Our cookbook of the week is Grow, Cook, Nourish by Darina Allen, Irish chef and founder of the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, Ireland. To try a recipe from the book, check out: emigrant’s soda bread; and carrageen moss pudding with rhubarb compote.
“There’s no question about it. You can eat brilliantly in Ireland now,” Darina Allen says. “I think there’s a realization here in Ireland, and not before time, that we are so blessed by nature.”
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Grow, Cook, Nourish is Allen’s sixteenth book.
Surrounded by the sea, fish and shellfish are central to the island nation’s cuisine. Rich soil, a long growing season, an established farmers’ market movement (which Allen founded in the mid-1990s), and creative chefs and food producers combine to create a vibrant culinary scene.
“We can produce maybe the best raw material in the world; certainly some of the best raw material in the world,” she says. “We’re very, very fortunate. All good food starts with really good produce grown in good, fertile soil.”
The Irish food ambassador is a chef, food writer and owner of the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, which attracts students from 50 countries and counting.
In her sixteenth book, Grow, Cook, Nourish: A Kitchen Garden Companion in 500 Recipes, Allen hopes to inspire readers to take back control of their food by growing some of their own.
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Pallets and wooden wine crates can be used to grow a wide variety of small plants — like lettuces, fresh herbs and radishes — Allen writes.
“People say, ‘Well it’s all very fine for you. You’re out in the middle of a 100-acre organic farm in the countryside.’ But it doesn’t matter where you are,” Allen says. “If you even have a windowsill or a little balcony or a little raised bed or bucket, you can grow something.”
For St. Patrick’s Day, Allen often turns to a traditional Irish dish – one that celebrates homegrown parsley. It’s classic comfort food, she says: boiled back bacon and cabbage smothered in parsley sauce.
“I love to do bacon, cabbage and parsley sauce with some champ, which is an Irish potato dish with mashed potato, hot milk, scallions and a big lump of butter melting into it,” she says.
“A lot of people would know the (dish) Irish stew. But I think if you asked people in Ireland what their favourite family comfort food is, most would say bacon and cabbage… It’s food that’s deep in our epigenetics.”
TRADITIONAL IRISH BACON, CABBAGE & PARSLEY SAUCE
Serves: 12-15
4 to 5-lb (1.8 to 2.2-kg) slab of back bacon, either smoked or unsmoked with the rind on and a nice covering of fat
Boiled potatoes (optional), to serve
For the buttered cabbage:
1 lb (450 g) Savoy cabbage
2 – 3 tbsp (30 to 45 mL) butter
White pepper
For the parsley sauce:
Bouquet garni (see note)
A few slices of carrot (optional)
A few slices of onion (optional)
2 1/2 cups (600 mL) full-fat cold milk
1/4 cup (50 mL) roux (recipe follows)
1/2 to 3/4 cup (125 to 175 mL) freshly chopped curly parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Step 1
Put the bacon in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring slowly to a boil. If the bacon is very salty there will be a white froth on top of the water, in which case it is preferable to discard the water and start again. It may be necessary to change the water several times depending on how salty the bacon is. Finally, cover with hot water and simmer until almost cooked, allowing 20 minutes for every 1 pound (450 g).
Step 2
Meanwhile, remove the outer leaves from the cabbage. Cut the cabbage into quarters, discarding the centre core. Cut each quarter into thin strips across the grain. About 30 minutes before the bacon is cooked, add the cabbage. Continue to cook until the cabbage is soft and tender and the bacon is fully cooked through. Transfer the bacon to a hot plate and strain the water off the cabbage. Remove the rind from the bacon. Return the cabbage to the saucepan with the butter; season with white pepper.
Step 3
To make the parsley sauce, put the herbs (bouquet garni), vegetables (if using), and milk into a saucepan and bring to simmering point. Season and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. Strain out the herbs and vegetables, return the milk to a boil, and whisk in the roux until the sauce is a light coating consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Add the chopped parsley and simmer over very low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.
Step 4
Serve the cabbage with the bacon and, traditionally, boiled potatoes and lots of parsley sauce.
Note: To make a bouquet garni, tie together a sprig of flat leaf parsley, fresh thyme and a bay leaf with unwaxed kitchen string.
ROUX
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (205 mL) flour
Melt the butter and cook the flour in it for 2 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Use as required. (Roux can be prepared ahead and used when needed or it can be made up on the spot if preferred. It will keep for at least 2 weeks in the fridge.)
Recipe excerpted from Grow, Cook, Nourish by Darina Allen, published by Kyle Books 2017.