The Currabinny cooks: Warm weather brings back memories of pies and crumbles with mother

A SPOT of very warm weather in early Spring and the rhubarb is early this year. Both of us have fond memories of our mothers making pies and crumbles with large, bruised, very tart apples and tablespoons aplenty of white sugar, the odd sweet geranium leaf thrown in for its sweet perfume.

Nowadays, we rarely get to make a pie or tart, with work and also the fact that we tend to make an apocalyptic mess whenever we bake. The two rhubarb recipes we have included here are great, as they are no fuss, with minimum chance of making a mess and super delicious.

Trout, especially when farmed, as it so often is, can often be guilty of being flabby. It is oilier and slightly stronger than salmon but when you get a good wild trout, it is a truly wonderful thing. We rarely had trout growing up. In Currabinny, we mostly ate the fish we could catch or buy off the fishermen like mackerel, crab and even sprat. Salmon was to be had on more formal occasions than a simple family meal and trout was hard to find, it still can be. In recent years with the huge rise in amazing homegrown artisan food producers, trout has become very good in quality. Rainbow trout in particular is absolutely delicious when smoked and used instead of salmon in a salad or just on brown bread. Now at the end of March and with the hope of sunnier days, a dish of good smoked trout with crunchy thinly sliced fennel is perfect.

Rhubarb and Rye Cake

Rye is a wonderful flour to use. It is lower in gluten than wheat and has a gorgeous earthiness to it. It is best to use half and half with plain wheat flour because it is rather close in texture and sticky to work with when wet. This cake is essentially a sweet plain rye cake soaked in a deliciously tart rhubarb compote and is super easy to make.

For the cake

• 120g of cream flour
• 120g of rye flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• ¾ tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt
• 170g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 70g muscovado sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp of almond extract
• Juice from ½an orange plus enough milk to make 250mls of liquid

For the rhubarb compote

• 4 large stalks of rhubarb, leaves and ends trimmed, stalks cute into small pieces
• 100g caster sugar
• Zest of one orange
• 200ml of white wine

To make the compote, heat all the ingredients in a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat, bringing slowly to the boil and simmer uncovered until the rhubarb has started to break down the the liquid has thickened. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Butter a 9” springform cake tin. In a large bowl, mix together both flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. In another bowl cream together the softened butter and both sugars until you get a pale, smooth, biscuit coloured mix. Vigorously whisk in the eggs one at a time being very careful not to let the mixture split. Add the almond extract and the liquid mix of milk and orange juice to make a pancake like batter. In three stages, fold in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients to make the cake batter. Pour the cake batter into the springform cake tin and scoop the compote on top.

Bake in the oven for 45 - 50 minutes. Serve warm with creme fraiche or ice cream.

Sweet Soda Scones with Rhubarb

A lovely seasonal combination of Irish soda scones and rhubarb.

I’ve added more sugar than usual to the mix to counteract the tartness of the rhubarb which is chopped up finely and thrown into the mix at the end.

These pair wonderfully with some good jam or even some of the rhubarb compote from the previous recipe.

• 240g of cream flour
• 50g of caster sugar
• 1 tbsp of baking powder
• ½ tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt
• 80g of cold butter, cut into cubes
• 180ml of buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 medium stalks of rhubarb, cut into small 1/3 inch dice

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

Add the cold butter and rub into the flour mixture until you have what looks like breadcrumbs.

In a measuring jug whisk the buttermilk and egg together and pour into the flour and butter mixture mixing together with your hand. Add the rhubarb pieces and mix through.

The mix might be slightly wet, if so add a little more flour until it just about comes together enough to knead gently. Place on a well-floured work surface and shape it into a big slap around two inches thick. Using a large knife cut into triangles and place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment and a little flour.

Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes until lightly golden on top.

Best served warm with good sweet jam.

Smoked Rainbow Trout with Fennel, Goats Cheese, Pink Peppercorns and Dill

Delicious ribbons of pink trout and the creamy luxury of soft goats cheese make for surprisingly hearty eating. Whenever I make this I like to use the very best Irish trout from Goatsbridge along with the distinctive and delicious goats cheese of Ardsallagh.

• 300g smoked rainbow trout
• 2 medium sized fennel
• ½ lemon
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 165g Ardsallagh soft goats cheese
• 2 tsp of pink peppercorns
• 1 tbsp of chopped dill

Slice the fennel as thinly as possible into thin wafers and arrange on a large plate. Squeeze the lemon juice over the slices of fennel, sprinkle with salt, pepper, chopped dill and drizzle it with rapeseed oil.

Cover the plate with clingfilm and leave to marinate in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

The fennel should soften slightly as the acidic lemon juice effectively cooks it.

When the fennel has marinated, flake the smoked rainbow trout over the slices of fennel, add the goats cheese in dollops all around the plate and sprinkle with the pink peppercorns.

Simple, fresh and delicious.