Co Derry chef and food writer Paula McIntyre is returning to our TV screens with series two of her popular BBC cookery series, Hamely Kitchen.
Viewers can once again expect to see good, wholesome food being prepared to create traditional meals with a bit of twist alongside sustainable recipes, with an emphasis on going back to basics.
Paula has always been hugely proud of her Ulster-Scots heritage so it's no surprise that was the inspiration for her latest BBC cookery series, which first aired last year.
Read more: Chef discovers what makes NI's greatest country houses tick in new BBC series
Aghadowey-born Paula, 55, is no stranger to the airwaves and TV screens, as a regular contributor to BBC Radio Ulster, but Hamely Kitchen marked her first TV series since Taste for Adventure, which aired on BBC Two over 20 years ago.
As someone who first learned to make classics such as Scotch broth, tea brack and soda farls, there is nothing Paula loves more than looking to the past for inspiration while creating dishes that are right up to date.
This Friday night she returns with her latest offering, a new six-part series of Paula McIntyre’s Hamely Kitchen for BBC One Northern Ireland.
A Hamely Kitchen means homely and somewhere where there’s food cooked with soul. Filmed on Northern Ireland’s spectacular north coast, Paula once again celebrates local produce and cooks up more mouth-watering traditional recipes.
These include the wonderfully-named rumbledethumps, a potato side dish from the Scottish borders and a luxurious short rib beef pie, which is sure to impress family and friends.
There's also a Scotch pie filled with locally-reared venison; an Ulster-Scots version of the taco; a Smokie Scotch egg and gnocchi inspired by a recipe Paula found in a local cookery book from the 1940s.
"It's great to be returning this time with a six part series," Paula told Belfast Live.
"After series one aired last year, everyone was very complimentary. People were stopping me in the street, which was quite nice. The best part was people actually cooking the food from the show and posting pictures of it then on social media.
"The focus was all about cooking food that's produced here in Northern Ireland and keeping the Ulster-Scots heritage alive.
"I've always been interested in looking at old recipes and seeing how you can reinvent them. You might think food was very boring in the past but in fact people were very inventive and quite adventurous.
"One of the books I used for this series was from 1945 called Ulster Fayre. A friend of mine, who is a chef in Galway, bought it for me after she found it in a second-hand shop.
"It's a WI (Women's Institute) cookbook and it included a recipe from Cushendall WI for gnocchi so they were cooking quite innovative dishes at the time."
Paula will also be highlighting the fish of Lough Neagh: elevataring the humble ‘piece’ by including some fresh pollan, scallion and sweet and sour tomato jam and treacle-curing a fillet of dollaghan and serving it up with a glass of home-made gorse champagne.
There will be plenty of sweet treats too, including a Veda bread and butter pudding, shortcake with poached rhubarb, some home-made custard creams, a buttermilk or Soor Dook Cake and a gingerbread Queen of Puddings.
"Every programme this series features a dessert," Paula added.
"One of the feedback comments last year was that one of the three episodes didn't have a pudding in it so when we got another series I made sure there was one in each episode. Always give people in this part of the world a pudding!"
In between stints in the kitchen, Paula will once again travel across Northern Ireland to meet some of the top local food producers.
These will include Lough Neagh fishermen, potato farmers from Bushmills, Northern Ireland’s oldest dairy near Coleraine, a Belfast fishmonger, a game-keeper at Baronscourt in Co Tyrone and a family of apple-growers from Armagh.
Paula will also be bringing a selection of her dishes to some hungry horse-riders on Downhill Beach, members of the RNLI in Portrush harbour and she will join the ladies of Garvagh Women’s Institute for a magical, woodland picnic.
"I hope people will go back and rediscover some of the wild food that we've been eating for generations, like fresh pollan and venison, most of which we export. Maybe we just need to eat more potatoes too because they are the perfect food!" Paula added.
The new series is due to begin on Friday 9 September on BBC One Northern Ireland at 7.30pm.
All recipes from the series will be available here so viewers can enjoy in their own home.
READ NEXT:
-
New programmes worth staying in for dominate BBC Northern Ireland's autumn line-up
-
BBC series takes behind-the-scenes look at NI's largest family-owned hotel chain
-
Co Antrim residents to expect 'large amounts of smoke' as filming underway
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here. To sign up to our FREE newsletters, see here.
