Chef Style

With hotels reopening we asked the head chefs of two of Ireland’s fine dining kitchens to share some of their great recipes to when our appetite for indoor dining.

Executive Head Chef, Eddie McDermott is at the helm of the newly opened restaurant ‘Fia Rua’ at the Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort in Blessington, Co Wicklow. The 72-seater restaurant enjoys panoramic views across the championship golf course to the mountains and the Blessington Lakes. The restaurant serves modern Irish cuisine and places a huge emphasis on food provenance. His signature dish is a 12-hour, pot roasted feather blade of beef - from beef provided by the well-known, Gahan Meats Family Butchers. He shares the recipe along with some wonderful Irish sea hake.

SEA HAKE

Ingredients :

200 g Irish Sea Hake

50 g Butter

½ Lemon

1 tbsp Fresh Herbs (Parsley, Chives, Chervil, Tarragon, Dill)

Pinch Salt & Pepper

2 tbsp Rapeseed oil

Method :

Heat the oil in a large frying pan
Dry the skin of the hake with a paper towel, season well with salt and pepper and place in a pan - skin side down.
Cook for 3 – 4 mins until skin is beginning to crisp up. Next, add a little knob of butter into the pan around the fish fillet and continue to cook.
Turn the hake fillet over and cook for another 3 – 4 mins until cooked through, this will depend on the thickness of the fillet.
Remove from the pan and keep warm.
Add the rest of the butter and allow to melt over a medium heat. When melted, add a squeeze of lemon juice, the fresh herbs and season to taste.
Serve with creamed potatoes and wilted seasonal green vegetables.

SLOW COOKED FEATHER BLADE OF BEEF

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 kg of Feather Blade of Beef (trimmed and all silver skin removed)

Oil for frying

Salt and Pepper to season

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

2 large carrots cut into large chunks

4 cloves of garlic

1 sprig of rosemary

1 sprig of thyme

1 bay leaf

4 whole peppercorns

2 tbsp tomato puree

250 ml of red wine

250 ml of beef stock or water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Pat the beef dry and season it well with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large frying pan over a high heat until shimmering. Brown the beef on all sides and ends. Remove from the pan and place it in a deep container.
Add vegetables to the pan and sauté till nicely browned, add herbs and garlic, then put it in a container with the beef.
Add liquid to the pan. Bring up to a simmer and using a wooden spoon, scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Add to the beef and to the rest of the vegetables ensuring the beef is well covered.
Top with baking parchment: Cover tightly with cling film and tin the foil. Place the lid on the top and put in pre heated oven. Cook for 4 – 41/2 hours until the meat is very tender.
Remove beef from the oven, Take the lid off and transfer to a plate. Strain the cooking liquid into a large pan and skim off any fat that appears from cooking. Press through the vegetables, add puree to the pan and reduce to a sauce consistency that coats the back of a spoon.
Spoon the sauce over the beef to coat and serve.
Put 4 large pieces of clingfilm on top of each other on a clean work surface. Place the beef carefully onto it, then roll it up to form a sausage shape but be really careful not to break up the meat.
Put two large pieces of tin foil on top of each other on a clean work surface and place the wrapped beef on top. Roll it up and pinch and twist the ends till the beef is wrapped very tightly
When its fully cool, put the beef in the fridge for 3 – 4 hours or overnight to firm up.
To reheat: Remove the beef from the fridge and cut it into 5cm discs, then take off the clingfilm. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add the beef and cook until browned on each side. Increase the heat slightly, add some jus and cook for 4–5 minutes, spooning the sauce over the beef.
Present the beef on a plate with port wine jus, pickled red onions, roasted carrot puree and wild, foraged garlic.

Executive Head Chef Kevin Mc Grattan oversees the kitchen at Lyrath Estate Hotel, Kilkenny. He previously worked in the world-renowned Restaurant Petrus under Marcus Waring in London followed by time with renowned chefs Ray McArdle and Finbarr Higgins at the K Club, where he later stepped up to run the kitchen in the hotel’s flagship restaurant The Byerley Turk.

Connemara Whiskey Cured & Hickory Smoked Irish Salmon Cauliflower Puree, Red Vein Sorrel & Pinenut Oil

Smoked Salmon (2 one inch ‘Fillets’)

Cauliflower Puree (1 tbsp.)

Red Vein Micro Sorrel Leaves (8-10)

Viola Edible Flower (2-4)

Toasted pine-nuts (1 tsp)

Pine-nut Oil (1 tsp)

Horseradish Foam (100ml)

Cured & Smoked Salmon (gives 12-14 portions)

1 Organic Salmon Side, skin on (pinned & trimmed) from a 6-8kg fish

1lb Sea Salt Crystals

1lb Sugar (granulated)

10g Whiskey Tea Leaves

150ml (4 shots) Connemara Irish Whiskey

Hickory Smoking Chips

Method

First trim up the salmon with a sharp knife, trimming off any excess fat from belly and giving a nice shape to the fillet

There are pin bones that run along the thicker part of the fillet from the head to roughly hallway down to tail. Run your fingers along fillet to locate these bones.

Using a fish tweezers grip the top of the bones, which will be poking out through flesh.

Gently pull towards the head end of the fillet and the bones should pull out.

Mix the salt, sugar & whiskey tea leaves together and moisten with a little whiskey (approx. 2 shots)

Cover the salmon completely in the salt mix.

Cure (Gravadlax) for 24hrs then turn the salmon over and re-cover the salmon fillet with the salt mix and cure for a further 24hrs

When cured, gently wash off salt mix and vacuum pack the salmon with two more shots of whiskey for at least 24hrs

Hot smoke with hickory chips for 10 minutes (N0 more than 10 mins) (5 mins per side) less if the side of salmon is a bit small

After it cools, portion into one inch fillets, then remove skin and bloodline.

Cauliflower Puree

400gm Cauliflower (sliced very fine)

300ml Cream

40gm unsalted Butter

Salt and milled white peppercorn to taste

Method

Melt the unsalted butter in a pot and add in the finely sliced cauliflower with a little salt and milled peppercorn to taste

Cook on a low heat with a lid and sweat out without colouring until they begin to soften

Add in the cream and place on a low heat and cook out until very soft

Pour into the blender and blitz on high until very smooth.

Horseradish Foam

300ml Water

300ml Skimmed Milk

50g Fresh grated Horseradish (1 tbsp. of bottled creamed horseradish sauce is an acceptable substitute)

20g Glucose

10g Lecithin Powder

Method

Simply infuse the horseradish in the milk & water at room temperature for at least an hour, 2 hours is best. (The longer you infuse the stronger the flavour)

If using fresh horseradish pass the milk through a fine sieve to remove the horseradish gratings

Add the lecithin powder & glucose and buzz with a hand/stick blender.

For best results use a square container, angle the blender at a slight angle pointing into one of the corners of the container to help the foam “grow”.

As soon as the foams grows high enough to scoop its ready to use.

Excessive buzzing will simply cause the foam to collapse.

To serve

Spoon on the cauliflower puree on the plate and drag it lengthways

Place the smoked salmon ‘fillet’ across the pull of puree.

Place the Toasted Pine-nuts, Micro Sorrel & Edible flowers gently over & around the salmon

Garnish lightly with the Pine-nut oil and spoon over a small amount of the horseradish foam.

Rummy Pineapple Parfait

Pineapple Caramel Puree

100g Sugar

Water (to wet the sugar)

200g Pineapple puree

25ml Spiced Rum

Cook the sugar in a pan until a soft caramel foams add rum to deglaze the caramel before adding the pineapple puree.
Reduce the caramel to a slightly thick consistency

Parfait

100g egg yolk

60g sugar

Water (to wet the sugar)

250g pineapple caramel puree

400g whipped cream

Heat the pineapple caramel puree
Whip the sugar and egg yolks together until ribbon stage over a Bain Marie
Add the warm pineapple puree to the eggs and mix well
Remove from heat and fold in the whipped cream
Place into moulds and freeze

Compressed Pineapple

Pineapple

40ml Spiced Rum

Peel and cut the pineapple in halve
Place in a vac-pac pouch/bag and add the spiced rum
Seal and compress
When needed remove from the bag and cut into even cubes

Pineapple Cake

260g Self Raising Flour

130g Caster Sugar

450g Pineapple puree

Combine all ingredients into a smooth batter
Place in a greased cake tin
Bake at 180c for 12-14mins
Cut cake into small thin rectangular slices when needed

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

1 pint Cream

½ tsp Cinnamon

¼ tsp Nutmeg

Rum to taste

Add cinnamon and nutmeg to cream and whip to a light peak
Add spiced rum to taste

Assembly

Remove parfait from moulds while still frozen and roll in toasted coconut flakes
Place a small rectangle of pineapple cake in the centre of the plate and put the rolled parfait on top
Spoon a small amount of the pineapple caramel on the plate beside it and place a cube of the compressed pineapple on top
Carefully dot the cinnamon whipped cream around the parfait and serve

For more visit lyrath.com and tulfarrishotel.com