COOKBOOKS are not just a record of recipes, but a record of meals cooked and eaten together, of travels and gatherings, events and moments both ordinary and extraordinary. They are effectively records of life, and for Irish presenter and food writer Donal Skehan, every one of his cookbooks “ends up being a little bit semi-autobiographical” in the sense that they “come with, or identify, a purpose in my life that needs recipes.”
The 35-year-old’s latest, Everyday Cook, is no different. Skehan and his wife, Sofie Larsson, have two boys under three (Noah and Oliver) and have moved three times in 18 months, on top of a pandemic – and so this, his 10th book, is a “real celebration of family life” and the doable recipes “we come back to; the ones that get us through.”
And schedule allowing, the former boy band singer really does cook every single day. “Hate is too strong a word, but I’ve grown to love less the travel and all the things that go alongside the job I do,” he says with a diplomatic grin, having flown from Dublin for this chat and an appearance on ITV’s This Morning. “Now, because we have kids, I don’t want to be on a plane, I don’t want to be in a hotel room. I want to be at home, and I want to be cooking.”
It’s more than just dinner, he explains, “it’s the ecosystem of your home. It’s the ecosystem of how the kids eat, how we treat our bodies” – and jetting about, however fun and important, can get in the way of that. Skehan particularly likes cooking at the weekends, when you can do bigger projects. “I do pot stickers with the boys and we built a lasagne the other day, which was great craic for our little fella Noah.”
Having kids has undoubtedly shifted things “pretty drastically” he admits with a laugh. There’s less freedom to “freewheel it” in the kitchen, but it’s not all bad. “I feel like one of these cliché parents,” he says in mock horror. “I don’t hide veggies! But I sneak a lot more vegetables into my dishes than I ever did before.” And his children happily appreciate him making finger food out of “leftover crap from the bottom of the fridge. It’s actually made me use my kitchen more actively and more efficiently,” he says.
It’s a change too from the food he was immersed in while living in LA. “It was nothing to do with green juices, red carpets, all the things you imagine LA to be, in fact it has this incredible food scene that’s somewhat, from a European perspective, undiscovered,” he says excitedly. “We always think of New York as the food destination in the States but LA is just this incredible gem of a city.”
The tacos alone are enough to make him throw his hands in the air with glee. “Oh my god, the tacos! We ate out so much,” he says, remembering the brilliance of the little Ethiopia, Thai town, and Koreatown neighbourhoods.
After four-and-a-half years in LA though, Skehan and family had to leave in a mad dash: the lease was up on their house, their youngest was only a few months old, and the pandemic had hit. “We left in a bit of a panic, with two Ubers with guys in hazmat suits, and like 18 bags,” says Skehan. The plan was to come back to Ireland, but not indefinitely. “It was all very tumultuous,” he recalls. “We were very much like new parents and not really knowing what was going on.”
Stressfully making it to Dublin, they moved into a house they hadn’t even seen (Skehan’s parents scouted it out for them). “Then we had to move again, and we’ve just moved again, and so the last couple of years have been – combined with the pandemic – personally and from a family perspective, we’ve had really quite a lot of stopping and starting and no consistency.”
The cookbook falling now, when they finally have a house to settle in and a reliable oven (“It’s functional, it works, the gas hob, for God’s sake, I just wanted a gas hob! I’ve been working off an Aga that doesn’t heat up!”) feels not a little serendipitous. “I don’t know if I was writing for future me,” Skehan ponders.
In times of tumult, cooking can often be a marker for how Skehan’s feeling in himself. “At my very best, I am cooking every day and for me, cooking has always been a moment of solace,” he says when asked about his experiences of burnout and mental health. “Even as a kid growing up, my mum’s kitchen was that place of warmth,” he continues. “I would come in from school in the autumn days, steamed-up windows, knowing there was a pot of stew on. There was always that place of warmth.”
When life and work get too demanding or overwhelming, when there’s too much travel and a sense of routine erodes, things can become emotionally and mentally difficult for any of us, which is a feeling Skehan recognises. “Burnout and anxiety and – I don’t know if I would kind of go as far as depression – but certainly there’s those moments that do come up for me,” says Skehan. “I’ve certainly experienced them in the last 12, 15 years, and particularly now with Covid and stuff like that, it is something that comes and goes and is fleeting, and then comes at you like a freight train in different ways.
“But I do find when I’m at my calmest, cooking comes into play, and it really is a lovely way to turn to something that is wholesome and really is something for yourself; it’s something to look after you and the ones that you love.”
Back in Dublin – Skehan describes life in LA as “treading water”, compared to being home with “your hand on the side of the pool, you’ve got people around you” – he’s taken up paddle boarding. “It’s just so good,” he says. “It’s just this complete calm. The only thing that bursts your bubble is a seal might pop up – and that in itself is amazing.
“I can recognise [that burnout] kind of comes my way due to the nature of work and stuff like that, and choosing activities like paddle boarding, that do step you out of it and put you in a place of flow, keep you grounded, are really important.” Good food, ocean air and the chance of seals, yes please.
Recipes taken from Everyday Cook by Donal Skehan, published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £25. Available now. Here's three for you too try at home...
KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN BOWLS
(Serves 4)
For the chicken:
250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
8 free-range chicken thighs (bone in and skin on), cut into bite-sized pieces
100g (3½oz) cornflakes
85g (3oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2tsp chilli powder
2tsp garlic powder
Sunflower oil spray
For the sauce:
8 cloves of garlic, finely grated
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
6tbsp light soy sauce
70g (2 ½oz) gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
4tbsp rice wine vinegar
1tbsp sesame oil
2tbsp dark brown sugar
For the bowls:
250g (9oz) sticky rice, cooked
½ head red cabbage, thinly sliced
6 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
Handful of radishes, finely sliced
1tbsp toasted sesame seeds
A good handful of coriander leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200?C/180?C fan/400?F/Gas 6. In a large bowl, mix the buttermilk with a generous season of sea salt and ground black pepper. Add the chicken to the bowl and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Set aside. Pour the cornflakes in a large freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin to a coarse powder. Add the flour, chilli and garlic powders to the bag along with salt and pepper. Seal the bag and shake the mix until combined. Pour the dry mix into a large wide shallow bowl. One by one using tongs, dip each marinated chicken piece (shaking off any excess) in the dry mix until coated on all sides. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spritz with sunflower oil spray. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and crispy, turning halfway through to make sure they’re golden on all sides. While the chicken cooks, prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan whisk together the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, gochujang, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and brown sugar. Place the saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a low simmer, cooking until the sugar is just dissolved – about three minutes. Set aside. Once the chicken has cooked, brush with the sauce. Assemble serving bowls with the sticky rice, cabbage, spring onions, radishes, chicken pieces, sesame seeds and plenty of coriander. Drizzle with more of the spicy sauce as needed.
CHARRED LAMB KEBABS WITH PICKLED ONIONS AND SAFFRON YOGHURT
(Serves 4)
800g (1lb 12oz) lamb leg, diced into chunks
5 garlic cloves, grated
1tbsp (heaped) ras el hanout
2tbsp olive oil
4 large pitta breads
200g (7oz) hummus
Handful of flat-leaf parsley or coriander (cilantro) leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the lemon and saffron yoghurt:
Small pinch of saffron strands
2tbsp boiling water
200g (7oz) Greek yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
Zest of ½ lemon
For the pickled onions:
2 red onions, thinly sliced
1tbsp coriander seeds
Juice of ½ lemon
Pinch of sugar
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Put the lamb into a large bowl with the garlic, ras el hanout and the olive oil. Season with sea salt and toss to combine completely. Leave the lamb to sit, covered with cling film, in the fridge for at least one hour. Alternatively make this ahead of time and leave to marinate overnight. While the lamb marinates, prepare the yoghurt sauce: infuse the saffron strands in the hot water in a small bowl and leave to stand for five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well to combine. Season to taste and set aside. To make the pickled onions toss the red onions and coriander seeds with the lemon juice and sugar and season generously with sea salt. Set aside to let the onions soften and pickle. Once the spices have permeated the meat, thread the lamb pieces onto eight metal skewers and arrange on a large baking sheet. Place the lamb skewers to cook over a hot barbecue or a scorching hot griddle pan for three minutes on each side, or until medium rare. Turn as needed until you have a lightly charred exterior and a blushing pink interior. While the lamb cooks, toast the pitta breads on the barbecue or just in a toaster. Spread each pitta with hummus, slide the lamb off the skewers and place on top of the pitta with the pickled onion and herbs. Drizzle with the yoghurt sauce before tucking in.
PERFECT FUDGY DARK AND WHITE RIPPLE BROWNIES WITH RASPBERRIES
(Makes 16 squares)
100g (3½oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100g (3½oz) white chocolate, broken into pieces
150g (5oz) unsalted butter, softened
200g (7oz) caster (superfine) sugar
75g (3oz) soft light brown sugar
3 large free-range eggs
1tsp vanilla bean paste
150g (5oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
150g (5oz) raspberries
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4 and grease and line a 20cm (8in) square cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of just simmering water. Set aside to cool a little bit. Do the same with the white chocolate in a separate bowl.
3. With a hand-held electric whisk, beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs together in a small jug then gradually pour them into the butter and sugar mixture, whisking the whole time until you have a fluffy smooth mix. Beat in the vanilla bean paste and then the flour. Divide the mixture in half. Gently fold the melted dark chocolate into one half of the mixture and the white chocolate into the other half. Roughly dollop the mixture like a checkerboard into the prepared tin and push the raspberries into the mixture. Us the end of a teaspoon to swirl the two colours together. Bake the brownies for 35–40 minutes so that a skewer comes out almost clean but still a little bit sticky. Leave to cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares. These taste even better the next day so try not to eat them all straight away.
