December 2008 Archives

I was thrilled to hear the first Foodtalk on Christmas Day at 1.30pm, just as we were basting the turkey, making gravy and chopping vegetables for dinner.That programme - very topically - was on Livestock, focusing on Irish pork. Jacque Barry (Jacques Restaurant) talked about her love of good quality ingredients and food eaten with family while Fingal Ferguson of the Gubbeen Smokehouse explained how the cycle works on the Gubbeen farm in West Cork - the pasture is eaten by the cows who produce the milk for the cheese, the whey of which is fed to the pigs who are turned into the best pork, sausages, salami and chorizo by Fingal.

The next show, on Seafood, will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm tomorrow, New Year's Day, at 4.30pm and features mussel farmer and goldsmith Paul Kelly from Kilmackillogue and Tony Daly from The Lime Tree in Kenmare. We've also got the scheduled times for the rest of the series so I'll post them below.

Foodtalk on Newstalk

+ Programme 2: "Seafood" (New Year's Day, 4.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy share their pleasure in eating seafood.
Guests: Tony Daly from The Lime Tree, Kenmare, and Paul Kelly, mussel farmer and goldsmith, from Kilmackillogue

+ Programme 3: "Spices" (Saturday 3 January, 7.30am and Sunday 4 January, 9.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy marvel at the power of spices.
Guests: Carmel Somers from The Good Things Café, Durrus, Co Cork and Arun Kapil of Green Saffron, Midleton, East Cork

+ Programme 4: "Wild Food" (Saturday 10 January, 7.30am and Sunday 11 January, 9.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy gather up an armload of free, wild food.
Guests: Áine Maguire from Kueppersbusch and Seamus Moran of LoTide Fine Foods, Westport, Co Mayo

+ Programme 5: "Dairy" (Saturday 17 January, 7.30am and Sunday 18 January, 9.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy explore all things creamy.
Guests: Aoibheann McNamara, Ard Bia, Galway and Kieran Murphy from Murphy's Ice Cream, Dingle

+ Programme 6: "Garden" (Saturday 24 January, 7.30am and Sunday 25 January, 9.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy marvel at the good things a garden has to offer, and wonders how many more of us will now start to grow our own.
Guests: Henry Stone from The Sha-Roe Bistro, Clonegal, Co Carlow and Ultan Walsh of Gort-Na-Nain Organic Farm, Nohoval, Cork, who grows the veg for (among others) Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso.

Don't forget to tune in to my first Foodtalk programme on Newstalk 106-108 fm which will be broadcast today at 1.30pm. Happy Christmas!

It was a sad day in work today as URRU Mallow closed its doors after just over two years of trading.

Although I've only been there part-time – initially I worked a four day week, recently I've been down to three days – it's played a big part in my life for the last twelve months. I'm really going to miss the easy access to such a great range of Irish artisan products, our ever-entertaining customers, my fantastic colleagues and inspirational boss.

Fortunately the original URRU in Bandon is still thriving - I'm going to have to start taking myself down there to continue getting my fix of quality coffee...

We were thrilled with the wee mention of Foodtalk in Saturday's Irish Times - click here to read the piece (or continue reading below) and see another picture of Kieran and Sean Murphy's cutest little ice cream snowmen.

Just in case you didn't yet know, the series starts on Newstalk 106-108 fm on Christmas Day at 1.30pm when I'll be discussing Irish Kobe beef with Kevin Thornton as well as talking to Jacque Barry from Jacques Restaurant and Fingal Ferguson of the Gubbeen Smokehouse about Gubbeen pork.

If you don't think that you'll be near a radio at that stage in proceedings, you can also subscribe to podcasts from the Newstalk website (scroll down to the Documentaries on Newstalk section). Hope you get to tune in!

Fruity, peppery, herby...and oh so fresh! The latest batch of Colletta Olivieri Extra Virgin Olive Oil has just arrived and it's irresistible. It is imported to Ireland by Lino Olivieri, whose family grow the olives down in Puglia, Southern Italy and also run the much-recommended Agriturismo Colletta Antonetta. Lino is the partner of my friend The Connoisseur so I've been hearing about his home, those olive trees and that oil for several years now.

Last year I got the chance to get my hands on my first five-litre tin of the olive oil and I got so used to using it for cooking, dressing salads and on bread that it ran out much too quickly. The major problem with using such a fantastic product is that you get spoilt and it's very difficult to go back to using just any old olive oil. If you're looking for a Christmas present for someone who loves their food – or just for yourself – then contact Lino (details on the website here) or head to the Dublin Food Co Op this Saturday to grab a few tins. The best olive oil in Ireland? Taste and see...

Gubbeen have started sending out a great email flyer recently to their mailing list with information on their well-known cheese, Clovis' garden, cooking the fabulous Gubbeen hams, the rare breed chickens that Giana rears around the farmyard and how Fingal makes Gubbeen Salami.

Fingal is one of the people that we talked to for Foodtalk and the afternoon that we spent with him at the Gubbeen Farm – it's a large mixed farm so there were plenty of pigs grunting, banabhs squealing, chickens clucking and calves mooing – was one of the many highlights of our recording days. The show featuring himself and Jacque Barry of Jacque's Restaurant in Cork will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108 fm from 1.30pm on Christmas Day.

You can sign up for the newsletter here – it's well worth it: this month there's even a piece on Willie Harcourt Cooze's Venezuelan Black chocolate (remember Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory on C4 a few months ago?) as well as a recipe from another Foodtalk interviewee - Carmel Somers of the Good Things Café.

Only got a chance to look at yesterday's Irish Times today and found Marie-Claire Digby's article on foodie websites and food bloggers, which mentions some of my favourite Irish sites including greatfood.ie, icecreamireland.com, quirkykitchen.blogspot.com, englishmum.com - and Bibliocook.com!

A Day at elBulli by Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler, and Albert Adrià

The demand for seats at Ferran Adrià's elBulli restaurant in Northern Spain is such that only a fraction of the people who want to will ever get to eat there. Its pedigree is well known - three stars from Michelin, a chef who is the king of molecular gastronomy, two million requests a season for only 8,000 places, four times named best restaurant in the world.

However, despite all this, elBulli operates at a loss. The money comes in from Adrià's lectures and books like this that fan the flames of the legend even as they purport to show how the restaurant works.

A Day at elBulli documents a day's worth of activities. Pictures, menus and a few recipes - more to instill respect than for reproduction at home - tell the story from behind the scenes. Adrià, together with restaurant manager Soler and his brother/fellow chef Albert, give you a glimpse into a kitchen where very little cooking, in the way we understand it, takes place. It is mysterious and magical and fascinating, the inserts that focus on certain parts of the restaurant's methodology being particularly engaging.

A Day at elBulli is not a cookbook but an intriguing insight into Adrià's creative processes and the inner workings of elBulli. Handsome and hefty, a coffee table book in both senses - for putting on and using as - of the phrase.

A Day at elBulli by Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler, and Albert Adrià is published by Phaidon Press (£29.95).

It's baking central online at the moment - not yet at the cottage, as I'm still looking for a chance to put a belated batch of sweet mince together for the mince pies of Christmas! - but there are lots of lovely ideas out there for anyone who has a little more time.

Dan Lepard's list of seasonal and just plain helpful tips from the experts about putting mashed potato in your bread dough for a softer crumb, making oatcakes in large quantities, keeping cookie dough in the fridge for quick slicing and baking and making bread dough in advance for better flavour are a great read.

Anyone who likes baking will love the Gourmet round up of the magazine's favourite cookies since 1941. The introductory paragraphs for each decade give an overview of Gourmet through the years and there are plenty of amazing cookies to try making. I really like the look of the Apricot Chews (1966), Mocha Toffee Bars (1987) and the Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies (2006) look right up my street.It's a veritable feast of divinely photographed sweet things.

I know it may be summer at the other side of the world and some of the recipes aren't exactly appropriate but Taste Magazine's Christmas guide is well worth checking out, especially for variations on the traditional - try out the Mincemeat and Apricot Streusel Squares if you're fed up with the fuss of old-school Mince Pies, I've a jar of homemade mixed peel just waiting to be turned into Spiced Shortbread and the freezer section covers a whole lot of simple cook-ahead options for the 12 days of Christmas.

The Good Things Café in Durrus is holding a pre-Christmas Open Day next Sunday, 14 December, from 12 noon to 4pm. Its chef-owner, Carmel Somers, was one of the people that I interviewed for Foodtalk on Newstalk. We spent an afternoon talking about the time she first tasted limes in boarding school, heading off to Paris to work in kitchens there, cooking for Jane Grigson in London and how she uses spices with readily available Irish ingredients like turnip and cabbage.

She is paired in the Spices programme with Arun Kapil of Green Saffron, which will be broadcast on Sunday 11 January. The cafe is in a gorgeous location, out on the Sheep's Head Peninsula in West Cork, so it's well worth a visit. There's more information below.

How could anyone resist bringing boxes and boxes of these home? I was just about to leave the supermarket (when travelling, I treat foreign supermarkets like museums - as a way of seeing into another culture - plus, there's always chocolate) when I saw a display of these and I couldn't resist grabbing a stack of them. Other than that, and several slabs of chocolate, I was rather restrained this time round.

Arriving on a Sunday meant that I was kept away from the farmers' markets and, although the Christmas Markets were very atmospheric - especially after a glass of warm cherry beer - I was content to look rather than buy. We walked our legs off, covering miles and miles cris-crossing the city each day. But, as the Husband said, the more you walk the more you can eat and what with the cold and the exercise we needed few excuses for regular refreshment stops. There were lots of opportunities mapped into the day for checking out the Swartzbier in a variety of locations (can you tell that the Husband had time to plan for the trip?!) but it wasn't much of a sacrifice as there was plenty of good food available, especially in the brewpubs.

Visit Brewbaker, next to Bellevue S-bahn station (official German site here), for what the Husband called kick-arse Swartzbier as well as well-flavoured pumpkin lager - we had spent the early afternoon waiting for it to open at the nearby Valmontone restaurant so didn't get to sample their much-recommended food. Make sure you're around Brauhaus Lemke, which is very near Alexanderplatz, at lunchtime for an all-you-can eat (of very decent food) buffet for €6.80. The Husband was in heaven, especially when their Original turned out to be a very good accompaniment to lunch. Must try focusing on German wines next time!

Check out Arun Kapil – at full speed! – demonstrating how to make Green Saffron's Aromatic Mince Pies, with oodles of apples, lots of spices and even a splash of rose water in the pastry for last Monday's Afternoon Show. The video and recipe are all here on RTE.ie/food.

On Monday night we launched Foodtalk on Newstalk at Thornton's Restaurant on Stephen's Green. It was great to see so many of the people that I interviewed on my trips around the country there – Fingal Ferguson came armed with cheese and lots of other Gubbeen goodies, Green Saffron's Arun Kapil had plenty of spices to smell and taste (just put me near his fennel seeds and watch them disappear!), while the Murphy's Ice Cream boys - Kieran and Sean - turned up with a selection of ice cream snowmen which had us oohing and ahhing in delight before we dug in and promptly demolished them.

All over now, just the broadcasts to look forward to, starting on Christmas Day at 1.30pm. I know the Husband and I will be back at Pruntus with all my family for Christmas so it's going to be a real traditional gather 'round the wireless while in the midst of Christmas dinner preparation at the Hennessy household! Don't forget to tune in...

It started with a phone call in the early summer. The brothers behind Soundsdoable wanted to know if I was interested in working with them on a series of radio documentaries about food. I didn't need to be asked twice. It was the start of an intense and fascinating time - journeys around Ireland in all kinds of inclement Irish summer weather to interview a variety of producers and chefs and the chance to record with chef (and fellow blogger) Kevin Thornton.

Now all the hard work has paid off and we are good to go, the series - Foodtalk on Newstalk - kicking off on Christmas Day on Newstalk 106-108 fm. Hope you get to listen!

Foodtalk on Newstalk

Program 1: "Livestock" (Christmas Day, 1.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy hunt down some fine meats and discuss Kevin's project to rear Irish Kobe beef.
Guests: Jacque Barry from Jacques Restaurant, Cork and Fingal Ferguson of the Gubbeen Smokehouse, Schull, West Cork

+ Program 2: "Seafood" (New Year's Day, 4.30pm)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy share their pleasure in eating seafood.
Guests: Tony Daly from The Lime Tree, Kenmare, and Paul Kelly, mussel farmer and goldsmith, from Kilmackillogue

+ Programme 3: "Spices" (11th Jan)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy marvel at the power of spices.
Guests: Carmel Somers from The Good Things Café, Durrus, Co Cork and Arun Kapil of Green Saffron, Midleton, East Cork

+ Program 4: "Wild Food" (18th Jan)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy gather up an armload of free, wild food.
Guests: Áine Maguire from Kueppersbusch and Seamus Moran of LoTide Fine Foods, Westport, Co Mayo

+ Program 5: "Dairy" (25th Jan)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy explore all things creamy.
Guests: Aoibheann McNamara, Ard Bia, Galway and Kieran Murphy from Murphy's Ice Cream, Dingle

+ Programme 6: "Garden" (1st Feb)
Kevin Thornton and Caroline Hennessy marvel at the good things a garden has to offer, and wonders how many more of us will now start to grow our own.
Guests: Henry Stone from The Sha-Roe Bistro, Clonegal, Co Carlow and Ultan Walsh of Gort-Na-Nain Organic Farm, Nohoval, Cork, who grows the veg for (among others) Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso.

Christmas Gifts for Food Lovers

* If you have a friend that loves extra virgin olive oil, why not give them an olive tree for Christmas? Nudo, an olive grove in Italy's Le Marche region, offers the opportunity to adopt an olive tree for a year. They'll receive an adoption certificate, a spring package of 1.5-2 litres of organically produced olive oil from their tree and an autumn treat of three infused extra virgin olive oils. The adoption costs £65 plus postage and packaging (approximately €83 plus €30 p&p). Web: nudo-italia.com

* Hampers are always a welcome gift when you're visiting over Christmas and if you turn up with Carluccio's Cassettiera (€74.95) you'll be welcomed with open arms. This is a veritable feast in a two-drawer red box, with a selection of three wines, sauces and pastas from different Italian regions. Gift boxes start from a Chef's Stocking at €11.95 to €129.95 for Carluccio's extensive selection of Italian groceries. The Christmas range is available in store at Carluccio's Caffè, 52 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 and can be ordered from 01-6708613 or sales@carluccios.ie

* For the younger cook in your life, take a look at Miniamo kids cooking equipment from Lakelands. This brightly coloured kitchenware set (£9.99) is specially sized for little hands and, if you can resist from hanging on to them yourself, are sure to tempt children into the kitchen to "help out" with food preparation. Parents will also appreciate the fact that the utensils are dishwasher friendly and made from durable melamine and silicone. The Miniamo range - and lots of other cooks' treats - is available from lakeland.co.uk. Delivery charges to Ireland start at £5 for orders up to £20.

* If you know someone who's passionate about trying out new cheese, membership of the Sheridans Cheese Club is the gift to give. Each month, Sheridans decide on a theme - perhaps regional specialities of Italy or Portugal - select three or four ripe seasonal cheeses and send them out to their subscribers, along with suitable accompaniments, cheese tasting notes and information on wine matching. Membership costs €35 per month and you can subscribe for any length of time. To join the Cheese Club, contact any of the Sheridans' shops or email cheeseclub@sheridanscheesemongers.com. Web: sheridanscheesemongers.com

* Magazine subscriptions are the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you tailor your choice specifically to the recipient. For intelligent articles and innovative recipes, the American Gourmet magazine is a must (one year's international subscription is $38 from gourmet.com). Anyone who's ever appreciated fine New Zealand food and wine will appreciate that country's award-winning Cuisine (one year costs NZ$105, cuisine.co.nz) and delicious. from the UK has plenty of familiar names (one year for £43.60, call +44 844 848 8419).

* Learn how to mix and shake at the regular Cocktail Master Classes run in the First Floor Restaurant and Bar at Harvey Nichols, Dundrum. Each Thursday evening session runs from 7.30pm to 9.30pm: choose from lessons on the chemistry and alchemy of modern mixology or learn about classics like the Martini, Manhattan and Margarita, while nibbling on delectable canapés. Pick up a voucher from Harvey Nichols for the Master Class (€50 per person) or make a night of it and go for the Master Class followed by a one course dinner and a glass of wine in the First Floor Restaurant (€75). For further information call 01 2910488 or email firstfloor.reservations@harveynichols.com. Web: harveynichols.com

* Getting cookbooks at Christmas time allows you the time to snuggle down, read and relish and there are plenty on the shelves to choose from. Skye Gyngall gives lots of seasonal ideas in her latest book My Favourite Ingredients (Quadrille, £25), the lavish Venezia sees Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books, £25) eat, write and travel in Venice and Rachel Allen's Bake (Collins, £20) will satisfy all those sweet cravings. Richard Corrigan's stylish The Clatter of Forks and Spoons (Fourth Estate, £25) concentrates on back-to-basics Irish cooking and any vegetarians on your Christmas list will be delighted with Cornucopia at Home (Cork University Press, €39). The charming Cooking Lessons by Daisy Garnett (Quadrille, £12.99) is an enjoyable memoir with recipes but, for the real deal get your hands on A Day at elBulli (Phaidon Press, £29.95) by Ferran Adrià which explores the intriguing behind the scenes world at the legendary Spanish restaurant.

The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part One
The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part Two

Residential Cookery Courses - Island Adventures
One of the best presents you can give someone is confidence in the kitchen and that's exactly what a voucher for a cookery course is designed to do. Of course, learning is so much easier when the school is located in a beautiful area - or even on an island.

Located on the 470-acre Belle Isle Estate, which is spread across eight islands in the northern part of Upper Lough Erne, the Belle Isle School of Cookery offers a selection of tempting learning experiences, all of which are hands-on and limited to just 12 students. Chef and manager Liz Moore has created a wide range of courses, including days focusing on vegetarian and ethnic cookery and their heavily subscribed two or three day seasonal entertaining courses.

Lack of previous cooking experience is not a deterrent and students leave with folders of recipes, lots of tips and the practical experience to make the most of what they have learned. A variety of luxurious self-catering accommodation is on offer, non-cooking partners included, with everyone gathering together to enjoy the day's cooking at a sociable evening meal.

Vouchers for the Belle Isle School of Cookery are available for one, two and three day courses or for any amount of your choice. Belle Isle School of Cookery, Lisbellaw, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, BT94 5HG. Web: irish-cookery-school.com Tel: +44 28 6638 7231 Email: info@irish-cookery-school.com

Small is beautiful, especially when it comes to Island Cottage, which is perhaps the world's littlest cookery school. Situated on Heir Island, just off the coast of Skibbereen in West Cork, your friendly hosts are renowned Irish chef John Desmond and his wife Ellmary Fenton who specialise in weekend residential courses for just two people.

John and Ellemary set up the acclaimed Island Cottage restaurant in 1989. Now they also run bespoke cooking classes, based on the seasonal dishes John cooks in the restaurant - fish caught in the seas around the island, local meat, fresh vegetables, cheese made nearby. The first day's cooking lets students see how it all works; stakes are raised on the second day as they can invite six guests to the lunch that they have prepared but, with John's sure hand at the helm, no one is going home hungry.

Island Cottage offers two-day cookery courses from April 2009, for two people at €350 per person, including an overnight stay. For vouchers and booking details call Ellmary Fenton at +353 28 38102. Island Cottage, Heir Island, Skibbereen, West Cork. Web: islandcottage.com Tel: +353 28 38102 Email: info@islandcottage.com

The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part One
The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part Three

The first of my contributions to last Thursday's Irish Times Christmas Supplement...

A Foodie Getaway in Ireland: The Old Convent

What do you want from a weekend getaway? A romantic location that is not too obvious, yet easily accessible? A relaxed atmosphere, stylish comfortable bedrooms, fabulous breakfasts and a dinner to die for? In that case, head straight to Dermot and Christine Gannon's The Old Convent. Situated in the small Tipperary town of Clogheen, this hidden treasure is nestled at the foot of the Knockmealdown mountains. Dermot and Christine established their restaurant with rooms here, in the former home of the Sisters of Mercy, in 2006 and have since been attracting customers from far and wide.

The main draw, of course, is Dermot's creative eight-course no-choice tasting menu, created afresh each day with a focus on organic and local artisan produce, including Trass raspberries, North Cork pancetta, Dunmore East crab and Gabriel cheese. Dinner is served at 8pm in an atmospheric candlelit dining room. From well-balanced appetisers, seasonal veloutés and sorbets, beautifully cooked fish and meats to the grand finale, The OC signature Chocolate Fondue, the meal is brilliantly paced and perfectly presented.

Overnight guests can see that Dermot's quality standards don't lapse overnight, with a fine breakfast to look forward to (don't miss the Skillet Baked Organic Eggs) when you manage to rise from the bed. His assured cooking is expertly complimented with Christine's thoughtful hospitality. From the moment you arrive at The Old Convent, you feel cossetted and taken care of. Enjoy the roaring fire in the drawing room or take advantage of the residents' mini-kitchen, stocked with a selection of herbal teas, fruit and chocolate. If you can motivate yourself enough to leave this comfortable nest, Christine can also recommend plenty of options for outings nearby, including a scenic trip over the Vee to Lismore with plenty of mountain walks to work up your appetite for the feast to come, a historic day rambling around Cahir Castle and the Rock of Cashel, or even a romantic cliff walk by the sea in Ardmore.

The Weekend
Treat the one you love to a Two Night Hideaway in The Old Convent - two nights B&B plus one eight-course dinner for two people - for €450.
The Old Convent, Mount Anglesby, Clogheen, Co Tipperary. Web: www.theoldconvent.ie Tel: 052 65565 Email: info@theoldconvent.ie

More Eating
After those breakfasts - and with dinner in your sights - you may not need to consume anything extra for the round of the weekend but, should you get nibblish, there are also plenty of eating opportunities nearby.

Keeping with the religous theme, take the road to Cashel for dinner in the converted church that houses Chez Hans, where you can sample their famed Cassoulet of Seafood or eat from one of the well-priced early-bird menus. During the day, you can enjoy lunch next door at Café Hans - lots of colourful salads, substantial open sandwiches, a selection of hot dishes and good deserts.
Café Hans, Moor Lane, Cashel Co Tipperary. Tel: 062 63660
Chez Hans, Moore Lane, Cashel, Co Tipperary. Tel: 062 61177
Both open from Tuesday to Saturday

A trip to the heritage town of Lismore leaves you spoilt for choice. Head to Foley's on the Mall and grab a seat in the downstairs room for decent pub food beside an open fire with friendly service but be sure and leave room for pudding afterwards at The Summerhouse Café. Enjoy some decadent sweet things on offer there (make sure you check out the Tunisian Orange Cake), all baked in-store - before you let your credit card lose on the colourful homeware and quirky kitchen equipment for sale.
Foley's on the mall, Main Street, Lismore, Co Waterford. Web: www.foleyslismore.com Tel: 058 53671 Email: info@foleysonthemall.com
The Summerhouse Café, Main Street, Lismore, Co Waterford, Ireland. Web: www.thesummerhouse.ie Tel: 058 54148 Email: info@thesummerhouse.ie

The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part Two
The Irish Times Christmas Supplement : Part Three