Easter Lobster & Lamb from the Oven straight to the Table, with Nicholas Mosse!

My wife, Nuala, is a Potter, an artist and a very patient woman! We have re-building her pottery in one of the sheds at home for the past few years - it's getting there, I promise! One of her favourite Irish pottery designs has always been that made by Nicholas Mosse in Kilkenny.

She has always loved the simple and delicate designs created by his wife Susan on the country-style shapes of the pottery designed by Nicholas.

So when Lisa McGee, from Nicholas Mosse Pottery, asked me to try out some of their new Ovenware range of Pottery, I looked forward to seeing if it was up to the standard of the old-style ovenware that my aunts used to cook their big hearty casseroles in!

I had a wee plan in my head so I went to see my good friend John McIntyre who now leads the team in the Olde Castle Bar & Restaurant, in Donegal Town, where I used to be the head chef. I wanted to see if these lovely pottery dishes could stand up to the pressures of a modern commercial kitchen.

If they can make it there, as they say, they will make it anywhere!

So I put together two simple dishes that use different temperatures. Both were cooked in a large industrial convection oven in a busy commercial kitchen. One is a simple Lobster & Seafood mixed platter that would be great to serve to a table and everyone can share. The other is the classic slow-braised Lamb Shank dish that has become so popular in Ireland over the last few years.

They are both very easy to make if you have family & friends coming for the Easter holidays and you can up the quantities accordingly.


Grilled Lobster Platter to Share

This dish is easily prepared in advance and kept in the fridge until needed. 

My Ingredients:
One cooked Lobster
4 cooked crab claws
A dozen or so fresh Mussels
white wine
8 Asparagus spears
some melted butter or garlic butter
lemon wedges

My Method:

1. You can read how to cook & split the lobster here
2. Peel and cook the asparagus in salted boiling water for 3 minutes
3. Meanwhile steam open the mussels, over the asparagus, in a colander with a lid on it until they open. Discard any that don't open.
4. Arrange the lobster, crab, mussels and asparagus in your serving dish and drizzle a little butter over the fish. Cover with tin foil.
5. When you are ready to serve simple pop the whole lot into a hot oven (190°C) for 3-5 minutes and heat everything up! Yum!

This is an Oval dish with their classic Forget-Me-Not design

Slow Braised Lamb Shanks

My Ingredients:
4 trimmed Lamb Shanks - ask your butcher to trim the bone for you
2 carrots peeled
1 parsnip peeled
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
pinch of thyme
pinch of rosemary
1/2 litre boiling water
large glass red wine
1 teaspoon treacle
1 chicken stock cube
sea salt & black pepper

My Method:
First arrange the lamb shanks in your lovely new ovenware dish!

The juices will reduce down into a wonderfully rich sauce.

1. Chop the carrot, parsnip & onion into even chunky bite-sized pieces and place on top of the lamb. Peel the garlic and toss in with the veg.
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and stir in the treacle (this will sweeten the meat and add a deep bodied colour to your finished sauce). Add the glass of red wine and then pour this over the complete dish. Season with sea salt & black pepper and cover with tin foil.
3. Cook in a medium oven (160°C) for 3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone and the juices have reduced into a lovely rich sauce. Yum again!

This is a 12" rectangle oven dish with their Red Tulip motif - classy

From the Oven straight to the Table!
Now I know that most pottery is fired to about 1300°C for its final glaze firing - but we all still feel a wee bit cautious of putting our lovely new dishes into even an ordinary oven at home. So I was delighted to see how the Nicholas Mosse ovenware coped excellently with the more intense convection ovens of an industrial kitchen environment. 

Their Ovenware is available in 5 different shapes and is the first range from Nicholas Mosse that can truly go from oven to table. The high temperature of the final glazing makes them very easy to clean even if the sauce may have cooked hard onto the dish!

The Ovenware is available in 5 different shapes & designs

John the chef was so impressed with the way the simple Lobster Seafood dish presented, that they are thinking of putting it on their own menu as a "straight from the oven" seafood platter!

The potter himself Nicholas Mosse 

Nicholas Mosse Pottery was established by Nicholas in 1976. Irish spongeware was the traditional pottery of Ireland used in the 18th Century and his wife Susan creates all their colourful designs. Their pottery & shop is based in Bennettsbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

For more information on their new Oven-to-Table Ware and their other wide range of beautiful things, go to http://www.nicholasmosse.com/ 

or visit their blog at http://nicholasmosse.blogspot.com/

Happy Easter everyone!

zack

Hot Cross Buns for Easter!

One a Penny, Two a Penny, Hot Cross Buns!

Video & Music by http://www.youtube.com/user/annshelaann

Hot cross buns are traditionally baked for lent, the 40 days before Easter. On Good Friday they have been served to commemorate Christ's suffering on the cross. However, the bun acquired mythical properties during the centuries. Early literature reveals that the hot cross bun was better known as the Good Friday Bun.

The most famous story says the hot cross buns origins date to the 12th century when an Anglican monk was sent to have placed the sign of the cross on the buns to honor Good Friday. Throughout history, the bun has received credit for special virtues, among them that of ensuring friendship between two people sharing a bun. An old rhyme states, "half for you and half for me, between us two good luck shall be".

Another tradition holds that a Hot Cross Bun should be kept hanging from the kitchen ceiling for one year to another to ward off evil spirits. Healing properties were also attributed to it. Gratings from a preserved bun were mixed with water to provide a cure for the common cold.

There are loads of delicious ways to eat this legendary treat: You can slice them, toast them and butter them! I love them with homemade strawberry jam! This recipe is based on one from my mother-in-law and makes about 10 buns.

Hot Cross Buns


My Ingredients:
450g bread (strong) flour
pinch of salt
2 tspn mixed spice
75g butter
7g fast action dried yeast (generally 1 sachet)
50g caster sugar
1 egg
275ml warm milk (40seconds in microwave will do)
200g dried raisins or currants (I don't like the traditional dried mixed fruit - but if you do, use that instead)
grated rind of an orange

My Method:

• Put the flour, salt and mixed spice in a bowl and give them a quick whisk to mix. This is much better that shifting for breaking lumps and blending ingredients together. Add the yeast, sugar, beaten egg and milk and stir together into a soft dough.
• Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you are using a mixer to make these buns give it five minutes on low with the dough hook. Add in the dried fruit and the grated orange rind and knead for another minute.
• Roll out the mix slightly and cut the dough into 10 pieces. Roll these into balls on the table using the flat of your hand and place on a baking sheet or tray. Leave their own width again between each bun so they will have room to rise.
• To make the cross mix 100g flour with about 3 tbls cold water to make a basic dough. Roll it out thin and cut into little strips. Dampen with a little water and stick to the top of each bun.
• Take a length of cling film and brush with a little cooking oil. Place this on top of the buns and leave in the kitchen to double in size - about 20 minutes depending on the weather and the warm of the room!

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C, 180°C if a fan oven, for 20-25 minutes.

The hot cross buns are taditionally brushed with a sugar & water glaze when still hot but I prefer to brush them with local honey, from the Saturday country market in Leghowney!


Dont forget to feed the fish at the bottom of this post!
zack