Posted on Feb 26, 2006 in Cook, Storecupboard Specials | 4 comments

Comfort food: Dal

Comfort food: Dal
Dal – also known as Dhal – is one of my favourite comforting winter meals. On a cold evening when you’ve got wet through on the walk home and don’t feel like leaving the house again, it is enormously reassuring to find that there’s a packet of red split lentils and some spices...
Read More
Posted on Feb 23, 2006 in Cook, Return to Ireland | 2 comments

In New Zealand, pumpkins. In Ireland, squash. Roasted Butternut Squash with Chickpeas and Cumin

In New Zealand, pumpkins. In Ireland, squash. Roasted Butternut Squash with Chickpeas and Cumin
After mourning the lack of good pumpkin in Ireland, I’ve discovered an alternative option – squash! Now, there’s a terminology question here. What is the difference between squash and pumpkins? I think it was Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion that made the point that all...
Read More
Posted on Feb 21, 2006 in Cookery Books, Read | 0 comments

How to Cook Absolutely Everything & Best Recipes for Absolutely Everything by Anne Willan **

How to Cook Absolutely Everything & Best Recipes for Absolutely Everything by Anne Willan **
Before I started reading/reviewing these books, Anne Willan was unfamiliar to me but, as soon as they arrived, her name started to crop up in my reading with increasing regularity. An American by way of Yorkshire, Willan established La Varenne, the prestigious Burgundy-based French cooking school, in 1975....
Read More
Posted on Feb 19, 2006 in Do, Return to Ireland | 2 comments

Congratulations Cuisine!

Congratulations Cuisine!
It might be a bit after the date but I don’t think it’s too late to offer my congratulations on hearing the news that New Zealand’s Cuisine magazine has been judged Best Food Magazine in the World at the Gourmet Voice Festival in Cannes at the end of January. When I arrived in New Zealand...
Read More
Posted on Feb 17, 2006 in Food for Friends | 0 comments

Portable food: Chickpea, Spinach and Tomato Curry

Last week we were going to one of the semi-regular dinner parties hosted by our friend the Tax Advisor. The Tax Advisor loves to host – but he doesn’t cook. For years now he has been hosting these dinner parties in his city centre apartment while the other guests come bearing food and dishes and,...
Read More
Posted on Feb 15, 2006 in Do | 6 comments

New NZ food blogs

When I started Bibliocook in New Zealand almost a year ago, there weren’t that many NZ food blogs. Barbara at Auckland’s Winos and Foodies was in contact early on and I’ve since enjoyed reading her posts about Real Mexican Hot Chocolate, pumpkins, wine and books – I have to especially...
Read More
Posted on Feb 13, 2006 in Cookery Books, Read | 0 comments

Trattoria: Food for Family and Friends by Ursula Ferrigno ****

Trattoria: Food for Family and Friends by Ursula Ferrigno ****
My first introduction to Ursula Ferrigno was through a book called Bread (published by Dorling Kindersley) that she co-wrote with Eric Treuillé, the owner of London shop/haven Books For Cooks. It’s an eminently useful publication with, as is the Dorling Kindersley way, plenty, almost too many,...
Read More
Posted on Feb 11, 2006 in Eating Out | 2 comments

Restaurant review: Hô Sen, Dublin

Restaurant review: Hô Sen, Dublin
Before I left Ireland in 2004 I heard great reports about a new Vietnamese restaurant in Dublin’s Temple Bar. As it happened, the Boyfriend and I were hoping to visit Vietnam while either journeying to or from New Zealand but this never happened. Since my return, the regular mentions of in the...
Read More
Posted on Feb 8, 2006 in Food for Friends, Storecupboard Specials | 2 comments

Emergency soup for a bleak winter’s night: Storecupboard Lentil and Tomato Soup

Seeing as both Darina and Rachel have recently been assuring the readers of their cookery books that it’s become very fashionable to entertain at home instead of going out – that, and the fact that the Boyfriend and I finally have somewhere to call home – we had some friends round last week...
Read More
Posted on Feb 6, 2006 in Do, Return to Ireland | 0 comments

More Nationwide foodie items

Nationwide is a thrice-weekly Irish television show which consists of a collection of pieces on life in the country. Covering art, music, photography and – to my delight – food, it’s the kind of programme much loved by grannys and parents who believe that RTÉ is altogether too...
Read More
Posted on Feb 4, 2006 in Read | 0 comments

Easy Entertaining by Darina Allen ****

Easy Entertaining by Darina Allen ****
Coming back from New Zealand, I keep getting told that “staying in is the new going out” and this would seem to be borne out by the publication of both Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining and her daughter-in-law Rachel Allen’s Favourite Food For Friends within a few weeks of each other...
Read More
Posted on Feb 2, 2006 in Cook, Storecupboard Specials | 2 comments

Common Cold Remedies Meme: Fran’s Best Lentil Soup

Ilva at Lucullian delights – an Italian experience tagged me for the Common Cold Remedies Meme. This was started by Raquel over at Raquel’s Box of Chocolate when she asked what people do when they have the sniffles – and to pass on any remedies. This is a particularly good time of the year...
Read More