Sorry to be late again with the "evening news," but we had another late night and then the "wireless" internet connection was "dead" all evening. So, here's another "morning" report:
We woke up to a rainy morning, so we decided to wait out the rain and stay in our apartment in Salthill overlooking Galway Bay. (Not much of the Bay to see with the heavy weather and no sight of the "Hills of Clare" across the Bay.
So, after breakfast, Sue thought she'd do some laundry in the small combination washer/dryer in the apartment and I thought I'd supervise Sue doing some laundry. In Westport, we took a load of laundry to a laundry/dry cleaners that had one-day service. (No self-serve laundries here that we've ever seen.)
It shouldn't be "rocket science" to wash and dry clothes, but when you looked at the directions for the washer/dryer it seems like it might be a little scientific. (And the machine does sort of sound like a rocket when its going through its many cycles.)
After the morning rain cleared, we got out to photo copy some family history material and mailed it to Patsy. Then, after all that laundry work and that supervising laundry work, we headed back to "DaRoberta's" for a late pizza lunch.
And once again, we were too busy enjoying the pizza to remember to take some photos of the pies.
Then we took a chance on still being able to get tickets for a performance of "Trad on the Prom" that evening and were lucky to get two. We had seen their show last year and really enjoyed the musicians, singers, and dancers.
No photography was allowed, but if you go to their excellent web site:
tradontheprom.com
you'll see an entertaining introduction to the group right on the internet.
They were in Milwaukee this August to entertain at Irish Fest---so, since we missed them there, we thought we'd catch them here. And they put on a two-hour show that was very entertaining.
Since there is more room on this slow day, we would like to note that Mary Jo, the chef extraordinaire in our family, emailed us to say we shouldn't be showing pictures of delicious food---like we did last week---and saying we have the recipes without SHARING the recipes too.
So, here's the unorthodox format of recipe writing to try to explain how the recipe is done by Patsy.
The only caveat we would add is that we tried to make scones last year after visiting Ireland and buying a cookbook there, but the scones we made were nowhere near as good and didn't have that almost melt-in-your-mouth feel. We blamed it on the differences in Irish and US butter/flour/milk and not the skills of the cooks ;-).
Apple Batter Pie:
The "batter" in the name of the pie is because there isn't a crust to the pie, rather more of a cake-like batter that you pour into the baking dish. (Is that a pan dowdy or something?)
Patsy prefers to use glass/pyrex pans, and for this recipe she used about a 9 x 13 inch pan that was buttered.
She uses a gas oven that has settings numbered "1" to "8," and baked this dish at about "7," describing it as a medium-to-high heat.
Ingredients:
3 tea cups of "self-rising" flour
7 to 8 ounces butter
a pinch of salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
milk, enough to make a thick pancake batter
apples, peeled, chopped, uncooked (about 3 1/2 cups or 15 medium apples)
Directions:
- cut up/crumble together the flour and butter
- add salt, sugar, beaten egg, and milk
- mix thoroughly
- pour half of batter into bottom of buttered pan
- add apples evenly to pan
- pour other half of batter over apples, getting batter to cover the apples and go around the edges of the pan
- bake for about 2 hours and 15 minutes at setting of 7 on an oven with 1-to-8 settings ("bake well, long and slow, BUT keep an eye to see if your oven is too hot compared to my stove")
- after about 20 minutes, cover the pie with foil (lightly, not wrapped) to prevent burning on the top ("shiny side of foil out will reflect more of the heat than dull side out")
- remove foil for the last 15 minutes to complete browning
- serve warm, preferably with whipped cream or ice cream
Sultana Bread
This is a "flouther" recipe, as her mother used to call it. (pronounce "ow" as in "cow" to get "flow-ter." Instead of "a cupful of flour," Patsy's mother used to say "a fistful of flour."
"Sultanas" are yellow raisins, thought to be a little softer than regular raisins. Some people like to soak the sultanas in the beer ingredient, but Patsy doesn't care to. Chopped almonds and cinnamon are other options that Patsy doesn't use.
Ingredients:
- 6 tea cups "self-rising" flour
- 1/2 pound butter
- pinch of salt (about 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1 pound red cherries (the sugared, dehydrated ones that would get put into Christmas fruitcakes and stollens in the US)
- 1 pound sultanas
- 1 large apple, uncooked, peeled, and grated
- 1 egg, beaten slightly
- 2 cans or bottles of beer (.25 liter size)
- milk, only if necessary to moisten sufficiently; "add a drop or two if the batter is too dry;" or leave mixture to sit if it is too moist
Directions:
- cut up/crumble flour and butter
- add remaining ingredients as listed
- mix well with wooden spoon
- pour batter/dough in a buttered 9 x 9 inch pyrex pan or into two buttered bread loaf pans
- put in pre-heated oven on rack just below center rack
- bake for "about" 2 hours and 30 minutes at a "6" or "7" in an oven with the 1-to-8 settings ("about medium heat;" but monitor baking to see if your oven's temperature is similar
- after 30 minutes, put foil on top, lightly, not wrapped on
- Note: best if NOT served warm; tastes better after it "sits a bit"
So, "get your Julia Child on," pick up some Kerry Gold butter at the grocery store, and give it a try.
(P.S. For the Apple Batter Pie, it would help if you could have Joe bring in the fresh apples right off the apple trees on their lawn.)
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