Donal and friends head to Kerry for a surfing weekend. Knowing it’s going to be cold, Donal prepares a chickpea, pasta and tomato soup and some dig-in beef fajitas to eat on the beach, and also a fish pie and a blackberry and apple crumble to eat back at the beach house.
If your friends know you can cook, a casual offer to cook dinner becomes a definite commitment, as Donal discovers after a night out with friends. What’s needed is something quick and easy, so Donal prepares Thai Fish Cakes, Teriyaki Salmon with Noodles and a ‘mega’ Banoffee Pie.
TV Chef Donal used to be in a band and the backing band he worked with have come to Ireland to record a new single at the Grouse Lodge recording studio (where Michael Jackson recorded his last album). Donal cooks the kind of food bands like after long days and late nights – Steak Sandwiches, Brownies, Bangers with Garlic Mash and Apple Slices.
Donal prepares food to take with him and a group of friends as they walk a five mile section of the Kerry Way: white bean and chorizo soup, lime and chilli chicken salad, soda bread and peanut butter squares.
Donal loves Asian food and creates a homemade version of a Chinese takeaway, complete with fortune cookies with personalised fortunes.
With long summer holidays to contend with, and sunshine not guaranteed, Donal comes up with a way to keep his nephews and nieces occupied – baking biscuits and cakes. And don’t fret about the huge quantities of food colouring when icing the cupcakes. This is children’s idea of Heaven – chocolate chip cookies, whoopie pies, cupcakes and cinnamon rolls.
With a bit of planning, barbeques can be so much more than charred meat and burger sauce. Donal prepares some dishes to take on a barbeque, including spatchcock chicken, sticky barbeque spare ribs, red cabbage and carrot coleslaw, chorizo, rocket and red onion salad, a couple of marinades and some mojitos.
Donal cooks dinner for his girlfriend in this week’s programme, and on the menu for this special meal is a platter of baked shellfish, followed by chicken tagine with pomegranate, and then a delicious white chocolate and blueberry cheesecake to finish.
A successful mackerel fishing trip to Kerry inspires Donal to cook mussels, fish and chips. The boatman who takes Donal out is known as a great cook who cooks fish for his passengers on their way back from the Skelligs but he’s impressed by Donal’s BBQ mackerel with chilli and garlic – which he cooks on the boat.
Kitchen Hero presenter Donal Skehan is hosting a birthday party this week and decides to prepare food that’s easy to eat while standing up, rather than a formal dinner party. Donal’s delicious dishes include Swedish Meatballs, Shredded Duck Salad, and Chocolate and Pistachio Meringues.
Donal cooks Sunday lunch for the women who taught him how to cook – his Mother and Grandmother. Donal prepares simple garlic and rosemary roast lamb with asparagus, carrots and potato dauphinoise, followed by individual lemon meringue pies.
In this penultimate episode of Kitchen Hero, Donal cooks some of his failsafe standby dishes for when you’re tired and hungry. He cooks up a storm of Vodka Penne, Herby Spaghetti Carbonara, scrambled egg and bagels, and a deliciously simple omelette with tomato and avocado are perfect for those last minute foodie fixes.
Donal once starred as Peter Pan in one of Dublin’s biggest pantos – and he’s been invited back for a guest appearance in this year’s production of Beauty and the Beast. Of course he’s also been roped in to provide food for the cast party – including jumbo chicken sandwiches, hummous and crispy pitta bread and rocky road chocolate bars.
In this first programme of series two, Donal visits the School of Culinary Arts, at DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) in Cathal Brugha Street. Despite the fact that many of these students are the chefs of the future, they are no different to other students when it comes to eating – curry chips and takeaways are perennially popular. Donal cooks three recipes that offer a cheap, healthy and most importantly, tasty alternative: beetroot and feta salad, chickpea burgers, and a lemon and poppy seed cake.
Traditionally, many Irish households, both urban and rural, had a pig. Today, keeping a pig is becoming popular again and Donal visits teenage brothers Patrick and Hugh McInerney in Tullow, Co Carlow who started keeping pigs a couple of years ago and have transformed what was a hobby into a small business. Using the lesser-known cuts of pork gives great value-for-money and Donal cooks recipes using ham hock and pork belly.
Fashion in food isn’t just about flavours and ingredients – blogging about food has become particularly popular in Ireland. Donal’s career in food started as an award-winning blogger and tonight he hosts a dinner party for a group of fellow food bloggers at home. For this special evening, Donal cooks a squash and coconut soup, porchetta, and steamed banana puddings with a salted caramel sauce.
This week Donal heads for Drogheda where he gets a baking masterclass in the Brown Hound Bakery. He then cooks a delicious rustic rhubarb tart, lemon slices, and also a carrot and cardomom cake. “One of my highlights while filming this new series was a visit to the Brown Hound Bakery in Drogheda, Co. Louth – a totally unique and incredibly inspirational spot in the most unlikely location”.
In programme 5 of Kitchen Hero, presenter Donal Skehan visits the fire station at Kilbarrack in Dublin and meets fireman Vinnie Savage who is responsible for cooking meals for his colleagues. Speed is of the essence for Vinnie when preparing food and Donal demonstrates three really quick recipes: Mexican eggs, spinach crepes with ham and cheese; and mini molten chocolate puddings.
Donal visits Nicky’s Plaice fishmongers in Howth for a masterclass in filleting fish from Martin McLoughlin. He cooks Maki rolls (sushi), Asian-style sea bass parcels and a smoked mackerel salad.
This week Donal uses soya sauce, fish sauce and Tabasco sauce, among other things, to make Nasi Goreng, Meatballs with Linguine and Delicately Spiced Chicken which he cooks on location at Bloom with Arun Kapil, a spice importer and blender.
Kitchen Hero presenter Donal Skehan cooks poultry this week as he heads to Naas, Co. Kildare to chat to one of a growing number of people keeping chickens in Ireland. Donal meets Charlie Ganly who keeps chickens in his small suburban garden, and Donal then cooks a frittata in the garden using the freshly laid eggs. This week Donal also makes a delicious Coq au Vin Blanc, and a Turkey Meatloaf with Spicy Bean Sauce.
Donal goes to the National Botanic Gardens to meet Colm Gibson who runs a scheme on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency which aims to teach people how to reduce the amount of food waste they generate, and to compost the waste that is an inevitable part of preparing food. All the recipes this week involve using ‘leftovers’ and include Mac ‘n’ Cheese with cauliflower and broccoli, Chicken Caesar Salad, Ribollita (Italian vegetable stew).
Kitchen Hero presenter Donal Skehan returns to his old school in this week’s programme and meets Miss Fitzgerald, his former Home Economics teacher. The recipes in this programme are all child friendly – easy to make and popular. Donal teaches Miss Fitzgerald’s class how to make real homemade pizza, and explains that homemade pizza does not mean putting a frozen one into the oven, it means making the dough and the sauce! Other recipes include Banana and Oatmeal Muffins and a delicious Creamy Spinach Gnocchi,
Fruit-based puddings are on the menu this week when Kitchen Hero presenter Donal Skehan makes three of his all-time favourites. Big Do was Donal’s uncle and he used to take Donal and his family out fishing and they ate tinned peached out of the can on the boat. Donal makes Big Do’s Peach and Blackberry Cobbler which is dedicated to Big Do and his fisherman’s tales. He also makes Jam Jumble Crumble Tart and his girlfriend Sofie’s delicious Rhubarb Pannacotta.
Donal’s Granny Elizabeth Ryan has been a big influence on Donal’s life, and in particular on his cooking. She lives nearby and Donal visits her often, and when he does, there’s usually some Ambrosia Cake on offer. In this episode, Donal is shown how to make this old family favourite by his grandmother. Donal also makes Boxty Colcannon Pancakes, Skehan Family’s Irish Stew and Irish Barmbrack.
This week Donal cooks three beef dishes using less expensive cuts of meat including oxtail and beef skirt in this final programme of the current series. His local butcher, Ray Collier, gets some of his meat from the farm attached to Howth Castle and Donal meets him there to learn which parts of the animal are best for particular dishes. The less expensive cuts benefit from slow cooking and in this week’s programme Donal prepares Beef Slow Cooked Meaty Chilli; Dad’s Braised Oxtails, and Goulash with Paprika Spiced Dumplings.
Donal Skehan is back for a Christmas episode of his popular Kitchen Hero, with recipes that give traditional Christmas dishes a bit of a twist. Donal’s first (and only) job in a professional kitchen was in a Swedish ‘julbord’, a unique type of restaurant which exists only at Christmas time and Donal returns to Sweden for this programme. During the programme he visits a Christmas market in Stockholm to make ‘glugg’ – a Swedish gluwein – and a friend’s house to make gingerbread. Then he travels to the far north, above the Arctic Circle, to the world’s original Ice Hotel in Kiruna to make baked ham, gravadlax and a special Christmas rice pudding. And as well as all the cooking, he tries his hand at some ice sculpture and camps out to see the Northern Lights.
Donal is going to Austria to get inspiration for some sweet Christmas treats, just to make things a little different. He’ll visit a Christmas market, try different foods, go to a Schnapps distillery, do some skiing and cook apple strudel and zelten, an Austrian Christmas cake.