recipes

The Dinner

Ask anybody who has stayed at Annaghmakerrig about the meals and they will respond with what may well seem to be excessive hyperbole. Dinner is an important ritual, a punctuation point in long and concentrated working days, a reward at seven o’clock. It is a formal but congenial gathering, candle and fire-lit, with good food and wine underpinning conversation, argument, song and declamation. Four women have cooked for Annaghmakerrig artists over twenty-five years – Mary Loughlin, Doreen Burns, Ingrid Adams and Lavina McAdoo. Much-loved practitioners of the culinary arts, they have been responsible for adding substantially to the collective girth of the artistic community! Each has chosen a favourite menu and provided the recipe for one dish. Put together, they make a four-course meal for twelve people: Doreen’s soup, Mary’s fish, Ingrid’s roast and Lavina’s dessert.
– Sheila Pratschke

Doreen’s Menu

Cauliflower and Blue Cheese Soup
Roast Leg of Lamb
Rosemary and Tumeric Potatoes
Roasted Parsnips
Ratatouille
Plum and Pear Crumble with Almond Custard

Cauliflower and Blue Cheese Soup

3 heads of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 large chopped onion
Crushed garlic to taste
3 large chopped potatoes
350g stilton cheese

Saute in melted butter, add 4 pints of vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 mins. Add mustard and stilton. Blend, add dill, lemon juice and season to taste.

Mary’s Menu

Monkfish with Spicy Sauce
Mixed Leaf Salad

Farrera Chicken Casserole with Star Anise and Prunes with either Boiled Rice, Baked potatoes or a freshly cooked green vegetable
Carmelised oranges drizzled with white and dark chocolate and served with cats’ tongues

Monkfish with Spicy Sauce

About 125g fish per person
About 2 eggcups of oil
3 tbls butter
About half a cupful of flour, well seasoned with salt and pepper
1 fresh red chilli, all seeds removed
2 tsps caster sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed

The juice and rind of two limes – lemons can be used but the flavour of lime is preferable

6 large peeled fresh tomatoes with their seeds removed
3 tbsps light soya sauce
6 tbsps rice wine vinegar
One half of a small onion very finely chopped by hand
2 tbsps of chopped coriander leaves and 12 whole sprigs for garnish

Begin by washing the fish and drying it well with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel. Cut the fillets into discs about 1 cm thick.

Next prepare the sauce. Peel the tomatoes and remove their seeds. Setting the coriander and the chopped onion aside, whizz together all the other ingredients with a hand blender or a food processor with a sharp blade. Then add the onion and place the mixture in a small saucepan over a low heat to warm.

Toss the fish pieces in the seasoned flour and fry in three or four batches, for about a minute on each side, until they are golden. Keep them warm, covered with foil in the oven, as you cook the remaining pieces.

Add the chopped coriander to the warm sauce, poor over the fish and decorate with coriander sprigs.

Ingrid’s Menu

Vol-au-vents with White Wine,
Cream and Mushroom Sauce
Roast Pork with Apricots and Prunes, Apple Sauce
Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce
Carrots in Ginger, Lemon Juice & Honey
Boiled Baby Potatoes with Chives & Butter
Rum and Strawberry Trifle

Roast Pork with Apricots and Prunes

5 lb loin of pork studded with whole cloves
Mix together:
2 tbsps wholegrain mustard
Freshly ground chives
Honey

Heaped tsp of freshly ground peppercorns

Spread mixture over top and sides of pork. Put in roasting tin with 2-3 cups of water and cover. Cook 1.5 hours at 400°C.

Uncover and cook for further 30 minutes. Allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Gently heat 2 tins each of apricots and prunes in juice, place fruit around meat and pour juices over.

Lavina’s Menu

Tossed Green Salad
Chicken Fillets stuffed with Homemade Italian Tapenade
Cheesy Garlic Potatoes
Sauted Chillied Onions, Carrots and Peppers

Pavlova with Poached Rhubarb

8 large sticks of rhubarb
4 egg whites at room temperature
8 oz caster sugar
Pinch ginger & cinnamon
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar

Cut rhubarb into 1-inch pieces, place in dish with sugar to taste and poach in bain-marie for  45 mins at 350°C.

Whip egg whites until stiff, and other ingredients and beat together. Pile high on greaseproof paper and bake in preheated oven at 300°C for 10 minutes. Reduce to 150°C and bake for a further hour. Cool, pile whipped cream on top and add cooled rhubarb.