WE can all agree, there have not been many positives to come from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the past 14 months the UK and Ireland have experienced some of longest and most restrictive lockdowns; public movement came to an abrupt halt and we saw the food and hospitality industry come to the brink of complete shutdown.
As a response to the closure of their restaurants, pubs and hotels, many of Irelands’ most influential chefs moved online to share their passion for fresh local produce, their desire to inspire budding home cooks, share recipes, and to provide hints, cooking tips along with their invaluable experience in the kitchen.
Whether motivated by boredom or the need to diversify their incomes, in moving from the from the physical to the virtual world, these chefs have built and expanded an online community that is championing the diversity of modern Irish cuisine.
The move to an online audience has allowed budding chefs at home to develop their skills and learn from the best in the business.
In a special series, and with the support of Belleek Pottery and specialist cookware company ProCook, The Irish Post will profile some of Ireland top chefs who, throughout their careers, have travelled across the globe to expand the culinary knowledge and develop their skills.
With readily available ingredients, the simple dishes re-created are aimed at the beginner through to the more established home chef while giving the flexibility to alter the ingredients to suit your own pallet.
Celebrity Chef JP McMahonAlong with the ingredients and method, we will be showing you how we got on with the recipe and providing a list of the equipment used.
First up is JP McMahon, the culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group.
The Group comprises of the Galway located Michelin-starred Aniar Restaurant, the award-winning Spanish Restaurant Cava Bodega and Tartare Cafe and Wine Bar.
McMahon also runs the Anair Boutique Cookery School which expanded through lockdown to incorporate a children's cookery series.
A champion of local, free-range produce, McMahon founded the Galway based Food on the Edge event in 2015.
Since then, Food on the Edge has grown to become one of the largest and most talked about annual food events in Europe.
As an author, just weeks before the UK's first lockdown in 2020 McMahon launched The Irish Cookbook, a powerful volume of just under 500 home cooking recipes which are peppered throughout the book with the history and influences of Irish food.
From soda bread to oysters with seaweed, the book champions the very best of local, seasonal produce and highlights the regional variations in Irelands home cooking.
For more information on JP McMahon and the EatGalway Group you can follow McMahon on Instagram at @mistereatgalway
Introducing an Irish favourite, Brown Soda Bread with Local Stout and Black Treacle, McMahon explains that the introduction of Bicarbonate of Soda, (Baking Powder) suited the coarse Irish flour and has given us the bread we are all familiar with today in Ireland.
Pre-lockdown, the no-knead, dark, wheat bread was also available daily at McMahon's Aniar restaurant and hopefully will be back on the menu soon.
In testing the recipe, many will be tempted to reach for a can of Guinness, Ireland’s most famous dark stout.
There are plenty of alternatives available, from local craft beers to national brands, all of which will give your bread variations of flavour.
Making this recipe, we have opted for 200ml of London Porter, produced by one of the UK's oldest brewers.
The London style porter gives the bread a rich deep flavour and is perfectly matched with an afternoon's cup of tea.
You, of course can choose the stout of your choice…
JP McMahon's Brown Soda Bread with Stout and Treacle
For this recipe the following equipment from ProCook were used.
26cm ProCook silicone non slip mixing bowl.
DesignPro Silicone spatula.
DesignPro Silicone wooden spoon
Premium digital kitchen scales
4 one-pound non-stick baking (loaf) tins - Alternatively 2, two-pound baking tins can also be used
The Damascus 67 knife set's 23cm bread knife
ProCook End Grain Chopping Board
Slices of the soda bread are shown served on Belleek Pottery's Grafton Tea and Tray set.
Ingredients:
(Makes 4 small loaves)
Rapeseed oil, for greasing the loaf tins
800g strong brown (wholewheat) bread flour
200g strong white bread flour
1tbsp bicarbonate of soda
20g sea salt
220g Mixed seeds (such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseeds/flaxseed)
200g treacle (molasses)
2 eggs
850ml buttermilk*
200ml stout
50g pinhead oats, for the topping
* If you do find it difficult to purchase buttermilk locally, you can replace with your own. To make your own buttermilk, mix one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to 250 ml of whole milk.
Simply mix the milk and lemon juice in a jug. Leave at room temperature for 5-10 mins until the milk has thickened slightly. It won’t thicken as much as traditional buttermilk.
For your bread:
- Preheat the oven to 130C/265F/120 fan Gas Mark 3/4. Grease two 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tins or 4 1lb small loaf tins.
- Stir all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add the treacle, eggs and buttermilk and combine, then add enough stout until you achieve a wet dough. If using a stand mixer, make sure you pause the mixing and use your spatula to ensure all your ingredients are well combined.
- Pour the dough into the prepared loaf tins, sprinkle the oats on top and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, until the loaves sound hollow when the bottoms are tapped or the core temperature is greater than 85C/185F on a meat thermometer.
- Once removed from the oven, let the bread rest and cool for 10 mins before turning the loaves out and onto a cooling rack. Once cool enough to touch, cut into generously thick slices, spread on top your favourite Irish butter and enjoy.
The Irish Cookbook by JP McMahon is published by Phaidon. All of the products used in making and presenting the bread can be found at www.belleek.com and www.procook.co.uk
Belleek Pottery has been based in the village of Belleek in Co Fermanagh on the banks of the River Erne for over 160 years. Established in 1856 Belleek is the oldest fine China pottery in Ireland. ProCook was established over 25 years ago by Daniel O'Neill. With family hailing from Newtownards in County Down, O'Neill has taken ProCook from the first mail order only cookware company in the UK to multi-channel outlet with 50 stores nationwide and is currently looking at opening additional outlets across Europe this year.
