Organic Farm Cooking – Ireland & Intuitive Recipes

Cooking in Ireland

I kept a journal the month I spent in Ireland when I traveled around and volunteered on the organic farm Sunrise Farm in Whitegate, County Clare. When I was there I wrote down some delicious recipes and so today I’ll share them, hopefully I’ll have a more in depth blog entry for you all later on, but for now gather your ingredients and start experimenting! What was great about learning to cook there was that the recipes were more intuitive than exact. I encourage you to try out these recipes for yourself, especially the cake, learning to bake without exact measurements is incredibly fun.

Tofu Stir-fry

The spread.

We had rotating shifts for chores. When it was my turn to prepare lunch, I teamed up with a girl names Lanka and she made muffins while I made stir-fry and salad. The veggies were all fresh from the garden. The stir-fry I made was quick and easy. Using tofu, carrots, and beat leaves in a sauce of some orange juice, curry, and vandevi (which is an Indian spice that is a lot like garlic but works fantastic as a substitute).  All of it cooked together on a medium heat until tender and thickened.

Apple and Blackberry Cake

If you live in a place like Ireland, or Oregon, you know how blackberries can grow like crazy in those wet and cold conditions. We had an enormous number of blackberry bushes. So one night we made a cake of blackberries and apples:

Give it a try, trust me the cake is delicious.

Instead of the called for 1 cup of sugar, we used some apple juice, stevia extract liquid, cinnamon, and vanilla extract (to taste, use your judgement, think in terms of a teaspoon to start and work up to tablespoon size)
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 cup of vegetable oil
3 cups of flour

In a separate bowl we put a little orange juice and mixed with some cornflour, then we added the cut up apples and blackberries. Adding a dash of barley malt extract and some date syrup to sweeten it up.

Then everything gets mixed and put into a pan. Cook on 350 degrees until browning, stick a fork it and when the fork comes out clean, it’s done.