Pancakes, trout, cornbread, popcorn, potato farls, apple dumplings, plum cobbler, BBQ pork and clams are on the menu as Paula McIntyre returns to our television screens.
The popular Portstewart-based chef is off to Belfast and Londonderry in her new BBC series. However, it’s not Co Antrim; rather Belfast, Maine and Londonderry, New Hampshire she visits in a new transatlantic food adventure.
Paula “always hoped” she would take local audiences stateside to retrace the Ulster-Scots food heritage, though when she learnt that Paula McIntyre’s Hamely Kitchen USA had been commissioned, she admits “it was quite a surreal experience”.
No stranger to America, Paula spent two years at the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, learning the classical style of cooking.
However there’s a part of the American food story which she never had a chance to explore until now - the ingredients and recipes which, thanks to the Scots-Irish, have ended up becoming part of America’s diverse food culture.
This six-part series takes Paula from the coast of New England to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and from New Hampshire to Kentucky.
“Doing the series has been a dream come true. I got the opportunity to go into people’s kitchens - to learn how to make clam chowder, to see how a lobster roll is made, fry catfish and barbecue in Tennessee,” she says.
“I love New England and am familiar with it, but the south was new to me. The people were so warm and hospitable and there was a lot of common ground between us and them – in values and ingredients.”
Paula’s biggest surprise was being told by producers that she would be visiting Franklin, Tennessee and going to the home of Rachel Parton George, the youngest sister of country music legend Dolly.
“I literally couldn’t speak, and it takes a lot for me not to be able to speak,” she chuckles.
“I’ve always loved Dolly Parton and I admire her philanthropy.”
Paula goes as far as saying Dolly’s songs have “formed the soundtrack” of her life.
“Dolly’s songs transcend emotions. She’s got a song to fit, no matter how you are feeling.”
I can’t help asking Paula if she sings along to them when she is cooking: “Not in public, but at home, when I’m prepping ingredients, I sing a bit of everything,” she laughs. Perhaps Radio Ulster listeners should request some singing from Paula in her next slot of Radio Ulster’s Saturday with John Toal...
Known as the family cook, Rachel serves up Paula’s first ever catfish. And watch out for Rachel making a dish inspired by one of Dolly’s best known songs.
Viewers will quickly notice the pair’s genuine rapport on screen. “I definitely hit it off with her,” agrees Paula.
“Off-camera she showed me a copy of her and Dolly’s new book that is coming out (Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals, published this Thursday). We bonded over recipes and talked about cooking with the women in your family.”
Paula was especially taken by the fact Rachel still cooked on her mother’s skillet.
“In Tennessee everyone cooks on an iron skillet. They are made of sturdy stuff and made to last. I went to the foundry to see them made, which was quite an experience, because it was 40 degrees outside,” sighs Paula, who was gifted one as a present from the Partons.
At home, when I’m prepping ingredients, I sing a bit of everything
— Paula McIntyre
“Dolly’s company makes skillets, and it’s got a butterfly and a guitar on the back. I’m using it all the time now at home.”
Ingredients like buttermilk, kale and moonshine, are just some of the staples from the Scots-Irish larder which are still used by home cooks and chefs in the States today.
Paula also boldly makes a claim that the Scots-Irish influenced the southern institution of cornbread.
“Essentially it’s like our soda bread – flour and buttermilk. They put cornmeal in it, because that would be more readily available,” says the 57-year-old, who in the series meets Appalachian cook Stephanie Foley and learns the art of making the perfect cornbread.
In Kentucky Paula visits Lauren Angelucci McDuffie, a food writer with Scots-Irish heritage, who uses it in a traditional Southern fried chicken dish and enjoys buttermilk ice-cream at a local dairy farm.
“Buttermilk is very versatile. Lauren used it as a marinade. I’ve also brined with buttermilk as it tenderises as well as flavours. One of the nicest things that I tasted in America was buttermilk cheese. Stunning.”
New England is renowned for their shellfish and in the series Paula visits Belfast, Maine, the town named by two Scots-Irishmen. She goes clam-digging, tries New England’s celebrated clam chowder, and meets a hardworking fisherwoman and cook, famous for her lobster rolls.
Paula is delighted that the north of Ireland is starting to embrace shellfish. “About 10 years ago, most of our shellfish would have been exported; not now. Along the north coast there’s lots of restaurants serving lobster rolls and crab salads. I think it’s about education. People who say they don’t really like fish haven’t tasted a lobster roll.”
In Hamely Kitchen USA Paula cooks up dishes inspired by her travels in the picturesque surroundings of the Maine coastline and from her stunning outdoor cabin kitchen in the Smoky Mountains.
“It was amazing being in the mountains, surrounded by trees with bears roaming below,” she enthuses.
Paula also enjoyed embracing the southern art of barbecuing. While she reassures audiences they can recreate the dishes at home in their frying or grill pan, she also warns them not to be too hasty to put the covers on their barbecues.
“I’m a big fan of barbecuing. Grilling especially suits vegetables. Beans can be quite boring, but if you put them in the grill and then toss them into a nice vinaigrette, it transforms them.
“We’ve got those lovely seasonal vegetables, like parsnips, carrots and pumpkins. They are naturally quite sweet, and when you put it on the grill it caramelizes the sugars in them.”
Other highlights of her USA adventures were visiting a rodeo, witnessing moonshine distilling and sharing a love of spuds and butter with Brad McFadden. A resident of Merrymeeting Bay, his ancestors left Aghadowey, where Paula is from, in the early 1700s.
She also visits Nashville and makes a final stop at a historic orchard, founded by a family from Derry, to taste their apple-cider donuts.
“It’s wonderful how they came out in the 1700s and the orchard is still going,” adds Paula would love to return to the USA for another series.
And did she invite Rachel Parton back to her home?
“Wouldn’t that be special? The Parton family Hamely Kitchen one-hour special - stranger things have happened,” she laughs.
Paula McIntyre’s Hamely Kitchen USA begins on Friday September 20 on BBC One NI at 7.30pm. The entire series will be available on BBC iPlayer.
RECIPE
Grape and orange compote, cheesecake cream, orange and vanilla glazed popcorn
Grape and orange compote:
250g grapes
Zest and juice 1 orange
75g castor sugar
Method:
Place the grapes, sugar, orange juice and zest in a pan and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove grapes into a bowl and boil the liquor to a syrup and add to the grapes.
Cheesecake Cream:
175g full fat cream cheese
175g double cream
35g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
Whisk together
Orange and vanilla glazed popcorn:
50g popcorn kernel
1 tablespoon oil
Zest and juice 1 orange
20g butter
45g honey
20g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Method:
Heat the oil in a skillet and add the corn, cover and allow to pop.
Place the juice, zest and honey in a pan and boil to a thick syrup. Add the sugar, butter and vanilla and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Toss in the popcorn.
Spoon the cheesecake cream into glasses and top with compote and popcorn.
