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Stephanie Alexander, Th... When I lived in New Zealand, I was exposed to lots of unfamiliar ingredients and...
Irish red ale: Spiced C... Every year, about this time, there’s a lot of huffing and puffing about stout....
Kitchen projects: Sourd... When my beloved Ballymaloe sourdough starter recently died, after more than five...
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Lyric fm: Claudia Roden – and Ballymaloe Litfest

Imagine walking into a room and seeing your cookbook collection walking around. Look! Over there, that delicately beautiful Indian woman just has to be Madhur Jaffrey. Is that Stephanie Alexander standing at the back of the room? That’s Thomasina Miers talking to Stevie Parle, and they’ve just been joined by Rachel Allen. And this elegant lady just to my right?...

Stephanie Alexander, The Ballymaloe Litfest and Date Scones

When I lived in New Zealand, I was exposed to lots of unfamiliar ingredients and food terms. Things like kumera and feijoa were unknown, Egg and Bacon Pie and Ginger Crunch new taste sensations, and what the hell was silverbeet? One of my most trusted companions through the world of pumpkin, tamarillo and gurnard was Stephanie Alexander’s rainbow-striped doorstop of a...

Cooking dried beans from scratch and Moroccan Lamb, Chickpea and Lentil Harira

When we lived in New Zealand, I didn’t have very much money. After a close encounter with an Auckland courier truck and the consequent amnesia/fractured skull/broken collarbone it took a while to get my brain up to speed so I was content with series of not-entirely-well-paid temping jobs and the odd freelancing commission. The silver lining – a pretty good one...

No (horse)meat: Spinach and Ricotta Balls with Homemade Oven Fries

The horse-as-beef story broke when we were in New Zealand. As I skimmed through news from home, sitting in the sunshine, it all seemed very far away and, probably, the kind of thing that would blow over before we returned home. Twitter was alight with pun-tastic comment, a piece that John McKenna wrote for the Independent was illustrated by a pair of lads commenting “so...

Spiced Citrus Chicken and Lemon Herb Couscous

When I turned up early for my cookery demonstration at the Bulgaden-Martinstown Ladies’ Club in Co Limerick bar/venue/nightclub Bulgaden Castle (a spot I would have been well acquainted with as a teenager), there was already a throng in the car park. I was a little puzzled though; they all looked a little young and the dress code seemed to be veering on the undress...

Savoury chocolate: Willie Harcourt-Cooze and Chilli-Cacao Fried Eggs

It’s nearly Easter egg time but, with a wide range of dark, complex bars of chocolate now available, why limit yourself to its sweet side? A few years ago I spoke to chocolatier Willie Harcourt-Cooze about his mission to introduce 100% cacao bars as a new gourmet cooking ingredient, prove that chocolate is not just for pudding, and his Irish roots. “I dreamt of making...
Featured in Print Five foodie treats under €10: The Irish Times Christmas Supplement 2012
Part one of my Irish food gifts article for The Irish Times is here or, if you have a subscription, you can read the entire published version here. I’m always looking for small bits and pieces to include in Christmas food parcels and here are a few of my favourites. These are all Irish –...
Featured in Lovely Lunches Savoury chocolate: Willie Harcourt-Cooze and Chilli-Cacao Fried Eggs
It’s nearly Easter egg time but, with a wide range of dark, complex bars of chocolate now available, why limit yourself to its sweet side? A few years ago I spoke to chocolatier Willie Harcourt-Cooze about his mission to introduce 100% cacao bars as a new gourmet cooking ingredient, prove that...
Featured in Grow Wild Food by Biddy White Lennon & Evan Doyle: Wild Garlic, Leek and Potato Bake
It’s the time of year when every woodland walk is done with a nose cocked for the scent of wild garlic. When living in Dublin, the almost-rank smell of the late-season blooms was an olfactory background to May-time camping trips around Wicklow. Although I knew what it was – anyone who catches a...
Featured in Food Books Great Food
The books in Penguin’s Great Food series might be small but they’re perfectly formed. For these slim little pocket – or handbag – volumes, the publishing house chose twenty writers from a variety of eras, from Samuel Pepys and Eliza Acton to Alexandre Dumas and Claudia Roden. Each of the...