I started The Flavour Files in 2012 and have added recipes celebrating our wonderful Irish produce ever since. My recipes show great produce is as much at home on our kitchen tables as on a restaurant menu. It's not just recipes though - there is news, reviews & other writing too!
January 14, 2015
Who doesn’t love a bit of chilli? Beef chilli, bean chilli, veg chilli – I just can’t resist the warm hug of chilli. Something so simple that packs a whack of flavour is always a sure fire hit with me, and, like a curry, gets better the second day too which makes for awesome left […]
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January 2, 2015
The 17th December 2014 will be one of those “remember where you were dates” that will stay with me for many, many years to come. For my talented friend, Diana Dodog, it marked the beginning of a period of time at the end of an amazing year for her which saw her win Irish Masterchef […]
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December 20, 2014
I can almost hear the sleigh bells ringing at this stage! The kids have broken up from school; many many mistakes have been made I am sure following on from the invasion of the annual office party into every city, town and village and people are starting to lose their temper at the supermarket as […]
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December 18, 2014
Sometimes you just have to stop prevaricating and just do it! This is what happened with the Supper Club. I was as excited about hosting my supper club as I was nervous about actually doing it! In the end, I chose the second to last Saturday in November to go for it. I hand invited […]
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December 1, 2014
It’s just turned the 1st of December, and nature has acknowledged this fact by making it cold and damp. Great. The heating is now on and the deflating of the chimney balloon so we can light the first fire of the season cannot be too far away now. And thus, thoughts turn towards seasonal comfort […]
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November 25, 2014
It’s here! It’s here! Finally, it’s game season! What a treat this food season is. Getting your hands on good quality wild game meats is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but to persevere is to be rewarded with food fit for a King!
Read morePlanning a visit to West Cork and want the low-down on the best artisan foods in the region? Or maybe just keen to support local food producers? A copy of the Artisan Food Guide will be your invaluable resource, and ideal for planning an independent food adventure of your own too!
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November 14, 2014
About three years ago, my husband booked a table at Blairs Cove Restaurant as a surprise for my birthday. As far as meals go, I chalk it down as one of my favourites ever. As far as memories go, I’ve been wanting to go back and experience it all over again.
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November 12, 2014
I don’t make deserts too often, frankly because it’s not where my comfort zone lies in cooking terms. But, saying that, I have a very powerful sweet tooth, and that makes me somewhat an expert when in comes to knowing what will taste amazing when it comes to deserts.
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November 10, 2014
What I eat and when has always been well influenced by seasonal produce. Obviously, personal choice is a large factor in this, but I have always been a firm believer in listening to your body and it will tell you what it needs. Our lives these days are so busy, hectic and cluttered with stuff […]
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October 29, 2014
There’s always something lurking in your fridge that, given a bit of thought, can be turned into a really tasty meal! Regularly, I carry out something I like to refer to as a “Fridge Audit” where I go through everything and see what I can use up rather than throw out. I hate waste and […]
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October 22, 2014
All hail praise to the humble beetroot! What you can’t do with a beetroot can be written on the back of a postage stamp! It’s funny, because only up until a relatively short time ago (say 10 years ago) I could genuinely say that the only time I ever ate beetroot was pickled from a […]
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October 16, 2014
Yes! It is finally perfectly acceptable to start eating stews again! Sometimes it’s the only thing you want to eat during the week but as we all know, stews that require meat such as beef or lamb take a long time to cook and always taste better if made the day before – just like […]
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October 13, 2014
Shut your eyes for a moment and think of autumn. What do you see? I see fall colours and pumpkins and squashes and right now we are in the middle of squash season and I love it!
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October 8, 2014
Puddings…don’t you just LOVE them! I frequently try to convince myself when I’m in a restaurant that a pudding is not as important as that really tasty sounding starter, and that it really is doing me good by only having two courses instead of three. But I am my mothers’ daughter and invariably even if […]
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October 6, 2014
Orzo pasta is so versatile. It has a great texture in the mouth and is a great pasta for coating with sauces as it covers well and doesn’t clump together like rice would. For this recipe I used a pesto that I came across while wandering and meandering through the Clonakilty farmers market one Friday.
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October 5, 2014
Now is the perfect time of year for picking wild rosehips! Hedgerows abound with the bright red bullets of lovliness so there is no reason why you shouldn’t get picking! Pick perfect berries and try and spread your picking out across a number of bushes so you are not stripping one single plant bear of […]
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October 2, 2014
It’s here…you can feel it can’t you? Darker mornings, shorter evenings – that nip in the air that tells you that it’s well and truly Autumn! Although I adore the summer, Autumn is officially my absolute favourite time of year! It’s something about the anticipation for the first fire you’ll light, or the first need […]
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September 24, 2014
Sometimes a meat free meal is an absolute must! I will go meat free at least once a week, twice if I can and fish once a week too. I think it is a good thing to give your system a bit of a rest from time to time from trying to digest too much […]
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September 19, 2014
Every year, the Taste of West Cork Food Festival welcomes visitors of all foodie dispositions and from all over the world to the region in a flagrant display of showing off! What would steal the show? The scenery; the beautiful weather, the abundance of food producers (many of whom are award winning) or the vast […]
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September 3, 2014
What a great festival it was this year! I spent most of my time literally running between gigs, food tastings and learning new things in the Theatre of Food! Electric Picnic smells as good as the line up looks, and barring just two disappointments, the food was great again this year. I was live tweeting […]
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August 23, 2014
We are spoilt for choice here in West Cork on great places to eat. With such amazing produce and food producers on our doorstep, any place that offers up locally sourced ingredients to the discerning palates of the good people of West Cork might struggle to peek our interest and that all the good ideas […]
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