What is Slow Food? Basically it is the opposite of Fast Food – it is food you prepare yourself in your own home, starting from good quality local ingredients. It is food you share with your family and friends. It is grown in your own garden or on local family farms, bought in local markets, and grown without chemicals.

At Sonairte Slow Food is made as far as possible from the vegetables grown in our organic garden, and from produce bought from local organic farmers.

The menu below comes from my recent demonstration of cheap, easy, seasonal cookery. I started with just a few ingredients and showed just a few of the possibilities, trying to make everything as simple as possible so that anyone, beginner or dedicated cook, could use the evening as a jumping off point for their own kitchen experiments.

Not everything below got made on the night – we only had a couple of hours so the apple cake fell by the wayside.

On the “here’s one I made earlier” front barley and split peas were put to soak in the morning – each was placed in a bowl and covered with water to a depth of two inches – and a batch of basic bread dough was started two hours before the class.

Basic bread dough

The bread was made by mixing together 1 kg of strong white bread flour, 1 sachet instant dried yeast, 1 tsp fine sea salt. Then I added 675 ml warm water, stirred it in and then kneaded it until the dough was smooth. For those who want to know more I’ll be teaching a day of bread (and butter) making in the spring.

Next the barley and split peas were brought to the boil in separate pans and simmered for fifteen minutes before being taken off the heat.

Then seasonal vegetables – carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, sweet potato and garlic were peeled and either cut into batons or chopped into big pieces – according to what we were going to do with them.  I know sweet potatoes don’t grow easily in Ireland – I cheated – you could use pumpkin or squash and I’d intended to but changed my mind at the last minute. Slow food is a flexible concept.

I tossed the vegetables in two tablespoonsful of cold pressed sunflower oil – or you could use any other good earthy flavoured oil – and put them in a roasting tin in a hot oven – 180C – with a sprig of rosemary and a couple of bayleaves

At the same time I put baking potatoes into the same oven – just washed and popped in onto the shelf

These were the basic ingredients that were used to make the recipes on the evening and a roast vegetable soup the following day.

Split Pea Hummus

In a liquidizer or small food processor blitz together cooked split peas, parsley, thyme, black pepper, salt to taste, a little of the cooking liquid and a small amount of oil – not at all like hummus but very tasty

Yoghurt and Mint Dip

For a second dip I blitzed together home made yoghurt – see next year’s kitchen dairy course – and fresh mint.

These were served with the following – raw vegetable batons, cooked vegetable batons, and crispy potato skins

Crispy Potato Skins

Take baked potatoes and halve them. Spoon out the centre leaving a shell about a quarter of an inch thick. Cut the skins into suitable sized strips. Mix a tablespoon of oil and a generous pinch of fine salt in a bowl and turn the strips over and over until all the oil is used up – you need to use your hands for this or you won’t get a good coating without using a lot more oil and salt than is good for you. Place the strips on a baking tray and return to the hot oven.

Reserve the potato from the middle for making an Apple Potato Cake, Potato Cakes, Bubble and Squeak or any other suitable potato dish.

Then there was

Roast Vegetable Pizza and mini Calzone

Take a quarter of the bread dough, shape it into a round (or whatever shape your baking sheet is), roll out thinly, brush with cold pressed oil, scatter with a few thyme leaves and dot with pieces of chopped up roasted vegetables. Top with cheese or not as you prefer. Bake for 20 minutes in your 180C oven.

Or you can pinch off small pieces of dough, flatten them into rounds and put a tablespoon of the same mix onto each one. Fold in back into a half circle and pinch the edges together well. Either bake, or for a really sinful treat deep fry.

Barley and vegetable risotto

Simply mix together the cooked barley and roasted vegetables, with chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste if necessary

Roast vegetable soup with barley and split peas

I forgot to mention that clean vegetable peelings should be covered with water and simmered along with a bay leaf, a branch of thyme, a few peppercorns and any celery tops you have to hand to make a delicious vegetable stock. Strain the liquid into a clean pan and add barley, split peas and roasted vegetables to taste. Bring back up to the boil, season and serve

roast vegetable pizza and mini calzone

And now back to the fluffy cooked potato you scooped out of the middle of those potato skins. It is important that baked potatoes have a good floury texture – at Sonairte we grow Sarpo Axona which is tasty and floury and doesn’t get potato blight so it is ideal for chemical free gardening

My favourite way of using them is in

Apple Potato Cake

3 cups of mashed potato (use a drop of milk but not too much)

1.5 cups plain flour – white is best for a more delicate flavour and texture

3 oz butter

½ tsp baking powder

Good pinch of salt

Knead them all well together to make a soft dough and pat it out into two rounds on a well floured surface. Put one round into a buttered and floured pie tin.

Slice well flavoured cooking apples – I’m using Blenheim Orange at this time of year – to cover the pastry leaving an inch wide ring around the outside. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar and a little cinnamon. Dot with 2 ounces of butter and place the top circle of pastry on top, sealing down the edge all around.

Bake for half an hour at 180C

Baked apples and apple crumble are two other quick, easy and delicious seasonal treats

Enjoy

Kathy