Cooks' Corner

[Paddy Tobin]

Helen,

We are now past it but for many, many, many, many years the grandparents came for Christmas. As is to be expected, this led to certain demands on menu and meal times etc and, by way of compensation, we made a big deal of breakfast before they arrived. It was always scrambled egg with smoked salmon, toast, Buck's Fizz (champagne/orange juice mixed) and coffee. We continue to do it to this day.

Paddy

[Brian Ellis]

always scrambled egg with smoked salmon, toast, Buck's Fizz (champagne/orange juice mixed) and coffee. We continue to do it to this day.

How the other half live Paddy 

[maggiepie]

Paddy,

Sounds like the best part of Christmas to me.
Sliced strawberries in cheap champers makes it taste much better too.
I think it is time for us to start chrissy brekkie again.

Brian, I think you should try it too  

[Anthony Darby]

I would miss out the coffee. I drink enough at work and couldn't contemplate it before elevensies.

[Paddy Tobin]

always scrambled egg with smoked salmon, toast, Buck's Fizz (champagne/orange juice mixed) and coffee. We continue to do it to this day.

How the other half live Paddy 

Gerrrrrrrrrrrr offffffff it Mr. Ellis!

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

I would miss out the coffee. I drink enough at work and couldn't contemplate it before elevensies.

Anthony,

Mary and I start the day with a large pot for breakfast and continue with a similar pot for every other meal of the day. And, eldest son is giving a coffee machine for Christmas - though it is nominally for both of us, it is Mary who is looking forward to it most. She enjoys those whizzy milky coffees now and again while I cannot abide them. I like my coffee to be simply coffee, no milk, no sugar, just coffee though I do take an Irish coffee once in a blue moon.

Paddy

[maggiepie]

though I do take an Irish coffee once in a blue moon.

Paddy

Me tooooooooo!!!!
 

[Anthony Darby]

Grapefruit or orange juice on weekdays for me Paddy. At weekends I usually have a refreshing (something coffee never does) cup of tea at breakfast time. At home coffee is used when visitors arrive, or perhaps after dinner on a Saturday evening? At elevensies (weekends again) I usually make an espresso from my wee machine, and that's how I would take it in a café or restaurant. I like Blue Mountain coffee, but it is a rare treat being so expensive - about 10 times the price of normal coffee!

[Casalima]

I like my coffee to be simply coffee, no milk, no sugar, just coffee though I do take an Irish coffee once in a blue moon.

Absolutely!! I cannot abide any (non-alcoholic!!) milky drink - almost the only drink/foodstuff I refuse to touch! But I couldn't get through a day without decent coffee. In fact I have memories of trying to turn myself into a windbreak in order to make coffee in an Italian stove-top machine on a little CalorGaz stove in the wilds of Scotland many years ago  I'm happy to live in an obsessively coffee-drinking country!

[Brian Ellis]

Gerrrrrrrrrrrr offffffff it Mr. Ellis!

Paddy

Tee hee 

[Arykana]

honey-mustar glazed ham

[Paddy Tobin]

Anthony,

Your mention of Blue Mountain Coffee reminds me of a visit to Paris a few years ago. Our youngest was with us, about 13 years old at the time, and while we were in a nice shop decided he was going to buy presents for friends at home, including coffee for his big brother. He arrived at the checkout with a bag of Blue Mountain coffee and nearly fainted when he realised it was going to cost him nearly 100Euro. Needless to say, big brother didn't get that coffee.

[Paddy Tobin]

Arykana, we also enjoy honey+mustard glazed ham here, a lovely dish. Paddy

Helen, for a few years I went completely off Irish coffee as I usually had it when my neighbour visited. He likes his with lots of sugar and lots of cream and was never happy with one but would continue to five or six. At this stage I was generally feeling a little queasy from the sugar and cream.

There was an occasion when he left us and went back home to milk the cows. However they perceived it, the cows all ran off when he approached. They obviously recognised that there was something different about him.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Finally, though no photograph as I was too busy simply cooking and eating, this evening's meal: mushrooms with blue cheese.

Chop a small onion or a few shallots. Cook in frying pan until softened but not browned.
Add sliced mushrooms - dark, strongly flavoured types are best, about 20 - 30. and cook for two to three minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add a good pinch of herbs - whatever is in season, I like thyme best with this dish.
Add a glass of white wine and cook to reduce almost completely.
At this stage put two good slices of bread under the grill to toast. Do use a good strong bread. We usually use a sourdough bread.
Add a glass of cream and cook to reduce by half. Add about an ounce of butter and stir in.
Cut about four ounces of blue cheese into cubes. We use stilton or Cashel Blue or Blue d'Auverne. Stilton is good as it is harder than the other two.
Take the frying pan off the heat and stir in the cheese. Stir until is begins to melt at the edges and then put onto the toasted bread on a plate (obviously)
Serve and enjoy with the rest of the bottle of wine.

Coffee for afters, Anthony!

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

I'd ask you to save a place at table for me PAddy but this year we're going to my son's house 100 miles north and I don't have to do ANYTHING. He is providing ham, lamb, new potatoes, peas, carrots, the lot, as well as copious wine and a bottle of Scotch whisky for Roger. I may need to make the gravy and help little boys pod peas, perhaps I'll make my usual fruit salad, which is the best on earth.

Anthony when you're here for Christmas, note: NO BRUSELS SPROUTS! but lots of new, fresh garden grown young vegetables.