Bibliocook: All About Food

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" »

After the excitement of our first - albeit cracked - egg, three out of four of the chickens have been earning their keep. We're still not sure who's holding out, but most mornings, when we go out to the run to feed and water them, there are three eggs waiting in the nesting box. They're small - I'm using two instead of one at the moment - but perfectly formed and, I didn't expect this, have an incredible flavour. It must be all the Ballyvoddy slugs that the girls pick up on their wanders around the garden.

Mornings working from home are enlivened by frequent checks on the foursome as they free-range around our half-acre. We live alongside a busy road so would like to keep them towards the back of the property. That's not what they think as they make their way towards the front of the house where the best of slugs seem to live, judging by their determination to make it there. I've taken to moving the computer to an outside table so that I can keep an eye on them (and on the cat, watching carefully as they scratch about), until they get too naughty and I have to herd them down the length of the garden towards their home. They like to take the scenic route, through some of the less-mowed parts of the garden, and our travels are enlivened by my swearing as they lead me through yet another patch of hidden nettle stalks and my bare ankles suffer.

With a half-dozen eggs arriving in the kitchen every two days, I'm turning to my recipe books for more ideas and Michel Roux's Eggs has already proven itself invaluable. My small cast-iron pan is getting used for regular omelettes and a couple of eggs poached on a bed of spicy lentils was very successful. I'm looking forward to making mayonnaise this week and we've also baked a couple with blue cheese in the heart-shaped ramekins we got from the Sculptor last June. I remember my Nana making Lemon Curd when there were lots of eggs to spare so I'll have to dig out her recipe. Then, with whites left over, there'll have to be a Pavlova some day for tea. Who would have thought that having hens would be so much fun?!

Still trying to figure out this upgrade - paid work keeps getting in the way, unfortunately - but the comments are back working for me, finally, so feel free to let me know what you think about recent posts.

Although clouds threatened, the sun shone continued to shine all day on Sunday at the inaugural Taste of Cork as crowds gathered to eat and drink in the atmospheric surroundings of the Cork City Gaol. What would the former inmates have thought if they looked out the bars of their windows at the thousands of people swaping their florins for delicious satay at Jacobs on the Mall, devouring Flemings' layered foie gras dish, eating seasonal mackerel with a fresh gooseberry sauce from Ballymaloe House, pulling apart the Ivory Tower's Venison Chimichurri with Chocolate and Chilli Sauce and queuing for the popular Fish and Chips with Minted Pea Purée at the Club Brasserie stand? Urru was there with pâtisserie from Richard Graham-Leigh, particularly his rich Chocolate and Raspberry Tentation and an array of fruit tartlets, Jack McCarthy brought a selection of his wares and there were freebie tastings aplenty from a variety of stalls, including plenty of offerings in the chocolate and wine side of things.

I picked up a bag of the aged basmati rice that I had so enjoyed on Thursday from Green Saffron and spent the last of my florins on a few scoops of assorted olives and my favourite butter bean salad from The English Market's Olive Stall. With no parking available near the venue, the free park and ride was a big success, toilets were numerous and clean and extra florins were available at most corners. The people behind the stalls seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as their customers, always a good sign of an event. Now that Taste of Cork can join the successful Dublin event what's next? Taste of Galway? I know a few people in the West that would be delighted with that...

Other bloggers on Taste of Cork:
Conor's Bandon Blog - Taste of Cork a huge success
The LouderVoice Blog - Win a gift hamper for Taste of Cork reviews
The Dine and Wine Club - My Weekend

Update July 3, 2008: There are plenty more mini-reviews and comments on Taste of Cork at LouderVoice - check them out and make your own opinion known.

I've always thought that Mao was a strange name for a café/bar. Imagine a pub called Hitler or a restaurant named after Pol Pot. Or don't. But, if you would like to enter a competition to win a meal for two, courtesy of Bubble Brothers and the introduction of their lip-smackingly good iki beer to Café Mao, wander over to their blog and put your thinking cap on!

Thursday night we spent at a sumptuous banquet of Indian food from Green Saffron in a marquee on the lawn of the elegant Ballyvolane House. We were treated to an assortment of curries made with Green Saffron spice blends, served on fragile-looking yet surprisingly long-lasting leaf plates, and accompanied by Bubble Brothers' wines and bottles of Tiger Beer. Live Indian music soundtracked the evening, punctuated by Green Saffron founder Arun Kapil talking about how the dishes were made and the spices used in each one.

Tables were laden with bowls of cooling Banana Raita, Green Saffron's superb Mango, Date and Jaggery Chatni (Chutney), fresh naan breads and frequently refreshed platters of aged Basmati rice as we ate our way through five curries, from Rogan Josh to Bengali Tiger Prawns, stopping off at Chicken Korma, Chana Masala and Red Lentil Dahl on the way. My favourites were the rich, spicy Lamb Rogan Josh and the warming Dahl - but that was until we came to the sweet ending: scoops of fragrant Karnataka Vanilla bean ice cream and slices of golden Saffron and Apricot Kulfi, served with fantastically morish Garam Masala oatmeal cookies.

As the dusk deepened outside the colourful marquee and conversations started to meander, we finished the evening with spiced, milky Chai Masala, served in small clay cups before we left to search for our cars and started to make our way home. A night of exotic flavours and new friends.

Watch out for - or follow your nose to find - fragrant Green Saffron spice blends at Urru in Mallow and Bandon, Interior Living on MacCurtain Street in Cork, Mahon Point Farmers' Market, Limerick Farmers' Market and in The Artists' Workshops at the Stephen Pearce Gallery, Shanagarry. You can pick up the chai blends at my two favourite Cork cafés - Cork Coffee Roasters on Bridge Street and ó Connail's Chocolates on French Church Street - and, when the Green Saffron site is online again, you'll be able to order direct from Arun.

Update July 2, 2008: Just found out the name of the unexpectedly fantastic pink fizz that we were drinking with our curries. I've had Raboso Rosato Frizzante from the Bubble Brothers a few times but never realised how well it would go with spicy food. And it's a great party drink - what more could you ask for?

Our half-acre plot is surrounded by mature trees, including several elders that are currently blossoming in a profusion of heady-smelling, cream-coloured flowerheads. Rather than just admiring them this year and thinking - afterwards, of course - that I should have made elderflower cordial, last weekend I dug out my recipe, buckets and ingredients, made a special trip to the chemist for citric acid, picked a selection of the flowers and had it made in minutes. The recipe I used comes via my mother, who noticed one of her students drinking a bottle of elderflower cordial last summer and got her mum's recipe for me. Ever since then it's been sitting on the kitchen mantelpiece, just waiting for some elderflowers - and a little motivation!

There were tastings along the way, random teaspoonfuls here and there, as I tried to gauge the strength of the brew. I eventually strained and bottled the results after three days-worth of steeping. According to the recipe, this keeps well in the fridge for a couple of weeks or, if you don't think that you will use it up in that time, just freeze it in ice cubes, ready to be landed into a jug of water on a hot day. It's the scent of summer in a glass even if - as today - the rain is driving down.

Continue reading "Food for Free - Elderflower Cordial" »

If you've been a fan of Deborah's Humble Housewife blog - she's now blogging at taste.ie - check out her new venture at the beautifully designed Spicendipity, which sells a selection of spice mixes, sauces and baking mixes, alongside some gorgeous gift baskets. Press release below...

Continue reading "Spicendipity goes live" »

On Saturday – two weeks after our (supposedly) point-of-lay pullets arrived – there was great excitement when the Husband discovered a little egg, still warm, on the bottom of the hen house. Unfortunately, by the time he found it, it was already cracked, proving that our chickens still haven't got the hang of things. The chicken that laid the egg managed to do it from her perch, rather than the nice cosy nesting box. Still, the cat was delighted to get an egg for her tea and hopefully it won't take too much longer for the rest of the girls to follow her example.

When you take the cost of the hen house and run into consideration, this is, as the Financially-Orientated Brother pointed out, the most expensive egg ever in the history of egg-laying. When the chickens get the hang of the egg-producing life, we are hoping that the average cost of each egg will come down quite a bit.

I’m not much of a fruitcake fan but Tea Brack is an altogether different story. Because the fruit is soaked overnight it avoids the dryness that can often spoil a fruitcake, cuts into gorgeous thick slices and responds particularly well to being generously buttered and served with large pots of tea. The English Engineers, this time without Bridie, came to visit for the weekend so - as I had recently discovered that I had a stash of dried fruit, particularly golden raisins - I brewed up some tea on Thursday night, left the fruit to soak in quite a leisurely manner until Friday lunchtime, when I discovered that I needed to be in Cork at 6pm. The brack was promptly thrown together in a most hasty manner so that it would be cooked before I had to leave the house.

Despite the hurry, it worked out well. I made double the mixture - two large 2lb loaves - and, the Engineers now on the plane home, there is just one half of the last brack left. I had intended to use a drop of whiskey to intensify the flavours but my search in our cellar (the unfinished gap under the stairs where we land all bottles of alcohol) showed that the Husband had imbibed the last of the Jameson during the last cold spell so I had to settle instead for the Ballyvoddy Damson Gin that I made last October, which added an extra note of fruityness to proceedings.

Continue reading "Ballyvoddy Tea Brack" »