Recently in Freelance writing Category

Fancy some food in Kerry? Check out the Failte Kerry supplement in today's Irish Times with Food fit for a Kingdom by Caroline Hennessy. Click on the newspaper below to see it in a larger format.

The short version:
Out of the Blue, Waterside, Dingle. 066 9150811 www.outoftheblue.ie
QC's Seafood Bar & Restaurant, 3 Main Street, Cahirciveen. 066 9472244 www.qcbar.com
Jack's Coastguard Station Bar & Seafood Restaurant, Waters Edge, Cromane, Killorglin. 066 9769102 www.jackscoastguardstation.ie
Murphys' Ice Cream, Strand Street, Dingle; 37 Main Street, Killarney; Tig Aine's, Graig. www.murphysicecream.ie
Cellar One Restaurant, The Ross, Town Centre, Killarney. 064 6631855. www.theross.ie
Lorge Chocolatier, Bonane, Kenmare. 064 6679994. www.lorge.ie
The Bianconi, Lower Bridge Street, Killorglin. 066 9761146 www.bianconi.ie
Spillane's Bar, The Maharees. 066 7139125 www.spillanesbar.com
Miss Courtney's Tearooms, No 8 College Street, Killarney. 087 6109500 www.misscourtneys.com
Listowel Farmers' Market, The Square, Listowel. Every Friday 10am - 2pm. Check www.kerryfarmersmarkets.com for details on farmers' markets throughout the county.
Chapter 40 Restaurant, 40 New Street, Killarney. 064 6671833 www.chapter40.ie
Whartons Traditional Fish and Chips, Main Street, Kenmare. 064 42622

Failte Kerry
22 Jul 2010

Stirring tagines in Morocco, making fish cakes in Bangkok or buying the ingredients for Chicken with Apples in Normandy, make the most of your holidays by taking a cookery class while abroad. On SilverCircle.ie Caroline Hennessy gives some ideas for locations where the recipes you learn will last far longer than a suntan.

Useful Contacts
The Wilde Kitchen, Normandy, France
www.wildekitchen.net
The Hanoi Cooking Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam
hanoicookingcentre.com
La Maison Arabe Cooking School, Marrakech, Morocco
www.lamaisonarabe.com
Baipai Thai Cooking School, Bangkok, Thailand
www.baipai.com

Forget growing your own vegetables - keeping chickens in the back garden is one of the fastest growing hobbies in Ireland. But how easy is it to make sure you have your own fresh-from-the-hen free-range eggs for breakfast? Caroline Hennessy shows you how on SilverCircle.ie.

Useful Contacts
Elaine Mackey runs regular courses on keeping chickens from her home in Ballinteer. More information is available on her website www.keepingchickens.ie or via email: elaine@keepingchickens.ie

Friendly forums with lots of useful information on keeping chickens:
www.poultrykeeper.co.uk
www.keepingchickens.myfreeforum.org

Chicken housing and equipment:
www.omlet.co.uk
www.fingerprint123.com
www.chic-hens.ie
www.sophieshens.com

When Madeline McKeever's dairy farm proved uneconomic, she started saving her own seeds out of financial necessity. Now her company, Brown Envelope Seeds, sells a wide variety of organic seeds, all saved on her west Cork farm. She talks to Caroline Hennessy about turning adversity into opportunity. Read the interview on SilverCircle.ie.

Contact details: Brown Envelope Seeds, Ardagh, Church Cross, Skibbereen, Co Cork.
Email: seeds@brownenvelopeseeds.com
Web: www.brownenvelopeseeds.com
Blog: brownenvelopeseeds.blogspot.com

...brewing under the stairs. Homebrewing used to be all about making gallons of strong, cheap beer, with a very limited focus on flavour. Now, in the 21st century, it has taken on a new life with aficionados producing fine beers from homemade breweries. Caroline Hennessy talks to a new generation of craft beer fans for The Irish Mail on Sunday on Sunday 14 March 2010.

Close your eyes and take a sip from the glass. What can you taste? Hoppy, citrus flavours? Or perhaps malty notes of chocolate and caramel? Yes, this is homebrew beer but not as you know it - or might remember it from its 1980s heyday. The latest generation of homebrewers are more interested in flavour than strength, crafting their own ales and porters from home-built backyard breweries. With the current wave of back to basics living, doing it yourself in a sustainable way has never been so popular, from keeping chickens and pigs to growing your own vegetables. It may be a less expensive way of life but, for many people, it is as much about the quality of home produced eggs, vegetables - or beer - as it is about saving money.

When Shane Conroy first set up successful online homebrew shop thehomebrewcompany.ie in Mountmellick, Co Laois two-and-a-half years ago, there was no hint of the economy nosediving. "The recession may be a factor," he notes in relation to the current popularity of homebrewing, "but it's not everything. People are going back looking for flavours." For him, homebrewing is a fascinating pastime; albeit one with the added benefit of producing something that you can drink and enjoy. "We're all about people getting into the hobby," he says. "I'm nuts about it myself, I brew a lot of beer and I love tasting different beer, especially if I'm abroad." Conroy points out that there are only a few small independent breweries in Ireland - he mentions the Carlow Brewing Company, the Hooker Brewery in Roscommon and Dublin's Porterhouse - but their beers are, he considers, "only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can brew." And their distribution is limited. Like Conroy, many people who start brewing are those who have travelled widely and are unhappy with the limited selection of beers available in Irish pubs.

Homebrewing, explains Conroy, can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. There are three ways of making beer at home: the simplest is kit brewing where practically everything is done for you; extract brewing involves a little more skill and time but gives a better result; and all grain brewing is the purest way of making it, essentially following the same steps as a commercial brewer but in your own back kitchen, and with a nicer end product. Often Conroy has seen his customers trade their way up through all three stages. "People find that it's much simpler than expected. It's all about learning your technique."

With the internet, there is a broader knowledge base available to home brewers. "If you go online you can brew nearly any beer in your own home once you start reading up about it," says Conroy. "Back in the 1980s you didn't have that." The internet, specifically the Irish Craft Brewer website, also makes what used to be a solitary pursuit into something a lot more social. Irishcraftbrewer.com, with its articles on brew- and beer-related topics and an opinionated forum, is an active group of fine beer fans. It's not all about the virtual world, either, as the members organise brewery tours, information events and tasting sessions. "I was at an [ICB] brewing competition a few months ago," Conroy mentions, "where people from round the country brought their beer. It was all about the flavour that night, that's what it was judged on." It also means that there's always someone to call on if you run into difficulties with your own brew. "If people get stuck, I refer them there," says Conroy.

Also active on Irish Craft Brewer is Dublin-based Laura Walsh, who was the only woman present at the first ICB meet up. "It's an online community," she points out, "but people know each other in real life as well." New forum members are actively encouraged to come along and bring their latest brew: "Everyone tastes everyone else's beer and comments on it." Walsh feels that this encourages people to make more of an effort with their own brewing, commenting that homebrewing may have died in the past away because there was no sense of community.

Having started brewing three years ago, Walsh is getting used to people's reactions: "sometimes people are a bit surprised. They go 'Oh, I thought only men would brew beer.' Or else they're taking to my husband and they think he's the one who brews." Like Conroy, she is keen to demystify the brewing process: "if you can make stew or soup, then you can make beer. It's not as hard as people think. You can start off with a beer kit...you'll have beer in three weeks. That's the easiest way to get started."

Interested in all things crafty, Walsh has a vibrant pink blog at aranbrew.blogspot.com where she combines knitting and spinning with stories of her adventures in brewing. She enjoys trying out brews with alternative ingredients, seeing that as one of the most appealing things about the hobby. "I was out hillwalking recently and I got heather so I've brewed up a heather ale, using heather instead of hops for the flavour. We'll see how that turns out. There are a lot of different things that you can do [with homebrewing] that you won't see on a commercial scale. It's part of the fun of it. It's a a bit men in sheds as well," she laughs, "you could spend the day brewing away."

Gordon Lucey from Macroom in Co Cork has a comprehensive home-built brewing set up in his own shed. "Some of the equipment has come from a hospital kitchen that was being renovated," he explains. "I reused one of the large, stainless steel vessels that they would use for serving soup. I also picked up an old keg from a scrapyard which was a bit battered but we opened it up and sorted it out." Between repurposing and recycling, a lot of people's brewing kit might be what Lucey describes as "a bit Heath Robinson - but it doesn't matter what it looks like, it's about the product that comes out at the end."

He sees homebrewing as being part of the current interest in knowing where what you eat, and drink, comes from: "we're all into - or trying to get into - our own home produce, all the way from the veggie patch to the plate and, in the same sense, you can just turn it from food to drink." Lucey also makes the point that you know exactly what goes into your own beer: "there are no anti-foaming agents, there are no short cuts and you just make a quality product. You can use the best of ingredients for your own brewing and it's still only going to cost you 50c or 60c a pint to make top quality beer."

The grain, which is the byproduct from brewing, can be composted or - if you're more in tune with your Good Life self - fed to the chickens or pigs in your back garden. Lucey, like all home brewers, reuses the same bottles time and again. He also points out that a home brewer's carbon footprint is minimal: "the barley, most of it that I use, is grown in Ireland. There's no transport really."

Besieged by memories of past homebrew experiences, you may be wary when offered a glass of homemade beer but you just might be pleasantly surprised. Lucey enjoys other people's reactions: "when you've a few friends over, you know you're doing something right when they go home and haven't touched the beer that they brought. That," he chuckles, "always puts a smile on my face."

Online Resources
Supplies - The Homebrew Company: www.thehomebrewcompany.ie
Advice - Irish Craft Brewer: www.Irishcraftbrewer.com
Blog - Aran Brew blog: www.aranbrew.blogspot.com

Despite the current cold snap and impossibility of actually doing anything about it, I've been looking at the raised beds in the garden and trying to plan for the summer to come. Last year we went on an inspirational (and very affordable) two-day gardening course at Glebe Gardens with Jean Perry, learned lots - and really enjoyed the flapjacks!

This year Jean is running an extended series of gardening courses including The No Dig Vegetable Plot, Vegetables for Small Gardens and Herb Gardening for Use in Cooking and First Aid for around €60 per day, including a delicious vegetarian lunch.

You can find out more about the courses on the Glebe Gardens website, follow Jean in the garden on her blog at The Glebe Journal and read her advice on tackling garden pests the organic way in this article I wrote for SilverCircle.ie.

On a cold, wet, miserable day, there's nothing better than coming home to a big bowl of piping hot, homemade soup. Pick from Chicken Noodle, Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato or White Bean and Cabbage Soups and make a meal of it with Caroline Hennessy's recipes for pots of pleasure on SilverCircle.ie.

Darina Allen's latest book focuses on kitchen skills and traditions - such as making yoghurt, keeping hens and baking bread - that have been lost in recent times. She talks to Caroline Hennessy for EveryMonday.ie about how the increasing interest in self-sufficiency can help us weather the recession.

Christmas is the time for long, leisurely brunches with family and friends. Make it easy with dishes that you can prepare in advance and whip into the oven just before your guests arrive. Caroline Hennessy, writing for EveryMonday.ie, gives you a few easy ideas that won't have you losing your Christmas cheer. Click here for recipes for Christmas Muffins (pictured on the right), Potato, Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Frittata and Buttermilk Pancakes with Cranberry Orange Sauce.

This is the second article that I wrote for last Thursday's Irish Times Christmas Gift Supplement. Read the first here.

Delicious goodies are always a joy to receive, especially when you know that they've been made specially for you. With a little ingenuity and time you can put together all manner of homemade gifts with a minimal financial outlay. Here are a selection of tasty titbits that won't take a lot of work and are cheaper - and more satisfying - than just picking up their equivalents in your local supermarket. And remember, presentation is everything. Pick up some cellophane and ribbons and take a look online for professional looking gift tags and packaging that you can download.

Everybody loves miniature treats. Take your favourite Christmas Cake recipe (Darina Allen's Christmas Cake with Toasted Almond Paste is well tried, tested and true) and bake it in mini tins. You can use well-scrubbed baked bean tins - you'll get approximately 12 out of a cake for a 10" square tin - or simply cook it in a normal sized tin, then cut it into small cakes before icing. You can do something similar with plum puddings, using ramekins, or cups, that will withstand steaming. You don't even have to ice these, just wrap in gingham and tie with matching ribbon.

Homemade mincemeat always trumps the bought variety and you can add a new twist to this old favourite by adding some liqueur (try Cointreau or Amaretto) to your favourite recipe or by starting a new tradition with Willie Harcourt-Cooze's Chocolatey Mince Pies.

You could compliment a nicely decorated jar of mincemeat or batch of mince pies by delivering them with a mix for hot chocolate. Take some good quality chocolate buttons, add a few pinches of ground spices - cinnamon is classic but chilli is also fun - print out simple instructions (per person: heat a mug of milk, add 1-2 tablespoons of chocolate, simmer and drink) and package in a nice jar, topped with a layer of marshmallows.

If you have any stashes of homemade jam, marmalade or chutney from seasonal gluts, pretty the jars up with some fabric and ribbon, then finish them off with beautifully designed labels and tags that can be downloaded from Eat Drink Chic.

Spices are just the thing to prevent that post-Christmas slump and brighten up anyone's January cooking. Dukkah, an Egyptian blend of toasted nuts and spices, will give a welcome lift when sprinkled across those virtuous New Year's salads; ras al hanout adds a warming North African flavour to stews and couscous dishes; Indian garam masala is an ever useful ingredient to have on hand; and an American pie spice mix will add extra oomph to the next batch of apple tarts. Recipes are easily found online or check out Ian Hemphill's The Spice and Herb Bible for these recipes and more.

Keeping with the spice theme, take a pepper mill and fill it with a mixture of equal parts black peppercorns, pink peppercorns, allspice berries and coriander seeds. When cooking, use this in place of regular pepper. It is especially good over grilled meats or fish.

Granola is essentially baked muesli but a homemade version of this crisp, textured cereal is always a welcome gift. In a large bowl, combine 300g of rolled oats, 100g flaked almonds, 50g each sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Warm 3 tablespoons of honey and 60ml sunflower oil together, toss with the dry ingredients and bake on a large baking sheet at 150ºC for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before mixing with 100g dried cranberries and packing into a large Kilner jar. Eat with milk, yoghurt - or directly from the jar.

The article that I wrote for today's Irish Times Gift Christmas Supplement is not online so I thought that I would reproduce the entire piece here - before it was edited for space and clarity - complete with links.

Buying for someone who loves food might seem like the easiest thing in the world but sometimes gourmet foodies can also be the pickiest of recipients. Gift vouchers give them what they love - the opportunity to choose for themselves.

For anyone picky about their daily cuppa, a voucher for Le Palais des Thes will hit the spot nicely. Choose from 280 different types of loose tea and all the paraphernalia needed to make the perfect cup. Classy canisters with tea blends from around the world, muslin tea bags to facilitate the delicate unfurling of whole tea leaves and beautiful Japanese Porcelain teapots: this is tea drinkers heaven.
Le Palais des Thes, 31 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 6708752 Email: wicklowstreet@palaisdesthes.ie Web: www.palaisdesthes.ie

Give someone you know who loves French cooking to a voucher for a tailor-made gourmet break at The Wilde Kitchen in Normandy. Relocated Irishwoman Sinéad Allart offers un goût, a taste, of French life at her cookery school in Benoistville, a village just 20 minutes drive from the ferry port of Cherbourg. Spend the morning strolling around the local market with Allart, tasting and choosing foods for that evening's class, then turn up at her kitchen for an evening of cooking and eating. A range of accommodation, cooking class and dining out options are available - contact Allart directly for more details.
The Wilde Kitche, La Blonderie, 50340 Benoistville, France. Tel +33 2 3352 5216 Email: wildekitchen@gmail.com Web: www.wildekitchen.net

Head further afield and treat the one you love to a voucher for La Maison Arabe Cooking School in Morocco. Although the boutique hotel is in the heart of the Marrakech medina, the classes take place in the peaceful surroundings of its country club, complete with potager garden. Sip on mint tea as a traditional Moroccan cook, or Dada, takes small groups through the rudiments of Moroccan cooking. The class starts with an explanation of the history and ingredients of that day's dishes - a Berber tagine or a couscous dish, some Moroccan salads - before beginning to cook under the Dada's eagle eye. Once completed, the participants sit down to enjoy a leisurely private lunch together in the garden where they are served their finished dishes. An insight into another world. 
La Maison Arabe, Marrakech Médina, Maroc Tel : (+212) 5 24 38 70 10 Email:
reservation@lamaisonarabe.com Web: www.lamaisonarabe.com

If you want to buy a gift for a cheese lover, a voucher for Cheese To Your Door might be just the ticket. Set up by Clare cheesemaker Paul Keane whose loyal customers had difficulties in finding his Bluebell Falls goat's cheese, he now stocks a selection of other Irish artisan products. As well as Keane's own goat-sourced wares - the original soft cheese has been joined by honey and pepper varieties and he also makes a semi-hard and some white mould cheeses - he sells many of the classic Irish cows' milk cheeses and plenty of great accompaniments. Take a look around the website and pick up a round of Milleens to enjoy with G's Gourmet Hot Pepper Relish, some Carrigaline Cheese Biscuits and Gubbeen chorizo. Cheese To Your Door offers free delivery throughout Ireland for orders over €45.
Bluebell Falls, Ballynacally, Ennis, Co Clare Tel: 086 8134600 Email:paul@bluebellfalls.ie Web: www.bluebellfalls.ie

Every foodie has their wishlist of cookware and baking equipment and a voucher for The Kitchen Dresser's online shop could make their dreams come true. They might fancy a four-tiered wire cupcake stand and one of those brightly coloured herb choppers. Or a bright red covetable KitchenAid artisan mixer might be right up their street. Either way, the Kitchen Dresser can help with online browsing, vouchers from €10 and free delivery in Ireland for orders over €30.
The Kitchen Dresser, Kea-Lew Business Park, Portlaoise, Co Laois. Tel: 057 86 20933 Email: info@kitchendresser.com Web: www.kitchendresser.net

If you grow your own fruit and veg, you can turn your garden gluts into winter treats. Caroline Hennessy has some useful tips and a few straightforward recipes for pickles and chutneys on EveryMonday.ie.

Peter Ward established the well-regarded Country Choice café and deli in Nenagh, Co Tipperary in the early 1980s. He talks to Caroline Hennessy for EveryMonday.ie about how he thinks the latest recession will affect Irish artisan food producers. More here.

...you just might find there really is such a thing as a free lunch. Discover wild mushrooms, or berries for a juicy jam in the untimate foodie treasure hunt. By Caroline Hennessy for The Irish Mail on Sunday on Sunday 13 September 2009.

No matter how busy things were for my Grandad, there was always time to go looking for mushrooms in autumn. If he spotted a patch of them down the fields, he would gather his army of grandchildren, supply us with buckets and lead us to the spot. We'd spread out, eagle-eyed for the tell-tale whiteness of field mushroom caps, bringing them back to Grandad for inspection. Once he saw that we had our eye in, he'd head off to another job on the farm, letting us scour the field before bringing our bounty back to the warm kitchen to be peeled and cooked for supper by my mam and aunts.

As a child, every walk in autumn was a feast waiting to happen. My cousins and I picked blackberries for Nana's jam, every second one a treat for ourselves, hunted for the tiny wild blueberries - known to us as hurts, to others as fraocháns - on walks in the hills, bit into crab apples for dares, puckering our mouths up against their astringency. I quickly learned how to tell if a blackberry is infested with worms and, when bringing in the cows for milking, how a grass stalk can be threaded with an unexpected find of mushrooms.

Sloes for soaking in gin, rose-hips for syrup and rowan berries for jelly: autumn was always my favourite time of the year. Growing up in a house where all jams and preserves were homemade, I was early indoctrinated with the benefits of getting something for nothing - never mind if it took hours in the process! I pored over old recipes, excitedly introducing elderberries into apple jelly and had to be discouraged from trying to make hedgerow wines long before I reached legal drinking age.

You can gather wild food all year round but the bright, crisp days of autumn make it the best season for variety and sheer flavour. If you're a nervous novice, there are many foraging courses on offer that will open your eyes to the abundance of edible food available - and remove the fear of picking and eating the wrong thing.

Aisling and William O'Callaghan at Longueville House in North Cork host an annual mushroom hunt in the grounds of their 18th century country house that is very popular with beginners and families. Aisling O'Callaghan attributes the origins of the hunt to her chef husband's own interest in wild food: "he was always foraging. [William is] a real hunter-gatherer and then he cooks everything that he collects. It's something we do with friends and with our kids." On the hunts, when mushroom expert Jim Fraser leads groups through the woods and fields that surround Longueville House, they have found a wide variety of edible fungi including ceps, chanterelles, girolles, blushers, chicken of the woods and hedgehog mushrooms. For those people worried about the possible dangers of mushroom picking, O'Callaghan has reassuring words: [Jim] will always have a chat beforehand to say this is what the poisonous ones look like and please do not pick. We also have a safety code and they're briefed on that so they're well prepared. It is vital, especially with children."

Although the hunts have been taking place for the last eight years, recently O'Callaghan feels that there is a lot of interest in going back to the simple things: "People love to come out and feel that they're learning something on the day. There's nothing as nice as tearing off down there with the dogs and the kids and the freedom of it. It's a fantastic day's entertainment."

For children who spend a lot of their lives indoors, going down to the woods and fields to look for berries and mushrooms is a completely new and very enjoyable experience. Keen forager Rachel O'Grady from Askeaton, Co Limerick feels that our lives have become so packaged that the tradition is in danger of being lost. "Children aren't taught anything, parents don't know what to pick," she comments. But there is a way of making a new tradition. "Get people out in the countryside, walking around and observing what's growing," O'Grady says, "that's the first step." She points out that foraging is part of a new interest in things that are local and seasonal, especially if people have more time on their hands these days. "Growing up in the country you're more aware of these things but they are accessible to everybody."

Whether you are out in the depths of the countryside or in the more urban setting of a city park, nature is freely and easily available. Sometimes it is just a matter of grabbing a basket, gathering the family, getting out there and seeing what's available. This gives us the opportunity to re-connect to our own childhood memories of these foods, to remember golden autumnal afternoons spent hunting with our own parents and grandparents for something edible amidst the trees and brambles.

"It's the passing of that experience and interest on to a younger generation," agrees botanist Olivia Goodwillie who has been running a foraging course at Lavistown House in Co Kilkenny for the last five years. Eating wild food can be very evocative, she finds, as people experience "the memories of picking blackberries from childhood rather than the actual taste of blackberries." Goodwillie emphasises how much children enjoy the chance to get outside, to climb fences, get wet and slop around: "It is a real kids' day - the big kids showing the small kids how to do it, how it was done in their day."

As well as foraging, Goodwillie is also passionately interested in good food so making something edible out of what's been picked is an integral part of the course at Lavistown: "The morning is spent foraging and the afternoon we light a fire, boil up our berries to make jelly and we boil water to make funny tea with things like dandelion roots and pine needles." Sometimes," she points out, "things may be edible but you might not know what to do with them after picking." One of the most popular things that she makes is a jelly, using a collection of different berries, including sloes, rose hips and elderberries. "The hedgerow jelly is absolutely delicious and especially if you make it over a fire, as we do, it has a smoky flavour which no jam that you buy will ever have."

Months later, on a cold January morning, as you eat the jelly on your toast, you're able to sit there and taste all the flavours of the time you spent outdoors. "You're eating memories," Goodwillie laughs, "you're eating your day."

Long gone is the era when knowing what to pick and when to pick it was the difference between eating and going hungry but discovering a hidden crab apple tree or beating squirels to the hazelnut crop still offers a primordial thrill. It's real hunter-gatherer stuff - even if you just eat all the blackberries as you go - but cooking with or making preserves from your gleanings is a tangible and delicious way of capturing the moment.

Foraging for wild food can be as simple (those blackberries again!) or as complex - mind the mushrooms - as you like but it's rarely less than satisfying. You may not quite manage to pick your dinner but you'll definitely have fun trying.

2009 Foraging Courses
Saturday 26 September - Foraging with Roger & Olivia Goodwillie
Lavistown House, Co Kilkenny. Ph: 056 7765145 Email: lavistown@eircom.net Web: www.lavistownhouse.ie

Saturday 26 September - Foraging with Darina Allen
Ballymaloe Cookery School, Shanagarry, Co Cork. Ph: 021 4646785 Email: info@cookingisfun.ie Web: www.cookingisfun.ie

Saturday 3, Saturday 10 October - Mushroom Hunting with Bill O'Dea
Avondale, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow. Ph: Mob 086 827 4899 Email: billodea@eircom.net Web: www.mushroomstuff.com

Sunday 4, Sunday 18 October - Mushroom Hunt at Longueville House
Longueville House, Mallow, County Cork. Tel: 022 47156 Email: info@longuevillehouse.ie Web: www.longuevillehouse.ie
Slow Food Ireland often run foraging events around the country. Check www.slowfoodireland.com for details.

Books
Wild Food by Roger Phillips: a well-illustrated reference book which includes good recipes.

The Easy Edible Mushroom Guide by David Pegler: pocket-sized, with accurate photos and drawings.

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

Watch out for the Christmas Supplement in today's Irish Times – I wrote a piece on Christmas present ideas for your favourite foodie and it is supposed to be in the paper today...

Published in The Irish Times Cork First supplement on Wednesday 2 July.

Get started early - farmers' markets wait for no tourist - at the busy Middleton Farmers' Market on Saturday morning, making time to pick up some artisan Arbutus bread, a selection of Frank Hederman's superlative smoked fish (make sure you try his smoked mussels), a bag of Ballycotton Kerr Pinks from Willie Scannall, some cooking tips and cupcakes at the Ballymaloe stall - and don't miss getting your hands on a slice of sinful chocolate cake from Frank Krawczyk, who specialises in the best home-cured salamis and fantastic rillettes.

Drive down to Shanagary to take a wander around the organic gardens at Ballymaloe Cookery School and admire the raw ingredients, including the free-range Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, that the students get to practice on. If in need of a quick bite - or a little retail therapy - pay a visit to the Gallery Café at the nearby Stephen Pearce Gallery. After some zesty Lemon Tart from their array of sweet treats, make sure you stroll downstairs to EatWell, who stock a variety of fine foods, including an extensive selection of Green Saffron's Indian spice blends and chutneys.

Finish the day by driving just over the Waterford border, to the small seaside town of Ardmore. Book into the newly renovated Cliff House Hotel and prepare to be wowed by Dutch chef Martijn Kajuiter's imaginative cooking before falling asleep in one of the stylish, comfortable rooms at this boutique hideaway.

Middleton Farmers' Market. Web: www.midletonfarmersmarket.com
Ballymaloe Cookery School and Gardens, Shanagarry, Co Cork. Tel: 021 4646785. Web: www.cookingisfun.ie
The Gallery Café @ Stephen Pearce Gallery, Shanagarry, Co Cork. Tel: 021 4647970
EatWell, Stephen Pearce Gallery, Shanagarry, Co Cork. Tel: 021 4645927
The Cliff House Hotel, Ardmore, Co Waterford. Tel: 024 87800 www.thecliffhousehotel.com

Published in The Irish Times Cork First supplement on Wednesday 2 July.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Published in Ireland's Food & Wine magazine in April 2006.

Tom Biggane is quietly confident. "Let the cheese do the work," he says. "If it's good enough it will sell itself." And Clonmore Goat's Cheese has proven more than good enough. A gold and silver medal winner at the National Farmhouse Cheese Competitions, Sheridans Cheesemongers sold out of their stock of the hard gouda-type goat's cheese before Christmas and are not expecting to get Clonmore back in until June. This seasonal farmhouse cheese is nutty and smooth, with a satisfyingly sweet goaty aftertaste that intensifies as it matures. Not that it often gets a chance to sit around for long.

Clonmore is made by Tom himself in the little extension on the side of their farmhouse near Newtown in North Cork, with his wife Lena going across the road twice a day to milk the 80 goats that make up their herd. It is labour-intensive work. Late February, when I met him, is a quiet time of the year but the goats are due to start kidding any day and then it will be work seven days a week for four months solid. They make cheese from late March onwards, giving it at least two months to mature before putting it on the market, and working straight through until the goats start to dry up in late October and early November.

Unlike goats on the continent that live and are fed indoors, Tom and Lena's goats are free-range, able to roam about 20 acres of pasture with a comfortable shed for them to bed down in at night or shelter in if it's a wet day. Intelligent animals, goats, and not very willing to stand around in the wet and cold when they have a chance to be indoors. When they do deign to emerge into the outside world, the goats are natural browsers, often happier to nibble at shrubs and bushes in the ditch than graze the grass in the field. Or, as Lena points out, to get stuck into a neighbours garden if they manage to escape. As a result of this less than intensive farming, the Bigganes only get 150 gallons of milk per goat per year - a good yield would be 200 gallons - but it is the access to grass that, Tom believes, makes all the difference in the taste of the cheese.

A reserved man, Tom is nevertheless passionate about cheese-making. Although the Bigganes started keeping goats to subsidise the cows - Tom also milks 40 cows every day - it has become more than just a way of keeping the rest of the farm going. "We got into it to supply other people," he explains, "but, as time went on, started cheese-making ourselves." In 1994, the LEADER programme, a EU Community rural development initiative, and local organisation, Ballyhoura Development, were looking for someone in the area to supply a cheese-maker with goat's milk so Tom and Lena, after some work on the fencing to contain the notorious escape artists, added goats to the farm. After a few years observing other people making cheese from their milk, one of the people that they supplied was getting out of the cheese-making business so he sold Tom the equipment in 2000. A couple of cheese-making courses later - one at the Dairy Products Research Centre in Moorepark, Fermoy and another specifically for people interested in making goat's cheese in Thurles - Tom started producing a few rounds of cheese. Iago in Cork's English Market was their first customer then Kevin Sheridan of Sheridans Cheesemongers also started taking cheese. It was a slow and a small start, the production of Clonmore growing with its market until, as Tom laughs, "it passed us out". He believes everything fell into place about three years ago. They fell short of cheese in 2004 and last year Sheridan's sold out just two months after the Bigganes stopped producing.

Tom likes a break of a few months but he thinks that the current six-month gap is too long. "We need to grow and fill that gap," he declares and, to that end, he is waiting on the arrival of a new 500-litre vat from Holland to replace their small, antiquated 130-litre one. At the moment each batch only makes five or six 2-3kg cheeses at a time and last year he had to make cheese every day. "Last year was a bit of a drudge," he says, "because we were constantly working. I wasn't looking forward to it this year but the new vat should let us make cheese every second day." Tom is also planning to expand the flock - but not too much. Last year they milked 50 goats, this year it'll be up to 80 and, within two years, they're hoping to have 100 goats. Then, he thinks, it will be more than enough for the family themselves to manage. "If it gets any bigger we'll have to take someone on."

Farmhouse cheese-making is as much an art as it is an artisan craft. Within certain specific parameters - the cheese is made on one farm, by one family, using the milk from one flock - there are an almost infinite amount of variables. The grass and natural herbage, the terroir, combine with the personality of the cheese-maker to make a unique product. Tom speaks with distain about the uniformity of factory-made cheeses, telling me that the character of Clonmore changes all the time. "Every day's milk can be different, depending on the time of the year," he notes, "and, if you stir and cut a minute longer it makes the cheese different. Even if you let the cheese mature a month longer it's not going to taste the same as it did a month before. It's a living thing. I find it very interesting." There's a danger, though, in getting new equipment. "My biggest fear," Tom admits, "is that I won't be able to turn out the same cheese. I don't want the cheese to change, whatever about the vat." The customers that turn up at Iago and Sheridans time after time to buy Clonmore would be very much in agreement.

Caroline Hennessy

New season Clonmore Goat's Cheese should be in the shops by June and will be available from Iago in Cork's English Market and Sheridans Cheesemongers in Dublin and Galway.

Sheridans Cheesemongers notes on Clonmore Goat's Cheese, courtesy of Kevin Sheridan
Clonmore is a small, gouda-shaped cheese with a beige waxed exterior and a bone-white paste that is intermittently freckled with small holes. In good condition the cheese is milky on the palate with a cheesey tang that gently gives way to the unmistakable rounded, goaty finish that typifies Clonmore. Make no mistake, this is a wonderful hard goat's cheese. It is in no way sharp or soapy yet has a distinctive, smooth flavour that can be amazingly more-ish.
Clonmore is one of those cheeses that is better served below room temperature, left out in a warm room it has a tendency to become slightly oily. Clonmore partners well with scaled down wines, enjoy chilled with a Chablis or a good Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire.

Published in The Press, Christchurch, on 13 October 2005.

Ask an Irish emigrant what they most miss from home and it's a sure bet that Brown Soda Bread will figure somewhere near the top of the list. A simple wholemeal loaf, leavened with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, it - together with its slightly more elegant sister, White Soda Bread - was the staple for generations of Irishmen and women before the arrival of the shop loaf. Even then, people still made it regularly at home. Before the advent of the oven, it would have been cooked daily in a three-legged iron pot known as a bastible, over the embers of the turf fire.

The kitchens of my Irish childhood were places where my mother, grandmother and aunts were always baking and there was much discussion over the best recipe for Brown Soda Bread. One person would swear by buttermilk, someone else would use soured ordinary milk, and a third would substitute the plain flour with self-raising to ensure a good rise. Nor could they agree on any other parts of the recipe, never using anything as prosaic as weighing scales. It was always a handful of this and a drop of that - they knew instinctively how the dough should feel.

They never used a loaf tin, either, instead shaping the bread into a thick round and baking it flat on a baking sheet. There was always a cross drawn on the dough with a sharp knife before it was put into the oven. In my house this cross was to let the fairies out, in others it was to bring the blessing of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit upon all who ate the bread. But there's a more earthy reason behind it. As the bread bakes, the cross opens up, allowing the heat of the oven to reach the centre of the bread and ensuring that it cooks properly.

For anyone who has been put off making their own bread by the palaver that surrounds yeast baking, this recipe is simplicity itself. Put all dry ingredients into a bowl, add buttermilk - I always use Karikaas - mix briefly, dump it into your tin and land the loaf in the oven. The important thing to remember is, as with muffins, not to over-mix or you'll end up with a tough loaf. Be sure and wrap your hot loaf in a clean tea towel when you take it out of the oven. Otherwise it gets tooth-damagingly crusty.

Brown Soda Bread is well matched with chunky vegetable soup or some cheese and salad as part of a light lunch. The recipe is also endlessly adaptable. Although it's far from traditional, I always replace 75g of the wholemeal flour with pumpkin seeds and wholegrain oats, sprinkling sesame seeds on the top of the loaf. Alternatively, you could use all white flour and make White Soda Bread to which you can add a handful of sultanas or herbs, olives or sun dried tomatoes.

Published in Ireland's Food & Wine magazine in June 2005.

Most people think of New Zealand and imagine spectacular scenery, lots of wine, and, thanks to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, a landscape populated with hobbits. But, since arriving in New Zealand six months ago, I've discovered that an interest in food permeates the very air the people here breathe. There are numerous food magazines, lots of cookbooks by New Zealand writers, the meals you get in cafés, restaurants and people's homes are, almost invariably, fantastic and every road trip is punctuated with stops at country stalls selling fruit and vegetables, hazelnuts, cheese and yoghurt. Go to the farmers' markets and you'll find an emphasis on organic and regional foods alongside a wide range of artisan food makers. Much is known about New Zealand wine - Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has a justifiably excellent international profile - but the world is only just starting to wake up to the innovative food industry humming away in this little country.

Things weren't always this way. Twenty years ago, as in Ireland, New Zealand was a conservative market with little interest in new and unusual foods. Cheese meant cheddar while exotics like artichokes and aubergines were unheard of. The traditional Kiwi dinner was roast meat - most often lamb - with pavlova for desert. Simon Wilson, editor of Cuisine, New Zealand's leading food and wine magazine, agrees. "Traditional cuisine in New Zealand was very dominated by British, as well as Irish and Scottish, foods - and the kind of stodgy end of them. So some of the really interesting things that have characterised British cuisine - good cheeses, some of the delicious puddings, real quality products with meat, interesting use of spices - we didn't really have much of that. We had the meat and three veg, pretty heavy food. That's how people thought of British food and that's how people thought of New Zealand food."

So when did the change come about? What turned New Zealand into the vibrant food producer it has become? Wilson pinpoints these changes to the late 1980s. "That was when import regulations were almost eliminated, certainly eased up on, so it became possible for a large variety of food stuffs to be brought into New Zealand. We could eat all sorts of things that we hadn't even seen before, let alone tasted." But this was only one of the factors at play in the development of the New Zealand food scene. "In the last ten years or so, as has happened throughout the West," says Wilson, "there has been a large number of emigrants from Third World countries, bringing with them their strong and wonderful cuisines. So not only do we have the foodstuffs, we know what to do with them. There's a very healthy import, retail and restaurant Middle Eastern scene in New Zealand right now."

Influences from outside the country have certainly been strong but a lot of the changes came about from the ground up. The establishment of the now highly successful wine industry in New Zealand gave impetus to a lot of innovators. "As the wine became established, other people were saying we surely can do this with food," according to Wilson. "There were a lot of people who considered that they couldn't afford to start a vineyard but they could afford to grow olive trees or saffron. So that was a way that another whole group of people got involved in the food and wine industry."

It's a line of thought that Tina Duncan, who has a catering business, runs cookery classes and is also one of the founders of the Christchurch-based international food and wine masterclass Savour New Zealand, agrees with.
"Once we discovered we could make great wine then the emergence of boutique producers follows on because they're all part of the industry. You want the olives to go with the wine and the olive oils are just getting better and better. Our avocado oil is fantastic too. We're growing the best saffron in the world here in Canterbury and we're making fantastic wasabi. Where ever you go there are all these little people doing a wonderful thing."

It was this bounty of food that led Duncan and her partners to set up the Savour New Zealand event. Renowned chefs, experts, producers and writers on food and wine from around the country and the world gather for this biennial happening. "We just wanted to celebrate the fact that we've such wonderful produce," says Duncan. "We saw that everyone was becoming crazy for food and wanting knowledge. So we decided to create this event with the goal that it would become one of the top ten food and wine events in the world."

Since the first Savour New Zealand weekend in 2001, the event has attracted not only world famous chefs like Antonio Carluccio, Stephanie Alexander, and Sophie Grigson, but also highlighted the unique qualities of New Zealand produce to an international audience. "Our idea was to showcase New Zealand food and wine to the rest of the world by bringing in chefs like Patricia Wells from Paris, Melissa Perello from San Francisco, Anthony Bourdain from New York. Every time we have an event and they go back they're spreading the word."

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has also been experimenting with and spreading the word about a uniquely New Zealand product, avocado oil, which he has tipped as the next 'it' food ingredient. While refined avocado oil has been used for cosmetic purposes for many years, it was only in early 2000 that a couple of companies in New Zealand started processing extra virgin cold-pressed avocado oil. Tastier than most oils, with a 'good fat' profile similar to that of olive oil and as many uses, avocado oil looks set to make a large impact on the food market.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Walk into any food shop and you'll find yourself wondering about the sheer imagination involved in the production of most of the local foodstuffs. From walnut growers turning their produce into oil, paste and flour to the revival of ancient European products such as verjuice and artisan bread-makers working with Maori chefs to create New Zealand breads with indigenous ingredients, there's hardly a culinary stone left unturned in this country. It's no surprise that, on last count, there were a total of 2000 specialty food and beverage manufacturers, employing more than 33,000 people.

One of the reasons that there is such variety in the foodstuffs produced in New Zealand is the variation in climates within the country. Errol Hitt of Eight Moon Saffron was the pioneer of the saffron industry in New Zealand and his award-winning saffron is considered equal to the world's best. In 1993, inspired by a throwaway comment on the radio, he decided to plant some Spanish corms at his farm in Rangiora, North Canterbury. "Right from the very first harvest it was good, partially because we were in the right place. If you drill a hole around here, straight through the earth, you come out around Spain or Portugal. Plus we've got a bit of a microclimate in Rangiora. It's a bit frosty in the winter, quite dry in the summer, and that's exactly what saffron needs." His success with what is called the King of Spices has led him into extending the business and now, as well as the pure saffron threads, he offers saffron-based honey, marinades, chocolates and oils.

"It used to be thought New Zealand was a temperate climate," says Simon Wilson, "and therefore couldn't sustain the kind of horticulture and viniculture that characterised Mediterranean countries. That might be generally true but it isn't true of all parts of New Zealand and it doesn't follow that we can't grow a whole range of things whether it's grapes, olives or any number of gourmet foods if the right location is chosen." It is something that Tina Duncan has also noticed. "We've got a very interesting climate here with pockets of different sorts of microclimates. This is why we can grow tropical fruits up in the north. There are areas around Coromandel where they started growing tea at one stage and we're producing our own truffles."

With all this interest in food can New Zealand now be said to have its own national cuisine? "There's been quite a bit of discussion about whether there is a national cuisine," says Wilson, "and there's a strong consensus that I think different people reached independently. Our cuisine is a matter of taking the fresh local produce, particularly things like seafood, beef and lamb, and using it with the best of whatever foodstuffs have arrived in the country from all over the world. Our chefs and our home cooks are not afraid to mix and match, to experiment, to find really quite delightful tastes. That has created a strong and taste-orientated cuisine that now dominates our restaurants and many people's homes." Forget the hobbits, New Zealand food is a whole new world just waiting to be discovered.

Caroline Hennessy

Useful links:
www.cuisine.co.nz
www.savournewzealand.com
www.avocado-oil.co.nz
www.eightmoonsaffron.com