: This soup can be made up to 24 hours in advance and kept covered in the fridge. Just be careful when reheating not to allow it to come to the boil or the fish will lose its texture. Splash out on a rosé Champagne, rosé Cava or a ripe Chardonnay from Macon in Burgundy.
This recipe and many more are available in Neven Maguire’s The MacNean Restaurant Cookbook, published by Gill & MacMillan Books and available to buy here.