Our Grannies Recipes

Stephen’s Granny’s Buns

Submitted by Stephen O’Mahony

Ingredients
6 oz Marg
6 oz Sugar
8 oz Flour (Plain or Self Raising: If plain use 2 teaspoons of Baking Powder)
3 Eggs
A few drops of Vanilla/a Vanilla pod
Milk to wet

Method
Mix the ingredients together in a bowl until fully mixed
Use small bun cakes
Cook @ 160 C for 12 minutes

A note from Stephen
These are especially nice when iced.

Filed under: Lard/Margarine, Buns, Vanilla, Eggs, Sugar, Milk, Flour, Recipes on April 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

An Economical Sheep’s Head

Submitted by Rose Mary Logue

Ingredients
1 Sheep’s Head
Bunch of mixed fresh herbs
Boiling salted water
1 medium-sized onion stuck with 3 cloves

Serve with Parsley Sauce

Garnish:
Rolls of bacon. 2 or 3 slices of lemon

Method
1. Have the head split in two by the butcher. Lift out the brains, and detach the tongue.
2. Wash the head and tongue well, and scrape away all mucous material from the nasal passages.
3. Steep the head and tongue in cold salted water for 30 minutes and wash again in fresh cold water.
4. Put the head and tongue down to cook in boiling salted water. Bring slowly to the boil. Skim well.
5. Add the onion and the washed herbs. Allow to simmer steadily until the meat slips easily away from the bone - about 1.5 hours.
6. Lift out the head and tongue. Remove all the meat from the bones and divide into neat pieces. Skin the tongue and slice it neatly.
7. Arrange the meat and tongue in centre of a hot dish and garnish with cooked rolls of bacon and slices of lemon.

A note from Rose Mary
This recipe comes from All In the Cooking, Book 1 which was the recommended text for Home Economics in 1961. The recipe gives much disgusted amusement to young people but may be useful if food prices continue to climb.

Filed under: Lamb, Mixed Herbs, Ingredients, Cloves, Onion, Bacon on April 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

George’s Granny’s Cottage Pie

Submitted by George

Ingredients
1 lb cooked & shredded roast beef
1 tablespoon lard
10 oz diced onions
10 oz diced carrots
2 tablespoons flour
1 pint beef stock
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the mash:
1 lb floury potatoes
1/4 pt whole milk
2oz butter (approx)
Salt and pepper

Method
1. Heat the lard in a large frying pan. Toss the diced vegetables in the fat and cook for 10 minutes, or until softened but not coloured. Remove vegetables and add the meat; Toss over high heat to sear.

2. Add the flour to the meat and cook gently for about 2 or 3 minutes. Gradually blend in the stock. Bring to a boil, stirring from time to time. Return the vegetables to the pan and add the parsley and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and then leave to simmer covered for an hour or until the meat is very tender. Leave to cool.

3. Now make the mashed potatoes. Place the wahed but not peeled potatoes in a large pan and cover with water.

4. Bring to the boil then tip half the water out, return to the heat and simmer for around 45 minutes to 1 hour or until soft.

5. Heat the milk in a small saucepan but do not allow to boil.

6. Peel the potatoes while still hot and return to the pan, mash and then beat in the milk and butter gradually. Season well.

7. Put the meat in a large casserole dish and cover with the mash potatoes. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for around 30 minutes or until golden and crisp.

A note from George
This is a great winter warmer, which for me brings back many childhood memories of eating at my Grannies kitchen table. A wonderful time to look back on.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Filed under: Ingredients, Pepper, Parsley, Salt, Lard/Margarine, Thyme, Carrot, Potato, Beef, Onion, Butter, Milk, Recipes on April 25th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Granny’s Northern Irish Stuffing

From Koraley Northen

Ingredients
White bread crumbs
Hot mashed potatoes
Butter
Fresh parsley and thyme
Finely chopped onion
Salt and pepper

Method
By volume, use about 2/3rds bread crumbs to 1/3rd mashed potatoes.
Mash the potatoes without milk, add loads of finely chopped parsley and thyme until the mixture is speckled quite green throughout. Add this to crumbs, season to taste and work in lots of butter with your hands until the texture feels soft.
This is very light and fluffy when cooked, and even improves after spending overnight in the cooked bird.
Always cook birds immediately after stuffing; do not let them sit overnight already stuffed.

A note from Koraley
It tastes simply wonderful with chicken or turkey.

Apologies from the Editor, it took me an age to get this one live!

Filed under: Ingredients, Parsley, Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Onion, Bread, Potato on April 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Caraway Seed Cake

From Alice McGrath

Ingredients
225g plain flour
half tsp baking powder
175g butter (no substitutes)
150g castor sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
approx 2 tablespoons milk

Method
Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5
Grease & Line 6-7 inch round, deep cake tin.
Sift flour and baking powder together onto a plate.
Cream butter & sugar until soft & fluffy.
Beat the eggs, and add a little at a time, with a tablespoon of the flour with each addition, beating lightly between addition.
Add caraway seeds.
Stir in remaining flour and the milk.
The mixture should be soft, but not runny.
Place in tin, smooth top if necessary.
Bake for 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to moderate, 160C/325F/Gas 3 for a further 45 mins to 1 hour, until cake is well risen, golden brown and firm.
Leave in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn on to a wire rack to cool.

Filed under: Caraway Seeds, Eggs, Sugar, Butter on April 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Nana Heather’s Date Bars

From Joan Mulvany

Ingredients
4 oz margarine or butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
6oz chopped dates
3 cups of rice crispies
lg bar of cadbury’s milk chocolate

Method
Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan
Add rice crispies and pack well into a swiss roll tin
Melt chocolate and pour over rice crispies
Cool and then put into fridge
When cold cut into slices

Filed under: Dates, Rice Crispies, Ingredients, Choclate, Sugar, Butter on April 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Nanny’s Simple Potato Cakes

Submitted by Sharon Collins From Meath

Ingredients
Cold, mashed potato, preferably left over from the day before.
Flour (Depending on the amount of potato, for every teacup of potato Nanny used about a half teacup of flour)
Butter to fry them in.

Method
Mash the spud with the heel of a cup and keep adding flour till you have a crumbly dough that you can roll out to about 1 cm thick.
Roll into a round and then cut into triangles and fry them in butter in a heavy iron frying pan.
They should go a bit black, thats okay though, they taste fab.

A note from Sharon
My Nanny in Offaly taught me this recipe and she would make spud bread for us when we went down to see her for holidays.
To serve these, she would split them through the middle with a thread and put a knob of butter in each one so it melted and was yummy.
We had these with the fry on a Sunday in her kitchen. Serve with bacon and eggs and black pudding!

Filed under: Ingredients, Flour, Potato, Recipes on April 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

So where are we at?
Between recipes submitted by post (the bulk of which I will be adding over the next two weeks) and the still to be added e-mail and site submissions, we have almost 80 recipes on hand. Congratulations to those named and unnamed who submitted recipes to us. There are still a few days let to enter the hard and fast deadline is 1 May 2008 after which we simply will not be able to take any more on board.

What will happen next?
Over the next two weeks, I’ll be bust adding your submissions to the site. I’ll also run polls to see which amongst the 80 are your favourites, to display some of the cover options we have to explain the remaining steps before publication. Then in mid-may I’ll post the final selection and the order that selection will appear in the book.

I hope you are all as excited as I am to be at the closing stages of this exciting project.
Feel free to get in touch with an queries you have.
Eoin

Filed under: Admin, Site News, Submitting, What's going on on April 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »

A Traditional Dublin Coddle

Submitted by Sharon Collins from Meath

Ingredients
5-6 potatoes peeled and sliced into 1/2cm slices
1 or 2 Onions, sliced thinly
8 good quality Sausages
8 rashers of Bacon
Chopped Parsley
Water usually around a pint.

Method
In a heavy bottomed saucepan, layer the potato then the onion and sausage and bacon until all the ingredients are used up, finishing with layer of potato and parsley. Then, carefully pour in a pint of water and put on the heat.

Never boil a coddle!!!!

Heat it slowly and gently and leave it for a couple of hours so that all the flavours have a chance to infuse and the potato is well cooked through.

A note from Sharon
This is a traditional Dublin dish called Coddle that my grandmother used to make for Sunday breakfast in the 50’s to the 70’s and for dinner in the winter time.

It is best served with a heel of batch bread, or if your a little bit posher than me you could have soda bread with it…anything to dip in the lovely soup is fine!

Serves 4.

Filed under: Pork Sausages, Parsley, Ingredients, Onion, Bacon on April 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

Great Aunt Agnes’s Salad

Submitted by Martin Dwyer

Ingredients
1 large Chicken
1 head Celery
225g/8oz Grapes (seedless for convenience, red for appearance)
175g/6oz Streaky Rashers

Mayonnaise
3 egg yolks
280ml/10 oz Sunflower oil
1 tbs. Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper

Method
Cover the chicken with cold water in a large pot and bring it to a rolling boil. Let it boil for about 10 minutes. and then take it off the heat and let the chicken cool in the water. (This method of cooking keeps the chicken beautifully moist.) When cool drain the chicken off the stock (keep this in the freezer for soup) and then take the chicken off the bone and discard the bones and the skin. Chop this meat up roughly.

Cut the rashers into little pieces and fry in a hot pan until brown and crispy, drain well on kitchen paper and add to the chicken.

Cut the celery into small pieces and add to the chicken. Halve the grapes and discard the seeds and add them in.

Beat the yolks up well with the lemon and seasoning and then dribble in the oil (an electric beater is a great help at this stage) continue dribbling in the oil until it is gone and the mayonnaise is “a thick and yellow ointment”

Fold this into the chicken mixture. (If you push it into a bowl lined with cling film it can be unmoulded successfully and makes a great centrepiece for a buffet)

A note from the chef
My Great Aunt Agnes was, as they used to say, comfortably well off as her husband Billy Dwyer was probably Cork’s biggest employer at one time. She could well have lived her life without ever going near a kitchen but, she loved to cook.

When my sisters got married, with the receptions (or breakfasts as we used to call them!) at home in our house in Cork it was Aunt Agnes who came to the rescue and cooked, mixed and carved wondrous buffets for the hundreds of guests.

One of her buffet specialties was the above named salad, this she usually made from boiled turkey rather than chicken as I will indicate but either works well.

I have adapted and adopted it as one of my own and over the years have produced it for lots of weddings and buffets of all kinds. As she was a grandmother herself (of at least fifty grandchildren)so I think she qualifies for the Granny’s recipes in the Mercier as well.

Filed under: Sunflower Oil, Eggs, Lemon Juice, Ingredients, Celery, Chicken, Bacon on April 9th, 2008 | No Comments »