Irish chef’s cookbook conquers homemade basics

Quick look: Conquer core cooking techniques from shortcrust pastry to perfectly poached eggs with this companion book to the author’s cooking show by the same name. The eight-part series is slated to air early this year on Create TV, part of PBS

What’s inside: This carefully organized cookbook offers more than 100 scratch-made recipes aimed at helping home cooks master foundational techniques and avoid processed and packaged convenience foods. Each of the eight chapters covers a basic ingredient – eggs, chocolate, fish, poultry, pastry and more – and offers illustrated step-by-step instructions. Techniques seem to increase in skill level – from as basic as how to cleanly separate an egg to making fresh pasta dough with extra eggs for enrichment and whipping meringue.

Some recipes almost seem too simple, like the two-step coleslaw or basic scrambled eggs. But the book is geared for beginners, and the recipes quickly build upon core techniques, graduating to more advanced and elegant entrees, like Lemon Sole with Beurre Noisette and Pork Fillet with Black Olive Tapenade and Tagliatelle.

Dundon demystifies fancy-looking dishes and desserts like Salmon en Croûte, Coq au Vin, Chicken Banquette, Milk Chocolate Marquise and Chocolate Eclairs. He teaches home cooks how to make their own mayonnaise as well as béarnaise, béchamel and tomato sauces. Pastry and bread-making chapters also seem particularly helpful. Each recipe includes tips, ideas for variations and – except for the soup stocks – vibrant photographs.

Dundon owns and runs Dunbrody Country House Hotel and Cookery School on the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, Ireland. His first television series, the 10-part “Kevin Dundon’s Modern Irish Food,” aired on Create TV, accompanied by a cookbook of the same name. Dundon also designs menus and recipes for Raglan Road Irish Gastropub at Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

What’s not: Don’t expect to see apple or cherry pies or any basic American-style recipes. European influence, particularly Irish and French, permeates this cookbook, which comes from one of Ireland’s most well-known chefs.

Apple Upside-down Cake

From “Back to Basics” by Kevin Dundon

I twice made this moist but not super-sweet cake topped with caramelized brown sugar and luscious slivers of baked apples. Both times, it required 10 minutes longer in the oven than the recipe suggested, or an hour and 25 minutes total, in order for a toothpick to come out clean from the middle of the cake.

Still, it turned out beautifully. I served it with hand-whipped cream, and it was a hit with taste-tasters who ranged in age from 10 to 40-something.

“Although delicious made with apples, this cake can be made with any of your favorite fruits, such as apricots, plums, peaches or pineapple,” Kevin Dundon wrote of this recipe.

The first time, I used Pink Lady apples, like the recipe recommended. The second time, at the holidays, I used cranberries. I’m looking forward to trying it with pears and peaches.

For extra moistness and a hint of citrus, Kevin Dundon recommends using the zest of 1 lemon in the batter. And I plan to try that next time. The lemon scent would be a nice addition to the otherwise mild cake batter.

1 cup plus 4 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) butter, plus more for greasing

1/2 cup muscovado sugar or brown sugar

2 to 3 Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges

1 1/2 cups caster (superfine) sugar

3 eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Creme anglaise or whipped cream, for serving

Grease a 9-inch cake tin and line the bottom with nonstick parchment paper.

Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan. Add the muscovado or brown sugar and leave for 2 to 3 minutes, until dissolved and starting to combine. Pour the caramel into the prepared tin.

Arrange apple wedges on top of the caramel, then set aside.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put caster sugar and eggs in a large bowl and whisk until pale and thick enough for the beaters to make a figure 8 on the surface.

Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture and gently fold together. Melt the remaining butter and add to the bowl, then pour in the milk and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.

Pour batter over apples and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until the cake is firm to the touch and springs back when lightly pressed.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then carefully turn it out, peel off the lining paper and serve warm or cold with creme anglaise or a dollop of whipped cream.