Ballymaloe Gardenfest 2016

Binning the bagged Salad & growing your own in a “fish crate” 

sized space

Ballymaloe Gardenfest 2016 Talk by Johann & Tom Doorley

Tom’s/Rowley's Dressing

Mustardy!

We like to use a mixture of oils, extra virgin olive oil for salads, light olive oil and sunflower oil for cooking and mayonnaise and toasted sesame oil for added flavour. These are our favourites, but feel free to experiment with the recipe.

smashed clove garlic

100ml olive oil 

3tsp* Dijon mustard (*2 heaped & 1 not so heaped)

3tbsp red wine vinegar

Put the garlic into a jar and add the rest if the ingredients, cover with a tight fitting lid and give it a really good shake until it forms a thick sauce. Pour over salad leaves and toss & serve.

My sister Madeline and her daughter Holly are "Brown Envelope Seeds" in west Cork, they do 4 salad mixes for the 4 seasons. 

Charlotte’s Dip

Our daughter au paired in France and this was a family favourite with her host family, even with the three little boys she looked after.

In a bowl whisk together 1dsp soy sauce

and 3dsp of made mustard, while whisking trickle in 

100ml light olive oil mixed with 50ml sesame oil until thick.

Toast 3tbsp sesame seeds in a dry pan and serve with the dip and crudities, Charlotte liked to include blanched calabrese in the vegetables, but carrots, radishes & cucumber are the main ones we use.

“Fly Away” is the carrot of choice for us.

Mayonnaise

All you need for Mayonnaise 

The quality of the egg makes a huge difference to the mayonnaise, proper free range with thick, dark orangey yolks are best.

1 egg yolk

¼ tsp dry mustard

pinch of salt

lemon juice/vinegar

150-170ml oil (about 100ml sunflower & 50ml EVOO)

pepper

Put the egg yolk, mustard and salt into the bowl of a food processor and add a squeeze of lemon juice to dissolve the salt. Run the processor and start adding the oil a little at a time and then in a thin stream. 

If the mayonnaise becomes very thick add more lemon juice or if it is too runny don’t add all the oil. Taste and pepper and add more salt and lemon juice as you see fit.

We sometimes flavour our mayonnaise with crushed garlic or chopped herbs or a spoonful of harissa or chopped preserved lemon skins.

Pickled Radishes

Ready to slice.

Mix together

12-16 radishes very thinly sliced

a peeled slice of ginger cut into matchsticks 

a small chilli very thinly sliced

4 peppercorns

1tsp salt

And leave for 5-10 minutes stirring once or twice. 

Pack the radishes into a sterilised jar* and pour over the liquid and add 50ml of cooled boiled water and 50ml of vinegar, mix gently and leave. We sometimes add a few nasturtium seeds or buds too.

These are pretty much ready to eat after an hour or two and will keep in the fridge for a week at least.  

*Nutella jars are good as they have plastic lids.

Pickle jar