The best seafood chowder you'll ever have.

Even though I'm a bit off season and seafood chowder doesn't exactly constitute as a popular summer dish, this recipe is too perfect to ignore. This is my second time to make it. I made the chowder originally back in March and I couldn't  fault the finished product. I don't think I've had nicer in restaurants; which is always a great confidence booster when you try create something on your own!

I read a variety of different recipes online which called for different things, but all shared one thing in common, 'Don't over cook the fish'. I decided on a homegrown recipe, by Irish chef Kevin Dundon on the RTE website.

Sacrilege to some,  I did alter the recipe slighty; this was more about cost and availability of ingredients.

• 25 g Butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 leek, trimmed and diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 potato, cubed
• 50 g smoked salmon slices (cut into julienne, long thin strips)
• 120 ml dry white wine (I used yellow tail chardonnay)
• 450 ml tarragon-scented fish stock or water (I used two knorr fish stocks, jelly consistency)
• 225 g mixed fresh fish fillets- skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces - cod, haddock, hake or salmon. (I asked for smoked mixed seafood at the fresh fish counter)
• 175 g raw dublin bay prawns and mussels, scrubbed clean. (I used one pack of frozen mussels, used straight from frozen)
• 1 tblsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 175 ml Cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large pan over a medium heat. Add the butter and once it is foaming, tip in the onion, leek, carrot, potato (uncooked) and smoked salmon. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until softened.

Pour the wine into the pan and allow to bubble down and reduce by half.

  Add the fish stock or water and bring to a simmer, then add the fresh fish and shellfish.

 Return the pan to a simmer and add the parsley and cream, then season to taste.

Cover with a lid and simmer gently for another 2-3 minutes until the fish and prawns are tender and all of the mussels have opened, discard any that do not.

To Serve: Ladle the chowder into warmed serving bowls, piling plenty of the fish and shellfish into the centre of each one.

 

College is finally finished..I've been a student for as long as I can remember. It feels strange, but great. Even though I thought I'd miss it, during the last couple of weeks I couldn't wait to get it over with. One of my last final projects was this review website I created. Click here to see reviews of some of Dublin's better coffee houses.

♥ ♥ ♥

March

1. It's probably a bit early for the purchasing of bikinis but I don't care, I love the print and I'm fussy about shapes. Both from Penneys, the top was €6, the bottoms were €4. Hopefully living in Spain for the year will help me look a whole lot less pasty in it.

2. A lot of champagne and red wine after  work and a week of assignments

3. Finally found quinoa in Tesco! Delighted. I couldn't find it anywhere else. I don't really like rice and this is an addictive alternative. Can't wait to try some of these recipes after learning how to cook quinoa properly.

4.  John Frieda Blonde Shampoo/Conditioner/Lightening Spray - My hair is finally finished so I got these three products so the colour wouldn't fade, as I've had to wash it a lot lately with the gym. Haven't had any need for the lightening spray yet...smells like Sun In from all those years ago.

5. & 6. Natural History Museum Lady Gaga/Taylor Swift Warthog and Arctic Foxes. This museum wasn't at all what I thought it would be, and the most interesting floor is closed.

7. Cat signage from a relative

8. & 9. Mexican from Cortina's in Dundrum

10. St. Patrick's Day treats at work

11. Cookie the cat

♥ ♥ ♥

Shutterbug and Absolut Style at Set Vintage Clothing Kilo Sale


I love Blanaid Hennessy and I love Shutterbug. Blanaid and her brother Eoin own the lovely vintage store, a must-visit place if you're ever in Kilkenny.

Blanaid is currently busy organising the vintage clothing kilo sale (only €20 per kilo!) which takes place on April 7th and 8th...details below.

My Easter plans are currently pending, but I hope to go. Sale aside, Kilkenny city is a great place anyway for a ramble around!

 Image from Blanaid.com

Image from Blanaid.com

Image from Blanaid.com

 ♥ ♥ ♥

Random unrelated thoughts that escape any real need for individual posts.

Photograph: Anne Combaz, The Beauty Department/Anne Combaz

I love everything about this model. Her bone structure, skintone, hair, lips - her face is striking. Such delicate features create such a beautiful salient effect on such a simple makeup look. What's more, Anne is a wonderful photographer with some really interesting work at various different fashion shows, focusing mainly behind the scenes.

Where would the world be without Thai food? I can't remember my life before it. Although my bank account is empty until pay day this coming Tuesday, I found it perfectly acceptable to transfer money from a pitiful savings account twice this week in order to afford a Thai banquet, despite the free fully stocked fridge at home. Tom Yam Goong soup is my favourite thing to order. It's pretty much a clear spicy broth, consisting of chilli, lemongrass, lime, coriander, prawns, onion, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. One of the best things on the planet.

Right now I'm working on a new project, a website/blog (wordpress this time!) where I plan on featuring cafés and coffee shops in Dublin that offer a decent cup of coffee; no brown flavoured water. I'm starting this tomorrow morning, initially for 8 weeks to see how it pans out. There isn't much on the site to look at right now but I'll link it when it's up and running and it may be useful to somebody.

Paperchase diaries are great. In fact, everything and anything Paperchase is great, and so darn cute. The diaries are incredibly useful, more so than the abundance of stickers, mini highlighters and ladybird board pins I recently and pointlessly purchased. And why might these diaries prove useful? Each day gets it's own page. The diary is small enough to fit in a handbag and although thick enough to resemble a small novel, a day's events don't need to be written in tiny illegible lettering in the usual tiny box allocated, for fear of sprawling one day's appointments into another. The diaries are also incredibly nostalgic, as they reek to high heavens of school textbooks.

I lost my old blog template so this new one will have to do..until I figure out how to change it, my right sidebar has now become a footer. The more I look at the state of it now...raging!

 ♥ ♥ ♥

 

The nicest treat ever.

My sister and I make this recipe any chance we get. It's the nicest chocolate mousse ever. It's really easy to make and it's really filling because it's so rich so I like to eat one (or two) as a snack instead of after dinner. This may be wrong on many levels but you won't understand until you taste it for yourself. It's addictive.

It's one of Nigella Lawson's recipes and her comments on it are as follows, 

"When you haven't got time for overnight setting in the fridge or you don't want to use raw eggs, this mousse is perfect. In fact, at all times, constraints or not, it is chocaliciously gorgeous." 

Right. Well, what I do suggest with this recipe is swapping the dark chocolate to one of the large bars of Dairy Milk or Galaxy. It improves the taste by miles. I also recommend not placing them in the fridge to set as this makes the mousse more like fudge.

Ingredients - 

• 150g mini marshmallows
• 50g soft butter
• 250g good dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) Dairy Milk or Galaxy, chopped into small pieces
• 60ml hot water from a recently boiled kettle
• 1 x 284ml tub double cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Serves: 4-6

1. Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan.
   
2. Put the saucepan on the hob, over heat, though keep it fairly gentle, to melt the contents, stirring every now and again. Remove from the heat.
   
3. Meanwhile, whip the cream with the vanilla extract until thick, and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture.
   
4. Pour or scrape into 4 glasses or ramekins, about 175ml each in capacity, or 6 smaller (125ml) ones, and chill until you want to eat.

 ♥ ♥ ♥