I'm one of those people who adore Brussel Sprouts. Mr Flavour refers to them as The Devil's Vegetable, a non-compliment he bestows upon Cauliflower - also a favourite vegetable of mine. It's a wonder how it is we have managed to be together for 20 years to be honest!
A Food Writing Workshop and Food Tour in West Cork with Dianne Jacob and Kate Ryan ... COME WITH US!
Twas three nights before Christmas, and Mr Flavour and I palmed off our beloved Springer Spaniel onto our unwitting friends and heading to Cork for a night of food, drink, a Bag O'Cans and a gig in a Church. Rock and Roll!
I can't tell you how much I love this dish! I sometimes exchange the cheese for homemade Kofte, but using Macroom Buffalo Haloumi is a really great substitute for a Meat Free feast!
I made this recipe back in September just as the autumn was starting to make an appearance in earnest. And, despite it taking me a solid three months to get it up on the blog, thankfully all the flavours are still as relevant as we head into the end of one year and the beginning of a new one!
One of the absolute joys of recent years is discovering the wonder of slow cooked beef and pork cheeks!
Let’s talk about new powerhouse restaurant in Cork: Goldie Fish & Ale...
You can almost smell the scene of mulled wine and mince pies in the air, can't you? Well, if like me, Christmas is your favourite time of the year for food, drink and general merriment, you're probably already on the way to finalising your plans for an incredible Christmas Day Feast!
#AD Have you heard the news? Now there's a Clonakilty Pudding for Veggies...and it's seriously yum!
I'm not big into drinking fizzy soda's. I still think of them as a treat, a throwback to my childhood days when fizzy drinks were always considered a treat reserved for birthdays and Christmas. But the one fizzy drink that I do hanker after, even as a should-know-better adult, is Lilt.
A couple of years ago, I started experimenting with Meadowsweet - a wild plant festooned with flowers that have a honey-like aroma that blooms in late summer and into early autumn.
#AD Clonakilty Black Pudding is versatile & delicious to eat any time of the day!
I’m one of those people who adore Brussel Sprouts. Mr Flavour refers to them as The Devil’s Vegetable, a non-compliment he bestows upon Cauliflower – also a favourite vegetable of mine. It’s a wonder how it is we have managed to be together for 20 years to be honest!
Frankly, it’s all in the cooking of them, and this recipe which will hopefully inspire you to gather up the last of this season’s wonder veg, is inspired by my food hero, Nigel Slater who penned a recipe for Brussels and Stilton Soup. My version could also be eaten with a spoon, from a bowl, wrapped in your Jim Jams against the last of the winter storms in front of a roaring fire with a decent box set for company. All’s fair in love and Brussel Sprouts…
Brussels and Blue
Because this recipe requires the sprouts to be thinly sliced, there is no need for steaming or boiling to death. Instead this is like a gentle braise, enhancing their flavour while retaining form and texture.
Ingredients: (serves 2 people generously)
1tbsp Olive oil
Some Brussel Sprouts (however many you’d like, I’m not here to judge you), peeled and thinly sliced;
Roast Chicken pieces (don’t be roasting a chicken especially for this dish, but it is great for using up any left over chicken);
1 medium white onion, finely diced;
Generous splash of a decent white wine – whatever you have to hand, but not a sweet wine;
Creamy blue cheese – I used Macroom Buffalo Blue here because it is a stunning cheese to use wherever possible;
Handful of chopped parsley;
Pumpkin seeds
Knob of butter, sea salt and black pepper
Method:
Preheat a deep saute pan, add the oil and the onion over a low heat until the onions turn translucent but not coloured.
Add in the sliced Brussel Sprouts, and stir about to cover.
Lash over the wine, 150ml should do it – a small glass.
Cover and allow to cook gently for about 5 minutes.
Uncover, allow the liquid to reduce slightly, then add in the roast chicken. Stir to combine.
Add in the blue cheese, reserving some. Mix it through with the reduced liquid to create a creamy sauce that lightly coats.
Add in the fresh chopped parsley and season to taste.
Sprinkle over the pumpkin seeds.
Pile up onto a plate, and finish with a few little nubs of blue cheese.
Serve with thick, crusty bread, and a glass of that lovely white wine!
A Food Writing Workshop and Food Tour in West Cork with Dianne Jacob and Kate Ryan … COME WITH US!
When: 8th – 11th October 2020
Where: The Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery, West Cork, Ireland
Early Bird Offer until 31st March 2020 – BOOK TODAY
Food with a Story to Tell is a writing workshop and food tour taking place over four days in the bread basket of Ireland: West Cork, with US-based award-winning food writer, Dianne Jacob, and West Cork-based food writer and local tour guide Kate Ryan.
Kate RyanDianne Jacob
Home to 70% of Ireland’s artisan food producers, West Cork is on the south-westerly edge of Ireland on the Wild Atlantic Way. It is a fertile and creative space where pioneers of food culture have created some of the most revered produce in Ireland and on the global stage.
An intimate grouping of food writers, from all backgrounds and different stages of their writing life, will be immersed in a workshop and food tour over four days packed with culinary inspirations. Our days will combine guided writing sessions by award-winning food writer Dianne Jacob with tours and meals organised by local guide and food writer Kate Ryan.
“Guests will visit local artisan food producers, dine on sumptuous gourmet lunches and dinners, take time to enjoy the glorious scenery and beaches of this coastal community,” says Ryan, who curates food tours of the area. “The tastes, sights and stories of the food we will connect with, the landscape surrounding us and the tales from the people we meet will be channelled into our writing. The goal is to discover or develop a writing voice through food, as storytellers.”
As well as workshops, there will be excursions, lunches and dinners each day and free time to enjoy the local area, or simply to write using what guests have learned and experienced.
About the Workshop and Food Tour
Inspired by beautiful views from Warren Strand beach and the Atlantic Ocean, the group will explore the importance of storytelling in food writing through instruction and workshopping. The excursions, chefs and food producers have been selected not just for the quality of food they produce, but also because of their rich story. There are lineages stretching back generations; stories of a different life before the pursuit of creating artisan cheese or growing organic vegetables; and seasonal plates to eat, layered with flavour and texture.
“Through these experiences, the workshops will guide our writers on how to find their authentic writing voice through personal essay and first person writing. We will develop the importance of story in food writing,” says Dianne. “The group will be small, affording plenty of time to write, talk, explore and gain insights from Kate and I as well as the group. Time spent together, whether around the workshop table or the dinner table, provides opportunity to share stories, absorb the atmosphere and environment, and consider how those experiences shape what and how we write.”
Attendance includes a private half-hour consultation with each instructor providing a one-on-one opportunity to discuss writing and career goals. At the end of the food writing workshop and tour, participants will leave with improved writing skills, a better understanding of the importance of story in food and how to use it, and practical, inspiring advice on pursuing their own writing projects.
What’s Included
In addition to the writing workshops and private consultations, we include:
A private dinner on our first evening, complete with drinks pairings
A visit to a nearby dairy farm with an orchard and bee hives where we will enjoy lunch made with produce from the farm;
Dinner in a local restaurant that regularly wins plaudits for its hyper-local food ethos and minimal waste;
A visit to one of the greatest of all Irish food producers for an exclusive tour of its award-winning cheese and charcuterie production, organic vegetables, drinks and world-renowned knife-making, (acclaimed Argentinian chef Francis Mallman cited these as the best knives in the world), with smorgasbord lunch;
Dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant where the Head Chef will take us on a seasonal culinary journey with a multiple-course tasting menu designed around nature.
“Food with a Story to Tell” Food Writing Workshop and Food Tour includes all workshop sessions with food writing instruction, 2 personal consultations, 2 lunches, 3 dinners (one in a Michelin-starred restaurant), a selection of drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) served with meals, 2 excursions and round-trip transportation to those excursions.
The Early Bird offer of €1300 per person is available only until 31st March 2020. After that the fee is €1500 per person.Accommodation is not included, but a special group rate is available for guests wishing to stay at Celtic Ross Hotel. Personal travel costs are also not included.
There is only space for 15 students, so people are encouraged to sign up quickly to ensure their seats as places have already begun to fill.
Dianne Jacob is the author of the multiple award-winning book Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Memoir, Recipes, and More (Da Capo/Lifelong Books). She is also the co-author of two cookbooks with Chef Craig Priebe: the national award-winning The United States of Pizza (Rizzoli, 2015) and Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas (DK Publishing, 2008).
As a freelance writer, she has written for Lucky Peach, The Washington Post, and Gastronomica. Her 2016 essay “The Meaning of Mangoes,” was the grand prize winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Awards for Excellence in Culinary Writing from Les Dames Escoffier International. It also won Best Essay from the Association of Food Journalists, and was included in Best Food Writing 2016.
A former journalist and publishing company editor-in-chief, Dianne is a full-time writing coach, author, and freelance editor. Her well-known blog Will Write for Food is aimed at writers and covers trends, issues, and techniques. Dianne has spoken and taught at events and workshops around the world for more than a decade, including in London, Dubai, Vancouver, Turkey, France and Australia.
About Kate Ryan
Kate Ryan is a freelance food writer based in West Cork, Ireland. Originally from Bristol in the UK, Kate grew up in a family growing their own food, cooking from scratch and making the most of seasonal gluts. She studied Law at Bristol University, but kept returning to her dual passions of food and writing until, in 2014, Kate established Flavour.ie as a way to share her food experiences in West Cork.
In 2017, Kate was commissioned to write The Artisan Food Guide to West Cork as a resource for others to connect with food producers in the region and re-establishing close connections between grower and eater.
In 2019, Kate was invited to become a Member of the prestigious Irish Food Writers Guild.
As well as writing for a number of Irish publications, both online and print media, Kate also creates experiential food adventures, fully immersive tours and events that highlight the central theme of her writing and Flavour.ie to bring people together over great local food.
Twas three nights before Christmas, and Mr Flavour and I palmed off our beloved Springer Spaniel onto our unwitting friends and heading to Cork for a night of food, drink, a Bag O’Cans and a gig in a Church. Rock and Roll!
The gig in questions was Beoga, Live at St Lukes, an incredible live music venue in a deconsecrated Church where there’s no drink to be had, only what you can stuff into a shopping bag from the Off Licence across the road. Beoga are great (watch and listen here), St Luke’s is brilliant; but it was the pre-gig dinner at newly opened The Glass Curtain that really kicked off the evening in spectacular fashion.
The Glass Curtain, at the Old Thompsons Bakery
The Glass Curtain Owner and Head Chef, Brian Murray
Back in August, I had gotten wind of a new restaurant opening on MacCurtain Street inside the old Thompson bakery while interviewing for a feature on Midleton’s fEast Food Festival in September. I managed to wangle an email contact for Brian Murray, a returning Corkonia, head chef and soon to be proprietor, and got in contact, asking him to let me know when the restaurant would open. Now, you would think that Brian had more important things to worry about that emailing me on the eve of the restaurant’s opening in early December, but he did. Attaching his press release was a lovely note recalling how our paths had briefly crossed earlier in the year. Those are the kind of personal touches that make you realise this is a chef who pays attention. I had thought I wouldn’t get to dine until after the festive season, but the impromptu decision to make a night of it in Cork for the gig meant I could make good on my intention earlier than planned.
Things to note about The Glass Curtain:
It’s small. Only 36 seats with a funky bijoux bar with high stalls, perfect for sipping cocktails and partaking in a couple of the small plates.
The kitchen is open and HUGE. I like seeing the chef team work – it gives a sense of dinner and a show. The long narrow nature of the space means the kitchen space is cavernous!
A menu that can be shared or devoured alone. Small plates that can be shared or eaten as individual starters; large plates the same. It’s a flexible approach to menus that I love, personally, but for some might be a bit baffling.
Have a cocktail before dining. Because the cocktails are excellent.
The Glass Curtain is about local, seasonal foods and celebrating the best of Cork grown and reared produce. Food is cooked over fire and charcoal; there is also magik and wizardry. Meat and fish feature throughout, but vegetables are treated with the level of detail ensuring that, only when together, does the flesh truly sing.
Casing point: For my large plate, I ordered Collar of Pork (a cut rarely seen on restaurant menus but one I love for its rich flavour and yielding texture). Served blushing, just the way it should be, melting and seared with sweetly sour sticky tamarind, it was possibly one of the best treatments of meat I have had this year (one exception: duck at The Chestnut, Ballydehob). It was served with a house made spicy Peanut Rayu and a selection of three cabbages: kale, sweetheart cabbage and green cabbage. The pork on its own was very good indeed, but only when eaten with the cabbage, buttery and smokey from the grill, did the dish truly come alive. I’ve always said that cabbage is a much underrated vegetable, and I would wager that Brian and I share the same belief; for while the Pork was meant to convince you of being the star of the show, frankly it was the unexpected glorious performance of the supporting act, Cabbage, that stole the show and made the Collar of Pork even better than it was on its own. A triumph of technique and flavour wrapped up in a cape of modesty. Positively indecent cabbage, in all the right ways.
Beef, Onion, Bone Marrow Jus
Pork Collar & Winter Cabbage
Mr Flavour has a penchant for beef, and so opted for the Ribeye. Darkly barked and smokey without, erubescent within; sighing in surrender to the knife and served with an unctuous bone marrow jus: “This,” Mr Flavour proclaimed, “This is the best Ribeye I have ever eaten. EVER!” Now, Mr Flavour is not one to be given over to public, or even private, effusive proclamations of approval. ‘Tis Grand’ is the height of his usual praise, so you can imagine how utterly suspicious I was of this sudden outburst. But he kept saying it over and over again, so decided this euphoria was well placed. I was proffered a measly morsel, which thankfully was enough for me to agree with Mr Flavour that, indeed, this was a very delicious piece of beef, cooked to perfection. Bone marrow, I have determined, has the ability to do strange things to folk. And as this was our second taste of it, (the first being a split femur, from the size of it, filled with grilled onions and a crunchy herby crust), we were both certainly well indulged.
So, what else did we indulge in? In addition to the bone marrow small plate, we also inhaled the sweet and earthy Beetroot Tartare with Horseradish Tofu and Nori and the Seared Scallops with Coconut and Broccoli. And once again, the vegetable treatment was excellent. Someone, probably famous, once said: anyone can cook a piece of meat, but it takes skill to get the most out of vegetables. I concur.
Honey Custard Tart
A note about dessert. As in previous posts, you may already be away of my proclivity towards anything remotely custardy. Therefore, it was an inevitable that to finish, I opted for the Honey Custard Tart with Nutmeg and Fresh Cream, scattered atop with Pistachios. Take me to church! (Well, ironically, I kinda did afterwards). Thick and stiff, like clotted cream, super thin, crispy pastry and that hint of wintery nutmeg. Rich yet light, completely indulgent and a day hasn’t passed that I haven’t thought about it and wanted it. Can one hold an obsessive desire for an inanimate plate of dessert? Well, I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it!
We arrived for an early sitting, but by the time we departed, dragging our full but happy bodies up the hill to the Offy for a Bag O’Cans and onto our gig, The Glass Curtain was hopping! I feel right now that only those in the know know about The Glass Curtain, but it won’t be too long before word properly gets out, and it’ll be a fight to the end for a table. And so it should be. Brian may have spent the last few years of his career Not In Cork, but now he is very much Back In Cork and, from his careful selection of ingredients, and the careful treatment of them using seemingly nothing but fire and a shed load of butter, Brian is a chef reveling in his prodigal return.
I don’t profess to know much about Korean food, but there is something reminiscent of this cuisine in Brian’s menu. Yes, there are overtures of Asian flavours, the smoke and fire charcoal BBQ element is very on trend with Korean BBQ right now; and yet the way these ingredients and flavours are put together are still recognisably, well, Irish? Tis far from Nori, Coconut and Tofu we might have been raised, but the core ingredients are well rooted in Ireland – embracing great Irish produce with flavours from far away, melding them together and creating something venturing on Modern Irish.
Beetroot, Horseradish Tofu Cream, Nori
Scallops, Coconut and Broccoli
Cork City is settling in well to its reputation as an exciting proposition for diners, and The Glass Curtain is hitting a pitch perfect point between casual dining and restaurant dining; where the customers are made to feel like family and the food is excellent yet understated. I simply cannot recommend this restaurant enough.
I can’t tell you how much I love this dish! I sometimes exchange the cheese for homemade Kofte, but using Macroom Buffalo Haloumi is a really great substitute for a Meat Free feast!
There are a few elements to this dish, but actually if you follow the sequence in the method, you’ll find that it’ll all be done in under 40 minutes. Also worth noting is that this sauce will make more than you need, but don’t fret – this sauce goes with everything! Just portion off what you don’t use for this and use for a quick and easy pasta dish another night!
Aubergine, Tomato and Halloumi
Ingredients:
Two tins of tomatoes
1 medium red onion, finely diced
Olive oil and a generous knob of butter
Sea salt
1 large aubergine, sliced into rounds
1 or 2 egg whites
Panko breadcrumbs, seasoned with black pepper
1 pack of Macroom Buffalo Halloumi, slice in half length ways
Dried oregano
Green herby pesto: either homemade or a good quality shop bought one
Method:
In a deep saucepan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the butter. Gently fry off the onion until its softened but not taken on any colour. Add the tomatoes and cook for at least 30 mins on a low heat, stirring every so often.
While the sauce is cooking, place the aubergine slices in a colander and salt over generously. Set aside.
When the sauce is cooked, place everything into a blender a wiz until super smooth. Check for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper. Place back in the saucepan ready to warm through.
Pat the aubergine slices with kitchen paper, then brush both sides with the egg white. Pane on one side only with the breadcrumbs.
In a large heavy based frying pan, heat some oil and then cook the aubergine slices on the naked side first, then flip and cook through on the crumbed side until golden brown. Set aside.
Warm through the sauce until it just begins to bubble.
Prepare the halloumi with a light brush of oil and sprinkle a small amount of dried oregano on both sides. Fry off until golden brown in the frying pan used for the aubergines.
Spoon a generous amount of the tomato sauce onto a place and frame with slices of the aubergine. Place the halloumi in the middle of the tomato sauce and top with a spoonful of pesto.
I made this recipe back in September just as the autumn was starting to make an appearance in earnest. And, despite it taking me a solid three months to get it up on the blog, thankfully all the flavours are still as relevant as we head into the end of one year and the beginning of a new one!
With some dishes I come up with, I wonder where a dish transforms from being a mere assemblage of ingredients into an actual recipe, and this is very much one of those dishes. So whichever it may technical set upon, the ingredients and method, such that it is, is noted below. But aside from all of that, this is the kind of dish that is pure comfort and joy. Don’t stimp on loading the roasting tray for the squash/pumpkin with endless cloves of garlic so that the kitchen is filled with that: the best aroma of all!
Kale & Pumpkin Orecchiette
Ingredients (serves 2):
Enough Oriecchiette pasta for two people
1/2 Butternut Squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed into 1inch pieces
Lots of garlic – at least 5 cloves, in their skin and smashed
20g of blue cheese (Shepherds Store works well)
1 pack of Gubbeen streaky bacon, sliced into thin lardons
2 generous handfuls of seasonal kale, destem and tear the leaves.
Handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil, sea salt and pepper
Method:
Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, prepare the squash and arrange it on a baking tray. Toss in the smashed cloves of garlic, drizzle over a small amount of olive oil. Toss through and roast until the squash is tender. Turn once during cooking.
Bring a pan of well salted water to the boil, add in the pasta, a drizzle of olive oil and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.
Fry off the bacon until all the fat has rendered out and the bacon has gone crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
Keep the bacon fat, and once the squash is cooked through heat up the bacon fat again and quickly cook the kale leaves until they have softened.
Into a large sharing bowl, add the drained pasta, squash, pumpkin seeds and the crumbled blue cheese, season with sea salt and black pepper and toss together.
Scatter about the kale, then crumble the bacon over. Finally, using a veg peeler, peel off some Parmesan cheese over the whole dish and serve immediately.
One of the absolute joys of recent years is discovering the wonder of slow cooked beef and pork cheeks!
Probably even five years ago, it might not be something we would choose to eat, but with the growing popularity in nose to tail eating and cooking, offal and many rediscovering how lovely slow cooking is (largely due to the rise in popularity of slow cookers again), they have started to crop up on restaurant menus and, if you are lucky enough to have access to a traditional butcher that still sells the less expensive cuts, in home kitchens too!
Beef Cheeks are a gift: the pack a punch flavour wise, give incredible yield of meat, are much more cost effective than a steak and also help in doing our bit to reduce waste when it comes to using all of the animal.
They are also a hard working muscle on the animal and so need long and slow cooking to break them down so we can access their incredible flavour and texture. Slow cooked, or braised, correctly, and the meat will do that thing where it just melts at a touch of a fork and feathers away.
Glorious Beef Cheeks!
I love cooking beef cheeks. I don’t own a slow cooker myself, so for me it is all about the slow braise with plenty of vegetables, herbs and red wine. The absolute best way to eat them is with a creamy, rooty mash of some kind: potato, celeriac or swede work particularly well. Alternatively, whip up a batch of creamed polenta and serve with a melange of wild mushrooms and wild kale. I always save the cooking liquor from the braise, sieve it and then reduce it and thicken it with a little roux for a sauce that perfectly reflects the cooking of the beef cheek. You can of course also use a slow cooker for this recipe if you have one, it will reward you with the most comforting of home cooked dishes for a cold winters’ night!
Ingredients:
2 tsp of olive oil
2 celery sticks, washed, trimmed, finely sliced
2 carrots, washed, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 medium onion (red or white), peeled and finely sliced
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 bay leaves
Small handful of mixed woody herbs: thyme and rosemary etc
500ml of good quality chicken stock (preferably homemade)
300ml of a robust, full bodied red wine
2-4 beef cheeks (add more wine if cooking more than two cheeks)
Knob of butter.
Method:
About an hour before cooking, lightly salt the beef cheeks with a good quality sea salt. Set aside.
Bring the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, no fan.
Into a deep cook pot with a lid, add the oil oil and two thirds of the celery, carrot, onion, garlic and tomato mix, and half the amount of herbs. Mix together.
On top of the vegetables, add your beef cheeks.
On top of the beef cheeks, add the remaining vegetable and herb mix.
Pour in the chicken stock and red wine. Add a generous knob of butter on top.
No need to season at this stage, you can do this when you are preparing the sauce later.
Place into the oven and cook for 3.5 to 4 hours, turning the cheeks once or twice. Cook until the meat has cooked through to tender – if you were to press it with a fork it should be soft and yielding.
When cooked, remove the cheeks from the braising liquid and set them aside to rest.
Sieve out the vegetables from the braising liquid, keep the liquid!
Place the liquid in a saucepan and cook until reduced by half. Add in a little cornflower mixed with warm water, add to the sauce and whisk out any lumps that might form.
Bring the sauce up to a simmer, and return the cheeks to it to warm through gently. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Serve up with a creamy rooty mash, some kale and a generous drizzle of the sauce.
Let’s talk about new powerhouse restaurant in Cork: Goldie Fish & Ale…
This is some of the most exciting food to grace Cork for a while: if not for the exceptional culinary inventiveness of 25 year old head chef Aishling Moore, or the deliciously friendly front of house service from a dedicated, highly motivated and cohesive team, but for its ethos.
For the past number of years, chatter has been all about #nosetotail and very much in the realm of meat. But other “wholeness” ethics of food production, cookery and consumption are pushing their way past and, in the hands of visionary and talented chefs like Aishling, are making an indelible mark and changing the way we think about what food is and how to better respect it by using the whole of it – not just the best bits: Root to Tip in the veg world, and Gill to Tail in the fish world.
Goldie Fish & Ale – Ethos: Day Boats, Local, Gill to Tail
Cod Collar
Fish Head Terrine
Goldie is a fish and ale restaurant, and the nose to fin ethos is very much alive and kicking here: cod collar panko fried with chervil emulsion; the incredible fish head terrine, prawn cocktail crisps etc.
Prawn Cocktail Crisps
This, from a diners perspective is what makes Goldie Restaurant exciting – and challenging too. The fish head terrine may not be the first thing you’d automatically jump to, but order it – it is a texture somewhere between sushi and soft yieldingness of a crab salad: fresh, delicate, meaty and a lightness of being from the ribbon of fresh herbs running throughout. Crispy fish skin on top provides a contrasting texture to the soft bite.
Sardines
The other radical element of this ethos is the commitment to the “whole catch approach” to fishing. Goldie sources all its fish from day boats landing into Ballycotton and Kinsale. These boats are small, heading out and back to shore in a day catching small amounts of seasonal fish from within inshore fishing grounds. The catch is landed in the morning and arrives into Goldie the same day and served up from 5pm to their customers. Family enterprises usually run these boats and are essential for sustaining coastal communities reliant on the inshore fishing trade. Fishing in this way is sustainable in many ways, and by buying the whole catch means that these boats can be sure they have a market for whatever they can catch, but also it is incumbent on the chef team at Goldie to make use of every bit, bite, fin, scale and bone of every fish landed in, making zero/minimal food waste another essential part of their offering thanks to their understanding and respect of the work that goes into bringing this fish to shore.
The interior of the restaurant is almost diner-esque with just a hint of art-deco Hollywood kitsch. There is window seating, counter seating and a few tables towards the back with high stalls. The kitchen is Right There; open to the customers with the pass aglow. Aishling’s team of chefs work with a quiet focus that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but the plates are very seriously good. At the pass, Aishling inspects every dish, adding final garnish flourishes and a last meticulous clean of the plates, and then they are gone and delivered with a studied efficiently to your table in seconds. The dish comes with a spoken guide, and whatever question you may have about the food, its provenance or even what to drink with and why are all questions deftly handled with ease. The whole vibe is relaxed, welcoming; and every now and again in a moment of quiet time, Aishling herself steps out from behind the pass to come and say Hi, find out how your doing, and answer any more questions you might have while singing the Gospel According to Day Boats. It is all simply brilliant.
Finally, let’s talk about
Aishling.
Aishling Moore, Head Chef, Goldie Fish & Ale
I met Aishling nearly two years ago during an interview where someone else was the focus. After that initial interview was over, I sat and chatted to Aishling for a good while, and quickly realised that she was someone to keep a beady eye out for. She was working in Elbow Lane at the time, mastering the grills at this fire only restaurant, and really finding her stride. She had spent her apprenticeship studying Culinary Arts at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), and had earned stripes working beside strong, talented female chefs Pamela Kelly at Market Lane and Kate Lawlor, the one time proprietor of the now sadly lost to us Fenn’s Quay. We bumped into each other a few times after that: at Food on the Edge in Galway and so on. And then in August earlier this year there was a very unpretentious post on her Instagram story that she was starting a new project and was looking for team members in the kitchen and front of house. Immediately, I got the tingles because it could only mean one thing: Aishling was finally opening a restaurant of her own.
Buttery Ballycotton Potatoes
To open a restaurant that just specialises in Fish is a risky business, but Ireland as a whole are finally starting to shake off the negative emotions towards fish, largely as a cultural and social hangover from the time of An Gorta Mhór: when there was nothing else to eat, eat fish. Along with Oysters, Mussels, the rise in popularity and quantity of high end Fish and Chip shops/restaurants and a newly embraced fascination of seaweed and other sea vegetables, we are learning to love fish again. It is our most abundant wild food source, but it is also our most precious, so it makes huge sense from a sustainability point of view that, if we are to start giving fish a more important role in our diets, replacing meat a few times a week, then we shouldn’t make the same mistakes as meat and only cherish the most popular fillets, cuts or species. Goldie does that by looking at the fish as a whole and then turning on the creativity to decide how to use every single part of it; embrace the seasonality of this migratory food source and take pressure off fish stocks but giving equal credence to all fish and seafood, not just the premier and most favoured.
I love what this restaurant is doing; and I love what Aishling and her merry cohort of chefs, front of house staff headed up by the ever smiling Jerry, and beer sommeliers have created. Being part of the wonderfully diverse Market Lane Group, (encompassing: Market Lane, Elbow Lane Restaurant and Brewhouse, Orso and the Castle Cafe in Blackrock), Goldie Fish & Ale is yet another very exciting addition but still with that unmistakable friendly and welcoming MLG touch.
Beetroot & Gherkin Ketchup
And, without a shadow of a doubt, keep an eye on one young lady in particular. At only 25 years old, Aishling Moore is going to become a name that you will start to hear more and more often. She is already a gift to the culinary scene of Cork city, and one that will no doubt continue to develop both skill and creativity – and that is a very exciting prospect indeed.
You can almost smell the scene of mulled wine and mince pies in the air, can’t you? Well, if like me, Christmas is your favourite time of the year for food, drink and general merriment, you’re probably already on the way to finalising your plans for an incredible Christmas Day Feast!
I wonder though, do you give the drinks you’ll serve as much thought as the food? Good wine and a glass of bubbles is always welcome for sure, but with Ireland’s booming spirits industry, maybe it’s time to finally make use of that cocktail shaker that’s been gathering dust in the press?!
I LOVE cocktails! Frankly, Chicago is where things are at cocktail wise in the world, but Ireland is finding a unique way to celebrate its spirits by mixing things up with syrups, cordial, tinctures and bitters inspired by Ireland’s wild larder. It all points to us all getting very inventive and thoughtful about the drinks we want to present to the guests who we host over Christmas. When you think about it, a drink is the first thing we hand to our guests when they arrive, setting the scene for what is to come. A well made cocktail or punch will add a really special element to your gathering, making you the hostess with the mostess!
Dublin-based Chinnery Gin are really working that angle this year, and have put together a lovely little booklet of cocktail recipes using their Gin to help get your festive party underway.
Download the whole booklet by clicking the ‘Download’ button below, or scroll down to see my top two picks: a warming Chinnery Gin Punch and a refreshing Chinnery Gin Buck.
Balsamic Cider Vinegar (optional, but adds a richness of flavour)
The juice of 3 oranges
Whole cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, to taste
One vanilla pod (sliced lengthways)
Preparation Combine all the ingredients in a pot and warm gently on the stove for 30 minutes. Don’t allow it to boil. Serve in a teacup with a cinnamon stick and a slice of orange. Makes about 10 cups.
Chinnery Gin Buck
35ml Chinnery Gin
100ml ginger ale
Juice of half a lime
Lime wheel, to garnish
Ice
Preparation Pour one measure of Chinnery Gin (35ml) into a highball glass. Add the juice of half a lime. Fill the glass with ice and top off with ginger ale. Garnish with a wedge of lime or a lime wheel.
#AD Have you heard the news? Now there’s a Clonakilty Pudding for Veggies…and it’s seriously yum!
In my second original recipe in collaboration with Clonakilty Food Co., I got to experiment with their brand new Pudding to add to their Black and White range. Clonakilty Veggie Pudding delivers on texture, flavour and versatility, just like its older siblings, but is 100% vegetarian, suitable for Vegans and Gluten Free too!
Made with onions, carrots, black beans, pea starch and Clonakilty Food Co’s distinctive mix of spices, this is a delicious and savoury alternative whether your veggie or just looking for inspo to go meat free!
In this new recipe, I wanted to celebrate vegetables and one of my favourite ways to do that is by adding delicious little bursts of piquant flavour with pickles. Versatile and full of moreish flavours, it matches the Clonakilty Veggie Pudding perfectly!
This recipe is so easy, but you can make it even easier by buying in your favourite pickles! Of course you can make your own really quickly too and is a great way of using up any odd bits of vegetables in your fridge or gluts from the garden. Play around with spices, citrus and herbs to create your own signature pickles too.
Ingredients
(makes enough Falafel for 2 people)
1
litre of Sunflower Oil
1
x 250g chub of Clonakilty Veggie Pudding
1
free range egg, whisked
50g
panko breadcrumbs
2
x flatbreads (Syrian flatbreads or Pitta Breads work best)
1tbsp
Tahini Paste
2
tbsp Natural Yogurt
Zest
of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2
Sea
salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Salad
leaves, something peppery like rocket or mustard leaves
Pickles*
Method
If you have
a deep fat fryer, get that switched on now. If not, use a sturdy deep saucepan
and no more than half-fill it with 1 litre of sunflower oil. Bring it up to
temperature perfect for quick deep frying.
While the
oil is heating up, make the Tahini dressing. Mix together the tahini, natural
yogurt, half the lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt. Mix well together
until a pouring texture. If too thick, either add a little water or more lemon
juice. Check for seasoning and flavour balance.
On a plate,
pour out the panko breadcrumbs. Crack the egg into a ramekin and whisk with a
fork. Slice the Clonakilty Veggie Pudding into rounds about 1.5cm thick. When
the oil is hot enough, take each round and dunk in the egg wash then roll in
the panko breadcrumbs. Gentle place into the hot oil one at a time until golden
brown. Take out with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain off
any excess oil. Repeat until all the rounds are cooked. Turn off the heat and
leave the oil to cool down completely.
Plating
Fill the
flat bread with a selection of peppery salad leaves. Add in a selection of your
favourite pickles, the Clonakilty Veggie Pudding Falafel and pour over your
tahini dressing.
* Pickles
A simple quick pickle can be made by mixing equal
parts vinegar and water and heating to a boil. Sterilise an empty glass jar and
fill with a selection of aromatics: spices, citrus, herbs – whatever you think
best goes with the vegetable you want to pickle. Add in the vegetables
(individually or a mixed veggie pickle) and then fill with the hot pickling
liquor. Add sea salt, or substitute with sugar for a sweet pickle. Close the
lid tight and allow to cool. Shake every now and again to help the flavours
mingle together. Chill in the fridge and serve with everything!
I’m not big into drinking fizzy soda’s. I still think of them as a treat, a throwback to my childhood days when fizzy drinks were always considered a treat reserved for birthdays and Christmas. But the one fizzy drink that I do hanker after, even as a should-know-better adult, is Lilt.
With it’s “Totally Tropical Taste” trio of flavours: lemon, lime and pineapple, I just felt it offered a little more sophistication than it’s rivals. Plus the jingle was really, really catchy and impossible to repeat without a very, very bad Jamaican accent. This cake, then, is a celebration of a taste of childhood that I’ll never probably grow out of – and I really don’t mind that at all!
Totally Tropical Cake
I have “adulted” up this cake a bit though. This is my well-worn euphemism for “I have added alcohol to this recipe” – you’ll find it cropping up quite a lot in my recipe writing, especially in desserts. If you have little darlings of your own, simply leave it out. Alternatively, make one exactly like this for you and give the kids fresh pineapple and ice cream instead. Sorted!
This is a flourless cake but isn’t gluten free as it contains semolina. If you wanted to make it completely gluten free, you could use entirely ground almonds or substitute the semolina for rice flour. Although rice flour is drying, you will be pouring a small vat of syrup over the whole cake which should amply make up for it.
A note on Pineapples: at the time of writing, Pineapples are in season in the Caribbean, so in autumn this is where we get our juicy fruits from. However, the destruction in The Bahama’s following Hurricane Dorian will not doubt have an impact on supply, and anyway, given that so many have lost so much, I would advocate keeping as much food grown in the Caribbean for the Caribbean people so they can actually feed themselves. So, on that sobering note, if you have a tin of Pineapple lingering in the back of your cupboard, use that instead of buying a fresh one. Keep the juice when you drain them, and make a cocktail out of it using white rum, lemon, lime and soda water and raise a toast to those who are a lot less comfortable than we are right now.
Totally Tropical Cake
Ingredients (serves 8-10 depending on slice size, and I’m not judging!):
For the cake batter
225 g butter (unsalted)
225 g golden caster sugar
6 free range eggs, separated (keep both the yolks and whites)
115 g semolina (or gf substitute)
100 g ground almonds
75 g desiccated coconut (plus a little extra for garnish)
Zest of 2 limes and 2 lemon
150 ml Pineapple Juice (ideally not from concentrate)
1 whole fresh Pineapple, or equivalent tinned product (chunks)
For the syrup
Juice of 1 lime and 1 lemon
Dash pineapple juice
50 ml white Caribbean Rum
125 g white sugar
Method:
Butter a 23cm/9-inch round spring-form cake tin.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees fan.
Prepare the pineapple and cut into equally sized chunks.
Lightly caramelise in a dry frying pan, and then (if feeling confident, and safe!), flambe in a good glug of White Rum. Cook off the alcohol and take off the heat. Add to the buttered cake pan and distribute evenly.
Put the butter and caster sugar into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beat well to combine.
Add in the semolina, ground almonds, lemon and lime zest, and pineapple juice and mix well together.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Take one spoon of egg white and beat it into the cake batter. Then add the remaining egg whites, folding in gently to combine, keeping the air in.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour. Check with a skewer to see if cooked – it may need longer or less depending on the mix of flours used in the cake batter. If the skewer comes out clean it’s cooked.
Allow to cool slightly in the cake tin while you prepare your syrup.
Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, heat gently until sugar has dissolved.
Add the lemon, lime and pineapple juice and bring to the boil for a few minutes or until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the rum, stir, turn off the heat and set aside.
Release the cake from the cake tin and place on a plate. Using the skewer, prick the whole cake over to allow for the syrup to seep down into the cake.
Gently spoon over the syrup. Take your time doing this, don’t rush and try to get as much of the syrup on and into the cake as possible. If you have some left, decant into a clean jar and cool. This will make a lovely syrup to pour over ice cream or into a cocktail at a later time!
Finally, toast a few specks of desiccated coconut in a dry pan and then scatter all across the top of the drenched cake.
Serve a slice of the cake with either Whipped Coconut Cream (find the recipe here), thick pouring or whipped cream, or just naked!
A couple of years ago, I started experimenting with Meadowsweet – a wild plant festooned with flowers that have a honey-like aroma that blooms in late summer and into early autumn.
My first foray was to make Meadowsweet Cordial with it, and since then it has supplanted Elderflower Cordial, superior as it is in pretty much every way!
Since then, at this time of year I seek to find ways that I can add it into other things, and I’ve always been a believer that what grows together goes together, so no surprises then that I frequently pair Meadowsweet with its seasonal berry cousin, the Blackberry.
This recipe is basically a Summer Pudding but just with a few little twists to elevate it, and really make it work for the seasonal fruits of the year.
Glazed Autumn Berry Pudding, Meadowsweet Cream
In my recipe, I used four fruits together: fresh blackcurrants and redcurrant, and the final remnants from the freezer of last years’ autumn blackberry harvest, and the early summer Wild Bilberry harvest. Frankly, you can use any fruit for this, although I would suggest staying away from strawberries (fresh or frozen), and maybe just get out there, pick some free, wild blackberries and then see what you can find from you local farmers’ market and go from there!
Glazed Autumn Berry Pudding, Meadowsweet Cream
The addition of a glaze to the pudding make the whole things shine like a jewel, and adding Meadowsweet Cordial to the just whipped cream makes the whole thing sing of early Autumn. A splash of Kinsale Mead, an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey, cherries and blackcurrants, is another nice way to bring a local flavour to the whole dish. And anyway, what is pudding if there isn’t some booze in it somewhere!
A note on the bread used here: I would normally never advocate using white slice bread in anything, but the fact is that it does make a very good structure for this pudding, so I allow it! A half sliced pan is enough for this recipe, and if you can, leave the bread out for a few hours before using so it has dried out a little.
Ingredients:
Half pan sliced white loaf
No less than 1kg of fruits, fresh or frozen (I used blackcurrants, redcurrants, wild blackberries and bilberries)
175g either golden caster sugar or coconut blossom sugar
Generous glug of Kinsale Mead Wild Red Mead
150ml of whipped cream
1tsp Meadowsweet Cordial
1 chocolate covered honeycomb bar, smashed
Meadowsweet Flower to garnish
Method:
Into a large, heavy bottom pan, place your berries and sugar and bring just to a simmer for enough time for the fruits to break down a little and release their juices.
Place a sieve over a bowl and empty out the fruits, collecting the juices underneath. Allow to drain while you prepare your pudding bowl.
Butter a 1 litre pudding bowl generously. Set aside.
Remove the crusts from each slice of bread. Flatten each slice slightly with a rolling pin.
Take one slice, place the base of the pudding bowl on it and cut around the circle using a knife. Cut two slices into triangles, cut the rest into rectangles.
Take the collected juice and dip each slice of bread so that it has taken on colour and flavour but can still hold itself.
Assemble as follows: start with the circle and place that in the bottom of the bowl. Then the rectangles – overlap them slightly to create a seal. This will also create a pleasing look, kind of like a Bundt cake tin. Then add in the fruits and pack them in tightly. Finally, dip the triangles of bread and place over the opening to seal the whole thing up.
Cover the top with either the bowl lid, or a piece of foil, and place in the fridge to set for a minimum of 8 hours, but longer is better.
Decant the fruit juices into a airtight container and set aside (don’t put in the fridge).
When ready to release the pudding from the bowl, bring the pudding out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 mins.
Take off any covering and place a plate over the top. Hold firm and then quickly invert. The pudding should drop out easily. If you have used a plastic pudding bowl, give it a gentle squeeze all around until you hear the pleasing thunk of the pudding hitting the plate.
Add the the fruit juices back into a saucepan and add in the Mead. Reduce slowly over a low heat until the mixture is thick and syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Generously glaze the pudding all over with a thick layer of the syrupy fruit juice. It should set almost instantly.
While the glaze is setting, whip the cream. Just before it is fully whipped, add in the Meadowsweet Cordia, and then whip again for a few more seconds until it is fully combined.
To serve, garnish the pudding with a sprig of fresh Meadowsweet, and around the base of the pudding scatter the broken pieces of chocolate honeycomb. Serve with a generous dollop of the Meadowsweet Whipped Cream.
Best served with a glass of something crisp, cool and fizzy!
#AD Clonakilty Black Pudding is versatile & delicious to eat any time of the day!
Clonakilty Black Pudding Soil, Tomato & Rhubarb Chutney, Green Chicory Scoops
Over the next few weeks, in collaboration with Clonakilty Food Co, I will be releasing three new original recipes using products from the Clonakilty Pudding range to showcase just how versatile this traditional meat can be – starting with this delightful Amuse Bouche!
This tongue-tingling delicious mouthful makes the most of the crumbly texture, rich earthy flavour and of course that traditional (and secret!) mix of spices of the original Clonakilty Black Pudding.
Clonakilty Black Pudding is made with all natural ingredients and the recipe has remained unchanged since the 1880’s: Flahavan’s Pinhead Oatmeal – for the perfectly nutty bite, Onions, Irish Beef, Beef Blood and that famous secret spice mix! Simple yet delicious.
Did you know that even to this day, the precise combination of the pudding’s spice mix is still only known by one person? Colette Twomey is the head of Clonakilty Food Co, and takes great pride and care in making sure that the spice mix in every single chub of pudding that leaves the factory is is perfectly balanced!
Clonakilty Black Pudding Soil, Tomato & Rhubarb Chutney, Green Chicory Scoops
As summer draws to an close, thoughts turn to delicious dinners with friends during the longer autumn evenings. My Tomato & Rhubarb Chutney preserves the flavours of summer; the Clonakilty Black Pudding gives a warm spicy hug and the crunchy seasonal green Chicory leaf creates the perfect little package to hold the whole thing together and deliver it, forthwith and with much delight, to your Bouche ready for instant Amusement!
First, make the Chutney – as far ahead of using it as possible. Stored in a sterilised, airtight container in the fridge, it will be good for up to a year! For the rest of the recipe, you will need 1 x 280g chub of Clonakilty Black Pudding, 2 heads of Green Chicory and some fresh lemon juice.
Rhubarb and Tomato Chutney
This entire recipe will make you a good 4 jars of chutney, which is a good thing because it’s very moreish and will go with just about everything!
Ingredients:
350g of chopped fresh rhubarb
½ tblsp of olive oil
¾ tblsp black mustard seeds
¾ tblsp of ground cumin
¼ tsp ground cloves
¾ tblsp ground coriander
1kg plum tomatoes chopped coarsely
200g finely chopped white onions
½ tsp sea salt
1 clove of garlic, crushed
170g raisins
100g muscovado sugar
125ml malt vinegar
Method
Heat oil
and cook seeds and spices stirring until fragrant. Add tomato, onion, salt,
garlic, raisins, sugar and vinegar. Stir
over heat without boiling until sugar dissolves. Simmer, uncovered occasionally
until the mixture thickens (at least 40 minutes). Stir in the rhubarb and
simmer uncovered stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the rhubarb
is tender. Decant into sterilised jars, fit lids tightly and leave to cool on a
windowsill. Stores in a press unopened for 6 months. Once opened refrigerate
and use within one month.
Clonakilty Black Pudding “Soil”
Remove the outer casing of 280g chub of Clonakilty Black Pudding and slice into rounds.
Cook the rounds in a pan with some olive oil, breaking it down with a spatula until it has a crumbled look. Cook for a little while longer until it has a slightly crispy texture.
Drain on paper towelling to take off the extra oil. Set aside until ready to assemble.
Enjoy…!
Plating Up
Pick the
leaves from a green chicory bulb, wash and dry. Spritz a few drops of lemon
juice and a few crystals of sea salt into the chicory “scoop”
Fill the inside of the chicory leaf with the Clonakilty Black Pudding soil and spoon along the top some of the chutney and a couple of drops of fresh lemon juice.
