OK, SO I know it’s Brigid’s Bank Holiday weekend so it’s not quite the time to be chatting about Valentine’s Day, but hey, Spring has sprung and there’s never a bad time to think about making the best food for your loved ones. 

It’s been a long winter with many of us saving on oven and heat use along the way. By now, you’re bound to be fed up with winter soups and stews and anything we can cobble together through cost-of-living challenges. Hopefully, things are about to brighten and with that, we might discover our joy of baking and cooking again. 

This year, in good time for Valentine’s, I’ve launched a course that offers you the chance to develop a three-course romantic meal that is guaranteed to impress. If the thought of squeezing into a busy restaurant on Valentine’s night is too much to handle, this class will give you all the tips, tricks and pointers you’ll need to pull off the ultimate romantic evening from the comfort of your own home.

In the meantime, here are some tasty recipes below to get you started. They’re seasonal and simple and you don’t need to be an expert to put them together. Hope you, and your loved ones, enjoy…

Oven baked garlic and rosemary camembert

Shane Smith Shane Smith

Serves: 2
Prep: 5 mins
Bake: 20mins

Ingredients
1 Camembert in a box
2 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs of Rosemary
Black pepper
Rapeseed oil
1 baguette

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180C.
• Remove any plastic packaging from the camembert and place back into the wooden box, leaving the lid off.
• Score the top of the cheese and insert the sliced garlic cloves and some rosemary.
• Drizzle the top of the cheese with rapeseed oil and sprinkle with cracked black pepper.
• Place on a tray and into the oven for 20 minutes.
• Take care at this point as the cheese will be very hot.
• You can remove the rosemary & garlic at this point if you choose.
• Serve with some sliced toasted bread.

Enjoy!

Asparagus, spinach and smoked salmon quiche

Shane Smith Shane Smith

Serves: 8
Prep: 25mins
Bake: 40 mins

Quiche pastry

• 270g plain flour
• 170g butter, room temperature
• pinch salt
• 1 medium free range egg

Quiche filling

• 5 medium free range eggs
• 5 medium free range egg yolks
• 500ml milk
• 100g sour cream
• 2 bunches asparagus
• 100g Irish smoked salmon
• 75g Irish goats cheese
• 2 handfuls of washed fresh baby spinach
• Salt & pepper

Method

• Grease and flour a 10” loose bottom tart ring and set aside.
• For the quiche pastry, in a mixing bowl, mix the flour, butter and salt until a sandy texture is reached.
• To this add the egg and mix until a dough is reached.
• Wrap and pop into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
• Once rested, roll out on a floured work surface and line prepared tart ring and chill for 20 minutes.
• Once this is chilling, preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan.
• To blind bake the tart shell, pace a sheet of parchment into the shell and fill with baking beans/rice.
• Place in the centre of a preheated oven and bake for 10/12 minutes or until the top of the pastry is turning golden brown.
• At this point remove the baking beans and return to the oven for a further 8-10 minutes until the shell is cooked and lightly golden brown all over. Set aside to cool until needed.
• For the filling, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, milk, sour cream and season. Set aside.
• Trim the ends of the asparagus and add the spears to the tart shell with the fresh spinach, goats cheese and smoked salmon, pour over the egg filling and return to the hot oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the filling is lightly golden and set.
• Remove and allow to cool before removing from the tin.

Related Reads

Extract: A pot of boiling water can lead to a glorious, simple and cheap meal

Time to get baking - sweet treat recipes from Eloise Head

Mary Berry serves up some delicious new recipes for you to try at home

Top tip: When making the pastry dough, add 1tsp of chopped fresh thyme for added flavour

Jammie Dodger Biscuits

Shane Smith Shane Smith

Makes 14
Prep: 20 mins
Bake: 12mins

Ingredients
100g butter
170g caster sugar
1 medium egg
Dash vanilla extract
pinch salt
200g plain flour
350g Irish strawberry jam

Method

• In a mixing bowl, cream the room temperature butter and caster sugar together until pale in colour.
• Add the egg and vanilla and combine.
• To this add in the sieved flour and salt and mix.
• Turn this dough out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball.
• Wrap this in clingfilm and chill for 25 minutes.
• Once rested, roll out on a floured work surface about 5mm in thickness and cut out 28 discs using a 7cm round cutter. Taking a small heart cutter, cut this shape into the centre of half your biscuits.
• Place them on two lined baking sheets and return to the fridge to rest for a further 20 minutes. This ensures they keep their shape while baking.
• Preheat your oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / Gas 4
• Egg wash each cookie and sprinkle with some caster sugar and bake for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove and allow to cool.
• Once cooled, spread some strawberry jam onto the base cookie and top with the heart cookie and sandwich them together.
• These will keep for 2 days in an airtight container – If they last that long!

Shane Smith has nearly 22 years’ experience working in some of the world’s most celebrated pastry kitchens across the globe. Shane’s cookery class is held on Zoom on Thursday 9 February at 7 pm and lasts 90 minutes. Check out more recipes on his Instagram or at www.chefshanesmith.ie.