My fridge is full of courgettes, so is the cool cupboard.  Even extra shelves in the garage are full of odd shaped, too round, too long or just too odd excuses for courgettes, green & yellow shapes of nutty deliciousness! Actually, there are even courgettes piled up beside my ironing basket.  It's difficult to say which there is more of, courgettes or ironing.  Happily for the courgettes (and for me), I hate ironing and love cooking courgettes.  Anyone who has even just 1 or 2 plants will know just how abundant these generous plants can be.  They seem to produce a never ending supply.  One of the reasons we have so many in the house is also because when friends come to dinner, they bring with them generous amounts of their own courgette harvest.  They smile, knowingly, when they are served courgette soup with courgette fritters, stuffed courgette with feta and pine nuts & to finish, courgette and ginger pudding.  Yes, there can be too much of a good thing!

If you are looking for a little inspiration, look no further, some of these suggestions may help!

Raw courgette salad
Before you even lift a pan, try grating some firm, small courgettes into a dish and dress with olive oil and sherry vinegar, with salt & pepper to taste.  Alternatively, just use a potato peeler to obtain lovely long but very thin strips. Try adding some very finely sliced red onion, toasted pine nuts and feta.  It's very good with a poached egg surprisingly, but I tend to say that about almost anything. It is perfect with some very lightly cooked salmon or even smoked salmon as a starter.  Add some chilli if you will.

Steamed Courgette & pea cake
We often have this instead of Yorkshire puddings on Sunday, it's massively moreish and endlessly versatile. Pour a little oil into each cup of a muffin tin and grease well. Find a roasting tin that the muffin tin will fit into.  Boil the kettle. Preheat the oven to 200.  Roughly chop 100g of courgette, blend in a food processor with 70g frozen peas, thawed, with the juice of one lemon , 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, good chunk of peeled and chopped root ginger with 120ml water.  Stir in 140g Gram flour,  1/2 tsp. salt,1 tsp. baking powder & 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda.  Divide the mixture between the muffin tin and place the tin inside the roasting tin.  Carefully pour the hot water into the roasting tray so that it comes half way up the muffin tin.  Cover loosely with tin foil.  Place into the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and reasonably firm.  Serve hot or cold, on their own or with almost anything else, even roast beef!

Deep fried courgette flowers and baby courgettes
One of the tastiest ways to serve courgettes and their flowers is to coat them in a light batter and deep fry!

16 courgette flowers or baby courgettes
175g/6 oz plain flour
110g/4 oz corn flour
1 egg
Approx. 250 ml/8 oz fizzy water, chilled
Salt
Sunflower oil for frying  

Method

• Half fill a pan with the oil and put on to heat.
• Mix the corn flour, flour, salt, and egg together.  Add the water little by little stirring all the time to avoid lumps.  The thicker the batter the thicker the flowers will turn out to be.  For a thinner batter, add more water.  This batter does not need to rest and should be used at once.
• Make sure that the flowers are free of any insects by tapping against a sink gently (or leaving in a dark place over night), but do not wash.
• Coat the flowers in the batter and then drop into the hot oil taking care not to add too many at a time as the oil will cool down.  Remove and drain on kitchen towel.  Repeat until all of the flowers have been cooked.
• Serve at once with chilli jam, some fresh lemon juice or soy sauce.

Courgette fritters
These are my children's absolute favourites!  So easy to make although I often end up munching on them as I batch cook them!

Ingredients

Serves 4
2 free range eggs
5 tbsp. milk (approx.)
25g/1 oz butter, melted
110g/4 oz plain flour
2 courgettes, roughly grated
2 scallions, finely chopped
110g/4 oz cheese, e.g. feta/cheddar/gruyere/mozzarella
1 tbsp. fresh chives, finely chopped
Zest of a lemon
Olive oil for frying
Salt & pepper

 For the Tzatziki:
1 fresh cucumber, washed and coarsely grated but not peeled
2 plump cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp. lemon juice
600ml/1 pint organic natural yoghurt
2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh mint

Method

• Whisk the eggs with the milk and melted butter.  Slowly whisk in the flour and season well.
• Squeeze the courgette well once it has been grated, to get rid of any water it may contain.  Stir the courgette into the batter mixture with the scallions, lemon zest, cheese and chives.  Combine well together.  Adjust the seasoning as necessary.
• Heat some oil in a large pan.  Pour in small spoonfuls of the batter depending on what size you would like the fritters to be, and fry for 1-2 minutes either side.  The fritters should puff up slightly and appear golden.
• Remove to a plate with some kitchen towel and continue frying until all of the batter has been used. 
• Mix all of the ingredients together for the Tzatziki, adding salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve the fritters hot with the Tzatziki.

These are just a few ideas so far. Possibilities are endless, try courgette bread or cake, pickled courgettes, courgette jam, frittata, soup, barbecued, stuffed, chargrilled...just go on and on!

The game season is in full swing. Now, this may fill you with unending joy or utter disgust.  Personally, I’m in the first camp.  Let’s look at the pluses for eating game. It’s very healthy with a very low cholesterol and fat content. You will know, (I promise-just ask a few friends), someone who knows someone who shoots.  If you do, this makes
game a very cheap ingredient, but you do need to be able to deal with the feathers etc. You’ll find loads of plucking tutorials in the internet. Oven ready birds in the butchers or supermarket will be much more expensive. Another
big plus is that game is a great “receiver” for flavour, so you can use recipes from many different parts of the world. 
Asian flavours work brilliantly with pheasant, duck and venison; team with tomatoes and basil for pasta. 
The list is endless. Try sprinkling pheasant breasts with lots of soft brown sugar and a generous amount of soy sauce.  Bake in the oven @ 190 C for about 10-15 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles. It freezes well, although make sure it’s well wrapped to avoid freezer burn.  I would suggest freezing birds completely intact in their feathers and
wrapped in newspaper.

And the negatives? Well, obviously I’m biased, but there aren’t very many negatives. 
There are only two that I can think of actually.  Plucking can take a little while but birds can also be skinned (see
internet!) and over-hanging can put people off.  Generally, game is hung to increase flavour and to tenderise the meat a little.  I think very “gamey” game is unpleasant.  Ask for birds that have not been allowed to rest to long. Wood pigeons for no longer than a day, duck for 2-3 days and pheasants 3-4 days depending on the weather. 
Traditionally all of these birds would have been hung for much longer.  As for venison, lack for
hanging will result in tough meat so stick with it. Young deer tend to be much sweeter and I don’t mean in the “Bambi” sense!

Of all of these things, I think my enduring favourite is wood pigeon.  Again, think friends not shops.  You will
probably get it for free.  It’s often described as the “beef of the trees”.  It tastes very like beef if not cooked past medium rare.  Once it hits well done, you’re heading into liver territory. That’s something that even I struggle with. Pan fry these little breasts with ginger and garlic and then remove from the pan.  Add a tin of chopped tomatoes to the pan and reduce to make a sauce.  Serve with green salad, sauté potatoes and the pigeon breasts. Wild
rabbit (skin and gut immediately!) is always delicious pan fried and then slowly cooked with carrots, onions and chicken stock with a tablespoon or two of Dijon mustard and cream stirred into it.  Serve with boiled potatoes and lots of flat leaf parsley.  The season will be over by the end of January so experiment a little and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to cook and how accessible it is.

www.lizmoorecooks.com

Some meat processors have recently been on the front pages for not coming completely clean about the total ingredients in some of their products, even if not wholly known to the producers themselves. Facebook and twitter are rife with horsey references and witty one-liners.  Even I have chuckled at some of the more well thought out comments but, of course, it has its serious side.  As news of this has “galloped” into the worldwide media, it throws a long shadow over meat products in general.  People are suddenly realising that most of the time it can be difficult
to pin point the total number of ingredients in food that has been processed, ie chopped up and put back together again with any number of other ingredients. 

I stand on middle ground with the supermarkets.  On the one hand, I support smaller producers believing them for the most part, to be better quality.  On the other, I recognise that the supermarkets provide us with a way of buying food at a better price and for the most part, good quality.  I would congratulate any small business on getting their meat products, burgers, sausages, etc onto supermarket shelves, as a herculean task.  I would also expect the quality to remain constant but at what cost?  Price, as always, is at the heart of the matter. It stands to reason that the better the meat, the higher the price.  We have become so used to eating meat every day that we have a smaller amount of money to spend on it.  I find it alarming that some will buy 5 burgers for £1 and never contemplate eating cheaper cuts of meat that may need longer cooking such as beef cheek or shin. Cooking “know-how” aside, wouldn’t you rather eat something that is as it should be and not a collection of bizarre sounding ingredients?

Bread is in a similar state, and no, to my knowledge, no foreign plants have been found in a loaf of bread! I mean that the average sliced pan contains on average, 12- 14 ingredients.  For the same plain loaf to be made in a local bakery or at home might take between 4-5 ingredients.  The governing bodies have continued to make every effort to make us aware of what is in our food.  That is to be applauded but we also need to inform ourselves properly and don’t leave it to someone else.  Understand where your ingredients come from, how important they are to our economy, our health and our reputation.  So for lunch, I’d recommend you to the kitchen and make yourselves a large beef sandwich!

Liz's recipes & news of events
Like me on facebook and follow my (short!) recipes on twitter @lizmoorecooks
Happy New Year Everyone!
 2012 was a very eventful year for me! I have been incredibly busy, traveling all over the country.  I have met so many new food producers and foodie friends so I'm looking forward to seeing you all again during 2013. 

Have a look at the Valentine's recipes below!

Cookery demonstrations have proved to be very popular and I have ended up in such a variety of places from food fairs, to the middle of fields and then in some beautiful houses.  I will be in Canada later on this year with celebrity chef Massimo Capra, working on some cookery programmes and dinner events which will be fun so I'll keep you posted about that too.

I'm delighted to continue my relationship with "Weber Stephens" barbecues and I'm sure you'll spot me at some stage over the year cooking up a storm over some hot coals.  I will also be working with "Kitchen Aid" and will be delighted to talk to anyone heading to Birmingham to the N.E.C. in February.

As you know, the G8 Summit is coming to Fermanagh, so it will be a busy time here in June for all concerned.

If you use Facebook, please "like" my lizmoorecooks page! 
I post a lot of recipes and foodie ideas and photos, and food events around the country too.

For cookery demonstrations or private catering, contact me at  [email protected]
Tel +44 (0)770 9435556

Liz's demos:
Last year, we raised over £9,000 for the N.I. Cancer Fund for Children in just one evening.
8th March
Killylea Primary school
"Marvellous Mother's day Meals!"
Come and join Liz for a fun evening of simple but impressive recipes to treat your Mum on Mother's day! Contact Killylea Primary School, Armagh for details.028 3756 8621
20th March
Jones Memorial Primary School, Enniskillen
"Kitchen Sectrets"
Tickets will be available from Jones Memorial School office between 9.00-9.30am and after school.
Tickets cost £10 including recipes.
Mullylogan, Enniskillen,
County Fermanagh,BT74 5H Tel 028 6632 3420
 [email protected]

 PRIVATE COOKERY LESSONS IN YOUR OWN KITCHEN
If you prefer the idea of cooking in your own kitchen instead of a cookery school or would just like to learn some new techniques, I will come to you for the day instead of the other way around! You can invite friends to cook with you for £40 per head (minimum of 5 people) plus travel and ingredients.  Either learn to cook dishes of your own choice or cook from my vast collection of up to date recipes.  I will supply ingredients and enough aprons and knives for you and your fellow cooks and any other specialist equipment that we may need.  Otherwise, we will use whatever you have in the kitchen and wash-up there too.  I can, of course, even bring someone to wash up if you’d prefer! Combine it with a dinner party for that evening or prep. food for the next day.
 COOKERY DEMONSTRATIONS
If you like the idea of having a cookery demo in your own home, school, theatre or church hall for your friends or to raise money for something, please get in touch by phone or email.  I am happy to do demos country wide.  Flogas provide my demo units and a typical demo lasts for about 2 hours with 7-8 recipes on any theme you like.  Together we will think of a theme and I’ll put a demo together for a fun morning or evening of cookery entertainment!

Recipes
Warm chocolate mousse!
Ingredients
Serves 4
 
300g/11 oz dark chocolate
200g/7 oz butter
2 free range eggs
4 free range egg yolks
60g/2 oz caster sugar
A little cocoa powder
A little icing sugar
 
Method

• Melt the chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan and leave to cool.
• Combine the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk to a stiff sabayon.
• Fold the melted chocolate mixture very carefully into the egg mixture.
• Fill 4 ramekins with the mousse and smooth the surface.
• Bake in the oven preheated to 170C/325F/Gas mark 3 for 7 minutes.
• Leave to cool to room temperature.
• Just before serving warm slightly and then dust each mousse first with cocoa powder then with icing sugar.

 
Poppyseed pastry for biscuits, savoury & sweet tarts
Ingredients
Makes 1 tart case

110g/4 oz plain flour
45g/1½ oz blue poppy seeds
1 tbsp. soft dark sugar
75g/3 oz butter, cut into cubes and chilled
1-2 tbsp milk

Method
• Sieve the flour into a bowl.  Rub in the butter and sugar until it begins to resemble breadcrumbs.
• Add in the poppy seeds and milk.  Mix to a dough and knead briefly. Chill or freeze until needed. 

Seared scallops with Thai salad
Ingredients
Serves 4 
For the salad, mix together:
½ green cabbage, stalk removed and very finely sliced
1 large red onion, very finely sliced
3 tbsp. cashew nuts
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
Lots of fresh coriander
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
Juice of 1-2 limes
1 tsp. light brown sugar
1 tsp. fish sauceHeat a pan and season 12 fat scallops.  Sear them for 1 minute each side depending on the size. 
Serve at once with the salad. 
 
What's in season in January & February?
 
January
Vegetables: Beetroot, red, white and green cabbages, celeriac, kohlrabi, leeks, onions, potatoes, spinach and chard
Fruit and nuts:  last of apples, pears and nuts
Game: Matured partridge, pheasant, mallard, pigeon, rabbit and hare
Fish: Brill, cod, flounder, John Dory and scallops
Cheese: Bonchester, Sharpham and Appleby Cheshire. From France - Bresse Bleu, Cantal, Pont l'Eveque and Roquefort.
 
February
Vegetables: Brussels sprouts, Brussels tops, salsify and shallots
Game: Feathered game now at an end, except for varieties of wild duck. Plenty of wild rabbit and hare
Fish: Lemon sole and other flat fish. Wild salmon season begins
Cheese: Farmhouse Cheddar, blue Cheshire and Cotherstone. From France - Brie de Meaux, Tomme Arlesienne and Bleu des Causses

 Did you know?
...that everything you freeze should be wrapped in 3 layers.  Firstly greaseproof paper to absorb the moisture and prevent ice crystals.  Secondly, in cling film to keep it fresh and thirdly in tin foil because it will prevent the cling film from perishing.  Wrap everything like this, raw and cooked and add 2-3 months of shelf life!

Sign up for a monthly newsletter on the contact page!

For years, I have been be-moaning the fact that there wasn't a fish monger in Enniskillen and although Asda & Tesco offer a wide range of fresh fish, you just don't get that shopping satisfaction you do when you're in a specialty shop.  I love being able to patiently browse and have someone there to answer my questions instead of bluffing their way through it. So now, hurray, we have "Molloy's fish market" (www.molloysfishmarket.co.uk) at 23 Belmore Street.  This is an exquisite little shop with brothers Shane & Conal their to help with any query you might have.  Their fish comes directly from their family business in Killybegs and the counter is stuffed with everything from coley, salmon and whiting to John Dory, squid and languostine.  The prices are amazingly competitive.

I know from having run a cookery school for long enough that as an "island nation" people tend not to put fish on their priority shopping list.  Is it mainly the bones that put people off?  Is that why the most popular fish is the fish most easily filleted, salmon, monkfish and cod?  Or perhaps it's the price. Whatever it is, it's a shame.  As a standard, we eat too much meat and as far as chicken goes (as a nation we eat more chicken than beef), a lot of it is bad quality and "sadly" if not badly reared (or GROWN as many producers put it which is another sadness).  Right now is a great time to be eating fish, mackerel in particular.  It's a cheap fish, easily filleted but has quite a lot of bones.  Pin bone them with a tweezers if you're very patient, if not, cut the central bone sleeve out once filleted.  It must be VERY fresh or the texture and flavour will really change and not for the better.  They actually freeze very well but only do so if they really are fresh.  Freeze whole complete with guts(!) and make sure to wrap them in greaseproof paper then clingfilm and finally in tin foil.  It's really the only way to keep them fresh enough to enjoy 3 months later.

This is a lovely recipe that I concocted the other night.  It's really yummy and probably good enough to serve to your friends.  It would also be worth making a few to have in the freezer.  Don't forget the 3 wrapping layers though!

Mackerel with basil, peas & garlic wrapped in Parma Ham
This recipe makes a sort of mackerel ballotine with two fillets sandwiching an aromatic filling and then wrapped in Parma ham.  You can use any fish really and also any type of filling, so swap anything you like!

Ingredients
Serves 4

8 mackerel fillets, completely boned and skinned
8 slices of Parma ham or similar cured ham
Small handful of basil, finely chopped
110g silvered almonds, toasted and cooled
1 clove garlic, finely sliced or grated
50g uncooked baby peas
2 tsp. anchovy paste
1 tbsp. rapeseed oil plus some for frying
Salt & pepper

Method

• Start by mixing the filling ingredients in a bowl.  Stir the basil, almonds, garlic, peas, anchovy paste and oil together.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• On a clean board, lay 2 slices of Parma ham out, one slightly overlapping the other.  Lay one mackerel fillet in the middle but slightly off-center.  Season lightly and then spread a spoon of the basil mixture over the fillet.  Lay another fillet on top.
  

     

Bake for 10-12 minutes in batches and cool. The biscuits shouldn't be allowed to brown too much on top or they will taste quite bitter.  Also, try to be patient enough to leave them on the baking tray long enough for them to firm up, otherwise they will fall apart when you try to move them!

They are really delicious and you can't necessarily tell that they are gluten free which can only be a good thing!  Use this dough to make tart cases and all sorts of flavoured cookies.  It's a good all round base to have in your repertoire!
Lizmoorecooks.com
29-05-12

Wow, an enormous thank you to everyone who turned up to my demo at Corrick House last week, all 450 of you!  We have raised a vast amount of money for "The Northern Ireland Cancer Fund For Children".  The support for the charity has been over whelming so thank you to everyone involved.
Corick house (www.corickcountryhouse.com)  were so helpful and professional and provided the perfect room for the demo.  I met some really interesting new businesses for the first time. 

Shauna McCarney from "Heavenly Tasty Organic Baby Foods" was there with her fantastic new products (www.heavenlytastyorganics.com), organic baby food in all flavours and varieties!Heavenly Tasty Organics Ltd, provides a totally new concept in the provision of baby food in that it is 100% pure, with no additives, and comes in frozen form.The purees come in funky heart-shaped ice cube sized portions in a handy re-sealable stand-up pouch, which allows parents to use as much or as little as they need, resulting in less waste.  In handy re-sealable pouches, you will find 10 heart-shaped, ice cube sized portions made from 100% pure organic, hand selected produce, which has been gently steamed and fresh frozen to retain as much nutrients and colour as possible.

Leona Kane  from "Broighter Gold rapeseed oil" (www.broightergold.com )is producing a seriously delicious rapeseed oil from Limavady.  Broglasco Farm in Myroe on the outskirts of Limavady is located on the edge of Lough Foyle just above sea level on reclaimed land. The fertile ground grows high yielding crops of wheat, barley, oilseed and potatoes.  Richard went to university in Manchester and got a degree in Agri Business Management and Marketing at Newcastle University. After many unprofitable years he set up a biodiesel business, crushing the rapeseed oil for the production of biodiesel. Due to the ever increasing red tape and taxation of the "green fuel" it stopped production in 2008. This however sowed the seed (pardon the pun!) for cold pressing rapeseed oil for culinary purposes.  Leona set the ball rolling with Broighter Gold Oil, excited about the health benefits of the oil for cooking, frying, making dressings, it's a perfect all rounder. And decided to diversify the natural product of cold pressing rapeseed oil into a premium cooking oil, for us all to enjoy the healthy benefits of Broighter Gold Oil.
Behind every bottle of Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil is a wealth of history. Our traditions are rooted in the beautiful countryside, and the health benefits, which the oil gives back to us, are greater than anyone of us could ever imagine.

Glennys Pollock owns "Pollocks' Pickles",(www.pollockspickles.com) located just outside the border town of Monaghan. They produce home -made quality pickles, including chutneys and jams. They use traditional cooking methods to make high quality full flavoured products that rekindle memories of 'days gone by'. By combining the freshest of local produce with that "little bit of something different", Pollock's Pickles create a truly magical "Taste of Monaghan." The business is run by Glennys Pollock who believes in using wholesome quality ingredients, old family recipes handed down through the generations, and own unique recipes, to produce pickles and preserves that may not be found in your local supermarket.

www.lizmoorecooks.com