Galway Seafood Chowder

Chowder

As with a great many traditional foods it is likely that chowder takes its name from the iron cooking pot in which it is traditionally cooked a Chaudière. Although the actual name chowder was first used in North America, specifically Canada in the 1730’s.The term Chowder would not be specific to a single soup but rather a number of interpretations of chowder exist ranging from rich creamy recipes through to light broth like soups often thickened with water biscuits, although all interpretations would indicate a hearty and very satisfying soup. The use of salt pork in seafood chowder is essential according to many traditionalists and will add a superb extra layer of flavour as will the use of potato. Clam chowder is possibly the most well known form of the soup and although very simple to make is one of the world’s great soups. Indeed the line between when chowder becomes a stew is often very thin indeed which makes chowder a great choice for a mid day meal on a sunny summers day. Experimentation is the order of the day when it comes to making chowder with the use of different fish and shellfish making the soup both fun to make and better to eat, although the recipe I have included may not be a chowder in the most traditional sense it will yield a hearty soup and will work a treat as a light meal or as a first course to a more substantial dinner.

Serves 4

50 gram onion
25 gram carrot --------------------chopped into a small dice
50 gram leek

25 gram butter
20 gram flour
700 ml fish stock
150 gram potato peeled and chopped into a small dice
30 gram streaky bacon chopped into small pieces
50 ml cream
10 gram flat leaf parsley
200 grams mixed fish and shellfish prepared and chopped into a medium dice, keep prawns whole

1. Add the bacon to a thick based pot and cook lightly, add the onion, carrot leek and butter and cook without colour.
2. Add the flour and allow to form into a roux then slowly add the fish stock insure that the flour is not allowed to clump and form lumps.
3. Add the potato and allow simmer for about 10 minutes then add the fish and simmer until the fish and potato are cooked.
4. Finish with cream and flat leaf parsley, season and serve.



By Michael O’Meara
Chef at Oscars bistro Galway city www.oscarsbistro.ie

Carrots, don't you just love them!

Carrots—Just great

Carrots are simply a fantastic vegetable which lend themselves to an endless array of culinary uses. Boiled and tossed in a little butter, roasted, pureed or eaten raw the humble carota var sativa is a vegetable which few can resist. The carrot is even on the list of vegetables grown in the royal garden of Babylon. Interestingly the carrot may have been grown throughout the ages more for its leaves or seeds than its root. The bright orange colour which we are familiar with is far from the only colour of a carrot; carrots come in red, purple, white, orange and green varieties and can add great interest to a meal. Carrots contain a large amount of sugar and were even used as a source of refined sugar. In the past when sugar was a rare commodity the carrot was incorporated into sweet foods and can still be found in the popular carrot cake today. Perhaps the most unusual use for carrots was in the court of King James I when the ladies of the court wore carrots in their hats and pins. The Ancient Greeks used the vegetable to relieve stomach ailments and to increase virility. The Greek name for carrots being philon, from the Greek word philo, “to love. The aphrodisiac quality of the carrots was also used by Iranian men in the 1800.
And to make a simple and delicious carrot and orange soup follow the recipe below.

1 kg carrots peeled and chopped small
1 large onion chopped small
50 gram butter
1 litre vegetable stock
100 ml cream
Juice from 2 oranges (freshly squeezed)

1. In a thick based pot sweat the onion, carrot and butter together without colour
2. Add the stock and allow simmer until the carrots are soft.
3. Add the cream and orange juice then puree the soup
4. Check the seasoning and enjoy.

Ribs

Summer time means barbeque and a rib recipe is essential
Michael O Meara
Oscars Bistro Galway

Ribs

Really good quality pork is one of the foods that can really make a passionate chef all misty eyed. Pork is a meat which is still great value and when the cuts which are often regarded as the cheap parts are used a meal of outstanding value and taste can be had. For me the two best cuts of pork are the belly and ribs. Indeed these cuts require a little more work and attention than the more often used loin and legs but the little bit of effort is undoubtedly worth the work.
Pork ribs are a cut of meat which can be great fun to experiment with. Various aromatics, seasoning and spices can be incorporated into marinades. Even bacon ribs, when lightly cured make a fantastic addition to a barbeque. The making of a barbeque sauce is vital for the success of a great rib cook-up. I hate to say it, but the secret to a really good barbeque sauce is sugar, and lots of it. You see as you cook the ribs on a grill you must continuously baste the meat with a high sugar content sauce, this sauce will then caramelise with the natural juice of the pork forming a tasty, sticky layer of sauce on the pork which is both sweet and savoury. The sugar content of the sauce is balanced with vinegar; once this balance is achieved all sorts of flavourings can be used in a sauce.

BBQ SAUCE
This sauce can be made well in advance and will store in an airtight glass jar for up to a month
500 gram granulated sugar
500 ml white wine vinegar
1 large onion (chopped)
2 red chilli peppers
5 gram coriander seed
3 gram black pepper corn
300 gram tomato paste / puree
50 ml dark soy sauce
25 gram smoked paprika
Place the vinegar and sugar into a thick based pot and allow boil, add the chilli, coriander black pepper and onion and reduce by 25%
Add the soy sauce and tomato paste then season with salt. Blend completely and pour hot into sterilised jars to be used as desired.

To make BBQ pork ribs

Rub the ribs with chopped garlic, chopped rosemary, and olive oil as well as a little lemon juice and allow marinade for around 3 hours.

Place the ribs onto a barbeque and allow cook gently while turning often, when 90% cooked start basting on the bbq sauce while turning the ribs continuously. Allow the sauce to caramelise then add a little more building up a tasty glaze of sauce.

Nettles a great wild food

Nettles

On the subject of wild foods, one of the most abundant and easy to collect is the nettle. The common nettle or Urtica dioica is a superb, versatile and tasty green vegetable. Nettles although common for a large part of the year are at their best in the spring, with the best nettles of all for the pot being the tops of the young shoots. In fact a dish of nettle was once used to mark the coming of spring. As the majority of us painfully know the nettle has a nasty sting which is composed of formic acid and this leads to the requirement of a good pair of work gloves for harvesting. However the sting is rendered impotent on cooking and should not discourage you trying nettles. Indeed the nettle is reputed to be a particularly healthy green vegetable with high concentrations of a large amount of vitamins and minerals.
From a culinary perspective the nettle is similar in many ways to spinach and can be used to good effect as an accompanient to seafood or as flavouring to a potato champ. At Oscars I have even made a flavourful ice-cream out of young nettle shoots. Although possibly the most common use for nettles is in soup, and indeed when nettle soup is made well it is a true culinary treat, bright and vivid green with a hint of spring onion and wild garlic. The nettle is well worth gathering during spring and even into early summer.

Nettle soup

1 kg of nettles with the stalks removed and well washed
25 gram butter
1 large onion peeled and chopped
50 gram wild garlic leafs (optional)
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock

I like to blanch and refresh my nettles in boiling water before making this soup to allow for a more vivid colour in addition to gaining a fresher flavour. Simply bring a large pot of water to the boil, plunge in the nettles for 30 seconds, then remove the nettles from the water and cool quickly under cold running water.

1. Place the butter and onion into a thick based pot and gently cook the onion without colour until soft.
2. Add the nettles and wild garlic and cook with the onion for about five minutes.
3. Add the stock and allow come to a gentle simmer.
4. Simmer for 5 minutes then blend the soup, season and serve.

By Michael O’Meara Oscars bistro Galway city www.oscarsbistro.ie

Seafood stew

A fresh seafood stew is a tasty dish at any time of the day and when made with the seafood of Galway bay the stew becomes very special indeed. Seafood stew

On a hot summers day what could be better than a fresh seafood stew? Simmered gently in a white wine sauce, a few mushroom and leeks maybe, just for a bit of extra flavour. What’s great about a stew of fish is that just about any fish be it fresh water or from the sea lends its self to this tasty dish. The only important rule to follow is that the fish is fresh. And there are so many types of stew to experiment with, broths, cream stews, tomato based as are common in the Mediterranean countries. The fun with stew is that there is so much scope to experiment. It is important to cook the fish stew slowly as to not allow the pieces of fish to break up. A slow consistent and gentle heat is the secret; also don’t stir the stew much, in particular when the fish is cooked as again this will break up the individual pieces of fish.

For a stew that will feed 4 allow 150 grams of raw fish per person chopped into chunks and bones removed.

600 gram mixed fish cut into one inch chunks if using shellfish such as prawns remove the intestine and keep whole

400 ml fish stock
50 ml white wine
20 gram shallots diced fine
50 gram butter
50 gram plain flour
50 ml cream
100 gram button mushrooms cleaned
50 grams leeks chopped fine
20 grams parsley chopped fine

Carrots, courgettes, fennel, celery or any other summer vegetable that takes your fancy can be added at the same time as the mushrooms
Method
1. Place the butter into a thick based saucepan and heat gently, then add the shallots and allow soften.
2. Add the flour and mix with the butter to form a roux, add the stock whisking lightly to incorporate with the roux.
3. Allow cook until the sauce begins to thicken then add the wine and cream.
4. Add the mushrooms and leeks and allow cook lightly.
5. Add the fish and ensure it is well coated with the sauce. Simmer gently until cooked.
6. Finish with chopped parsley and adjust the seasoning; serve with freshly boiled potato.

Burgers

Its hard to better a good burger
Artisan style Hamburger
Serves 2
Difficulty *

Ingredients
For Burger
300grams lean steak mince
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 egg
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp tomatoes ketchup
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp Bread crumbs
Salt & pepper to season

For garnish
1 sour dough baguette cut into suitable sizes and halved
2 vine tomatoes sliced
6 leafs of organic lettuce washed
½ red onions sliced
2 * 30 gram slices of a good farm house cheese; I’m using Killen cheese from Galway
Mayonnaise to taste

Method:
1. bind all the ingredients for the burger together and form into burgers
2. Heat a thick based pan and add a little oil
3. Cook the burgers over a medium heat until the juices run clear
4. Place the cheese on top of the burgers and melt under a hot grill also toast the bread at the same time
5. Onto the toasted bread add the lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise.
6. Place the burgers on top of the dressed buns and add the red onion finish by placing the final bread slice atop the burger and enjoy.

Curry

It really is hard to beat a good curry. At Oscars we really are lucky to have access to some of the best seafood in the world.

Text and photography by Michael O Meara Oscars


Curry

One of the most traditional English dishes dating back to the East India trading company. Curry may be delicious when made well, but Indian food it is not. Now the spices and their combinations used in curry are indeed very much Indian, but in India they tend to be fresh and far more fragrant than what we see in Ireland. The name curry originated from the word Kari which means spiced sauce. Curry powder was a British invention which allowed the spice combinations of the Indians to become far more user friendly, also transporting a powder is a lot simpler than moving complex varieties of foods across continents. Various spiced sauces can not only be found in India, but also in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia to name two. Each of these countries cuisines have approached the way they make their sauces in completely different ways for example the Malaysians way favour coconut pineapple bases to some of there sauces. In contrast the Thai people use complex combinations of fresh flavours such as wild ginger, lemon grass, coriander and lime leaf. The common element running through all curries is the use of chilli which varies to a tremendous degree in heat intensity. The way is which chilli peppers heat is measured is the Scoville scale named after its creator Wilbur Scoville. The substance that makes chillies hot is capsaicin and pure capsaicin measures 15’000,000 to 16’000,000 Scoville units. The scale starts with the mildest pepper, being the sweet bell pepper which rates as zero, the commonest hot pepper in Ireland is the Jalapeno with a rating of 2,500 the Hebanero comes in at a blistering 150,000-325,000 but the King of hot peppers is the Naga Jolokia (ghost chilli) with a rating of over 1,000,000 Scoville units, to put that heat into context Law enforcement grade pepper spray heat starts at 500,000 units.

For a simple fish curry (serves 3 – 4)

500 gram mixed fish cut into bite sized pieces, keep prawns and shellfish whole
1 Aubergine sliced into thin strips
Holy basil (normal basil will work) 50 grams

For sauce
1 tin of coconut cream
1 tin 300ml tin of pineapple pieces
Juice of one lemon
Thai fish sauce to taste
Puree together, place into a large pot and bring to a gentle simmer

10 coriander seeds crushed
10 fennel seeds crushed
3 Kaffir lime leafs
1 lemon grass fresh, chopped
10 grams ginger peeled & chopped fine
25 gram Thai red curry paste
Add to the coconut / pineapple sauce and allow infuse for 5 minutes
Then add the aubergines and allow cook for 3 minutes, add the fish and cover with a lid, poach until the fish is cooked. When cooked finish with the basil leaf, adjust seasoning with fish sauce and serve with boiled rice and fresh cut limes.