Domini Kemp is on leave for a few weeks and this week, PAUL FLYNN, who has a new edible garden at The Tannery in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, suggests a few summery dishes hot from the plot

NOTHING HAS CHANGED my cooking more than having my own garden. For years I have been sticking to the seasons. But when something arrives in a box or bag, no matter how beautiful it is, it will never have the same impact as seeing it grow. We wait in anticipation like an expectant parent, and finally it fulfils its potential in a marvellously simple way.

The Tannery garden is a place of refuge. Coming from the heat and turmoil of the restaurant kitchen, the tranquillity of the garden is punctuated only by the hens clucking.

It’s important to me that this space is part of the community.

After all it is an oasis of growth in the heart of a country town; not exactly an everyday happening. So classes from the local schools might pop in for a talk, playschools have their school tour here, and I might cook something simple and get them to taste it. Children are wonderfully honest and I have been told on more than one occasion my cooking is disgusting – I don’t mind!

The nuns call in regularly to inspect the progress.

Our cookery school and the townhouse were once part of the Mercy Convent, and before we renovated the derelict building, our dining room served as the music room, home of Mother Emmanuel, and reverberated with various degrees of piano virtuosity. One of the nuns who regularly visits taught me in junior infants. Some say not having to bother with men helps them live longer. Anyhow, one must always be nice to a nun.

Salad of garden leaves, peas, broad beans, mint, with warm sheep’s cheese crostini

Everything in this recipe, except the cheese, lemons and olive oil, comes from the garden. I sometimes use beetroot and broadbean tops and flowers to enhance and intrigue. The lemon and cheese are zesty, clean and fresh, making a delicate healthy salad which sings of goodness and summer.

Lemon dressing

4tbs light olive oil

half a lemon, juiced

salt and pepper

Salad

150g fresh spinach leaves, washed

1 cup freshly podded peas , blanched briefly in boiling salted water, refreshed in iced water and drained (or frozen peas if you can’t get fresh)

1 cup broad beans, blanched briefly in boiling salted water, refreshed in iced water and drained

Half cup fresh basil leaves, washed

Half cup fresh mint leaves, washed

Half cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, washed

2 tbsp spring onion, sliced

Crostini

12 slices French stick or ciabatta, cut diagonally in 1.5cm slices

180g sheep’s cheese

Extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Prepare the lemon dressing first by combining the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine the leaves, peas, basil, mint, parsley and onion. Toss with enough lemon dressing to moisten.

Toast the bread slices under a hot grill, then spread with the cheese. Reduce grill to a low setting and warm the cheese through. To serve, place some salad in the centre of each plate, with two crostini alongside. Drizzle a little oil over the cheese and grind black pepper over the top.

Tuscan bread salad

This is without doubt the recipe I teach the most often in the cookery school. I break all my own rules by making it out of season with sometimes inferior tomatoes, but I am desperate to share the simple brilliance of this recipe with the students. This is not my recipe, but a slightly tweaked version of the Italian classic, panzanella. I do want to stress that good tomatoes are the key. If you make this on holidays in Italy with sun-ripened tomatoes you bought at the market, it will be like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. We are now using beautiful Marmon tomatoes. We remove the skins as they are a little tough and put every bit of juice into the salad.

Half a loaf ciabatta or other good Italian bread

Extra virgin olive oil

6 vine ripened tomatoes, blanched and skinned

2 red and 2 yellow peppers, roasted, peeled and sliced

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup basil leaves

Half cup olives

8 anchovy fillets, drained and halved lengthways

1 tbsp salted capers, well rinsed

red wine vinegar

Dijon mustard

pinch of sugar

Roughly tear the bread into two-centimetre chunks. Drizzle it with a little olive oil, place on a baking tray and cook in a moderate oven until golden, but not too dry. Halve, then quarter the tomatoes horizontally.

In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, peppers, onion, basil, olives, anchovies and capers. Make a vinaigrette with three parts olive oil to one part red wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and dress the salad generously. Lastly, fold the toasted ciabatta through the salad and serve.

Ice-cream cake and strawberries

When I was seven, my mother got me an ice-cream cake for my birthday. It was the first in our class and all my friends were envious and wanted to bash me. If I had been interested in girls back then, I like to think it was akin to driving a flash car, but I can’t recall how they reacted. I was too busy gloating and eating cake.

This recipe makes the easiest birthday cake known to man. The strawberries are at their best right now, so who can resist strawberries and cream with a lot of meringue squished in? We also have some wild strawberry plants in the garden – fraises du bois – that I scatter on top.

We had this cake at Christmas, made with mulled fruit, and the hot and cold contrast was stunning. Sometimes I whip a little lemon curd through the cream (shop bought is fine) – or, for kiddies, hot chocolate sauce.

A little vegetable oil

500 mls cream

1 tbsp sieved icing sugar

2 drops vanilla extract or even better the scraped seeds from one vanilla pod

8 meringue shells – shop bought or home made

2 punnets strawberries

Have a 900ml plastic pudding basin or similar sized bowl at the ready and lightly oil it. Whip the cream in a large bowl until soft peaks form, then fold in the icing sugar and vanilla. Break each meringue shell roughly into three pieces and add to the bowl. Stir just enough to mix.

Fill the pudding basin with the meringue mixture to the brim. Cover with cling film and freeze overnight. Cut the strawberries in half, and if they are not sweet enough, dust them with another spoonful of icing sugar, then scatter them over the cake in a pretty fashion. These are also great made in individual moulds.