Check our some of our West Cork recipes that were featured in our West Fork magazine which was inside The Southern Star newspaper.
This article was featured in our West Fork 2025 magazine – you can read the full supplement here!
KATY’S APPLE CRUMBLE
This delicious recipe for apple crumble comes courtesy of Katy Lucey of Gougane Barra Hotel.
Katy is an award-winning cookbook author and her ebook Cooking with Katy is available to download.
Ingredients
For the filling:
4 cooking apples
100g/3.5 oz of granulated sugar
35ml/1 fl oz of water
For the topping:
340g/12oz of white flour
225g/8 oz of butter
110g/4 oz of sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C/320F
Peel, core, slice and place the apples in a saucepan with the sugar & water.
Cover with a lid & cook on a medium heat, stirring often, until just about soft (5/7 mins).
Remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly while you make the topping.
To make the topping: rub the butter through the flour until resembling rough breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
Place the cooked apple mixture into an ovenproof pie dish.
Sprinkle the topping over the cooked apples to cover them completely. Add a shake of cinnamon if you fancy it.
Bake at 160C for 35/40 mins or until the crumble is a golden colour.
Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or homemade custard and a dusting of icing sugar.
This crumble is a favourite dessert at Gougane Barra Hotel. It can be easily adapted by using seasonal fruit such as rhubarb and strawberries or apple and pear.
HOMEMADE BUTTER
Ingredients
1 litre double cream, room temperature
Sea salt
Method
Pour the cream into a churn, jar or mixing bowl.
If using a churn, turn the handle for 10-12 minutes until the cream ‘breaks’ and separates into butter solids and buttermilk. If using a jar, shake to break. If using an electric whisk, whisk to break.
Place a sieve over a bowl, put the butter in to allow excess buttermilk to drain.
Fill a clean bowl with very cold water and put in the butter. Knead the butter with your hands to force out more buttermilk. The more gotten out, the longer the butter stays fresh.
Drain the water and repeat Step 4 twice until the water runs clear.
Using butter paddles, cold hands or a mould, bring your butter together and shape.
Sprinkle with sea salt. Wrap in parchment and refrigerate to keep fresh.
Summer’s abundance of fresh produce is a great excuse to experiment with flavours and some different techniques that require little time and effort but yield great tasting dishes writes Kate Ryan of Flavour.ie
ROASTED CHICKPEA CRUNCH SALAD
A humble tin of chickpeas is transformed into a super delicious salad with a little help from spices and locally grown seasonal crunchy veggies, such as string beans and radishes.
This salad is great served as a side dish to a main course.
It can also be a served as a lunch for sharing by adding a Macroom Buffalo Burrata on top, or as an individually plated salad with slices of Toons Bridge Mozzarella.
Make it extra hearty by adding chunks of Pike Deli’s sourdough country loaf lashed with Gloun Cross Butter.
Ingredients
1 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and roasted
1 tsp Ras al Hanout spice blend
1 tsp paprika
Sea salt and ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, roasted in their skins
Handful of radishes, trimmed and roasted
Pinch of red chilli flakes
Zest of 1 lemon, juice of half
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp West Cork Olive Koroneiki Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tsp fresh mint, roughly chopped
125g French beans, blanched
Optional: A whole burrata or slices of mozzarella.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan). Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Put the drained chickpeas into a bowl, add Ras al Hanout and paprika, a pinch of sea salt and a little ground black pepper, and mix until coated. Pour out onto the baking tray along with the garlic cloves and radishes. Roast for 20 minutes until radishes are a little softened with a little bite, and the chickpeas are toasted on the outside.
Meanwhile, bring a pan of well-salted water to the boil, drop in the beans and cook (blanch) for 2-3 minutes. Drain then rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Set aside.
Quarter the radishes and place in a serving bowl with the chickpeas. Squeeze out the softened garlic cloves from their skins and add to the bowl. Add in chilli flakes, lemon zest and juice, pomegranate molasses, EVOO, fresh herbs and green beans, then mix with a spoon to ensure everything is well coated.
Taste for seasoning and adjust to suit your taste with a little more salt.
Serve as is for a side dish, or top with burrata as a sharing dish, or plate individual portions and top with slices of mozzarella. Serve with fresh sourdough and good butter.
HONEY & BLACK PEPPER ROASTED STRAWBERRY FROZEN PARFAIT
Ingredients
450g Bushby’s Strawberries, hulled and halved
2 tbsp Molaga West Cork Honey
Freshly-ground black pepper (ten turns of the pepper mill)
For the Parfait
4 eggs (separated into yolks and whites)
75g icing sugar
200g Gloun Cross Dairy cream
200g Glenilen Natural Yogurt
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan, to dry out the strawberries a little as they roast), and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Put the prepared strawberries into a bowl, add honey and black pepper and mix to combine. Tip out onto the roasting tray and place in the oven for 40 mins, turning once during cooking.
When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray while you make the parfait.
Bring a small saucepan of water to a gentle simmer and place a steel or ceramic bowl over the rim, being sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t make contact with the water. Tip in the egg yolks and caster sugar and whisk until the colour turns to a pale yellow and has thickened a little. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.
In a clean bowl, tip in the egg whites and whisk until they form peaks.
In another bowl, tip in the cream and whisk until lightly whipped.
Take one spoonful of the egg white and beat into the cream to combine. Then add the remaining egg white spoon by spoon and carefully fold into the cream. Then add the yogurt the same way, and finally the egg yolk and sugar mixture until combined and has kept the volume.
Finally, add the roasted strawberries and some of the jammy juices to the parfait mix and fold into so the fruit is distributed through the mix.
Carefully pour this mixture into your plastic containers then drizzle over any remaining strawberry and honey juice. Clamp on the lid and place in the freezer for 4-6 hours or overnight.
Remove from container from the freezer 10 mins before serving. Tip it out onto a serving plate and cut into slices. Serve with more fresh strawberries.
This article was featured in our West Fork 2025 magazine – you can read the full supplement here!
