October 2008 Archives

Working my way through Leon: Ingredients and Recipes, Allegra McEvedy's fantastic cookbook from the London-based restaurant chain at the moment. As there was a big bunch of lovely dirty parsnips sitting around from the last Mallow Farmers' Market – like carrots, they always keep better when they still have some soil on them, even in my newly warm kitchen (the Husband recently got the stove working, just in time for winter) – I couldn't resist trying out her recipe for Indian Parsnip Soup. I followed it (almost) to the letter, even down to adding a drizzle of honey, a scattering of sumac (finally getting a use for that packet hanging around in the spice box) to each serving, with a wedge of lemon on the side to accentuate the flavours and it was, without a doubt, superb. Perfect for this horrible wintery weather too. Review to follow, when I get through the rest of the book, but you can read some of her writing and recipes in this series of extracts from the book on the Guardian website.

Extract from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes - Part One
Extract from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes - Part Two
Extract from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes - Part Three
Extract from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes - Part Four

One of my major perks, on days I work from home, is having the opportunity to make myself something really good for lunch. If those days also happen to feature me making chicken stock or reconstituting a big bag of dried pulses – these things happen in the kitchen without me having to think about them – there's more of a treat in store. A couple of scoops of chicken stock get siphoned off to make a gutsy noodle broth, infused with slivers of ginger, garlic and chilli and eaten with relish. Freshly cooked butter beans can easily find themselves tossed with a sundried tomato dressing and some of the left-over roast pumpkin from last night's dinner.

My most successful recent impromptu lunch involved chickpeas. I cooked a few handfuls of the just-tender pulses in my cast iron pan with some olive oil, taking plenty of time, until they were toasty and golden, added some garlic and lemon juice while the pan was still hot then tossed them with plenty of freshly grated parmesan. Simple and delicious.

If you're around Dublin on Sunday 14 December, Slow Food Dublin are planning a pre-Christmas, open air roast at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar with chestnut-stuffed roast pig on a spit, mulled wine, hot cider and live music. They will also have a number of stalls from food producers around the square and are looking for any new producers in the Dublin area to contact them if interested in participating. More information below.

Tuesday was not a nice day. As I drove down to Kilmackillogue pier in Kerry in the morning, the rain rarely stopped beating against the windscreen as the wipers battled to give me a view of the road. It was not the perfect day to go out on a boat yet that's exactly where I was heading, off harvesting mussels with Paul Kelly, who is a part-time mussel farmer as well a gold and silversmith. On a brief stop in Kenmare – Jam was calling for morning tea – I took a moment to admire Paul's rings, which combine gold, silver and both precious and semi- precious stones, in the window of his shop, before hitting the wet road again for the extra half-hour drive to Kilmackillogue.

There were a few fishermen already out on the sheltered pier, well-clad in bright yellow oilskins and debating the state of the markets as they readied their shrimp pots. Paul layered up his waterproofs – I just had my NZ raincoat which is generally very useful, but not in this kind of weather. It just took a few minutes on the small boat, zooming out to Paul's mussel farm, before I was wet through. At least the top half of me was someway dry but I've never regretted my lack of waterproof leggings so much before. At least the water was calm and I was somewhat sheltered from the worst of the rain by standing behind Paul as he steered the boat into the bay.

We went way out, through rows of buoys, rafted together, marking where the mussel-growing ropes are located. When we reached Paul's farm, he reached under a buoy and pulled up one of the ropes. It's still early in the season but it was loaded with full sized mussels, which he easily pulled off by hand, along with hundreds of little crabs and starfish and lots of random bit of seaweed. Mussel fishing in Kilmackillogue is done very simply: if you hang the rope, they will come. Tiny seed mussels attach themselves to the rope and grow there, in seawater that is six fathoms deep. They then look after themselves, staying open underwater, feeding constantly until they are large enough to be harvested.

With a brief stop at a sorting table on a raft near to shore to get rid of the smaller mussels and associated debris, we returned to the pier, me wet to the skin and starting to freeze. Paul exports the majority of his mussels to France, saving a few for local restaurants including The Lime Tree in Kenmare, where I first tasted them. He landed a large sack of the mussels we had collected in the boot of my car, warning me that they might be a little salty as they were still full of seawater. I nodded, teeth chattering, as I planned huge bowls of Steamed Mussels for supper, Mussel Soups and Seafood Stews, Paella or maybe some Mussels with Garlic Breadcrumbs...

Later that night, after I had distributed bags of mussels to my mother, aunt and half the neighbourhood, the Husband and I sat down to a feed of Mussels Steamed with Garlic and White Wine. Paul was right – the liquor released was saltier than I am used to – but it didn't spoil our appetite as we relished the chance to eat the plump, juicy morsels to our heart's content. I steamed the remainder, picked the mussels from the shells and froze them to eat another day – despite our best efforts, we're just not able to eat more than a couple of kilos at a time! I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to eat mussels so fresh and delicious.

During my first couple of years in Dublin, I worked on Great Denmark Street, just off the top of O'Connell Street. At that stage, there weren't many lunch-friendly places around the northside so, if catching up with friends for lunch, the usual thing was to meet outside Trinity (cue Caroline legging it down O'Connell Street, over O'Connell Bridge and up Westmoreland Street at the rate of knots at 12.55pm) and go from there. One of my favourite places to go with the Tax Advisor – if we could grab a seat – was Cornucopia on Wicklow Street. We would fill up on warming winter soups, my favourite Spanakopita or hearty quiches, always with a big debate over which salads to choose. After a feed there, the Tax Consultant used to be terribly impressed at the fact that he didn't get hungry all afternoon long.

Then I moved jobs, out to the wilds of Donnybrook, quickly learning to bring my own lunches rather than depend on the vagaries of the RTÉ canteen, and Cornucopia lunchtimes were a thing of the past. Now, however, the very fine Atrium at Cork University Press have released Cornucopia at Home so that no one has to be deprived of their Cornucopia favourites – as a chickpea fan I'm looking forward to getting my hands on their Mediterranean Chickpea Salad recipe. I've already got several books published by Atrium on my shelves and in use, including The Creators from Dianne Curtin and Denis Cotter's first book, The Café Paradiso Cookbook. His A Paradiso Year: Autumn and Winter Cooking always gets hauled out as the days get shorter, especially when I have as many squash in the garden as I do this year. Watch out next year for the first cookbook from Carmel Somers of the Good Things Café in Durrus – from advance reports Eat Good Things sounds like something that should not be missed.

Any excuse is a good one to visit Dingle and when it involves a Food Festival and an invitation to participate in the judging of the inaugural National Irish Food Awards, also known as Blas na hÉireann, how could anyone resist? Certainly not me and Saturday found my tastebuds at the ready to sample some of the enormous variety of foods entered into a series of blind tastings. Without the context of packaging and placement, it was a real opportunity to see what was out there on the Irish market. And it wasn't all, ahem, work. I also got to meet fellow bloggers Val and Ollie, catch up with my former teacher Rory O'Connell, wander around the variety of food stalls scattered around the town, eat a first class meal at seafood restaurant Out of The Blue have several afternoon affogatos and sample a variety of the Mexican flavours on offer at Murphy's Ice Cream (the Guacamole was a very surprising hit.)

Amongst the winners are a lot of old favourites like Benoit Lorge's chocolates (his Rum Bitter won Silver in the chocolate category), Green Saffron's Rogan Josh spice blend (frequently used in this house), The Apple Farm's refreshing and classy Sparkling Apple Juice, East of Boston's Tantalising Toffee Sauce, David Llewellyn's intense Balsamic Cider Vinegar, Just Food's organic soups (as served in URRU) and breads from both the Blazing Salads Bread Company, a stalwart of my Dublin life, and the traditional Barron's Bakery in Cappoquin. All the results of this year's awards are below and are on the Blas na hÉireann website: congratulations to all the winners!

Who would have thought that garlicy guacamole ice cream could possibly equal gorgeousness?