What we cook at home is good, nourishing, real food. With a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old in the family, it is very important for me to teach them where their food comes from and to have respect for basic ingredients.
They love to help out in the garden and in the kitchen. We have a small poly tunnel and a few raised beds, where we are growing all the basics, so they learn and respect food as they see it go from seed to table.
We also have a few hens and ducks and one of their favourite meals is crispy duck, made with our own Aylesbury ducks. The kids really know where their food comes from when we rear it in our back garden.
Tom Flavin is executive head chef at the Strand Hotel in Limerick
Pan-fried pork sausages with beer and onion gravy
Ingredients
Pork sausages, two to three per portion (I like to use good quality rare breed pork sausages)
Beer and onion gravy:
2kg beef or chicken bones
60ml rapeseed oil
3 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, peeled and chopped
175ml beer (I use Treaty City pale ale)
½ head garlic, roughly chopped
1½ tsp tomato puree
1 bayleaf
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig thyme
30g butter
Method
1 Brown the sausages in a frying pan and finish in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 15 minutes.
2 To make the gravy: Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Put the bones in a roasting pan, drizzle with half of the rapeseed oil and roast for 1-1½ hours until browned, turning occasionally.
3 In a separate pan, heat the remaining oil and fry the carrots, celery, half of the onions and the garlic on a high heat until lightly coloured.
4 Stir in the tomato puree and fry for another two minutes, until the vegetables are golden brown. Add the beer to the pan and let it sizzle (deglaze), and reduce to a syrupy consistency.
5 Drain the roasted bones of excess oil, allow to cool and add them to the stockpot. Cover the bones with cold water (about five litres) and bring to the boil. Skim off impurities from the top, reduce the heat, add the herbs and simmer gently for six hours. Skim the surface occasionally until the stock is clear.
6 Strain the stock through a muslin (or J-Cloth) lined colander.
7 In another pan melt the butter and gently cook (sweat) the remaining onion until it is translucent. Add the stock and reduce (by simmering) to a sauce-like consistency. Season with salt and cracked black pepper and serve with mash or champ.
Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome
