Wishing you all the merriest of Christmas holidays

Nollaig faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise daoibh go léir.

This is an Irish saying which loosely translates as a blessing of hope and happiness at Christmas and it's something I'd like to wish everyone who takes the time to visit my little corner of the internet. I hope you all enjoy something delicious to eat and the convivial company of family and friends this festive season.

Christmas is going to be a little different for me this year as my partner and I are shirking all of our usual responsibilities and running away to Prague for a week. (We're leaving tomorrow - eek!) I'm very excited and rest assured that I'll tell you all about it when I return.

In the meantime, stay well and happy.

Nollaig shona ón nDaingean 
Happy Christmas from Dingle

Some simple food before the indulgence of Christmas

Christmas is a time of traditions and every family has their own. Whether it's a glass of eggnog by the fire or tucking into a plate of mince pies in the kitchen; we all have something that makes Christmas special.

One of the things that I look forward to at this time of year is a dish that is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve in West Kerry. Salted ling in a white sauce served with floury potatoes makes for a very simple supper the day before the richness and overindulgence to come.

(This may not be the most attractive food I've ever posted on this blog but it is some of the tastiest)

Ling (or salt cod) is widely available in the shops in Ireland at this time of year. It's an easy dish to cook but I do urge some caution. The first year I made this, I didn't soak it for long enough and my boyfriend and I both woke up in the middle of the night with mouths as parched as though we'd been lost for hours in the desert. Soak your ling in plenty of water for 24 hours, changing the water two or three times and run the fish under a cold tap before you use it, and you'll avoid this potential pitfall.

I've based my recipe on my mother's as with all traditions, you always want things to taste just as they did when you ate them as you were growing up. She doesn't add leeks but I think they make this traditional favourite even better.

This makes enough for four.

800g of ling

50g/2oz butter

50g/2oz

1200ml/2 pints milk

1 onion, diced

6 leeks, washed and sliced into rounds

25g of butter

8 floury potatoes such as King Edward, Russet or Maris Piper

• Soak your ling in cold water for at least 24 hours, changing the water two or three times in that period.
• Run it under the cold tap before you cook it to remove any salt flakes.
• Place it in a shallow pan. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the fish is cooked. You can tell that it's cooked by the fact that it will flake easily.
• Cook your potatoes in boiling salted water while your fish is cooking. Floury potatoes can take a while to cook, perhaps as long as the fish does. Check them from 12 minutes into the cooking time. The best way of doing this is by piercing them with a knife. When they're cooked, the knife will go through them easily. Otherwise, the flesh will be resistant. When they are cooked, drain them of water and leave them in the saucepan with the lid on. The residual steam will make them even more floury.
• You can also cook your sauce while the fish is cooking too. Start by melting the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat.
• Add the chopped onions and cook for one more minute.
• Stir in the flour and cook for one to two minutes.
• Add in the milk, little by little, stirring as you go to get a smooth sauce.
• I also add one or two ladlefuls of the water the fish is cooking in to my sauce. It adds a real depth of flavour and as it has absorbed some of the saltiness of the fish, it means you probably won't need to season your sauce.
• Make the leeks by melting the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and cooking the leeks in it for four to five minutes or until they have softened and coloured slightly.
• When your fish is cooked, remove it from its cooking water and set aside until it is cool enough to handle. Then flake it into the sauce. Add the leeks. Check for seasoning. You probably won't need to add salt but you may like to add some white pepper.
• Serve with the floury potatoes.

The saltiness of the fish, the creaminess of the sauce, the crunch of the leeks, the sweetness of the onions and the soft flouriness of the potatoes – this is one of the real traditions of Christmas.

Before I go, I'd like to wish you all a happy and a peaceful Christmas. May it be full of all of the good things - food, family and friends.

A cupcake for Christmas

I'm writing this to the sounds of happy voices and laughter coming from the kitchen. The aroma of a ham cooking in Nigella's festive mix of cranberry juice, apple juice and all sorts of spices carries in the air. There's snow on the ground outside.

It must be Christmas.

The view from Baile Dháith (the village I live in) on Christmas Eve

I'd love to be in a position to give you all a gift this Christmas but the best I can do is to present you with this recipe for one of the best-selling cupcakes on my stall at yesterday's Christmas market in Dingle. It's a cupcake that I think has all of the festive flavours of Christmas.

It's a Christmas pudding cupcake, a lighter version of its more traditional grown-up relative that bursts with fruity flavour and is topped with brandy butter.

Here's how you make 18 of them.
Ingredients:
200g sultanas
140g currants
6 dates
170g unsalted butter at room temperature
255g dark muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
170g self-raising flour
1 medium apple, peeled and grated
1/2 tsp mixed spice
4tbsp rum

• Place the sultanas, currants and dates in a pan. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes so that the fruits are soft and swollen.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line your muffin tins with paper cases.
• Beat the butter and sugar together until fully combined.
• Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the flour.
• Sir in the grated apple, spice, rum and drained fruit.
• Divide the mixture between the paper cases.
• Bake for 25 minutes then check that they are cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre.
• Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the brandy butter, you need equal amounts of icing sugar and butter and enough brandy to taste.
I used 220g of each, combining them in the food processor (you could use a hand-held whisk) and then I added about 5tbsp of brandy. You can add more or less according to your own taste.
You then need to fill a piping bag with this mixture and pipe it on to the cupcakes. If you've never done this before, here's how you do it. You start from the ouside and work towards the centre in a circular motion. It probably won't look that good first time but you'll get better. I promise!
You can top your cupcake off with a few sultanas for decoration. And then you should have something that looks like this:

This cupcake is brimful of the taste of Christmas and judging from the reactions of my customers and fellow stallholders when they tasted them yesterday, your guests are sure to scoff them.

Merry Christmas.

I've got a confession to make...

I've got a confession to make and had better just take a deep breath and blurt it out before I reconsider.

Here it is. Are you ready?

Well...

Um...

It's just that I don't really like Christmas. In fact, I can be a bit of a grinch about it.

I can already hear the collective intake of breath. Oh, I hear you say. How very Scrooge-like of you.

In the past, I'd have retaliated with tales of just how stressful Christmas can be. I know so many people who put huge pressure on themselves to produce elaborate meals for large groups of people. So much pressure that they rarely get to enjoy the act of being hosts in their own homes. I also know of many others who spend money they can't afford on gifts for their loved ones.

All of this can be too much for me. Where's the simplicity? Where's the joy? Where's the rest and relaxation that are so necessary at this the darkest time of year?

These are the thoughts that came to mind when the theme was announced for December's Irish Foodies' Cookalong. Christmas, I muttered under my breath. Bah humbug to that.

But I hadn't reckoned on Twitter coming to life with excited outbursts from foodies all over Ireland. Caroline at Bibliocook posted pictures of her star-topped mince pies. There was talk of gingerbread cookies, prawn cocktails and bacon caramelised brussel sprouts. Yum!

And that was before Jono and Jules started to post about their ginger beer and tangerine-glazed ham, roasted beetroot with horseradish and apple sauce, chili and tangerine-braised lentils and roasted cauliflower with garlic, bay and lemon.

I started to feel tempted. With all of this talk of delicious food (and even more enticing for me, there was such a spirit of conviviality with everyone talking about the friends they would share these feasts and treats with), I thought it might be time for me to finally embrace the spirit of Christmas
So, that's what I did. I invited some friends over, threw on some Christmas tunes (John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Sufjan Stevens if you're interested) and mulled up my first ever vat of mulled wine.

I used Jamie Oliver's recipe which goes something like this:

Ingredients:

2 clementines
Peel of 1 lemon

Peel of 1 lime

250g caster sugar

6 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

3 fresh bay leaves

1 whole nutmeg

1 whole vanilla pod, halved

2 star anise

2 bottles of Chianti (or any preferred bottle of red)

Start by peeling the lemon, lime and clementines.

Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the juice of both clementines.

Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. (Depending on your fondness for this flavour.)

Add your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough wine to cover the sugar.

Let this simmer until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to the boil.

Keep on a boil for 4 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a thick syrup.

When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low. Add the star anise and the rest of the wine.

Gently heat it and after the flavours have been allowed to infuse for 5 minutes or so, ladle it into glasses and enjoy both the spirit and the taste of Christmas.

One of the nicest things about making mulled wine is that it fills your home with those smells that you can't help associating with Christmas; aromatic spices, zesty citrus fruits and a rich sweetness.

It also seems to have made something of a convert out of me. If this Christmas involves things such as mulled wine with friends, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

Merry Christmas everyone!