Bibliocook: All About Food

We didn't have very many new potatoes this year so those that made it into the pot were treated like gold. We planted them, as normal, on 17 March – the traditional time in Ireland for planting the spuds, as far as I know, especially when they're earlies – but the weather was nasty after that so I think more than a few simply rotted in the ground. Between that, the terrible summer, the death of our cat and subsequent rise in the bunny population (we must not have been eating enough Rabbit Stew) it hasn't been an entirely successful summer in the garden. At least we've the hens to keep us fed and entertained, although when the weather was absolutely appalling there, last month, they seemed to go through a bit of a depression, egg laying dropping to just one per day. Fortunately they're now back up to a three-a-day average – making a lovely accompaniment to the few potatoes that we managed to salvage.

Supper ideas last night started with the potatoes and eggs, then I discovered a chunk of Gubbeen chorizo lurking in the fridge door so I went off on a warm salad direction. Unfortunately, my timing of the poached eggs did not coincide with the Husband's readiness for dinner so they're a little overdone, unlike Sarah's fantastic-looking ones. The measurements I give for the olive oil and sherry vinegar are very approximate – toss the salad, taste and see if you need any extra. A lot depends on the amount of flavoursome fat that your chorizo gives off as it fries.

Continue reading "Summer salads for colder days: Warm Potato and Chorizo Salad with Poached Eggs" »

When I get time to surf the net – not so often these days with freelancing and URRU keeping me busy – I love to go through my list of favourite food bloggers and magazines, reading their entries, picking up tips for things to try, places to visit and recipes to make. I have a list of recipes continually on the go, an odd assortment of things that I’ve picked up in my internet wanderings – Olive Oil Cookies from Mark Bittman in The New York Times, Lemon Potatoes from Organically Cooked, Salt-Kissed Buttermilk Cake from 101 Cookbooks, Chow’s Salted Caramel Frosting, Baked Celeriac with Rosemary, Parmesan & Marsala from Taste – all of which are still on my "must try" list.

Val's recipe for Oatmeal Muffins was on that list for a while but, after several successful Sunday morning muffin bakes for weekend guests, it has made the leap to the "must keep" category. They only take a few minutes to throw together, are ready in minutes, and, as Val says, are perfect for freezing. Visitors are hugely impressed (make sure they volunteer to do the washing up afterwards!) and, most importantly of all, the muffins taste great when buttered while still warm, maybe with a smidgen of Raspberry Jam from Mallow Irish Country Market on the side or, if you're really lucky, some of my mother's Blackcurrant Jam. For the sake of speed and efficiency in the mornings, I've stuck to Val's cup measurements, apart from the butter and brown sugar, which I find easier in ounces.

Continue reading "Val's Oatmeal Muffins" »

I'm the Sourdough aficionado, using natural yeasts to raise my bread. Now – and it's been brewing for a while (pun very definitely intended) – the Husband is just after taking delivery of his own yeasts as he prepares to embark on a long-discussed, thought-over and well-researched foray into the world of making beer at home.

After we were both spoiled for choice with microbrewery beers in NZ, it's become more and more difficult to drink the rubbish that you can find on tap in most Irish pubs (with an honorary exception for Beamish, of course, and both the Franciscan Well Brewery and Bierhaus in Cork). So, this could be a whole new world. And, finally, there's some good reason for the dozens of empty beer bottles stored in the spare room!

If you're in the Mallow vicinity tomorrow, Saturday 23 August, call in to URRU as Arun Kapil of Green Saffron will be in store between 11am and 3pm, talking about his range of fresh, intensely flavoured spice blends and Indian ingredients, offering plenty of tips and tricks for making the most of them.

After we especially enjoyed the Lamb Rogan Josh at his Ballyvolane banquet, I very kindly (not at all thinking of myself!) gave the Husband the Rogan Josh blend as one of his birthday presents. The sachet scented the rest of the presents and wafted spice around the kitchen until he eventually gave in and cooked it for the night the International Aid Worker came to visit. It was fabulous and there might even be a repeat performance next weekend when a couple of the English Engineers come to visit. The Garam Masala, rose petals and all, is also fantastic and comes with a recipe for Arun's very morish Garam Masala Cookies that was tried out to great effect this week by my German Colleague.

Don't forget – while Arun is talking about spices in store, we also have the Mallow Farmers' Market taking place in the courtyard outside URRU from 10.30am to 1pm.

When the Husband and I stayed at Gort-Na-Nain in May, I admired Ultan and Lucy's recently built outdoor wood-fired oven. A sturdy stone-clad structure that they can use to bake pizza and bread, it sits in a magnificent location, on the then-sunny patio outside their kitchen, looking across the hills to the sparkling blue sea. My interest piqued, they put me in contact with the builder, Henrik Lepel, and I asked him to keep me updated about any future breadoven building workshops.

On one of my rare weekends that actually incorporated both Saturday and Sunday (two so far, this year!) Henrik happened to be holding a workshop at the Mallow Racecourse, building an oven for the Garden Fair. So, with visions of savoury pizzas and fresh-baked breads dancing in my head, I promptly signed up. Alas, torrential rain on the Saturday put an end to that day's workshop but Henrik persevered and the following day saw a small group of be-wellied participants gather to build under a tarpaulin at the racecourse. Despite even more rain, that evening we had completed all three layers over the wet newspaper-covered domed sand mould that Henrik had shaped the previous day. The following week it was successfully used to cook the most delicious pizzas at the Garden Festival – I was working in town but several of my customers gave me great reports on how well the oven was working.

Henrik's next workshop will be taking place at Kealkil, near Bantry in West Cork over the weekend of 23-24 of August, is limited to eight participants and is priced at €120 per person, including lunch. For more information and for bookings, contact Henrik at 086 8838400 or email kirdnehl@hotmail.com. As for me, I still have good intentions and am on a search for some subsoil to build my own oven. I just need someone to do some digging for me!

You can see some pictures of one of the first breadovens that Henrik built on Irish Allotments.

Despite all the recent rain and bad weather, the range of vegetables available at the Mallow Farmers' Market continues to expand. As well as his fantastic salad leaves, which I eat for lunch every day, Morris from Gairdín Eden has been selling huge bunches of rhubarb and carrots. I also picked up some parsnips this week, along with a jar of West Cork Eden Honey – perfect for Honey Flapjacks, if I can save some back from the Husband and his toast!

My favourite thing to do with the smallest, sweetest carrots after I get them home on Saturday evening is to take them all off the bunch, scrub them well and eat them for dinner with a big bowl of homemade hummus. With a good chunk of one of Gudrun Shinnick's cheeses - herbed St Bridget, aged St Gall, spicy Cais Dubh - or some of the other cheeses that she sells on her stall (the soft Knockalara sheep's cheese has been very popular around here) it's a perfectly easy supper to eat outside in the sunshine (if and when that happens).

We've been waiting for the organic vegetables from Patrick Frankel, a new producer in Donneraile, and they started arriving in the last few weeks. On Saturday, his stall was manned by a helpful French girl, selling herbs, spring onions, yellow and green courgettes, an assortment of tomatoes, new potatoes, peas and, much to my delight, mangetout. When I shop for vegetables and fruit, I try to buy as locally as possible – first Ireland, then Europe, then I don't bother. Despite me inadvertently leaving the mangetout in work over the weekend, they've already made it into a large tub of Nigella's Sesame Peanut Noodles as well as a Potato Salad with Chorizo and Mangetout. The only thing I missed this week was one of my market staples, the smoked trout from Geraldine Bass of Old Millbank Smokehouse. I use it in warm and cold salads with pasta, potatoes or couscous, in risottos and oven bakes, panfried with spiced garlic butter and mashed into fish pâté. I just might have to take a trip to Friday evening's Killavullen Farmers' Market at the Nano Nagle Centre and see if she's there.

The next Mallow Farmers' Market will take place in the courtyard outside URRU from 10.30am to 1pm on Saturday 23 August.

After writing about Irish success in the Great Taste Awards last week (I was also delighted to hear that my favourite Ummera smoked chicken took a Gold award), I was interested to receive this press release (see below) about the just-launched Irish Food Awards.

Awards will be given in a total of 17 categories, including preserves/conserves, breads, chocolate, ice cream, seafood and cheeses. To be eligible, all foods entered must be commercially available in at least three outlets and be made in either Northern or Southern Ireland by companies registered in this country. The awards will take place at the Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival, on the weekend of 3rd to 5th October – another good excuse to head into Kerry for a couple of days! More information is available in the press release below and at www.irishfoodawards.com.

Continue reading "Launch of new Irish Food Awards" »

When I was a little girl, one day during our summer holidays in Youghal, I caught sight of a Ladybird book called Learnabout...Cooking. I remember wanting to ask my mother to buy it for me but she had already left the shop. Fortunately, her youngest sister, at that stage still unmarried and able to come on our extended three-generation two-week holidays by the sea, whisked it off to the cash desk and I walked proudly home with my first cookery book under my arm.

Now my copy, one book amongst hundreds, is tattered and food-stained. Chocolate Mousse was a particular favourite for years, I remember, as was the Lemon Surprise Pudding. I never really got to grips with the Scotch Eggs, though, and Cheese Baked Potatoes – because of my fixation against spuds – were totally out but I definitely remember assembling that classic of the Seventies, Cheese and Pineapple Hedgehog, with tinned pineapple and rubbery, orange cheddar. One recipe that I have returned to over and over again - and which, at this stage, doesn't even resemble the original – is Flapjacks.

I've tried many other recipes for Flapjacks in the past – these Chocolate Flapjacks are undoubtedly fantastic – but this is the one I'm currently happiest with and make most often. It can be made as simple or as complex as you like. Some days I just make simple Honey Flapjacks, as in the picture, leaving out all the nuts, seeds and dried fruit, and substituting honey for the golden syrup. Other times it depends on what's on my baking trolley. I've tried a mixture of jumbo and regular oatmeal sometimes and varied the type of of sugar (light and dark brown sugars, raw sugar, demerera) I use. The first four ingredients are necessary: the rest can be played around with. Almonds and cranberries, cashews and dried pineapple are all combinations I've tried in the past but I keep coming back to the hazelnut and apricot variation. Have fun with it – as long as you keep the proportions the same, the recipe is endlessly forgiving.

Continue reading "Sweet Treats for Work: Hazelnut and Apricot Flapjacks" »

With the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony taking place today, enigmatic China is at the center of attention. Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper uses food and cooking to successfully delve beneath the surface.

Chef and cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop's memoir of her time cooking and eating in China is an enthralling read. In 1994, at a time when China was still very closed off from the outside world, this young Englishwoman moved to Chengdu, in the Sichuan province. Ostensibly, Fuchsia was there to study the Chinese policy on ethnic minorities but food was a strong motivating factor – as she filled out her application form, it was with the Chinese sugarplums of chilli bean sauce, Sichuan pepper and frilly pig's kidneys dancing in her head. Despite Fuchsia's early disorientation, she plunged into life in Chengdu, learning the language and finding her way through the bold and interesting flavours of Sichuan food. Before long, she was taking lessons at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine and was subsequently invited to join a three-month professional chef's training course – an unprecedented invitation for a Westerner.

Shark's Fin... traces Fuchsia's passionate love affair with Chinese food, in all its tastes and textures, colours and complexity. As she recounts the details of her training, after which she wrote her award-winning Sichuan Cookery book, she also travels the country, experiencing different foods and cultures. For many in the West, China – and Chinese food – is often just an amorphous mass, all of one piece, but Fuchsia brings the different regions of China into sharp relief, although this reader could have done with a slightly more detailed map. She eats absolutely everything (poisonous snake and hairy crab, two of the “three headed” feast of Yangzhou and pig's brains), discusses the Chinese love of MSG (“the cook's cocaine”), investigates the region where Sichuan pepper comes from and also notes that Ferran Adrià gave credit to Chinese gastronomy for forging a path that is now being exploited in his El Bulli restaurant in Spain, as he plays – in a very Chinese way – with “form and mouthfeel.”

To write her second book, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Fuchsia lived in Hunan during the fear and paranoia of the SARS virus, a long way from her relaxed days in Sichuan. From this point onwards, the tone of Shark's Fin... becomes similarly dark, as she struggles with her own identity – Chinese or British? – and starts to lose her omnivorous appetite, wondering if she should become vegetarian. Happily, an encounter with a stray caterpillar on a plate of vegetables at home in Oxford helped her to clarify her thinking.

With interest in China at an all-time high for the Olympics, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper is an insight into the country and the people, as well as its food. And it certainly has inspired me – with the Husband's Sister and Brother-in-Law currently studying in Xinjiang province, a trip over there may be on the cards at some stage in the not-so-distant future.

Congratulations to Greatfood.ie, who won three gongs at the recent Great Taste Awards in London with their chutneys and relishes. These awards are considered to be the Oscars of the foodie world, with 2021 producers entering almost 4800 products this year to be judged in a wide variety of categories.

The products – Hot Red Pepper Jam, Walnut and Fig Preserve, Wild Cranberry and Apple Relish – are made with Monaghan-based En-Place Foods, who also picked up an award for their for their Castleleslie Balsamic and Apple Reduction (haven't tasted this – yet – but you have to try their Sherry and Fig Balsamic Reduction drizzled on roast duck or trickled over a warm goat's cheese salad).

I'm a particular fan of the Wild Cranberry and Apple Relish, several jars of which we devoured around Christmas while on a black pudding bender. A special pack of the award-winning preserves are available as a special pack from Greatfood2buy.com and, while you're there, you can also pick up a bottle of the Balsamic and Apple Reduction. Make sure you check out my favourite Argan oil and their dinky little tins of spices as well.

What do you read while travelling in France? A stack of novels, a French phrase book – and Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking. My holidays normally involve dragging at least one cookbook of the country about with me, often with a relevant Lonely Planet World Food guide. World Food France is out of print, unfortunately, but I grabbed the last copy of the ED book at work as I ran out the door on the last day.

Although we didn't push ourselves to travel too far, there were still hours spent in the Astra, driving to and from the boat at Roscoff, various campsites and a side-trip to St-Emilion, all made much more manageable by ED's entertainingly opinionated and self-assured writing. While the Husband and the Teacher drove and navigated, I read about the cooking of various regions, perused lists of French terminology for techniques and ingredients and inspired a pre-late-lunch appetite by poring over descriptions of Oeufs sur la Plat, Blettes à la Crème and Pommes au Beurre.

Back home now, but ED's writing has lost none of its inspiration. The vegetables and eggs chapters, especially, have lots of ideas to play around with: I've cooked her Endives au Beurre since I came home and La Pipérade was especially good to feed the boys while camping. I still have to work my way through the last part of the book, the fish section is particularly appealing at the moment as I've gotten some fantastic pollard from my fishing-loving Kildorrery Cousin. If you're travelling to France at any stage – or if you just want to evoke the food of the countryside - French Provincial Cooking is the book for you.

For me, few trips abroad are complete without some kind of local food or kitchen accessory purchase, although flying does tend to put the skids on most shopping. Getting the ferry to France this year meant that life was very much easier when looking at things to bring home. The Husband went over with the intention of picking up some equipment for his nascent home-brewing career, giving me a chance to look round kitchen equipment with an eye to actually being able to bring something home. Mr Bricolage proved to be the perfect place for us both. He picked up a 40 liter plastic keg and a variety of other beer-making paraphernalia; while I was hemming and hawing over a stoneware vinaigrier, he grabbed it for me and legged it to the cash desk. A vinaigrier is a vinegar maker, an urn-shaped pot with a wide, lidded mouth to slosh in your left-over wine and a little tap to let you pour off the resulting vinegar. Mine also came with the cutest little stool, I presume to allow more air circulation.

There's lots of information out there on the web about making vinegar from wine and the whole mysterious business of a “vinegar mother”. As with sourdough starter, you can buy the mother but I think I might just see what time does to my collection of wine dregs. Some of the best information that I've found is on the Gang of Pour website. I'll let you know how I get on!

If you're a farmers' market fan and in the Clonakilty vicinity next Friday, 8 August, watch out for the launch of the town's market at Spiller's Lane Car Park (by the Credit Union).

The market kicks off at 8.30am and Darina Allen will be doing the official opening honours at 12.30pm. According to the Friends of Clonakilty Market, "the very finest local and seasonal foods will be available, including organic vegetables, fresh fish, locally baked breads, rashers and sausages, olives, dips, sun-dried tomatoes, jams, chutneys, sushi, farmhouse cheeses, freshly brewed coffee and much more..."

While we were away in France, we were lucky enough to have my Naas Cousin come to house- and chicken-sit for a few days. Not only did she take extraordinarily good care of the place and livestock, she also left us a gift of the cutest pair of dozy bear eggcups. Boiled eggs will simply never be the same again with this duo to hold them upright. Thanks Elaine!

While I was away in France, this year's Mallow Food Festival was launched. Last year's Festival was very successful – I've been hearing about it from my customers all year! - and this year it will be taking place on Sunday 31 August. The organisers, who are William Healy (URRU), Claire Ryan (Essink restaurant) and Ian Lucey (Lucey's Butchers), are aiming to make the event even bigger and better, showcasing at least sixty of the leading food producers in the area.

The 2008 Mallow Food Festival will take place on Mallow's main street from 12 noon to 3.30pm on Sunday 31 August. More information is available from William Healy, URRU Culinary Store, Bank Place, Davis Street, Mallow, Co Cork. Tel/Fax: 022 53192

Morning Ireland hype the recession – again – with a focus on the restaurant industry.

Restaurants bitten by credit crunch
Eleanor Burnhill reports that the rapid pace of opening restaurants has slowed

1 saucepan + 1 gas burner + 1 vegetarian + 2 omnivores (1 very much on the carni- side of omnivore) = very simple one-pot cooking in the campsite at night. It's not difficult to do with a small store of non-perishable picnic basket perennials – olive oil, harissa paste, sherry vinegar, grainy mustard, Maldon salt and the tiniest pepper grinder – and a few purchases from the local market and shops, including garlic and onions, sun-warmed tomatoes, the sweetest of sweet peppers, a selection of cheese, pâté and salami (to keep the meat-lovers happy), les oeufs biologique (organic eggs) and a few tins of haricot beans and lentils.

All suppers started with chopped onions softening in the pan, the Husband balancing and stirring, while I chopped garlic to cook next and decided what was on the menu tonight. Sometimes it was a tomato and lentil stew, other nights we had creamy haricot beans with crème fraîche, Pipérade (scrambled eggs in a stew of peppers and tomatoes) or a tomato bean dish, sprinkled with crumbled feta. We also ate salads of parsley-flecked Tabouleh, laden with chopped tomatoes and diced cucumber; plates of sliced tomatoes and mozzarella with fleur de sel; bunches of radishes, dabbed with butter and sprinked with flakes of Maldon salt; and raw milk Camembert, smeared on ragged chunks of baguette.

There was nothing that took longer than 15 minutes to prepare while hunkered down on our picnic rug in the late evening sunshine, still salted from an afternoon on the beach, drinking our latest bottle of vin de pays. Vegetables that had never encountered a fridge tasted sweeter than normal, especially after they spent an afternoon under canvas, awaiting my knife. But then, it's the holidays – everything tastes magical when eaten in good company with the flavour of the outdoors, spiced with the relish of ridiculously cheap wine and mopped up with crusty bread from the local boulanger. It's a far cry from a rainy Monday in North Cork.

It will be quiet around here this week as I have abandoned the Irish summer for some time soaking up the French sun with the Husband, the Teacher and the Tax Advisor. We have taken ourselves camping in the Vendée and Charente-Maritime regions on the Atlantic Coast for ten days, staying in small campsites and spending plenty of time investigating brioche and pain au chocolate, moules, abricots, glaces and galettes, along with cheese and wine of every description. Time now, perhaps, for another café au lait in the sunshine before we hit the beach. I can't cope with the French keyboard any longer!

Here's an article that I wrote for an Irish Times supplement called Cork First, that was published on Wednesday 2 July. Enjoy!

Eat your heart out
With so many cafés and restaurants to choose from, deciding where to eat in Cork can be mind-boggling so we've chosen some of the best for you. Words by Caroline Hennessy.

BEST BREAKFASTS
Hardwood
Sunday morning, coming down: it's time for breakfast at the bright, airy Hardwood on Pope's Quay. Feast on French toast, with real maple syrup and smoked bacon, or be good and go for the healthy option - a colourful fresh fruit plate, with toasted pine nuts and yoghurt.
Try: the steak and eggs option, with all the trimmings, for those mornings after the night before
Hardwood, 31 Pope's Quay, Cork. 021 4551494 www.hardwood.ie

Liberty Grill
Come early if you don't want to have to wait for a table for breakfast at this attractively-designed American-style diner but it's worth getting up a few minutes earlier for a menu that makes a feature of Posh Toast and offers plenty of sides to add to your dish of choice.
Try: The Full American – a full-on feed of juice, scrambled or poached eggs on sourdough bread and an entire pot – oh joy! - of tea or coffee.
Liberty Grill, 32 Washington Street, Cork. 021 4271049 www.libertygrillcork.com

BEST COFFEE
Cork Coffee Roasters
For anyone looking for a decent caffeine fix, the Seattle-style Cork Coffee Roasters café will be your idea of heaven. Get an Americano to go or sit on a high stool by the window and contemplate the world passing by as you sip your latte with a flaky Pain au Chocolat. The perfect calm kick-off for a day zooming around Cork.
Try: The Rebel City Espresso blend and don't forget to buy a bag of freshly ground coffee to repeat the experience at home.
Cork Coffee Roasters, 2 Bridge Street, Cork. 087 7766322

Ó Conaill Chocolate
Ó Conaill's cute little shop offers some of the best coffee in town – but that's not the only reason for going there. Chocolatiers by trade, they stock a tempting array of handmade chocolates in a variety of flavours, bars in all shapes and sizes, hot chocolate kits, seasonal treats and the most amazing hot chocolate that you'll find in Cork.
Try: A dark cardamom – dark hot chocolate, infused with fresh cardamom and served, as are all their beverages, with a selection of wee chocolate buttons on the side.
Ó Conaill Chocolate, 16b French Church Street, Cork. 021 4373407

BEST HIGH-END RESTAURANTS
Café Paradiso
Dedicated to seasonal vegetables and local produce, Denis Cotter's cooking at Café Paradiso is the kind of food that deserves to be eaten in appreciative silence – at least for a few minutes, before you start exclaiming about the layers of flavour in your dish and exchanging forkfuls of food with your dining companions. The vegetarian restaurant that even confirmed meat-eaters love.
Try: Anything Denis does with local asparagus. You'll never eat imports from Peru again.
Café Paradiso, 16 Lancaster Quay, Cork. 021 4277939. www.cafeparadiso.ie

Jacques
Almost hidden away down a maze of side streets – yet never overlooked by Corkonians in search of some decent, honest-to-goodness cooking - Jacques is a full-blown Cork institution. Co-owners Jacque and Eithne Barry have built up their network of suppliers and producers over the last 25 years and it shows in their menu and – most importantly – on the plate.
Try: Instead of starters, go Spanish with a ½ bottle of Manzilla, with a selection of nuts and olives.
Jacques, 9 Phoenix St, Cork. 021 4277387 www.jacquesrestaurant.ie

BEST AFTER-WORK BITE TO EAT
An Crúibín
It’s a Friday night and you’re not ready to go home just yet. You’d like a drink and a quick bite to eat so you wander along to An Crúibín for a pint of Beamish or some wine from their very pleasant by-the-glass selection, take a seat at one of the large communal tables and take a look at the chalk board of Irish-style tapas (think Macroom Egg Tortilla and Mustard Mackerel) that changes daily. Before you know it, you’re chatting to your neighbour, hooked on the buzz and there for the night.
Try: The eponymous crispy roasted pig’s trotters. How can you not?
An Crúibín, 1 Union Quay, Cork. They don't seem to have a phone number yet.

BEST LUNCH ON THE RUN
The Sandwich Stall
An off-shoot of The Real Olive Company, The Sandwich Stall makes up an assortment of tempting rolls, wraps, salads and sandwiches every day for those who frequent the English Market. Perch on the narrow bench at the end with your lunch and a big mug of tea or just grab your food to go.
Try: Traditional Spiced Beef with horseradish dressing
The Sandwich Stall, The English Market, Cork. 021 4806500

Wildways
This is fast food the 21st Century way – delectable organic soups and sandwiches, prepared with thought and care, ready to fly out the door as fast as the customers arrive.
Try: Baked Ham and Cheese sandwich with Mediterranean tomato soup – summer flavours for the dullest day.
Wildways, 21 Princes Street, Cork. 021 4272199 www.wildways.net

BEST FOR KIDS
Eve Chocolates
It might look unpromising from outside, but Eve St Leger’s little chocolate factory is heaven for chocolate lovers of any age. Tucked away in a commercial park near UCC, you’ll find delectable truffles, golden crunch, fudge and the best of chocolate for home cooks.
Try: Eve’s Meter of Chocolate. How long will it take you to eat your way through it?
Eve Chocolates, Flair Confectionery, 8 College Commercial Park, Magazine Road, Cork. 021 4347781 www.evechocolates.ie

Exchange Toffee Works
Handmade with love and care, the old fashioned sweets from Exchange Toffee Works are sold direct from the door to a discriminating public. Savour the smell outside before taking a step back in time for their bestsellling Clove Rock, peppermint Bullseyes and mouth-puckering Acid Drops.
Try: All of them!
Exchange Toffee Works, 37a Mulgrave Road, Cork. 021 4507791

With lighter, warmer mornings (theoretically, at least), porridge is long gone from the mornings and this granola-style muesli is a big favourite in our house. I got the recipe from the Husband's mother while we were in New Zealand in January. She's been working with people who have ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and this (now slightly altered!) was on one of the recipe sheets that she hands out.

It's easy to mix a big batch - just make sure that you have a couple of baking trays large enough to cook it in your oven - and don't forget it. It's all too easy to leave it burn and then it gets very bitter. After it has thoroughly cooled down, I keep it in a large kilner jar, often mixing it half-and-half with plain oats at breakfast time. It is also really good served with fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Continue reading "Mandy's Marvellous Muesli" »

If you’re in the Mallow area next week, we’re hosting a week of Conversations on a Farmers’ Market in URRU at 11am each morning. Several of the producers from the Mallow Farmers’ Market are going to be talking about how they make their wares – smoked fish and cheese, salad leaves and organic vegetables – and yours truly will also be participating next Wednesday morning (16 July), talking about sourdough bread and how to make your own starter, with my Ballymaloe one as an active example! There's more information below, along with links to a couple of sites that also have information on the Conversations.

Irish Allotments: Forthcoming events at URRU, Mallow
Bridgestone Blog: Do Not Miss This!
Dine & Wine Club Cork: Farmer's Talk

Continue reading "Conversations on a Farmers’ Market at URRU, Mallow" »

...eggs a day. That's a dozen every three days, 28 in a week and 124 in a calendar month - and that's a hell of a lot of eggs to be used up! Redistribution has already started. If you're nearby and needing some free range eggs, just let me know.

During the summer, the Killavullen Farmers' Market moves to Friday nights for a time, which is useful for me going home from work, and I was delighted to pick up a couple of just-picked globe artichokes there last week from the Nano Nagle stall. The first time I ever encountered them in real life - having pored over how-to-eat pictures in my mother's cordon bleu cookbook as a child - was when I was (briefly) an au pair in Chamonix and they are a rare treat.

We ate them during the week, the stalks sliced off to the base and the artichokes then simmered in salted water, under a side pate to keep them immersed, until the point of a knife penetrated the base easily. I melted some butter, added a squeeze of lemon and landed the drained artichokes on the table, leaves to be picked off one by one and dipped in the buttery lemon dressing before we used our teeth to scrape off the tender nub at the bottom. As the pile of discarded leaves grew bigger, we eventually got to the heart of the matter. Once the hairy choke was removed we could savour our long-deffered reward, the sweet artichoke heart. After mopping up the last of the dressing with a crust of bread, then mopping our fingers and faces, we contemplated the debris left behind and determined to buy even more at the next farmers' market. Or maybe we just need to start growing our own?

The Sweet Treats still continue, although I spend more time making rather than writing about them these days. Last week's offering was Butterscotch Almond Shortbread, which is like Tan Slice but not quite as buttery! I already got one request for the recipe, from the Teenage Workmate, so here it is. Next time, however, I think I might go for a slightly thicker shortbread base.

Continue reading "Sweet Treats for Work: Butterscotch Almond Shortbread" »