Darina Allen: Delicious recipes shared by chefs from the amazing Belfast food scene

The Belfast food scene is exploding

I’ve just had an action-packed weekend in Belfast and I can tell you the city is rocking. The food scene is exploding, and I certainly couldn’t manage to fit all my must dos into my available meal slots, I’ll have to go back for more.

I had a long list of places to visit, delis, cafes, cool shops and of course restaurants. St George’s Street market on Friday or Saturday is a must. Pick up some soda farls and potato bread. Sunday is mostly for bric-a-brac hunters.

I also loved Mike Thompson‘s cheese shop on Little Donegal St, a fantastic selection of cheese as well as his own raw milk blue-veined young buck, the first artisan cheese to be made in Northern Ireland after the Troubles. Mike is a great fan of Hegarty’s cheese and I also bought a Cavanbert made by another pioneer farmhouse cheesemaker Silke Cropp from Co Cavan. I also added a little roll of Abernethy’s handmade butter and some charcuterie from the Cole family in Broughgammon.

Then onto a new Nordic-influenced bakery round the corner called Bakari, owned by Jack Mowbray. It has a really interesting range of breads and viennoiserie, many made from heirloom wheat.

Bread and Banjo on the Ormeau Rd is another place to swing by for proper artisan breads. Foodies who don’t have time to do research, but want to pack as much as possible into a delicious weekend could sign up for one of several food tours. Caroline Wilson of Belfast Food Tours comes highly recommended.

We had a delicious dinner of small plates at Niall McKenna‘s Waterman House restaurant and the most delicious smoked ham with really good house-made sourdough bread and brown butter. Chef Cathal Duncan told me that they smoke the streaky bacon in their Little Green Egg barbecue and smoker. It was so good that I begged for some for my picnic on the train and I have to tell you that I was the envy of all my fellow travellers. I also loved their arancini with celeriac and young buck purée and the pressed potato slices and the scallops with Jerusalem artichokes.

Of course I wanted to get back to Michelin-starred Ox but didn’t make it this time. Everyone says lunch is brilliant value for money at about €45. I did, however, get out to Frae in Holywood (10 minutes by train or a bit longer by car). I loved Shaun Tinman’s eclectic little bites and little plates.

The jambons made with ham hock and Coolea cheese were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. Even the bread from the Bara Bakehouse in Comber and the homemade butter were exceptional. The last of the squashed roasties with caramelised garlic could be the subject of a serious row.

If you can’t bag a table there, (only 20+ seats), I believe Noble on Church St in Holywood is also worth a detour. There is so much happening around the Cathedral Quarter.

For those who want super lux accommodation, the Merchant Hotel is right there, in the midst of all the pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes. I return to Established Coffee on Hill St every time we visit Belfast and it’s still as good as ever, superb coffee, pastries, and brunch dishes.

Everyone raves about Neighbourhood Café too. (The Dirty Onion pub and Yardbird are close by too.) It’s just around the corner on Donegal St and is owned by Ryan Crown and Oisin McEvoy. I didn’t make it this time because the queue was so long, I would have missed my train, but friends raved about the Turkish eggs with garlic yoghurt, chilli butter, dill and sourdough.

I also missed lunch at Yügo which does the most delectable Asian fusion tapas on Wellington St. As I left, I was envious of the diners, tucking into exciting looking multi-ethnic plates. It too gets many plaudits from choosy critics. There are lots of cool shops of course but this is a food column.

I hasten to add that I have no affiliation to any of these places, those I recommend are personal picks. Thank you to the chefs who shared recipes for some of the dishes that I enjoyed so much on my brief interlude in Belfast city.

Waterman House Arancini with Young Buck Custard

recipe by:Darina Allen

I loved this arancini with celeriac and young buck purée

Servings

12

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 500g (18oz) arborio risotto rice

• 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) vegetable stock

• 1 shallot, finely diced

• 1 clove of garlic, finely diced

• 1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme

• 150ml (5fl oz) white wine

• 1 celeriac, peeled and chopped (750g – 800g/1lb 10oz – 1 3/4lbs approx.)

• 100g (3 1/2oz) Parmesan, finely grated

• 200g (7oz) butter

• 200ml (7fl oz) whipping cream

• 250g (9oz) Young Buck blue cheese, rind removed and crumbled

• 4 eggs, beaten with a fork

• 250ml (9fl oz) double cream

• 150ml (5fl oz) milk

• flour, egg and breadcrumbs to bread arancini

• oil for deep frying

Method

1. To make Young Buck custard, heat the milk and cream to a simmer, pour mixture over the beaten eggs, whisk well and return to the saucepan. Continue to cook over a gentle heat until the mixture has thickened slightly, if you have a temperature probe 82°C is the perfect temperature. Once the custard has thickened, pour over crumbled blue cheese, mix well and transfer to a blender. Blitz until smooth and chill until needed.

2. To make celeriac purée, sweat the chopped celeriac in half the butter until well softened, add the cream and bring to a simmer. Once the cream has reduced by half, transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth, reserve.

3. To make the risotto base, sweat the shallots, garlic, and thyme in a little olive oil until soft, add in rice, stir well ensuring each grain of rice is coated in the olive oil. Allow the rice to toast for a couple of minutes until it takes on a translucent appearance. Add the wine and reduce completely over a medium heat, stirring constantly. Gradually add the vegetable stock to the rice one ladleful at a time, it will take around 12 minutes to thoroughly cook the rice, you may not need all the stock. The rice should be well cooked but still holding its shape, when you have reached this stage, add the remaining butter and Parmesan along with 500g (18oz) of the celeriac purée, season well with salt and pepper. Spread the risotto mixture out on a baking sheet and chill.

4. Once the risotto is completely cold, roll into 20-25g (3/4 – 1oz) balls and chill for 30 minutes. Then coat the balls seasoned in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer to 170°C and fry arancini for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Gently warm the blue cheese custard without boiling. Serve the arancini on top of the custard and top with freshly grated Parmesan.

 

Chicken Marbella from Shaun Tinman at Frae

recipe by:Darina Allen

Unlike the original recipe from the Silver Palette cookbook, we’ve prepared ours as chicken cooked over the charcoal BBQ and served with the accompaniments suspended in the sauce.

Servings

6

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 12 chicken thighs, skin on olive brine reserved from gordal green olives

• 2 tablespoons aged malt vinegar

• small bunch thyme

• 1 head crushed garlic

• 3 shallots, diced 4 bay leaves 250ml (9fl oz) white wine splash of Madeira 1 1/2 litres (2 1/2 pints) good quality chicken stock

• 1 can gordal green olives, torn in half 25g (1oz) capers

• 50g (2oz) pitted prunes, roughly chopped knob of butter

• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

• freshly ground black pepper

•  

Method

1. Ideally, marinate the chicken thighs in the gordal olive brine, aged vinegar, thyme and garlic overnight, but a few hours will suffice.

2. For the sauce, add a splash of oil to your saucepan and gently cook the shallots until translucent, no colour. Add bay leaves, then deglaze with the wine and Madeira. Add chicken stock and gently reduce to a consistency where the sauce just coats the back of a spoon then set aside.

3. The chicken is best cooked slowly over charcoal allowing the skin to render and become crisp without burning, intermittently brushing the flesh side with the reserved marinade. If the BBQ isn’t an option, good results can be achieved cooking the chicken on a wire rack under a medium grill.

4. As the chicken is resting, return the sauce to a low heat and add the olives, capers and prunes, allow to soften in the sauce for a few minutes then add the butter and parsley and stir until evenly incorporated. Adjust seasoning with salt pepper and a little aged vinegar as necessary. Season and divide the chicken evenly between warmed serving plates, and spoon the sauce over the top.

 

Blood Orange Upside Down Cake, Armagnac Syrup from Shaun Tinman at Frae

recipe by:Darina Allen

You’ll need to be fast, blood oranges are just coming to the end of the season.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 6 blood oranges

• 225g (8oz) of caster sugar

• 15g (generous 1/2oz) of butter

• 150ml (5fl oz) of whipping cream

• 150ml (5fl oz) blood orange juice

• 80ml (scant 3 1/4fl oz) of Armagnac

• 150g (5oz) butter

• 150g (5oz) demerara sugar

• 150g (5oz) self-raising flour

• 2 eggs

• vanilla ice-cream and chopped toasted hazelnuts to serve

Method

1. Peel and segment the blood oranges, juicing the excess.

2. For the caramel sauce, gently cook the sugar in a saucepan until it has fully dissolved and turned a medium caramel colour. Add the butter, followed by the cream and juice. Keep over a medium heat and stir gently until it comes together. Reduce until the consistency of the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and add the Armagnac.

3. For the cake mixture, cream the butter and sugar together, beat the eggs in one by one and fold in the flour. Transfer mixture to a piping bag.

4. Lightly butter dariole moulds, then add 1cm (1/2 inch) depth caramel to each, followed by a heaped tablespoon of the blood orange segment. Carefully pipe a 3cm (1 1/4 inch) layer of cake mixture into each dariole, covering the fruit below.

5. Bake at 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 for 20-25 minutes, rest for 5 minutes before carefully turning out. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a drizzle of the remaining syrup and some chopped hazelnuts.

Hot Tips

West Waterford Festival of Food

West Waterford Festival of Food takes place this weekend.

This super exciting festival is one of Ireland’s largest and longest running food festivals. It will showcase the very best food from the region. Upwards of 70 events including a food stage, pop-up dinners, a full children’s programme, foraging trails, bus tours, cooking demos, top chefs, high-end and casual dining experiences to enjoy, plus one of Ireland’s largest outdoor markets.

The main hub for the 3-day festival is in the harbour town of Dungarvan with events also taking place in Lismore and throughout the West Waterford region, making it a truly local celebration.

For more information, see www.westwaterfordfestivaloffood.com

Ballymaloe May Fair (12th – 14th May 2023)

The Ballymaloe May Fair is back!
This Summer festival is an ode to good food, green-living, gardening, the arts, fashion and fun.
Celebrate Ireland's ancient heritage… but with a few modern twists!
With cooking demonstrations (Rachel and I will be there), live performances, walks and talks, Walled Garden fitness classes, workshops for all ages, Forgotten Skills and so much more. Free entry for Children under 12.

For more information, see www.ballymaloegrainstore.com