Irish Sole with Cheese and Asparagus

 

Cooking Irish can also be found at PETITCHEF and Pinterest.

My neighbor's dog Lass, an English Springer Spaniel,  playing with my son Eli.  She lived in a large kennel outside between our houses at night, but had the run of the yard during the day.  We fell in love with her, and she often came into our townhouse for the afternoon or would lie outside our door.  She was a cutie.

When living in Ireland I read many novels by Irish authors. So many of them were set in the isolated section of County Galway called Connemara.  Lonely, lovely Irish heros lived near Clifden, a desolate village. The romantic in me just had to visit this section of western Ireland much to the dismay of my family. It really was just mile after mile of desolation and an almost desperate beauty, hour after hour. We were actually fortunate enough to find a pub with a wonderful menu. The sole entrée was divine. Of course, most of these novels were set 100 years ago, so Clifden is not so desolate anymore.  Now that almost every part of Ireland has become a tourist destination and modernized accordingly, I'm glad I saw it when I did.

My best friend from my days of living in Ireland is Teri Mooney.  She lived in Trim while I was there, but later moved to Dublin and now has built a beautiful house in Galway.  I cannot wait to visit her there.  County Galway is one of the traditional counties of Ireland, and is located in the province of Connacht and faces the Atlantic Ocean.  It was named after the city of Galway, the county town or capital.  There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county.  A number of inhabited islands are administered by the county including the Aran Islands and Inishbofin.

The first inhabitants in the Galway area arrived over 7000 years ago. Shell middens tell us about the existence of people as early as 5000 BC.  With the arrival of Christianity many monasteries were built.  County Galway is home to Lough Corrib--the largest lake in the Republic of Ireland, the Twelve Bens mountain range, the Maum Turk mountains, and the low mountains of Slieve Aughty.  One of the least densely populated counties, County Galway harbors a variety of wildlife. The region's biodiversity is best represented by Connemara National Park situated in the west of the county.  Again this is the setting of so many Irish romance novels rather akin to Heathcliff on the moor of England.  I loved them. 

Clifden is a village located in Connemara and gained prominence in the early 1900's when Marconi built his first high power transatlantic long wave wireless telegraphy station four miles south of the town to minimize the distance to its sister station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. The city of Galway is the fastest growing in Ireland and is now the third largest city in the Republic and the only city in the province of Connacht. The city is located on the west coast.  Remember the song "Galway Bay?"
A great place to visit in Connemara is the Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle.  The abbey was founded for Benedictine nuns fleeing Begium during World War I.  Originally called Kylemore Castle, it was built between 1863 and 1868 as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy politician from Manchester, England who was also MP for Galway County from 1871 to 1885.  He and his wife are both buried in the small mausoleum near the church on the grounds of the abbey.  Notable features of the abbey are the neo-Gothic church built between 1877 and 1881, a miniature replica of Norwich Cathedral made from famous local green Connemara marble, and the Victorian walled garden.  The abbey houses a secondary girls' boarding school, Kylemore Abbey International Girls' School.  The house and gardens are open to the public. The nuns have decided to close the school in 2010, although they do not plan to sell the property and will continue to reside there.  The name Kylemore originates from the Irish words Coill Mhó--meaning Great Wood.

Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, County Galway

Irish Sole with Cheese and Asparagus 
                          [Serves 4]

Ingredients:

4 thick sole filets
Juice of fresh lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
1/8 tsp. of nutmeg
4 thick slices of mild cheddar or monterey jack
12 pencil-thin fresh asparagus
4 pats of butter
Drizzle of sherry or dry white wine
Drizzle of quality extra virgin olive oil 
        [I ONLY use Colavita®]
Mornay sauce  [recipe included]
Fresh chive or parsley, chopped

Mornay Sauce:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. of butter

2 tbsp. of flour

1 cup of milk

2 tbsp. of Swiss cheese

2 tbsp. of Romano cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg yolk, beaten

2 tbsp. of butter, melted

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Sprinkle the filets with the lemon juice and seasonings.  Place a slice of cheese in the center of each filet and cover with 3 pieces of asparagus. Top with a pat of butter.  Roll each filet around the cheese and the asparagus, and arrange in a buttered, shallow baking dish.  Drizzle each with sherry and olive oil.  Bake for 20 minutes. 

While the sole is baking, make the mornay sauce.  Melt 2 tbsp. of butter in the top of a double boiler.  Stir in the flour blending well.  Add the milk and slowly bring to the boiling point, stirring constantly to keep the sauce smooth.  Cook one minute.  Add the cheese, salt, and pepper stirring until well-blended.  Remove from the heat and immediately add the egg yolk and melted butter stirring until smooth.  Keep warm.  When the sole is baked and ready for serving, top with the mornay sauce and garnish with fresh chive or parsley.