Bibliocook: All About Food

Craft butcher Jack McCarthy is a passionate man. Make a visit to his shop in the middle of the main street in Kanturk and be prepared to learn all about his wide range of award-winning meat products. On a quick visit to the town to meet up with the Editor earlier today, I called in to pick up some of my favourite North Cork pancetta. We were only in the door two minutes when Jack had us as a willing audience to taste his intensely savoury air-dried beef. Sliced thinly like Italian Bresaola, it melts in the mouth with a silky texture similar to the finest smoked salmon, leaving a lingering flavour of the spices used in the cure. This innovative craft butcher is like a shark, never standing still – for Jack there's always something to learn or try, a new product to work on, an old one to improve.

A wide variety of sausages were just asking to meet a barbeque: I picked up some of the ones that he makes with local Ardrahan cheese for the next sunny evening at home but could easily have bought twice as much again, so intrigued I was with the flavours on offer. The shop is festooned with awards, including the 2005 Gold Great Taste Award for Jack's spiced dry-cured back rashers, which come vacuum-packed in a striking gold foil packet with his trademark bay leaf. The same product also took the prize for Best Irish Speciality Product that year.

As I drove home, I started planning tomorrow night's dinner. If I can track down some Gabriel cheese, I'll make a spiky salad from the garden (the rocket and mustard are flourishing particularly well), dressed simply with lemon juice and decent olive oil, topped with the jewel-coloured slices of air-dried beef and some shavings of the cheese. But there's also rashers to try, the sausages to barbeque and the pancetta to toss with pasta or make into a superlative BLT. Thankfully Kanturk isn't too far away.

Jack McCarthy Meats, Main Street, Kanturk, Co Cork.
Tel: + 353 29 50178
Web: www.jackmccarthy.ie - Speciality hampers are available to order for delivery in Ireland.
Read Anne Kennedy's impassioned feature on Jack McCarthy at Greatfood.ie.
Watch Jack McCarthy on Nationwide.

Continued from Restaurant Review: The Old Convent - Part I.

The fifth course - a palate-cleansing Organic Lemon and Ginger Sorbet - caused arguments. The Cousins, who are identical twins, thought that the ginger was more pronounced. The rest of us were definitely on the lemon side - as the wine kept flowing, we wondered if the world is divided into lemon-tasters and ginger-tasters.

Revived by the sorbet - and the discussion - we proceeded to another substantial course of Roast Loin of Veal, served with White Bean and Potato Gratin, Roasted Beets and Squash and Limonocello Butter. I'm not a big fan of veal, finding it to be a rather anonymous meat, and, for me, this was the most pedestrian course. Having said that, it was still a good dish and didn't go a-wasting on anyone's plate. I was suffering from near-satiety at that stage, and there were still two more courses to go.

We were just about to get on to the sweet courses when the waitress asked if any of us would be interested in a cheese plate (at an extra €10) to round off the meal. The Ex-Planner Partner wanted one - but refused to share! - so we ordered two, one for him and one for the rest of us. And then we proceeded to wade through a sweet Mango, White Chocolate and Tahitian Vanilla Mousse (the martini glasses made a reappearance here) and the grand finale, which truly lived up to its name. A pair of dark and very sinful chocolate fondues, suspended above flames to keep molten, arrived at our table, surrounded by chunks of banana, strawberries, little almond pyramids, petite chocolate brownies, coconut choc chip cookies and raspberry tartlets. That's when we started to wonder why we had ordered TWO cheese platters.

My attention and appetite were both fading at this stage, my scribblings completed, when Christine arrived at our table and started to tell us that her husband, chef Dermot, was relaxing online after finishing work when he came across a website that mentioned going out for dinner that very night at The Old Convent. Was there a table of six in the dining room? And was there a New Zealander at the table? We were rumbled! The fact that I had been taking (I thought) unobtrusive notes during the meal and photographing the menu may also have been a slight give away.

Our group - my companions highly amused that I had been unmasked - relaxed over the (at-that-stage unnecessary) cheese, served with thin crackers, caramelised pecans, fresh fruit and some preserves from the Trass Farm at Moorstown in Cahir (makers of our favourite Karmine Apple Juice). We made valiant attempts but just weren't up to it. Nine courses in and we had flagged, understandably enough! After we had settled our bill there was just time to check out the Goddess powder room, an attractive hideaway for a bit of nose powdering or lipstick refreshing, and to poke our heads into the cosy drawing room before our taxi arrived on the doorstep to take us back to Clonmel.

The Old Convent was the perfect place for a relaxed evening with friends and family - no rushing, racing or trying to speed people along so that a second sitting can be accommodated - and the six of us thoroughly enjoyed our experience of fine dining, Tipperary-style. If you don't want to run the risk of your taxi driver being too relaxed about getting there, it is also possible to stay at one of the seven recently renovated rooms upstairs. The Gannons cater for tailor-made romantic weekends and breakfasts, according to reviews, are well up to the standard of the meal that we enjoyed. A long walk in the nearby Knockmealdown Mountains may be the only antidote to this superb style of cosseting.

The Old Convent, Clogheen, Co Tipperary, 052 65565. www.theoldconvent.ie

When you're going out for an eagerly anticipated eight-course meal at a restaurant in the middle of the Tipperary countryside it would be nice to turn up a little early, take some time to appreciate the setting and relax while perusing the wine list. In an ideal world. As it happened, ten minutes after we were supposed to arrive, the Boyfriend and I - plus my Clonmel-based and Dublin-based Cousins, accompanied by the Chilli-Intolerant Husband and the Ex-Planner Partner - were still chugging along in a Clonmel taxi that seemed to be in no hurry to get us to our destination. As we pulled up outside the imposing frontage of The Old Convent, just outside Clogheen, there was a mad scramble to pay, figure out when we should be collected and get out of the taxi but, as soon as we set foot on the black and white tiled floor of the elegant hallway, all stress was over. Calmly greeted and smoothly ushered to our table by proprietor Christine Gannon, we settled into an evening of superb food, wonderful wine and great service.

The Old Convent, a true gourmet hideaway, offers a deceptively simple service: an eight course tasting meal for just €50. As we settled into our seats in the candle-lit dining room, complete with stained glass windows from its former incarnation, we were presented with the wine list and our attention was directed to a framed menu on the table. Christine's husband, Dermot Gannon, is the chef and he places a decided emphasis on well-sourced ingredients - Ballybrado Organic Pork, Blakes Organic Chocolate, Ardsallagh, Crozier Blue and Gubbeen Chorizo all featured on the menu.

As we wondered how we were going to be able to eat our way from Ardsallagh Mac 'n Cheese with Gubbeen Chorizo, all the way to an Old Convent signature dish - a fondue made with Blakes's organic and fairtrade chocolate - the first course arrived on the table. Beautifully presented in martini glasses, a little scoop of macaroni cheese, made with diminutive pasta shapes, was topped with thin slices of Fingal Ferguson's savoury chorizo. Elegant and satisfying, the portion size also reassured us that we might yet manage to make it to the eighth course.

We continued with a Ballybrado Organic Pork Salad, the meat tender to the touch of a fork, accompanied by salad leaves, Crozier Blue cheese, poached pears, caramelised pecans and a dark, sweetly spiced dressing. This was a substantial portion but a slight breather, in the form of an espresso cup of creamy and delicious Vanilla Pea Velouté with Mint Oil followed. The fish course was next - layers of Steamed Salmon and Hake, sitting on a Pistachio and Saffron Risotto with a Dublin Bay Prawn Bisque. The notes I was scribbling start to get shorter and less detailed from this stage of the meal as I put my full attention to the dishes and the wine in front of me.

We had ordered bottles of Aotea Sauvignon Blanc 2006, purely because of its Nelson connection, and, on Christine's recommendation, Esencia Valdemar Rioja 2005. Neither bottle disappointed. Although I have been annoyed in the past by over-enthusiastic refilling of my wine glass, the well-trained staff at The Old Convent got the balance right between being attentive and merely trying to sell an extra bottle. In fact, two tiny incidents aside, the service was exemplary throughout, something that has become increasingly rare in my experience of restaurants in Ireland.

To be continued....

The Old Convent, Clogheen, Co Tipperary, 052 65565. www.theoldconvent.ie

Thanks to Marco and Marcello, my hosts at the Italian School of Cooking, where I attended a class on pasta making last night. As well as learning how easy it is to make pasta without a machine - I was dead proud of my attempts at orecchiette! - I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, eating and drinking, meeting people and being serenaded over dinner by a very enthusiastic Marco. The school, which is centrally located in Rathmines, is definitely worth checking out. Time to pick up a bag of durum flour from the Italian shop in Ranelagh for some pasta-making experiments down at the cottage.

I'd be the first to admit that, despite my frequent use and consumption of the fruit of the vine, I don't know much about wine. This is something that I've been meaning to remedy by doing a wine-tasting course but life, somehow, always manages to get in the way. Perhaps a resolution for 2007? I've already missed the first night of the La Cave Wine Tasting Programme but, should I be organised enough, there's plenty more to savour in the coming weeks - must see if I can get there for the evening that features New Zealand Pinot Noir! These events take place in the small French wine bar on South Anne Street from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Each tasting costs €30, which includes all wines and a light meal of cheese, salami and pâté.

Monday 29 January
Introduction to Wine Varietals: Part 1
Riesling (Germany), Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand), Chardonnay (France), Viognier (Argentina), Cabernet Sauvignon (USA), Merlot (Chile), Shiraz (Australia), Grenache (France)

Monday 5 February
Introduction to Wine Varietals: Part 2
Pinot Grigio (Italy), Chenin Blanc (South Africa), Torrontes (Argentina), Albarino (Spain), Sangiovese (Italy), Tempranillo (Spain), Malbec (Argentina), Pinot Noir (New Zealand)

Monday 12 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 1
Loire, Rhone

Monday 19 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 2
Burgundy, Beaujolais, Alsace

Monday 26 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 3
Bordeaux, Cahors/Bergerac/Madiran, Jura

Monday 5 March
Introduction to French Wines: Part 4
Champagne/Sparkling, Provence/Languedoc-Roussillon

Monday 12 March
Matching Food and Wine
What works, what doesn't work

For more information and bookings, you can contact La Cave Wine Bar.

New Zealand cafés still continue to surprise and delight me. A moist Spinach Risotto Cake at Reid's Store during a break while driving to Nelson the morning after we arrived, eaten in bright sunshine outside on the decking was my re-introduction to café cooking, NZ style on this trip. There were other days of happy eating. Marinated Lamb on a Puy Lentil Salad with lemon yoghurt dressing at Nelson's Morrison Street Café, with a glass of local sauvignon blanc; a sticky, dried fruit-packed, gluten free Ginger Slice with a long black, milk on the side (my coffee order of choice in NZ) in Muses Café, Motueka, en route to the Boyfriend's family bach in Ngaio Bay; a last Christchurch breakfast of a fresh-baked savoury Spinach and Cream Cheese Muffin followed by an enormous date-studded sweet scone outside Veronica's Café on New Regent Street, soaking up the last rays of sun as we watched the tourist trams going past.

The secret seems to lie with the fresh-baked, often on the premises, scones, muffins and slices, good ingredients - many cafés (try Under the Red Verandah or Vic's Café, both in Christchurch) trumpet their use of free range eggs and local produce - and proprietors and customers who won't accept stale, prepacked goods made at one location and shipped all over the country as is all too often the case in Ireland. One of the few cafés I've found in Ireland that comes close to the NZ ideal is Michelle Darmody's Cake Café (there's a short piece about it here) in Dublin, even down to the mismatched, old fashioned dishes and cups that feature in my favourite Kiwi cafés.

It's often the small things in NZ cafés that make a customer feel cared for - a carafe of water either arriving on your table first thing or readily available; airy toilets which look like they have been cleaned recently; piles of things available to read while you eat, often including Cuisine, Taste and Dish and a couple of cookbooks. It's always reassuring to see café staff interested in food-oriented publications! The only place I've seen something like this in Ireland is in the delectable Café Paradiso in Cork which, funnily enough, is run by a half-Kiwi couple.

There is always an exception, and on this trip it was the Cityside Café in the ground floor International Terminal of Christchurch airport. Pasty rolls were stuffed with an indeterminate green-flecked paste that went under the name of spinach and feta. A stale chocolate muffin topped with an oddly misplaced dab of raspberry jam made me feel right at home, being a good example of the kind of sweet thing on offer in many Irish cafés. My flat white was barely lukewarm and, for a last taste of NZ, it really was a disappointing experience. Next time I'll make sure I bring in my muffins from Muffin Break - a shopping center café chain that manages to get it right, albeit in (usually) horrible surroundings, with decent muffins and lots of gluten-free options. At least their coffee is made with hot milk!

Well, after a few years of searching - plus 2½ never-ending months of frustrating to-ing and fro-ing with mortgage providers, solicitors and auctioneers - the Boyfriend and I have finally managed to take possession of a little country cottage, our Irish bach, in North County Cork. It is a typically small Irish cottage with a pair of small bedrooms upstairs. It could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as roomy although the current lack of furniture does make it feel slightly more spacious!

Last Saturday was spent scrubbing and scouring every surface before we spent our first night there so, as you can imagine, very little cooking was done. We brought a couple of Nigella's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cakes down with us (Cee at Kitchen on Clarendon has the recipe online here), for visitors and to encourage the cleaners' morale at low blood-sugar moments. All meals seem to have been eaten at speed as we listed all the things that we had yet to organise. My exploration of my new kitchen was limited to turning on the cooker to heat up some comforting Chicken Noodle Soup that travelled over from my mother's 15-miles-distant kitchen in a borrowed saucepan.

Luckily we bought a table and chairs with the house so, even if there wasn't much time for eating there was something to sit at and on. Even better, we've also acquired a damson tree (and a pot of delicious damson jam from the former owners), a few blackcurrant bushes, three still-fruiting apple trees and a half an acre of overgrown land, already complete with numerous inhabitants of the rabbit variety. Looks like the Boyfriend's dream veggie garden may have to wait until we figure out a way of dealing with the infestation. At the moment, as we will still continue to live and rent in Dublin during the week, it may be a little difficult to figure out how best to rid ourselves of the beasties. Rabbit Stew, anyone?

Whether you're in Dublin or Christchurch, New Zealand this weekend, there are plenty of Slow Food-organised events taking place. The Christchurch branch have their second "how to survive when ship-wrecked" morning by the sea taking place on Saturday 23 September. Led by Slow Food member, amateur botanist, professional fishing guide and enthusiastic forager Peter Langlands, participants will spend the morning gathering seaweeds, shellfish, crustaceans and fish from Canterbury's shoreline at Port Levy. Information on species identification, harvesting and cooking techniques will be combined with some cautionary notes. Car pooling will take place from the CPIT car park at 9:30am. You can email Convivium Leader Bill Bryce for directions and hopefully you'll avoid what happened to me last year - a frustrating hour spent waiting in the wrong CPIT car park!

Also in Christchurch, on Sunday 24 September, The Bicycle Thief restaurant will host a family-style meal cooked by chef Nik Mavromatis to raise money for Nik to attend the Slow Food Terra Madre conference and Salone del Gusto in Turin in October. The dinner will be at 6pm on the Sunday of September 24th and the cost will be $70 per person for five courses, including wine. I've eaten Nik's fantastic food at the café in the Mediterranean Food Company and he was the inspirational teacher for classes I attended there on Tapas and pasta-making. I can tell you where I'd be on Sunday night, were I in New Zealand, especially with a menu like this...

Canapes and cocktails at 6pm, followed by:
Bagna Cauda with witloof, cardoons, baby vegetables and organic rye
bread. Wine - Cracroft Chase Pinot Gris 2005
Trio of shared pasta dishes: Gorgonzola Gnocchi, Buckwheat Pasta with
Salmon Roe and Crème Fraiche, Butternut Pumpkin and Sage Ravioli. Wine - San Silvestre 2003 Barbera D'Alba
Roast Porchetta with Cavolo Nero and Puy Lentils. Wine - Pegasus Bay 2004 Pinot Noir
Masticha-infused Rice Pudding with Rhubarb Compote. Wine - Lombardo Sicilian Moscato NV

On this side of the world, at Sunday's Farmleigh Food Market in Phoenix Park the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium will launch a new label which will be used by the producers to designate cheese made from high quality raw Irish milk. The cheesemakers will be there to give tastings and talk about their cheese and Kevin Sheridan, one of the co-ordinators of the Presidia, will be giving a talk at 3pm on Irish raw cow's milk cheeses as a part of the Farmleigh culinary month. Kevin, of Sheridan's Cheesemongers, is passionate - some might say evangelical - about good cheese and about Irish raw milk cheese in particular. At a recent Slow Food Dublin evening he talked us through samples of Drumlin, Cooleeney Raw, Mount Callan Cheddar and the stunning Bellingham Blue.

The cheeses which are a part of the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium are:
- Drumlin made by Silke Cropp in Cavan
- Cooleeney Raw made by Breda Maher in Tipperary
- Mount Callan Cheddar made by Lucy Hayes in Co Clare
- Dilliskus made by Maja Bindler in Dingle, Co Kerry
- Bellingham Blue made by Peter Thomas in Co Louth
- St Gall made by Frank and Gudrun Shinnick in Co Cork
- Durrus made by Jeffa Gill in Co Cork
More information on the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium is online here and the Cáis (Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers Association) website is at www.irishcheese.ie

Also watch out, the following weekend, for the Temple Bar Food Market's 10th Birthday Party on Saturday 30 September with talks and demonstrations in Meeting House Square and at the Cultivate Centre at SS Michael & John's Church.

If you're down in West Cork this weekend, or can make your way there, the Taste of West Cork Food Festival started in Skibbereen last night with a dinner which featured local products like Gubeen Bacon, Union Hall Smoked Salmon, Gallan Cream Cheese, Beara Preserves and Ó Conaill Chocolates.

Other events that will take place include a field trip to Gubbeen Farm, guided by cheesemaker extraordinaire Giana Ferguson; Saturday's Mystery Dine Out Night - you buy a ticket and are told where you're having dinner; and the Wild and Organic lunch at Kalbo's Bistro. And, most important of all, don't miss talented young Irish artist Neva Elliott serving tea and cakes at the Archiving Skibbereen Studio in the West Cork Arts Centre!

For some recipes using products from West Cork - marketed under the Fuchisa Brand - get your hands on 2004 Collins Press publication, A Taste of West Cork.

I'm not a fan of RTÉ's Late Late Show but there was a debate about Irish food on last week's programme which you can watch from this page. An aggressive and rambling Richard Corrigan doesn't come off very well but Derek Davis manages to defuse the situation, while still managing to get his points about Irish food - and they're not complimentary - across.

For all those Rachel Allen fans out there - and I know that there are lots of you! - she returns to RTÉ One next week with a new television series called Rachel's Favourite Food at Home. A hardback cookbook to accompany the series is published by HarperCollins and it's difficult to walk into any Irish bookshop at the moment without tripping over a stack of them!

The show starts at 7.30pm on Wednesday 13 September and here's the blurb on the book from the HarperCollins site:

Rachel's Favourite Food at Home draws on international influences, classic regional fare and good old family favourites to provide creative options for every occasion, whether planning a simple family meal, hosting a festive dinner for the entire clan, squeezing in a sneaky romantic meal for two, heading out for a glorious picnic, chilling out on the sofa with your favourite comfort food, or spending time baking muffins with the kids.

I was in the heart of County Wicklow yesterday, listening as the Irish branch of Euro-toques, a European-wide community of cooks and chefs, debated the idea of Ireland as a culinary destination. Held at the lovely Brooklodge Hotel in Macreddin Village, this was Euro-toques Ireland's fifth National Food Forum. Chaired by Peter Ward of Country Choice delicatessen in Nenagh, the panel consisted of Colman Andrews, former editor-in-chief of US food magazine, Saveur; John McKenna, the man behind the Bridgestone Guides; artisan butcher, market trader and sausage-maker extraordinaire Ed Hicks; editor of The Dubliner, Trevor White; and John Mulcahy of Failte Ireland, who provide training and development services for the tourism and hospitality industry.

Far more questions were raised than could be answered or even properly debated over the course of the brief two-and-a-half-hour gathering, including the enormous gulf between perceptions of foodie Ireland and the reality. John McKenna spoke passionately about the facsimile Irish experience currently been offered to guests in hotels and restaurants throughout the country and emphasised the fact that a food culture would only develop as good people do good things individually and at their own pace. The need to encourage Irish people to eat well was also stated by Trevor White, and Ed Hicks encouraged local authorities to demonstrate an intelligent appreciation of guidelines towards the market traders that have such an important role to play in local communities and in enriching visitors' experiences of Ireland.

As the panel discussion ended, only to be continued on an individual basis throughout the afternoon, a food fair was in full swing outside throughout the showers and sunshine with many of the usual suspects - apple juice, cheese, organic vegetables - joined by less familiar Irish blueberries and Boozeberries, nettle preserve from Bluebell Organic Farm and Meadowsweet Apiaries' beeswax and honey lip balm. Although the day ended very pleasantly with a thoroughly enjoyable organic and wild food barbeque in the idyllic grounds of Brooklodge, it now remains to be seen what - if anything - emerges from yesterday's discussions.

Related stories: Choice in the country April 06, 2006

Life - in the form of friends' weddings, new babies and house buying - has gotten in the way of updates here in the last while but, even though I haven't been cooking or baking very much recently, it hasn't stopped me from either eating or investigating interesting new food products. While the Boyfriend and I were down at home in County Cork last weekend, I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to my beloved English Market and Quay Co-op in Cork city and these are a few of the things that I'm trying at the moment:

- Sowan's Organic Bread Mixes. Super Spelt bread for lunch today. Yum!
- Lovingly made and beautifully wrapped farmhouse butter from Glenilen Farm, who also make picnic-perfect gorgeous little yoghurt/fruit compote pots.
- Some cheese-encrusted baps and sourdough bread from the Quay Co-op bakery.
- A bag of the Ballymaloe-recommended oatmeal from Macroom Mills and a bag of their new wholemeal flour for when I get back to my porridge and brown bread-making.
- Govender's Mango and Almond Chutney for the aforementioned lunchtime sandwiches.
- A pack of Ummera Smoked Dry Cured Bacon which contains both back bacon and my favourite streaky rashers.
- Some spicy nut and seed Mexican Mix from The Organic Garden.

Things I didn't bring back - but should have - include feta, olives and pesto from The Real Olive Company, some of On the Pig's Back's terrines, cheese and membrillo (quince paste) from Iago and some ciabatta rolls from the ABC bread company but my bags were already full - and my pockets empty. The English Market's Farmgate Café was tempting and there were good smells coming from Joup but my custom was already promised to the small, but perfectly formed, Idaho Café on Caroline Street, and I wasn't disappointed.

You can read more about the English Market in Darina Allen's piece for the Examiner here - she also mentions the innovative Café Paradiso - and there are also some great photos of the market on Donncha O Caoimh's blog.

Thursday was a searingly hot day in Dublin and, even come evening time, there was little respite from the heat in the city center. Sun-warmed crowds pooled outside bars and restaurants, Mediterranean-style. It was not an evening to be indoors so, when the Boyfriend and I arrived for a 7.30pm booking at Grafton Street fish restaurant Mackerel and spotted seats outside on the narrow balcony, we grabbed them as soon as we could hot-foot across the room.

Mackerel is located upstairs in the old Bewley's Café premises - now taken over by another branch of the becoming-ubiquitous Café Bar Deli - and it keeps to the dark-wood Bewley's template with smart green marble tables. The tiny outdoors area had just enough space for side-by-side seating on low stools, with a simple wooden shelf, just wide enough to hold the plates, as a table. But the main draw, apart from the light, refreshing breeze, was being able to almost invisibly observe the bustle of a busy Grafton Street.

A selection of good bread - slices of tomato and fennel, a dense brown bread and some seed and fruit loaf - arrived with the menus; a just-printed page of that day's catch and a regular menu of starters, desserts, cocktails and coffees. The Boyfriend was in fish-heaven, deliberating over sole, cod, organic salmon and John Dory. Eventually he decided on a Grilled Fillet of Plaice with Leek Sauce while I went for Grilled Whole Mackerel with a Chorizo Crust. A glass of crisp Manzanilla La Gitana with a bowl of plain olives served as a starter and then onwards to the fish end of thing.

One small problem: I had never had mackerel before and, minutes after my lovingly prepared piscine pal arrived in front of me, discovered that it wasn't really my thing. Fortunately, it was much more to the taste of the (long-suffering) Boyfriend so we swapped plates, he to deal with the small bones and rich flesh of the mackerel while I discovered that delicate plaice, and particularly its creamy accompanying sauce, more agreeable. A dish of vegetables - red onions, cherry tomatoes and potatoes, all roasted and served with some buttered new potatoes and deliciously crunchy green beans - and some extra bread served to mop up the juices. We were less adventurous on the wine side of things, choosing a French Sauvignon Blanc (Le Clou Cotes Du Duras, 2004) which was pleasant although nothing special.

Although it was a light meal, the wine and the heat kept us from ordering any deserts, despite the Boyfriend dallying over the menu and seriously considering their Chocolate Fudge Cake. I let him think while I trekked down two flights of stairs to the basement bathrooms which, annoyingly, had a woman sitting outside to direct customers to the appropriate area (what? Signs aren't enough any more?) with a tip jar placed prominently before her. This was unnecessary and annoying. There are many pubs around Dublin that I refuse to enter because of similar guardians and I wouldn't like to have to add Mackerel to that list, especially as my espresso was an impeccable example of its kind and our eventual bill came to a very affordable €69.20. Fantastic fish - although I wouldn't go for the eponymous choice next time - the perfect table and great service. Now, if they could just sort out the toilet situation...

€69.20 paid for a dish of olives, glass of sherry, two main courses, a bottle of wine and one expresso. Mackerel is on the first floor of Bewley's at 78 Grafton Street, Dublin 2. Phone: 01-6727719.
www.mackerel.ie

Ireland has recently been going through a spell of glorious weather with near-constant sunshine and temperatures in the mid to late 20s and so I've not stepped near the kitchen for the last while. Cooking is mostly out of the question and baking has been abandoned for the moment - very little Brown Soda Bread gets made these days! - as our kitchen is just too small to cope with the heat of the cooker and/or oven. Meals at home are mostly light salad affairs or, given half a chance on these long, warm evenings, consist of picnics eaten while sprawled on the grass in one of our local parks.

Depending on who's out of work first, the Boyfriend or myself pick up the fixings from Hennessy's Food Store, Donnybrook Fair or Morton's of Ranelagh - a substantial bread, like Blazing Salads' organic sourdough, some savoury-sweet olives and semi-sundried tomatoes, a chunk of pungent oozy cheese, thin pliable slices of salami or on-the-bone ham, maybe a scoop of Donnybrook Fair's intensely meaty chicken liver paté, a handful of sweet-scented cherry tomatoes and a few dollops of tapenade, hummus or pesto. For desert, I'm a particular fan of Glenilen Farm's screwtop jars of natural yogurt layered with fruit compote.

We grab our rug, a nicely chilled bottle of wine, some books and the picnic bag - already crammed full of lightweight cutlery and melamine delph - and hotfoot it to either Belgrave Square or Herbert Park to read in the sun while balancing mouthfuls of salami, brie, tomatoes and pesto on top of roughly hacked slices of bread. Food always seems to taste much nicer when eaten outdoors in the sunshine. When the sun starts to drift below the horizon, it's time to pack up and wander homewards, nicely toasted and full of good food. We might bemoan the lack of a garden, patio or balcony to make use of in summertime, but there's definitely ways of getting around that!

I'm at two-day Irish music festival Oxegen this weekend, although fortunately - considering the rain and muddy conditions in Punchestown racecourse yesterday - not camping. The less said about food there the better! Normal service will resume next week.

None of the much loved Enid Blyton's Famous Five books that I read as a child were complete without a picnic - ham rolls, hard boiled eggs, slabs of fruit cake, tinned pears and, of course, lashings and lashings of ginger beer. The only kind of ginger drink that I came across in Ireland was ginger ale, ginger beer's much sweeter and less spicy sibling. I wasn't too impressed.

Years later, long after my Famous Five fixation had passed, I came across ginger beer (along with many other ginger products) in New Zealand and I became addicted. I don't normally buy soft drinks but, especially with the long journeys in the South Island, ginger beer was the drink of choice to keep both driver and passenger going. A non-alcoholic drink that is refreshingly tart and not too sweet, there were many brands available but the variety that I most loved was an import from Australia called Bundaberg.

Sold in a distinctive squat brown glass bottle, it had a ring-pull metal top which I never quite got the hang of. Still, that was only a small and easily manageable (get the Boyfriend to open the bottle!) drawback so, when I unexpectedly came across a small display of Bundaberg ginger beer in my local supermarket - tricky top or no - I was delighted. It's the equivalent of discovering a packet of Tayto cheese & onion Irish crisps in your local Christchurch dairy. Now all I need to complete the NZ nostalgia trip is the faded green, leaky, tank-like 22-year-old Honda Accord that we drove throughout NZ...

I have to agree with Ice Cream Ireland's comment on the incongruous presence of Starbucks at last weekend's Taste of Dublin. It's difficult to see what they have to do with food at all and in Dublin in particular. RTÉ 2FM DJ Rick O'Shea also writes of his experiences at A Taste Of Dublin (Or Two, Or Three.... Maybe Dessert Too...) and there's debate over at the forum on Ernie Whalley's forkncork.com. While you're there, it's worth taking a look at the conflicting opinions on Fallon & Byrne.

Friday afternoon was a good time to be at the inaugural Taste of Dublin event as blazing sunshine encouraged a cheerful and good humoured crowd to linger, sample and wander around a Dublin Castle courtyard crowded with stands and stalls. My €35 ticket (I managed to keep the dreaded Ticketmaster booking fees to €2 by buying from the Ticketmaster outlet in Stephen's Green Shopping Centre) entitled me to €20-worth of florins, the festival currency, but the sky was the limit as soon as you set foot inside the event areas. With sample signature dishes priced from €5 to €8, that €20 didn't last long and I've even read of people spending another €70 on top of that. I was well behaved though - after spending my first €20-worth, I just bought €5 extra - and, although portions were less than generous, I would have been hard pressed to find something I really wanted to spend more on. It doesn't have to be a taste of Dublin to be good.

As I had decided to avoid all restaurants that I had previously eaten in, the first of the stands to catch my eye was Gary Rhodes' much hyped (and not yet open) Dublin venture, Rhodes D7. For my first €5 I got a shot glass of tangy White Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup with a salty stick of Olive Bread. Good - but much too tiny. L'Ecrivan's contribution to my afternoon was Natural Smoked Haddock Linguini with Asparagus and Peas, Light Curry Froth (€5). Spaghetti had been substituted for the linguine and the thinner strands of pasta weren't as good at holding the intensely flavoured cream sauce which remained, in lonely puddles, at the bottom of my bowl.

After a few more circuits of the food stalls, I chose La Stampa's Braised Quail with Savoy Cabbage (€6). This was by far the largest portion I got so I took one of the few seats available to give it my fullest concentration. No matter how nice, food always suffers from being eaten while you stand, constantly juggling plates and bags. Although the wooden knife I was given was no match for the meaty portion of quail, there weren't many scraps left by the time I finished. The Town Bar and Grill's Strawberry and Cassis Pavlova with Mascarpone Cream was my summer-appropriate but not-so-grand finale. Although perfectly pleasant, there was little flavour from the promised cassis.

On the wine side of things, there were small samples aplenty with glasses of wine available from €4. The most interesting part of the day for me was meeting the passionate wine importers behind www.spanishwines.ie. Already selling to off-licenses and restaurants in Ireland, they've just launched a website selling these under-represented wines and a glass of their fragrant Guitian Godello (easily recognisable from its smart, art deco-style label) was a perfect drink on such a warm day and, I can only surmise, a great accompaniment to some tapas for a Spanish-style summer's evening with friends.

As a taster of Dublin restaurants, this event was exactly what it said on the tin although I don't know if I would be hurrying off to visit any of the restaurants that I sampled on the day. The Cellar Restaurant's fantastic looking Fish and Chips, served in a cone of paper with a dollop of mushy peas, nearly had me breaking my resolve to avoid familiar restaurants and I had to turn my back to avoid looking at the dishes produced by the much-loved Silk Road Café. Reports from my cousin, the Environmental Scientist, gave top marks to the White Truffle Risotto (also from the Cellar Restaurant) and Roly's Hot Chocolate Pudding. Although she got rained on during the Saturday afternoon session, she wasn't undaunted and already has a plan for 2007: "We'll have to go back next year (with rain gear, regardless of the forecast!) in a group of at least four, get there early, bag a table, stay at it and then get as much as possible from each place and bring it back for everyone to share!"

Although I did enjoy the afternoon's tasting, the most exciting thing was the sheer number - and variety - of people there, swapping tips on the best dishes, stealing forkfuls from each other's plates, sharing tables with strangers, enjoying the sunshine together. If you didn't manage to make it to Taste of Dublin, take Maman Poulet's advice and take the price of the ticket to your local farmers' market for good food and tasting aplenty.

A wee while ago, Sinéad over at Sigla sent me a link to a piece on Irish language podcast blog An tImeall on Cócaireacht agus Filíocht (Cooking and Poetry). My prowess as gaeilge not being what it should be, I had to get a friend to translate it for me - many thanks to the Schoolteacher - and am finally able to appreciate Conn's kind words. There's a link to the page here or, for my non-Irish readers, a couple of paragraphs translated below. Isn't the Irish word for blogging - ag blagadóireacht - absolutely gorgeous? Compliments like these just might be the way to encourage me to improve my Irish.

Continue reading "Táim ag blagadóireacht" »

Cookbook sections in secondhand bookshops can be a little hit or miss. There's always a pile of microwave cookbooks - no one, for some reason wants to hang onto these dodgy and dated texts - a scattering of horrible diet books and often lots of ancient Family Circle publications, with their "triple-tested in the test kitchens" claim, but, rarely something that you actually want to cook from, let alone buy. Still, I live in hope, so a recent trip to Athlone had to include a browse in the local secondhand bookshop (I still haven't discovered its name) which turned out to be a most amazing example of its kind.

Just a couple of shelves were devoted to cookbooks but what was on offer was enough to have me standing there, leafing through the pages, for quite a while. My eye was taken by a red hardbacked book from the 1960s, the gold letters on its spine saying "Monica's Kitchen". Opening it, I was so entertained by Monica Sheridan's humorous prose that I had to read it out loud to the Boyfriend - something that I continued to do through the weekend's café interludes, car journeys and meals in the tent.

Apart from her unfortunate love of unsweetened condensed milk in soups and the like, Monica's Kitchen is actually a breath of fresh air. Well travelled, she carelessly mentions dishes from France and the continent (she once spent months learning the foie gras business, "with the intention of setting myself up as a Goose Girl in the West of Ireland") alongside the plain, simple Irish recipes. Her roast chicken, unstuffed and dressed with the pan juices, would be appreciated by Nigel Slater and there are definite French influences to many of her vegetable recipes which are, fortunately, a long way from the traditional Irish boil-it-until-it-turns-grey method.

Some of her opinions are laugh-out-loud hilarious. I particularly liked her take the things necessary to make a cook:

"Another essential to good cooking is a husband or son with an adventurous palate. Women do not cook for other women, or for themselves. If they are cooking for other women, it is to annoy them or dazzle them..."

A few of her recipe asides veer towards the demented - ideas on dye in pea soup ("Any fool can make pea soup, but here are the refinements that give it an air. You should add a good spoon of green vegetable dye to the soup just before you serve it. That will take the anaemic look off it."), boned chicken ("Frankly, I wouldn't recommend it, but, if you want to see green in the eyes of the women and hear the praise of gluttonous men ringing in your ears, well, here goes."), brown bread ("The longevity of the men and women of rural Ireland may be directly attributed to their simple diet of porridge, wholemeal bread and stews - together with their uncompromising refusal to fraternise with Income Tax Collectors.") - but Monica's Kitchen is chock-full of useful suggestions and recipes as well as being a complete treat to read. Well worth looking out for.

Monica's Kitchen by Monica Sheridan is published by Castle Publications Ltd.

Watch out next month for Taste of Dublin 2006, running from 22 June to 25 June in the gardens at Dublin Castle and described in the press release as Dublin's "first outdoor gourmet food and drink festival". Ha! There's a reason why there aren't more outdoor events in Ireland - talk to the shivering, drenched stallholders at any of the markets around the country and see why. Anyway, festival visitors can expect signature dishes from a selection of the city's restaurants, including a few of my favourites - the lovely Silk Road Café in the Chester Beatty Library and the more sophisticated Cellar Restaurant at The Merrion.

Other restaurants participating are Bang Café, Chapter One, Diep Le Shaker, Jaipur, King Sitric, La Stampa, L'Ecrivain, Peploes, Town Bar & Grill, Unicorn, Yo Thai and Chai Yo. I've eaten a few times, years ago, in Bang Café and always enjoyed the experience while Town Bar & Grill was the setting for our work Christmas dinner (never a good time to assess a restaurant - I will draw a veil over the rather inebriated proceedings!) so I look forward to browsing and tasting.

The big draw for me will be the Chef's Theatre with demonstrations from the ever-interesting Richard Corrigan of London's Lindsay House and Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill along with Irish kitchen heroine Darina Allen. And, for those of you who are fans of her daughter-in-law, Rachel Allen is also one of the chefs lined up to demonstrate. Of course, as the event is ticketed according to time (two sessions daily, 12pm to 4pm and 5.30pm to 9.30pm), getting to see Richard and Darina in the same session is going to prove a challenge. Think I'll pass on Rachel!

The tickets, priced from €25 to €75, depending on how many florins - the currency to be used in paying for your Taste(s) of Dublin - you want to buy in advance. Apparently the exchange rate is one florin to one euro and dishes will be priced from €5 to €8. Fair enough, but the Ticketmaster booking fee is pricy at best (€2.95 on the €25 tickets), rising fairly sharply to something nasty (€5.95 for the €75 tickets). For my money, the best deal looks like the €35 option which works out at €15 entrance fee plus €20-worth of florins. Now, I just wonder what's the best way around around that €4.38 booking fee?

Our first weekend of the year under canvas couldn't exactly be called an unqualified success. We did actually remember to pack the sleeping bags (and Anzac Biscuit morale) but, despite such forethought, it wasn't exactly the weather for camping in the west of Ireland. The heavens opened early on Sunday morning, raining us off Achill Island and we had to retreat to an old-school bed & breakfast in Westport back on mainland Mayo. At least we managed to have a cold, but fine, Friday night breaking our journey at the ever-reliable Lough Ree campsite in Ballykerran, near Athlone before moving on to the beautiful-on-a-fine-evening Seal Caves Park in Dugort on the north side of Achill Island. We cooked dinner outdoors on our little gas burner - a typical simple one-pot camping meal of Clonakilty Black Pudding, roughly chopped mushrooms and baked beans - and drank red wine in the still-warm late evening sunshine, feeling like summer had finally arrived.

When we went to bed on Saturday it was a glorious night, clear skies and stars overhead. Alas, after about six hours rain on Sunday, it was time to abandon our damp and wind-buffeted tent. Still, bad weather allows for some investigation of local hostelries and eateries and there was surprisingly good pickings on our ramblings.

Continue reading "A wander round the west" »

A new arrival on the Dublin grocery scene is the gorgeous-looking Fallon & Byrne, a classy supermarket along the lines of Donnybrook Fair, on Exchequer Street in the city centre. They've been renovating the building for a while and, seeing it opened at last, I just popped in for a few minutes last Saturday week. A former telephone exchange, it's an airy, echo-y space, all parquet floors and food everywhere. Right inside the door is a juice bar and, dotted around the periphery of the vast floor space, were also an in-store butchers, a long deli counter filled with take-home dishes, a coffee bar, complete with high stools and tables, and a well-stocked cheese and charcuterie counter which I could have spent the rest of the afternoon poring over.

One row was filled with piles of unusual vegetables and fruit - I was sorely tempted by the heads of perky looking chicory or Belgian endive, having enjoyed a dish in Paris where they were rolled in slices of ham and baked in a béchamel sauce. But I was already late to meet with friends so I had to leave with nothing but a little packet of saffron from the intriguing spice range, a lot of it sourced from London's The Spice Shop, across from Books for Cooks on Blenheim Crescent. Although my brief visit was only to the ground floor, apparently Fallon & Byrne encompasses another two levels - a wine bar and cellar downstairs and there's going to be a restaurant on the first floor.

It's definitely a place that I'm going to want to explore more. Meanwhile, there's an interview with F&B food hall manager, Rachel Firth, on new Irish foodie website Greatfood.ie (another place well worth taking a - virtual - look around) which explains more about the ethos behind and aims of the store.

Fallon & Byrne, Exchequer Building, 11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2.

With the unfamiliar sun putting on a show this past Sunday, it wasn't a day to be spent indoors so the Boyfriend and I headed out to Dún Laoghaire for a walk. As we wandered along the seafront, I had to make the inevitable detour to the People's Park for the Sunday market (check out Caitriona's photos of a market in February here).

For some reason it is called a farmers' market but there are precious few farmers or producers amidst the imported crafts, second-hand books and general nick nacks. There are, however, plenty of food stalls - people selling imported French, Italian and Finnish foodstuffs, goats' cheeses, olives, the inevitable huge queues at the organic fruit and veg stall and what the Irish Times calls "a real live farmer" - John Murphy with his Tinnock Farm Produce stall, selling lamb, organically-fed chickens, farm eggs and homemade butter.

With the freezer and the kitchen cupboards almost at bursting point - and a long walk ahead - I restrained myself from any more "stocking up" (at this stage I'm so stocked that if avian flu did happen to hit Ireland we probably wouldn't have to leave the house for food supplies for quite a while) and decided just to buy food for eating on the spot. We shared a Moroccan Lamb and Chickpea Pie from the ubiquitous Gallic Kitchen (good pastry, disappointing filling) and picked up a couple of great muffins from California Market Bakery. A stop at Mr Coffee's wee van and we settled ourselves down on the seafront for a satisfying picnic in the sunshine.

I didn't entirely manage to get away without adding to my pantry as I was waylaid by a shiny new stovetop espresso maker at the Italian stall - I've been looking for one of these for a while now - and, while making that purchase, picked up a jar of Red Pepper and Chilli Tapenade. The stall owner and a fellow customer were more than happy to tell me about the espresso maker, recommending that I just use water in it at first, then throw away a few cups of coffee before actually drinking one! Sounds similar to the way you season a cast-iron frying pan. After our conversation, the owner generously handed me a bag of Italian biscotti to have with my coffee. I've yet to have a morning at home to try out the espresso maker but the biscotti are delicious - the only worry will be keeping a few aside until I have time to actually make the coffee.

Ever since I've discovered the glories of butternut squash, there's rarely a week goes by without it being added to a dish or several. As with pumpkin, I tend to use more Middle Eastern or Indian flavours in my squash dishes - cumin and coriander seeds are particular favourites - but, as it's been a while since we've had a curry, I turned to the January edition of delicious. magazine for a recipe with more Asian leanings.

Telegraph food writer Tom Norrington-Davies (looking like a terribly cute yellow-jumpered gnome in the photos!) did a feature on oh-so-seasonal root vegetables under the heading of The Comfort Zone which, somehow, managed to incorporate a Pumpkin and Peanut Curry. As always, I busily messed around with the recipe, substituting squash for the pumpkin, adding carrots, and stepping up the chilli content.

As with all recipes involving chilli, add as much - or as little - as you feel comfortable with and always remember that their strength vary considerably. I am speaking from bitter (albeit slightly warm!) experience, here, after my fingertips tingled for a couple of days the first time I made a Thai Green Curry. Now I do all deseeding and chopping chillies with my hands safely enclosed in rubber gloves.

It might be an unusual ingredient in a curry but it is worth searching out some decent peanut butter for this storecupboard recipe. In New Zealand we used to buy the most amazing peanut butter from Piko Wholefoods that they seemed to make on the premises. There was no salt or sugar added to the mix - it was just, simply, peanuts ground into a paste. Here even slightly substandard peanut butter gives this convenient curry a delicious savoury, nutty depth.

Continue reading "A simple Coconut and Peanut Curry" »

Last week I was running for a film preview screening at 10.30am but, in dire need of caffeine, I took a few minutes to grab a take-away coffee at the Butlers Irish Chocolate Café on Henry Street. I've been a huge fan of these cafés ever since they opened in Dublin - not so much for the coffee that they serve, but for the free chocolate that you get alongside it! It's a great way to test your way through the range but, although I had carefully studied the display and chosen a double chocolate chocolate for later consumption, at that moment in time I needed something a little more filling. There was a tempting-looking display of muffins, brownies and cookies and, nestled amidst them, a large, simple oatmeal cookie. Always a fan of the oatmeal cookie, I added one of those to my order and legged it down the street to Screen 1 in the Savoy and the Tristan and Isolde preview (not great, don't bother).

The lights went down as I walked in the cinema so I found a seat and settled myself, my coat, scarf, bag and carefully balanced coffee into place. Then, after a lot of rustling and digging for the cookie in my bag, I was finally organised. As the action unfolded (very slowly) on screen I concentrated on my coffee and the surprisingly good cookie. Moist and chewy, it had a vague ginger and cinnamon flavour and was studded with what I first took to be sultanas but, as I encountered more of the dried fruity nuggets, I realised that they, thankfully, didn't have that fruit's insipid sweetness. In the end, I never got to find out what the fruit was as the cookie was munched down to it's last crumb long before the lights came up and allowed any closer examination.

Later in the week, while taking a look at RTÉ's Nationwide website, I watched a feature on Tara Breen, who has gone, in a few short years, from making a few loaf cakes at the kitchen table to a staff of 15 and sales of €1m with her successful Tara's Handmade Quality Foods company. Browsing about on her site, I solved the question of those unknown fruit bits. Tara supplies Butlers Cafés with cookies and slices and my morning treat was her Tropical Oatmeal Cookie, packed full of goodness - organic oatmeal, free range eggs - and razz cherries! I had never come across them before but razz cherries, or Razzcherries, are cherries soaked in raspberry flavouring and then dehydrated. Unusual - and very tasty. Apparently they are available in the US and in New Zealand, although I can't say I ever remember coming across them. Razz cherries or no, it's great to see some decent sweet things available in Irish cafés. If they can't be bothered to make their own slices, muffins and cookies - like many New Zealand cafés do - the least they can do is source some decent products.

If you're interested in cheese, particularly of the Irish variety, it's worth picking up this month's edition of Food & Wine Magazine for a series of profiles of Ireland's leading cheese makers, a piece by Sheridan's Cheesemongers' Dan Fennelly on how cheese changes with the seasons, recipes from the Ballymaloe matriarch Myrtle Allen and the best accompaniments for a plateful of cheeses. Read restaurant reviews of Dublin's Café Úna, a truffle orgy at the K Club and Conor favourite Boqueria tapas bar in Cork. You can have your own say on the discussion forums at editor Ernie Whalley's own Fork'n'Cork website. For fans of goat's cheese, there's a piece on Tom Biggane, maker of the very special Clonmore Goat's Cheese from Newtown in North Cork written by, ahem, one Caroline Hennessy. April's Food & Wine Magazine - in the shops now!

In the Irish Times Magazine last Saturday there was a feature on Country Choice's Peter Ward. Prestigious American foodie magazine Saveur is about to publish an edition extolling the virtues of Ireland's artisanal food industry. One of the people mentioned in their "detailed who's who of artisanal food in Ireland" is Peter, who has brought Saveur editor Colman Andrews to Nenagh several times over the last few years. Coleman celebrated the St Patrick's weekend by coming to Ireland to cook with Peter and his wife, Mary, at a Slow Food Seasonal Irish Spring Produce meal in Country Choice and he has now marked Ireland as a destination for "gastrotourists". All I'll say is that they're in for a lot of disappointment if they go anywhere off the trail as marked out by Georgina Campbell and the McKennas' good food guides.

Apart from the Avoca Handweavers shops, it's difficult to find good food on the move throughout the country. I've ranted here before about the quality of food in Ireland and Irish cafés and I'm not alone. Kieran at Ice Cream Ireland has given out about the quality of coffee available and Conor's review of Café Paradiso has segued into a discussion of value for money in Irish restaurants.

But, complaints aside, what should we do - not necessarily in order to facilitate these mythical gastrotourists - but to improve the quality of food in Ireland for the people who live here full-time? Peter, coming at the situation from the perspective of the specialist food provider, believes that Irish agriculture has to change focus: "I'd love to see more primary producers of food such as milk, beef, lamb, eggs, chicken and pork start producing it for direct sale to customers, and respond to the changing taste in the market." But he accepts that this isn't going to be easy: "that can't happen without a whole course of education for farmers," he muses. And it's not farmers that need to be educated. The blight of discount supermarket chains Lidl and Aldi is spreading across the land and you're going to be hard pressed to find Irish goods in these stores, let alone artisan produce. Give me Peter's Country Choice any day - if his ideas of an artisan food stand in every Spar, Mace and filling station across the country ever get off the ground I'd be a very happy traveller!

One of the big advantages of being settled back in Dublin, with book shelves once again, is having all my old cookbooks to pore over and rediscover. Although I did manage to build up a fair collection in New Zealand, it couldn't really compare to my beloved older stacks of books by Nigel Slater, Darina Allen, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Nigella Lawson and my ancient copies of the Paula Daly-written McDonnell's Good Food Cook Books. The first and second books in this series, bought from saving up the tokens on Stork Margarine packets, were two of the first cookbooks owned by my mother.

Every recipe, of course, used Stork Margarine - they were first printed in 1976, long before Darina Allen started turning the Irish nation back into butter lovers - and just leafing through them is an exercise in nostalgia. As a child I cooked my way through Drop Scones, Franzipan Flan, Steak Diane and Melba Toast, while a picture of The Runaway Train children's birthday cake furnished many hours-worth of dreaming. I subsequently made this for a cousin who probably was too young to appreciate more than the Liquorice Allsorts used for wheels and the Smartie cargo - it's not really a cake worth returning to. But many of the recipes, albeit with Stork swapped for butter, definitely are.

Every Christmas Cake in our house was, and still is, covered with Almond and Royal Icing according to the tables in the first book. I learned how to make choux pastry from the step-by-step photographs when I was about eleven and subsequently became famed for my Chocolate Éclairs. Family get-togethers were normally preceded by several days of Éclair-making when I took over the kitchen and most of the freezer (and probably my mother's nerves!) to make what I considered a sufficient supply - normally 2-3 per person. While I haven't made Éclairs in years, I have returned to several other of the recipes, with a few modern updates, to great success.

The Sausage Plait pictured on the cover was a particular favourite when I was younger. One day I cooked it on the shelf below one of my mum's Apple Tarts and, although I initially thought it was ruined when the tart's sweet, appley juices overflowed on top of it, the apple flavour actually complemented the pork so much that I now add apple to the recipe. It's a great supper dish, especially with a good accompanying salad, and it also travels very well as part of a picnic spread.

Continue reading "An old favourite: McDonnell's Good Food Cook Books" »

Although the huge green-lipped New Zealand monsters nearly put me off mussels for life - too big and way too chewy! - last week I tried cooking Irish mussels for the first time. Coming home from work one evening I nipped in to a local shop called Donnybrook Fair to pick up some essential supper supplies. Walking past the seafood counter down the back, a big sack of navy-shelled mussels caught my eye, along with the price - €2.99 a kilo. Instantly, all thoughts of cheese on toast went out the window as I got a kilo of the mussels, picking up a length of crusty French bread and a bottle of sauvignon blanc en route to the checkout.

The fact that I'd never cooked mussels before and didn't actually have a recipe in mind didn't worry me unduly. Sometimes the best inspirations come on the walk home and en route I decided that I wanted to cook them with something gusty and strong, garlic and tomato being the first things that came to mind. While the mussels sat in the sink I grabbed a few books - Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course, Anne Willian's How to Cook Absolutely Everything and several of Nigel Slater's - and looked for a recipe but nothing appealed. The one thing I did pick up was that the mussels didn't need to be cooked for long. After preparing the mussels - scrubbing their shells, pulling the beards off and checking if the shells closed when tapped - I flung a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, some of the sauvignon blanc and a tin of tomatoes into my deep sauté pan with some lemon zest, left it bubble and simmer for a few minutes, then threw in the whole kilo of mussels and clamped the lid on top.

After a few peeps to see if the shells had opened I judged them done and landed the pan on the table, along with the heated baguette, the rest of the sauvignon blanc, a large bowl for shells and some tea towels for mopping purposes. Mussels, as with fresh artichokes - where you have to peel off the leaves one by one and dip them in melted butter to savour the flesh at its base - are so fiddly to eat that a kilo lasts a long time and easily serves two with bread and wine. Sweet and succulent, their wobbly flesh was delectable and the sauce at the base of the pan, further enriched by the juices released from the opening shells, was good and plentiful enough to be used to anoint a dish of pasta the following night. Or it could be poured off into cups and served as a light, but deliciously full-flavoured, soup.

Continue reading "Irish mussels" »

After making Nic's Buttermilk Pancakes twice in the last ten days, I just have to sing their praises here. They take minutes to put together, don't involve getting out the weighing scales (just use the cup measurements), are easy to cook, and - if you're on a weekend away - the dry ingredients sit happily together in a zip-locked baggie until you choose to combine them with the buttermilk, butter and egg. Most importantly, they turn out delectable, light, fluffy, American-style thick pancakes without having to resort to a mix. We ate them this morning with oodles of fragrant organic maple syrup from Nenagh's wonderful Country Choice deli, grilled rashers of bacon and, in my case, a little extra butter to further add to the sweet/savoury combination combination.

After measuring the flour and leavening agents into a bag on Friday (I was home sick, that's my excuse for being half-way organised!), I cooked these pancakes for the final meal of a wonderf