Food for sharing

This dish is simplicity in its self.

Although the prawn infusion takes a bit of time it can happily be made in advance and frozen. Buy the freshest Dublin Bay prawns (also known as langoustines or scampi) you can find to fill the pint but ordinary prawns will be fine for the chaser. Luckily good quality seafood in Ireland is now readily available but it is always worth buying from a reliable source.

A great little appetiser or snack.

I love the combination of succulent sausage in a crisp batter dipped in the creamy mustard flavoured mayonnaise. The secret is of course, the batter: mixing it quickly and using it immediately. For presentation purposes I drilled holes into a cheap chopping board I picked up, deep enough to be able to stick dessert forks into, but this of course, is an optional extra!

Crispy on the outside, soft and buttery inside, these boxie potato cakes will help you get over the worst of hangovers.

Pancetta is basically Italian streaky bacon, but because of its flavourful curing it is often quite superior – drier, purer and tastier. However, if you can’t get hold of it, replace with streaky bacon rashers.

This makes a fantastic inexpensive snack or, served cold, great picnic food.

We often cut it into small cubes and serve them as appetisers at functions. It find it keeps covered in the fridge for up to two days. I like to use a non-stick frying pan but a well-seasoned heavy-based frying pan also works well, it’s just more difficult to turn the omelette over.

Ask your fishmonger to open the oysters for you, you’ll just need to double check that there are no bits of broken shell inside before using them.

Alternatively you could always try having a go yourself, they really are quite simple once you get the hang of them. An oyster knife really is a very good investment if they are something that you are intending on doing regularly.

Cashel blue is a semi-soft farmhouse blue cheese made from unpasteurised cows’ milk in County Tipperary.

It is now one of the most widely available Irish cheeses, with excellent distribution in UK supermarkets and specialist stores. However, these toasties would be good made with any soft blue cheese, such as Gorgonzola or dolcelatte. Just be careful not to overcook the cheese or it will become stringy and rubbery.

I just love this wonderfully tender and delicately flavoured pate.

Irish lambs liver is available from early spring through to the end of the summer and is just perfect for this dish. It is also very cheap – buy the freshest you can find. A little of this goes a long way, especially when you serve it with some crisp toasts and a dollop of my apricot chutney.