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The comedian Dara Ó Briain is to join the Irish chef and restaurateur Richard Corrigan to host a livestreamed cookalong on Monday evening in aid of the Irish Youth Foundation.
They will be joined, at least virtually, in the kitchen of Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill, one of Corrigan’s London restaurants, by celebrity guests Ronan Keating, Laura Whitmore, Adrian Dunbar, James Nesbitt, Ed Byrne and Saoirse-Monica Jackson.
Corrigan will be preparing Bentley’s shellfish cocktail, with his signature seafood cocktail sauce, as well as baking his family’s recipe for treacle soda bread, and preparing what he says is “the perfect Christmas ham”. Two of the recipes are reproduced below. The 90-minute event kicks off at 7.25pm; you can join in by clicking here.
The cookalong replaces the charity’s annual fundraiser, which has been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There will also be an online auction, with prizes including a chance for Corrigan to cook a three-course menu for you at your home and a week’s stay at the Ritz-Carlton Abama Resort, in Tenerife.
Corrigan and Ó Briain are both patrons of the Irish Youth Foundation, which has raised more than £5 million to help disadvantaged young Irish people and their families living in the UK. The event is supported by ABP Food Group and Jameson Irish Whiskey.
RICHARD CORRIGAN’S FAMILY SODA BREAD
Makes one large loaf
Ingredients 250g plain flour 10g salt 15g sodium bicarbonate 150g wholemeal flour 150g jumbo oat flakes 1tbsp clear honey 1tbsp black treacle 500ml buttermilk
Method 1 Pre-heat the oven to 200 Celsius/gas mark 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
2 Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre of this mix, then mix in the honey, treacle and buttermilk, working everything together lightly with your hands until you have a loose, wet dough.
3 Flour your hands, then shape the dough into a round and lift it on to the lined baking sheet. Score a cross in the top of the dough. (As the loaf cooks this will help to separate it into quarters.) Put the dough in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the base with your knuckles.
4 Put it on a wire rack, cover with a damp cloth and leave to cool. Don’t even think of putting dairy spread on it. This bread needs and deserves butter.
BENTLEY’S CLASSIC SHELLFISH COCKTAIL
Serves 4
Ingredients A mixture of seafood: picked white crab meat; Dublin Bay prawns; Atlantic prawns (the pink ones); cooked lobster tails; brown shrimps (peeled) Extra virgin olive oil A squeeze of lemon juice 2 baby gem lettuce 1 small cucumber, peeled, deseeded and diced Salt For the cocktail sauce: 2 parts mayonnaise 1 part tomato ketchup Splash of brandy Dash of Tabasco sauce Pinch of paprika Squeeze of lemon juice
Method 1 The quantities of seafood you use are up to you; just try to get a good mix of everything. How much sauce you make is really up to you, too. Keep tasting it, and adjust it until it makes you smile. Simon Hopkinson had a nice idea of mixing a little cottage cheese into a cocktail sauce; it lightens the sauce up a bit and takes that cloyiness off it.
2 Mix together all the ingredients for the sauce. Take four old-fashioned cocktail glasses. Season all the seafood with a little extra virgin olive oil, salt and a drop of lemon juice.
3 To assemble, put some lettuce and cucumber at the bottom of the glasses, which will give a lovely crunch, then layer up your seafood, put a dollop of sauce on top and let people mix everything up, or keep everything separate, as they choose.