The old saying goes, “there is nothing more American than apple pie”, but I am here to tell you that it was actually a delicious slice of Irish apple tart that won me over in the infamous apple pie department.

I was never a big fan of apple pie…much preferred creamier or berrier versions, so when my mother-in-law, Peggy, offered me a slice on that fateful autumn afternoon, I hesitated, then thought to myself  hmmm, I wouldn’t want to seem contrary, would I? And so it goes, that was the first day of my 6+ year love affair with the Irish apple tart.

Now, this isn’t just any ordinary tart. It uses the age-old tradition of baking using an ordinary flat plate as opposed to the deep pie dish that we are accustomed to in the USA. If you had told me before I moved here that it was possible to bake a pie on a plate, I would have had a good chuckle. But here in Ireland, it’s pretty common practice….I’ve had it with a cup of tea in more than a few locations.

Our son would say “Gran makes it best” {but you should know that she also shares the yummy pastry trimmings with him.} Up for a challenge, I decided to give it a try myself with a few small tweaks to see how it would turn out. I bent her ear for the recipe and borrowed her ovenable plate and was off!

Since it is winter and we’ve no fresh apples from the orchard at the moment, I used the ones that were peeled and frozen in the fall. Each autumn the apples are picked and either sliced and frozen or stewed and frozen for the year, which is a brilliant, time-saving idea.  For the apple filling, I added a tiny bit of cinnamon and freshly grated ginger to the sugar just for a little added zing.

First, I put the thawed apples in a mixing bowl

and stirred in the sugar, a squeeze of a lemon, cinnamon

and a bit of grated fresh ginger

Then, I made the pastry dough (using this butter) and rolled it out to ¼-1/2 inch thickness

Turned it onto the plate

I carefully spooned the apple mixture into the pie plate pastry

And then placed the top of the pastry case over the apples, added a sweet little apple motif on top,

sealed the edge and brushed with an egg wash

And voila! A divine Irish apple tart, all pretty on a plate.

Here’s the recipe….

Enjoy!

Slan Abhaile,

Imen

Photos by Imen McDonnell. Recipe by Peggy and Imen McDonnell

Tags: American, apple pie, baking, farm, food, Foodie. Apple tart, ireland, Irish, Married an Irish Farmer, pastry

One of my New Year “promises” is to become more involved in farm projects. This means less worrying about what has become of my M&M’s {Manolos and Milk Duds} and more concentrating on creating something fulfilling and worthwhile here at home in Ireland. If you follow along on Twitter you may have heard some mention of a certain sweet little thatched cottage restoration that I will be taking on in 2011. I have also been wanting to try my hand at making butter from our own fresh cream and honey. So, when I gleefully received the gift of a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, I couldn’t wait to get stuck into some Adventures in Butterland!

Turns out, it’s pretty easy.

First, you’ll need to get some raw milk from your farm or local dairy. (7 litres {about 2 gallons} yields about 2 pints {4 cups} of cream) Leave it sit still long enough to form a layer of cream on top. 12-24 hours worked for me. If you want a more traditional flavour, you can leave it out instead of keeping it in the fridge the whole time. If you don’t have access to a farm or dairy, you can use cream or double cream from the supermarket instead. 500mls = 227g of butter.

Once you skim the cream off the top of your milk, pour it straight into an electric mixer and pop it on medium speed. After 2 minutes, it should look like this:

After a few more minutes, like this:

And after about 6-9 minutes,

the butterfat will separate from buttermilk and it should look like this:

Remove the butter from the bowl and place it into a cold sieve to strain out all of the buttermilk.

{save the buttermilk for pancakes or scones}

When you’re sure you’ve squeezed out as much buttermilk as possible,

use your hands or wooden spatulas or butter bats to form the butter,

and make sure you keep the utensils icy cold or the butter will begin to melt.

{Since I have kid-sized hands, these children’s spatulas worked perfectly!}

If you want, add some honey, like I did

or fennel, garlic, thyme, rosemary, lemon…

and maybe stamp it with a special motif.

After you have it all shaped and pretty,

Serve it with a special meal

or slathered on a piece of morning toast.

Yum!

Slan Abhaile,

Imen

*when using non-pasteurised cream, keep refrigerated and it will last for a week. Pasteurised cream butter will last 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Guidelines taken from Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen. Photos by Imen McDonnell

Tags: darina allen, farm, farmhouse butter, food, foodie, Imen McDonnell, ireland, KitchenAid, Manolo Blahnik, Milk DUds

This is a continuation of “From Jet-Set to Farmette, Part I”, which you can read here. As I said previously, often people ask just how exactly myself and himself met, so I thought it would be handy if I put together a little series of posts laying out the low-down with as many details as can tastefully be shared. If you are not into sappy love stories, I’d give it a skip.

After shedding a few happy tears, I gathered myself and gave MDF a ring to say thank you for the flowers and card. “no thanks needed”, he’d explained, “just a chance to get to know you better please.” How could I refuse? When I thought about it, I had nothing to lose. His endearing attentiveness certainly felt wonderful and he always seemed to be in good humour, which made me smile more often. {and by more often, I mean ALL THE TIME}

We nattered on via email, daily phone calls and text messages for over a year. I had 2-3 production trips scheduled overseas, so whenever I’d wrap shooting he’d fly to meet me and we would venture off to some quiet European seaside locale, drink gorgeous wine and discuss every corner of our lives. Our lavish conversations were followed by mammoth kissing sessions that went on for hours and hours. It began to feel like time stood still when we were together. We were becoming more and more heartbroken each time we had to say goodbye which, according to the accounting department, was clearly evident by my increasing tissue expenses.

Once, after a commercial shoot in Barcelona, I decided to surprise MDF by showing up to collect him from the airport in a really fast, over-the-top convertible sports car {specifically one that he mentioned he’d love to drive one day}. Tipped off by a location manager that I was working with, we hopped into the car and sped up the Costa Brava with the sun in our eyes and the wind in our hair, to a special place called Cadaques. Nestled on a bay on the Mediterranean coast, Cadaques is a stunning and quietly exotic (aka non-touristy) Catalan village which is also the birthplace of Salvador Dali.

Having made no arrangements or reservations, we just drove up though the town until we couldn’t go any further with the car and found ourselves stopped in front of the sweetest little hotel. I waited as MDF went in to see if there was a room. When he came out with a smile, I knew we had gotten lucky.

We checked into our room, changed and went for a walk to explore our little romantic weekend hideaway. In the rear of the hotel, there was a lovely pool and garden along with a café/bar. We sat down at a table and each ordered a glass of chilled rosé.  Ironically, as we looked at the group of people sitting poolside, we noticed a cigar-smoking Neil Jordan and his family happily chatting away and having fun. This was surprising because earlier MDF had mentioned how tickled he was that Neil was on his flight from Dublin.  Both admirers of Mr. Jordan’s work, we found it wonderfully serendipitous that we had found ourselves at the exact same “secret” place.

Those three days were like a living in a dream; an experience in which you almost need to pinch yourself to see if it is all really happening. We lounged, talked, gazed into each other’s eyes for far longer than any sane person would and just reveled in the complete abandon of our “real worlds” that we’d left behind, if only for a short time.

One evening, we stumbled upon a charming little restaurant, which, to our amazement, just happened to be named “Waiting for Richard”*. There, we lingered over a sensational meal for what seemed like hours. Afterwards, we walked quietly along the harbour holding hands. We stepped down to the little pebble beach outside of our hotel and MDF turned to me and nervously asked, “If I…ahem…provisionally…ahem…asked you..ahem…tomarrymerightnow…would you?” I was completely caught by surprise, but so, so in love at that very moment that I instantly blurted out, “Yes!…I mean…ummm, provisionally…yes..I..would.” Cue {yet another} mammoth kissing session.

The next morning we packed up and reluctantly made our way back to reality. His being a two hour flight back to his cows and chickens and mine being three bad movies and thirteen hours in the air, immediately followed by being back in my 27^th floor city office where a long editorial process +  hundreds of emails awaited.

Inside one of those emails was an airline ticket to Ireland.

Slan Abhaile,

Imen

*MDF’s proper name is Richard.

Tags: Cadaques, farmette, Farming, ireland, love, marriage, modern love, Neil Jordan, Salvador Dali. Spain

My big “production” for 2011 will be work on restoring our sweet little thatched farmhouse which is located just down the road from the main farm.  She is well over two centuries old and has not been inhabited for over 4 years. Sadly, the structure is in such a state of disrepair that it will likely have to be mostly knocked and rebuilt with exact period specifications in mind, retaining as many architectural details as humanly possible. {This means I will be scouting and casting for recommendations on period architects, designers, thatchers, hard and soft furnishings…any and all suggestions are greatly welcomed and appreciated}

The hope is to restore the farmhouse and various buildings on the land and eventually open it up to the public for agri-tourism projects such as educational farmstays, farm dinners, cookery retreats (buttermaking, anyone?), and perhaps self-catering.

We went for a visit again today and I took a few shots. I just can’t wait to get started on the design/decor side of things, but of course, loads of planning and paperwork will be the first order of business (and fyi, paperwork = my arch nemesis).  I will remain patient and keep the ball rolling as we work together as a family to bring this endeavour to reality.

As we walked around the overgrown garden,  I spotted the charming old gate

popping through the lush green foliage and massive thorny briars

We came across this little fella,

surrounded by loads of reed spires that had fallen from the roof

Around the corner, I spied an old stone shed with a tiny square lookout.

When I first walked inside the cottage,

I was struck by actual fabric wallpaper hanging off a bedroom wall,

loved this pattern

Someone removed the beautiful fireplace that was originally here

These old shutters in the bathroom are lovely to me

This piece of history in a frame was left behind…

as were these pages of “produce tables”

I am eager and excited for the journey of bringing this very special gem back to life.

And, if you don’t mind, I’d love to share my progress with you along the way!

Slan Abhaile,

Imen

Photos by Imen McDonnell