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For healthy, delicious food, it's essential to source the best quality ingredients, preferably organic and additive free.
Food is at the heart of social and family life and if you take the time to cook it, the least your family can do is sit down together and enjoy it!
Smoked haddock chowder with sweetcorn & sweet potato
 This visually stunning soup is bursting with colour and flavour. A handful of torn basil adds an unusually aromatic flavour.
Cut the haddock into 5 pieces. Place in a shallow pan and cover with pint/600ml water add the bay leaf, parsley and lemon. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the haddock, break it up using a fork and set aside. Strain the stock and set aside. Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium heat; add the onion and sweet potato and cook, stirring until just starting to soften around the edges, 5 minutes. Add the reserved fish stock; bring to the boil until the sweet potatoes are tender, 10-15 minutes. Add the milk, bring to just a simmer then add the flaked haddock and sweetcorn.
Cook at a bare simmer for a minute or two. Stir in the cream and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
1lb/500g of smoked haddock fillets, skin removed
I bay leaf
A few stalks of parsley
I slice of lemon
2oz/50g butter
1 onion finely chopped
2 orange fleshed sweet
potatoes peeled and cubed
1 pint/600ml milk
5oz/150g tinned sweet corn
2-3 tablespoons of single cream
1 handful of fresh basil, torn into pieces
serves 4
Beetroot risotto with boilie cheese
 Beetroot gives this dish a wonderfully vibrant colour.The flavour of the Boilie cheese is a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the beetroot.
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes or until the onion is beginning to soften. Add the rice, salt and pepper and cook stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add just enough stock to cover the rice and continue cooking, stirring all of the time until most of the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock until most of the stock has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock in this way until it is completely absorbed and the rice is tender.
Liquidise the beetroot with some freshly milled salt and black pepper, stir beetroot into the rice. Heat through for 1-2 minutes Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan. Adjust the seasoning and serve immediately, with 2 balls of Boilie cheese on each portion. Boilie cheese is a soft hand made cows milk cheese preserved in sunflower oil, flavoured with fresh garden herbs. Boilie is made in Co. Cavan and is available in most supermarkets.
1oz/25g butter
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced
8oz/225g arborio rice
Salt and pepper
14 pints/750ml vegetable stock)
2-3 cooked baby beetroot
4 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
Extra parmesan cheese to serve
8 balls of Boilie cheese
serves 4
Monkfish and mussels poached in a thai broth
 This broth is packed full of flavour and is perfect for steaming mussels.
Cut the monkfish into 1-inch/2cm slices and refrigerate until needed. Check the mussels carefully, discarding any broken or open shells. Remove beards and wash well, drain. Heat the oil in a pan (large enough to hold the mussels and monkfish) and add the garlic, shallot, and chilli and fry for a minute or two, add the ginger and lemon grass and fry for another minute. Add the white wine and reduce by two thirds. Add the coconut milk, simmer for a minute or two then add the cream. Add the mussels and monkfish. Cover the pan with the lid and simmer for a few minutes until the mussels are open the monkfish is opaque – about 3-4 minutes.
Divide the monkfish and mussels between six warm bowls- I use pasta bowls. Divide the broth between the bowls and scatter the fresh coriander over each.
Serve with a wedge of lime and some wild rice.
1w lbs/800g monkfish tails, carefully trimmed of skin and membrane.
3lbs/1.3kg mussels
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
4 cloves of garlic crushed
1 shallot finely chopped
1 red chilli de-seeded and finely chopped
2 stalks of lemon grass finely chopped
1inch/2cm ginger finely grated
6fl oz/150ml dry white wine
14oz/400g of coconut milk
6fl oz/150ml cream
Handful of torn coriander leaves
1 lime divided into six wedges
serves 6
Smoked chicken, swiss chard and pecan nut tart
 A delicious twist on a savoury quiche, the Swiss chard can be substituted with spinach.
Line a 92 inch/24cm tin with short crust pastry. Pre heat the oven to 200oC. Steam the swiss chard until wilted (2/3 minutes). Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper and bakingbeans. Bake at 200oC for 8-10 minutes until golden. Reduce the oven temperature to 190oC. Arrange the slices of smoked chicken breast and Swiss chard on the base of the tart. Beat the milk and egg together and pour over. Scatter the pecan nuts on top. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the filling is set.
Serve warm with green salad.
1 smoked chicken breast
12 stems of swiss chard
12 pecan nuts
3 large free range eggs and
I yolk
4 pint/125ml cream
4 pint/125ml milk
serves 6
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