After a week away in beautiful Dingle, I was so excited to get back into my own kitchen. I spent the day trailing around a few of my favourite grocer spots picking up ingredients. This sunshiney (but bitterly cold) spell pushed me towards light and fresh fare. In the end we had some panfried mackerel with a tomato salad. The mackerel disappeared before I could take a picture (as much to prove that I can (and do) cook ‘real’ food – not just desserts!) but Niall managed to take a picture of the tomato salad before it disappeared too!
I don’t generally follow a recipe for this salad but my routine is generally as follows:
Take a punnet of cherry tomatoes and split in half. To the split tomatoes add half a cucumber and a red pepper each *expertly* julienned and one red onion sliced. Season the salad with salt, pepper and caster sugar. The caster sugar will trick you into believing your winter tomatoes have at least seen some sunshine! The sugar will also draw out the juices from the vegetables and the juices together with some good quality extra virgin olive oil combine to make the most beautiful dressing.
Sometimes if I am feeling particularly bold I will make a few croutons to go with the salad, but only in my bolder moments. If you look hard enough you will see a couple of croutons in a little red bowl on the end of the table.
All that light food was crying out for a rich creamy dessert, non?
A luscious vanilla pannacotta topped with raspberries. The bitter raspberries cut across the sweet creaminess of the panacotta. As an alternative presentation, I added a slice of blood orange to one of the bowls.
In the end we ended up sharing one bowl and when making the dish again I think I will present the dish in smaller little glasses.
For a bit of crunch to go with the pannacotta I served up some delicious Kilbeggan Oat biscuits. I have been making a *healthly* version of these biscuits recently, packed with lots of nutritious nuts and seeds. Today, I went vanilla. I cannot express my profound devotion to Kilbeggan Oats in strong enough terms. These are beautiful little soft oats which produce the most luscious creamy porridge but work equally well mixed through a little yoghurt or with grated apple and berries.
The little raspberry topped biscuits were for the pannacotta. As for the coffee buttercream biscuits, these are a gift for some pre-Ballymaloe friends I am meeting for lunch tomorrow. I wanted to take a little something with me that would keep well for a couple of days. I hope they like them – fingers crossed!
lillecook.wordpress.com 