The annual prohibition of Good Friday (with exceptions for those flying, sailing or in a hotel having a meal and the other lushy loopholes) is here. BOOOOO!!

A few hours of digestion later, we rise once again for what is traditionally bonus drinking night. What, with party time missed on Saturday and all.

I had abandoned cooking new stuff for a while as I was content with the old favourites on regular rotation, so when I joined an evening of with prime Irish beef Derry Clarke and Tefal in Cooks Academy I was all set to open my mind and food hole to some tasty inspiration.

(pic: irishbeef.co.uk …of course it is)

Using the Tefal OptiGrill, Actifry Express XL and the Ingenio cookware set, Derry demonstrated how to make smoked haddock risotto, steak and chips and rhubarb and ginger crumble….

…All while we chowed on juicy prawns made in the Actifry Express, and teriayki salmon kebabs and mini lamb burgers grilled to perfection on the Optigrill.

…learn…chomp…learn…chomp…learn…chomp….

Let loose in groups, we set off to recreate the dishes.

As the other three in my group started in on the steak, fries and crumble, the risotto was all mine.

Having never eaten risotto before (please send help to Poola C, No. 1 Under A Rock, Frozen Pizza Box Way) and never bothered to attempt cooking it due to everyone making such a drama out of it, I was a tad nervous about ballsing it up. It turns out however, risotto (or at least this one) is a piece of p…cake!

Smoked Haddock, Spinach & Pea Risotto with Aged Parmesan

Ingredients

50g butter

1 small onion peeled & diced

300g Arborio rice

1l vegetable stock

300g diced smoked haddock

100g spinach leaves

100g aged Parmesan

Method

Melt the butter in a Tefal Ingenio pot and cook the onion gently for 5 minutes. Do not brown the onion. Add rice and season.

Heat stock and add to rice, ladle by ladle, letting the rice absorb the liquid slowly. Ladle wine liberally into yourself. This will take about 15 minutes.

Add the smoked haddock, peas, spinach and cheese (leaving a little cheese to sprinkle before serving)

Top the dish with crisp salad leaves dressed with a little olive oil and balsamic. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.

Seriously easy. Why complicate things? It’s perfect, and so tasty.

Using the Ingenio detachable handle, I moved the dish from the hob to the table, detached the handle and served right there. Saves time and cleaning!

While I was having a very zen time ladling stock into rice as thirsty as Robin Thicke at a meet and greet, the three others were tearing up the workspace prepping the steak and chips and the crumble bits and bobs.

 

Warm Rhubarb & Ginger Nutty Crumble

Ingredients

20 Sticks Rhubarb

1 tablespoon fresh chopped ginger

200g white flour

100g butter

100g white sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon peanuts, chopped

1 tablespoon pecans, chopped

1 tablespoon hazelnuts, chopped

2 tablespoons oats

Method

Clean and chop rhubarb, place in Tefal Ingenio pot with the white sugar, ginger and water. Taste and add more sugar if required. Drain off some water if it looks a bit liquidy after a bit of cooking.

Place rhubarb in tart tin

Mix flour, brown sugar and butter until you have a crumble mixture (not too fine)

Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture and bake in oven for 15 minutes at 180 deg C

Remove from oven and sprinkle on mixed nuts and return to the oven for five minutes.

 

Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Beetroot, Bacon & Black Pudding Dressing and Horseradish Cream

Served with Actifry French Fries

Ingredients

2 x 300g Rib Eye Steaks

200ml red wine

1 tablespoon brown sugar

50ml cabernet vinegar/ red wine vinegar

50ml olive oil

100g diced dry cured bacon

100g diced black pudding

1 beetroot cooked and diced

1 tablespoon horseradish

2 tablespoons creme fraiche

Watercress for garnish

1kg potatoes

Method

Peel and slice potatoes into French fries. Cook for 25 minutes in the Tefal Actifry Express XL as per instructions. The Actifry turns the chips as it cooks. ‘Tis hard to look away. Hypnofries, man!

Heat the Tefal OptiGrill and season steaks with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides. Place on Tefal OptiGrill and cook to preference; rare, medium or well done.

In an Ingenio pot, reduce the red wine vinegar and sugar by half over a low heat. Add vinegar and reduce in a separate pan. Sauté the bacon and pudding. Add the beetroot, place mixture in reduction. Add olive oil.

Place cooked steaks into the sauté pan, spoon over the bacon vinaigrette.

Mix the horseradish and creme fraiche. Top the bacon dressing and garnish with a little watercress.

We served the steaks in the Ingenio pan on top of the Actifry chips.

With the detachable handle, the Ingenio set can be moved from counter to hob/ oven and then served directly on the table. Being able to remove the handle frees up space on the hob and table, and adds the safety aspect of keeping the little ones away from knocking it over.

Knowing plenty of folk whose emotional attachment to ‘proper’ chips is as deep as their fryers, the Actifry is a revolution. If my plus one for the evening, a staunch Deep Fry Fah Lyfe advocate is anything to go by, the Actifry is the way forward. Just a small spoonful of oil in the Actifry gives the same result as a the traditional big pan fry up of taters, but a ton healthier.

Get yourselves an ACTIFRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

(pic: Instagram/Oprah)

As my fave quote in Maeve Binchy’s Tara Road about the Irish mentions, “We didn’t invent the potato, we just perfected it”, the French have certainly improved the fry-y goody perfection with the Actifry.

The new Tefal Actifry Express XL (RRP €229.99), the latest addition to the Actifry family, is healthier, convenient and versatile; up to 30% faster than the original model and can cook and brown 1 kg of fries in less than 30 minutes using just one spoon of oil. Not just for fries, the ActiFry Express XL will also revolutionise dinner menus and can make curries, stir frys, casseroles and much more.

 The OptiGrill (RRP €169.99) is like having a professional grill chef at home cooking meat to personal preference each time, whether rare, medium or well-done – removing any worries about over or under-cooking. It is the first electric grill that cooks food automatically by measuring the thickness and temperature of its ingredient, making it perfect for people who lose confidence when cooking certain types of food for other people.

The Ingenio (RRP €7.95 – €304.99) Cookware concept is built around patented detachable handles that attach and detach with one click, allowing home chefs to transfer cooking from the hob to the oven and then direct to the table – all in the same dish; a revolutionary concept that brings a whole new take on versatility.

 Tefal products are available from electrical retail stores nationwide.