Sharon takes a break from the madness to cook some truly Irish food

This was supposed to have been a Saint Patrick's Day post as I had expected to be able to grab a few minutes on that day to sit at my computer. Instead I spent the day sanding and painting chairs in my future café, a place that seems to have swallowed up my entire life to the extent that I have done little else apart from preparing to open it and talking about what needs to be done to prepare to open it for weeks and weeks and weeks and...

(As you read this, picture me slumped at my computer, bags under my eyes and stress lines on my forehead as I ponder the sheer insanity that must have taken me over when I thought there wouldn't be that much work involved in opening a café. How incredibly naive I was but a short time ago.)

So, apologies for this post's lack of timeliness and my absence from here lately. I wish I could say that normal service will resume soon but my life is too crammed full of things to do at the moment to be able to make such rash promises. You will hang in there though, won't you? Normal service has to resume at some stage...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your Saint Patrick's Day and celebrated it in a way that was meaningful to you - whether that consisted of donning a silly hat, wearing something green and drinking Guinness or taking the time to do something that reminds you of what is best about Ireland. (I certainly hope you didn't spend it sanding chairs!)

There's one thing that we should all celebrate at this time of year, especially now that spring has sprung and so much fresh produce is coming to market, and that's Irish food. The concept of Irish food is changing and is no longer confined to Irish stew or bacon and cabbage - although both of these are great and I'm sure many people cooked one or other of these dishes on St Patrick's Day.

Modern Irish food consists of the wonderful variety of fruit and vegetables grown here, the fantastic fish and seafood that is to be found on our shorelines and in our seas, the meat from animals that have been raised in our grassy green countryside and the many exceptional food producers that take these pure ingredients and turn them into something truly special.

I'm not claiming that my dish ranks alongside the best of what these food producers do but it's certainly a good one and it's truly Irish. On my way to the café yesterday, I spied wild garlic and some young spring nettles in the hedgerows and decided to create a dish using these native Irish ingredients: nettle gnocchi with a wild garlic sauce.

It's an Irish dish that is well worth eating on Ireland's national day and every other day. And it's green too!

The first thing you have to do is go out and pick some wild garlic. I've seen it by the roadside a lot lately and it especially likes shaded areas. It's worth seeking out as it adds a lovely delicate garlic flavour to this buttery sauce. It looks like this:

Nettles are at their best at this time of year too. But be sure to be careful when picking them. Wear gloves (or use a plastic bag to protect your hands as I did) and only pick the youngest. leaves at the top of the plant. The older ones can be quite tough.

Once you've finished your foraging, you are ready to go home and cook. Here's what you will need to make enough nettle gnocchi for two people:
500g potatoes, Maris Piper, King Edward's or another floury variety
1 egg
100g flour
A pinch of baking powder
125g of nettle leaves (try to remove as much stalk as you can)
Salt and black pepper
Freshly ground nutmeg to taste (I used about half a teaspoon)

Wild garlic butter:
80g butter
A bunch of wild garlic (30 or so leaves), chopped (reserving some of the flowers for garnish)
A sprig of thyme

• Begin by baking your potatoes in a hot oven (220C/420F). This will take up to an hour depending on the size of your potatoes but it's worth doing as you will then have lots of dry, fluffy potatoes to work with.
• While the potatoes are baking, blanch the nettles in boiling water for a minute or two. This removes the sting.
• Drain and set aside.
• Once the potaotes are baked, allow them to cool so that you can handle them and then mash them well.
• Chop your nettles or blitz them in a food processor with the egg. You are aiming for this sort of consistency

• Add the nettles and the egg to the mashed potatoes. Grate in some nutmeg and add some salt and pepper. Tip in the flour and the baking powder and mix until it comes together into a dough-like mix. Be careful not to overwork.
• Dust your work surface with flour and divide the dough in two. Roll each part into a long roll and cut into equal slices, using the back of the knife to shape into gnocchi-like shapes.

• Put a large pot of salted water on to boil and while it's coming to the boil, you can make your butter.
• Melt the butter slowly in a heavy bottomed pan or frying pan and add the chopped garlic. Remove the leaves from the thyme and add those too. Leave to infuse gently as you cook your gnocchi.
• Once your water has boiled, add a batch of gnocchi to the pot and allow them to cook until they float to the top. Let them continue cooking for another two minutes so that the flour cooks out.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and serve with the butter poured over and some wild garlic flowers for garnish on top.

And there you have it: a truly Irish dish of native ingredients that combines the pepperiness of nettles with the delicate flavour of wild garlic

I've also decided to enter this in the most recent Very Good Recipes Challenge which is calling out for Saint Patrick's Day recipes that are green - wish me luck!

Wild Garlic: the green growth and sunshine of springtime in Ireland

The month of April has been wonderful here in Dingle. The sun has been shining. Nature has erupted in a growth spurt of green. I can hardly remember the grey, dark days of winter.

One of the best things about living in the countryside in the spring is watching nature come alive. You can't help but feel a thrill when you see the first buds on the trees and green leaves where there had only been barren grey...

What I hadn't realised until recently was just how much you can find to eat if you forage for it at this time of the year. Last year, I met many foraging enthusiasts who have taught me to see nature in an entirely new way: as a living larder on my doorstep.

So, when I was driving through a wooded area on Friday and spotted this:

I practically ground my car to a screeching halt.
Was it what I thought it was? I hurried into the woods to find out.

The closer I got, the more excited I became. Was it really what I hoped it was?

My nose was already telling me that my hunch was right. I'd found one of my favourite springtime foods: wild garlic.

I think wild garlic is the essence of springtime. It has such a fresh and delicate flavour, a flavour that is closer to chives than it is to the more pungent garlic you can buy in the shops.
If you are keen to forage for it, all you need to know is that it grows in woodlands, often among bluebells and that you can identify it by its garlic-like smell, its long leaves and its pretty white flowers.

As I gathered a bunch, I was already deciding how I'd cook it for that night's dinner. Combining it with some unsalted butter, crunchy sea salt and the freshest of fish seemed like a simple dish that would maximise its subtle flavour.

For the simplest and most delicious of springtime suppers for two, here's what I used:

70g unsalted flour
40g wild garlic
Sea salt

2 whole sole
Baby new potatoes

Green beans
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Half a lemon

I chopped the wild garlic and mixed it with the butter in a bowl, seasoning with sea salt.

I melted half of the garlic butter in a hot pan, adding a little bit of sunflower oil to stop it burning and cooked the sole in the melted butter (approx 3 mins each side).

I served the simply cooked fish with some boiled baby potatoes and lemony green beans. (Nigella Lawson suggests boiling beans in salted water and once they are tender straining them and transferring them to a saucepan with some butter and half a lemon that has been cut into segments. Stir until the butter has melted and the lemon segments have disintegrated slightly. Lemony goodness that sets the fish off to perfection!)



Serve the buttered fish with the potatoes and lemony green beans with some of the extra wild garlic butter alongside.

Pour yourself a glass of wine and savour the simple flavours of springtime.

What a wonderful time of year it is.