How to Cook - Sample Recipes

To date, Dermot’s simple but unique teaching technique is continually in demand from his clients. From groups of house wives and husbands to culinary students and from special needs cooks to foreign diplomats Dermot teaches them how to dine out at and entertain guests in the comfort of their own homes.

Here is a taster of just some recipes from his book.

Crème Brûlée

Creme brulee 

Ingredients

300ml double cream, 1 split vanilla pod or 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 4 free-range egg yolks, 40g caster sugar. For raspberry brûlée, use frozen raspberries. For coffee brûlée, use 1 tbsp coffee essence or strong boiled instant coffee.

Method

* Preheat oven to 150°C/Gas mark 3.5. Pour the cream into a small saucepan with the split scraped vanilla pod or vanilla essence and heat slowly.

*Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, pour in the vanilla cream mixture and stir with a wooden spoon over a pot of steam to form the consistency of a light custard. If you decide to try the coffee, stir in the coffee at this stage or you can divide the mixture to make raspberry brûlée.

* Place your tea cups or ramekins into a roasting tray, pour in the brûlée mixture to just below the rim and place in the oven before adding boiling water to the tray. 

* Boil a kettle of water and pour enough hot water into the roasting tray to reach half way up the sides of the cups then bake for 25 minutes or until the mixture wobbles in the centre like jelly.

* Carefully remove each brûlée from the roasting pan and leave to cool on a rack for 1 hour

Dermot’s Cooking & Serving tips

To Serve - Always serve a brûlée chilled from the fridge. Dust the surface generously with icing sugar, wipe the rim clean and grill till sugar melts golden brown. For a more brittle crunchy effect use caster sugar. This effect is best achieved using a small kitchenblow torch.

NB.  An overcooked brûlée will have a strong sometimes unpleasant scent. However, a slightly unset Brule is not a problem and in most cases it is still delicious. So look for the wobble and remember it continues to cook while out of the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Carlingford Oysters

carlingford oysters

1 - creamed spinach or samphire and 2 - panfried sm. bacon and breadcrumbs

Ingredients

The creamed Oysters - 3 Pacific Oysters, 3 tbsp of baby spinach or samphire, pinch of nutmeg, 100 ml of white wine sauce (see book for recipe)

The pan fried Oysters - 3 Pacific Oysters, 3 tbsp of fresh white breadcrumbs, 1 tbsp chopped sm. Bacon, melted butter, chopped sage & Worcestershire sauce.

Method

*Rinse the Samphire under cold water as it may be quite salty. Open the shells and with a spoon, scrape the oysters into a cup.

*Make your white wine sauce (recipe in book page 11)

*In a pot of boiling water, blanch the spinach or samphire for 1 minute. Refresh under cold running water.

*When ready to serve, reheat the spinach or samphire in a little butter, pepper and nutmeg and spoon 3 cushions of this mix onto a plate or into the oyster shells. Place 1 oyster on each spinach cushion, coat with the sauce then place the oysters in a medium hot oven 160˚C/Gas mark 4 for 5 minutes to heat the ingredients.

*Alternatively or together, gently poach the oysters for 30 seconds and keep warm. In a pan, gently sweat the bacon until almost crispy then add the sage and breadcrumbs and cook till the crumbs are golden brown. Spoon this mixture over each oyster, sprinkle a little Worcestershire sauce over each oyster and serve hot.

Dermot’s Cooking & Serving tips

NB - The addition of 1 egg yolk and whipped cream to a white wine sauce will create what is termed a ‘glaze’ which is a golden brown colour on the sauce as in the picture. Be aware that Samphire (ref page 5) is quite salty. If this not to your taste simply use spinach in its place. Where possible, do not to use cracked black pepper with shell fish. It may easily be mistaken for grit or sand from the shells. To be safe, use ground white pepper. Serve with Agnes Joyce’s Brown Soda Bread! (Recipe in the book page 53)

Moroccan Vegetable Tagine
with Coriander Mint Yoghurt

Moroccan Vegetable Tagine 

Ingredients

For the Tagine - 100ml olive oil, 100g dried chickpeas soaked over night or 1 tin of precooked, 2 red onions cut into six wedges, 5 apricots halved & stoned, 6 new potatoes cut in half, 300g of diced pumpkin or butternut, 1 sliced courgette, 1 tsp turmeric, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tsp ground cumin , 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves, 100g dried cranberries, 250g tinned whole tomatoes (seeds removed), whole almonds and 200ml vegetable stock.

The yoghurt Dressing -200ml natural yoghurt, handful of chopped mint & chopped coriander and 1 tbsp of Bell Heather honey.

Using the 1, 2, 3 Cooking Method

1. Heat the oil on a pan and gently sweat the onion, garlic and all the spices.

2. Add the fruit, vegetables, nuts, tomatoes, 200ml of stock, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and only the raw chick peas. If using the tinned chick peas, add to the dish at the end. Season with salt and 1tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Cook gently for 20 min’s until the potatoes and butternut are tender. Each time the liquid disappears (and it will) top it up to the level of the ingredients and stir the base of the pot. 

3. Panfry the courgette and tinned chick peas as the Tagine is almost cooked and serve together in a large Tagine dish.

Dermot’s Cooking & Serving tips

Garnish with toasted sliced almonds, drizzle with coriander & mint yoghurt (recipe above) and finish with coriander leaves. Serve with a plain couscous (recipe page 80) lamb is a traditional favourite as a non-vegetarian option.

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