Bia Ó Mo Chroí

Dinner party for the girls Saturday night.

2012-02-20T19:03:00.002Z

Just putting this up here so's I'll know what we had for dinner.
It was blimming lovely even if I do say so myself!

Billy has been off work following a minor operation for the last couple of weeks and has been declaring that he's bored outta his skull - well I can assure you there were no such pronouncements on Saturday - mwahhahahaha!!!

Our menu was divine, and a little inspired to our visit to The Old Convent where the girls and i enjoyed a version of the starter last October (Plans afoot for our next visit real soon,,,yes!!!!)

This was the menu:

Amuse bouche

Quail Scotch Egg

Starter

Ummera Smoked Duck Cream -Candied Nuts - Highbank Orchard Apple Syrup - Parmesan Toast

Soup

Butternut Squash & Chili - Brown Seeded Soda Bread

Sorbet

Basil & Lime

Main Course

Roast Canon of lamb - Red WineJjus - Celeriac Puree - Potato Fondant - Balsamic Roasted Shallot - Broad beans

Pre Dessert

Lemon Posset - Sugared Blueberries

Dessert

Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart - Raspberries

Petit Fours

Bailey's Chocolate Truffles

(The Bailey's truffles recipe can be found here on the blog)

Recipes will follow soon for the Ummera Duck Cream starter, the Butternut Squash Chili Soup, the Lemon Posset and the sinfully decadent Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart, and I'll link them as I get them written up.

Quail Skewers with Asian Spices

2012-02-20T17:44:00.001Z

These quail skewers with Asian Spices from Jason Atherton's cookbook "Maze" are totally scrumdumbtious, and you will definitely make them again and again! I've used the "Maze" cookbook quite a lot actually and his recipes do not disappoint. he has the book presented in an interesting way, Recipes are in sets of 3 and each recipe leads to another where elements of the former dish are used in the next one. We made his apple trifle with cider granita and apple compote doughnuts one weekend, OH.MY.GOD!!! Amazing! But that's a recipe for another day and we'll motor on with the Quails now!

This makes a light meal for 4 when served with some noodles and the salad, if having it as a main course maaybe only 2 servings?! It's supremely light and tasty!

To serve 4 people you will need the following:

You will need 8 wooden skewers which will be soaked for about 20 mins in water, to prevent them burning under the grill later.

4 quails - I got these in Lidl a couple of times, Spanish quail and then I got some fresh Irish ones at the English market in Cork - NO COMPARISON! Our own quail were far superior, plump, juicy birds. Now whenever I'm in Cork I bring home a few for the freezer.

To prepare the quail you will have to spatchcock them. To do this get a kitchen sissors and cut along both sides of the back bone of the quail to remove it. take out the giblets and any other loose "stuff". I like to trim up the wing tips and the legs a little and if the neck is longish I cut it off.

Now rinse them and pat dry.

Open out a quail on the chopping board and press down on the breast bone with the palm of your hand.

Cut the quail in two so each piece has a breast and a leg.

Push a skewer through going in thru the leg and coming out at the top of the breast.

Marinade Ingredients

100ml sesame oil

2tablespoons Mirin (Japanese rice wine) available in Tescos.

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 garlic clove peeled and finely chopped

2cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 red chili, deseeded and chopped

Mix all together and put half of it to one side. Brush the remainder over the quails.

Rub ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon of Szechaun peppercorns

sea salt

1 teaspoon five spice powder

Lightly toast the Szechaun peppers in a dry pan till fragrant. Put in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of salt and grind till finely crushed, mix with the five spice powder and rub over the quails.

At this stage the aromas will have you drooling but carry on and cover with some cling film and put in the fridge for a few hours.

When the time is up preheat the grill on high, Put the marinated quails on a baking tray in a single layer. Place under the grill for ten minutes, turning halfway till the skins are turned golden brown and the quails feel firm and are cooked through.

Leave to rest for a few minutes while you make the following tasty salad.

Asian salad:

About a dozen radishes or half a mooli if you can track it down - for me that was a no no!

1 mango.

Handful of coriander leaves

Handful of baby salad leaves or Jason's recipe calls for Shiso leaves (not on your Nelly in Tralee!!!)

Toss all of these with the remaining marinade.

We enjoy our quails and salad with some noodles with chopped spring onion, a splash of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce mixed through.

Jamie Oliver's Empire Chicken

2012-02-12T20:49:00.000Z

I'm not a great one for watching TV but I will watch cookery shows ad nauseum, Billy tells me the only things I'll watch are Cookery programs and things like The Biggest Loser and Operation Transformation - no shock to me that one of these leads to the other! But anyway moving swiftly along....

I was watching Jamie Oliver's Great Britain one night and I loved the look of his Empire Chicken recipe which was right up my street as I love spicing things up.This recipe which combines your traditional roast chicken, spuds and gravy with some eastern spices truly sizzles. We;'ve made it a couple of times now once just for ourselves and another time we doubled everything up as we had some people coming for Sunday lunch a few weeks ago, they loved it as much as we did.

Ideally start the chicken marinading the day before.
Slash the chicken’s legs a few times right down to the bone. Get a roasting tray slightly bigger than the chicken, then add all of the marinade ingredients and mix together well. Put on a pair of clean rubber gloves, then really massage those flavours over and inside the chicken so it’s smeared everywhere. If leaving overnight cover and put in the fridge.

For the chicken and marinade• 1.4kg free-range chicken
• 1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli
• 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin
• 2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt
• 2 lemons, one to be stabbed in a few places and placed in the chicken.
• 2 level teaspoons sea salt

For the Bombay Style Potatoes

800g new potatoes
• sea salt and ground pepper
• 1 lemon
• 2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 heaped teaspoon each
of black mustard seeds,( I couldn't get black mustard seeds so used regular ones), cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander

For the Gravy:

1 stick of cinnamon
• 3 small red onions, peeled
• 10 cloves
• 3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce
• 3 level tablespoons plain flour
• 500ml organic chicken stock
• optional: natural yoghurt,to serve

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and organize your shelves so the roasting tray can sit right at the bottom, the chicken can sit directly above it, right on the bars of the shelf, and the potatoes can go at the top. Halve any larger potatoes, then parboil them in a large pan of salted boiling water with a whole lemon for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes then let them steam dry. Stab the lemon a few times with a sharp knife and put it right into the chicken’s cavity. Move the chicken to a plate.

Roughly chop the onions and add to the roasting tray along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the flour. Pour in the stock or water, then place this right at the bottom of the oven. Place the chicken straight on to the bars of the middle shelf, above the roasting tray. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Put another sturdy roasting tray over a medium heat and add the olive oil, a knob of butter, the mustard and cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric – work quickly because if the fat gets too hot the mustard seeds will pop everywhere. Halve a bulb of garlic and add it straight to the pan, with the sliced chilli and chopped tomatoes. Add your drained potatoes to the tray, mix everything together, then season well. Finely slice and scatter in the coriander stalks, and keep the leaves in a bowl of water for later. After the chicken has been in for 40 minutes, put the potatoes in.

Once the chicken is cooked, move it to a board and carefully peel off the dark charred bits to reveal perfect chicken underneath. Pass the gravy through a coarse sieve into a pan, whisking any sticky goodness from the pan as you go. Bring to the boil and either cook and thicken or thin down with water to your preference. Put it into a serving bowl and drizzle over a little yoghurt. Get your potatoes out of the oven and put them into a serving bowl, then serve the chicken on a board next to the sizzling roasties and hot gravy. Sprinkle the reserved coriander leaves over everything.

We had it with some corn on the cob and green beans and it was absolutely scrummy!

Oysters two ways.

2012-02-12T00:16:00.001Z

I'm not good at eating oysters au naturel, just can't swallow the damned things - ugh! But give me an oyster wrapped in a rasher of bacon and grilled and I'm in heaven. A light cooking really changes the texture and, for me, enhances the sea-y-ness of them.

Sometime late last year we were watching Masterchef the Professionals and Michel Roux was doing his classics on which the contestants would later be tested. We really liked the look of the oysters and decided to have them as our Christmas day starter being as this year it was just the two of ourselves for dinner and no one else's tastes had to be taken into consideration. Whilst we had them for Christmas they would be perfect for Valentine's day either, after all oysters are aphrodisiacs.

Billy got the job of shucking the oysters, the job made all the easier with an oyster shucking knife we got down town in my fave kitchen shop - Utensils.

When you're shucking your oysters take care! An oyster knife really is an essential bit of kit for the job.

Using the oyster knife, pry open the oyster shells, then remove the oysters. Discard the top shells; scrub and dry the bottom shells. Drain the oysters, reserving the oyster liquor.

My recipes are for 6 of each of the Rockefeller and the Kilpatrick. I couldn't find Michel's recipes online but watched the show again on You tube here to get an idea of what was what!

Oysters Rockefeller

6 fresh oysters on the half shell

1 tablespoons finely shallot

1 tablespoon Pernod
Approx 150ml cream

150g Spinach

Fresh nutmeg.

1 Egg Yolk

In a large saucepan, gently heat the oysters in their juices for a minute or so. Remove the oysters. Strain the juice through a fine sieve. set aside.

To a pan add the shallot, and the Pernod. Heat for a couple of minutes so that the alcohol is burned off and the wonderful aniseed flavour of the pernod remains, add the cream. Heat and allow to reduce a little.

Wilt the spinach in some hot water, drain, squeeze out excess water and chop finely. grate in some nutmeg. Add some of the cream/pernod mix to the spinach to loosen it.

Divide the spinach between the 6 oyster shells Place the oysters on top. Michel's tip was to place the oysters back in the shell in the way they came out.

Add the egg yolk to the cream/pernod mixture and whisk in. Pour over the 6 oysters.

Grill under a hot grill till browning and bubbling.

Oysters Kilpatrick

6 Oysters shucked.
Couple of rashers of bacon, very finely chopped
6 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs.
Tabasco.
Worcestershire sauce
Some soft butter.

Fry the bacon till crispy, add the breadcrumbs to the bacon. Put about 2/3 of this aside in a bowl.
To the remaining third add a couple of splashes each of tabasco and worcestershire sauce.
Divide this mixture between the 6 oyster shells.
Place the oysters on top.
Cover this with the reserved crumb mixture.
Add a knob of butter on top.
Place under a hot grill until browned.

To stabilise the oysters on the plate I put a very generous sprinkling of sea salt which I dampened slightly.

And enjoy!!

Lamb shanks with chick peas and Moroccan spices.

2012-02-04T22:40:00.001Z

We're talking serious comfort food here, hearty, tasty, delicious, spicy - did I say DELICIOUS!

If you can get lamb shanks in your butcher's generally you will only pay about €2.50 each. The weekend I wanted to make this the butcher was out of them and I paid €9 for 2 in Tesco's which I was a tad cross about but I so wanted them that I paid the dosh over!

This is not an after work recipe as it takes hours to slowly cook, well maybe if you want your dinner at midnight you might cook it after work!

Here's what you'll need: (To serve 4)

Tin Chickpeas, approx 400g
2 tbsp olive oil
4 lamb shanks (medium)
2 medium onions , chopped
2 tsp finely chopped fresh root ginger
3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
2 fresh green chillies , seeded and finely chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 large tomatoes , peeled, seeded and chopped
pinch of saffron strands
2cm/0.25in piece of cinnamon stick
450g carrots , cut into thick slices
140g ready-to-eat dried apricots
1 tsp clear honey

TO SERVE

50g blanched almonds , fried in butter until browned ( I only had flaked almonds in the cupboard so that was what I used.
chopped fresh coriander

Here's what you'll need to do:

Heat the oil in a large casserole and brown the lamb all over. Remove and set aside. Pour off most of the fat, leaving 1 tablespoon in the dish, add the onions and fry for 8-10 minutes until soft.

Preheat the oven to fan oven 140C.

Mix together the ginger, garlic, chillies, cumin, coriander, pepper and paprika. Add half of this to the onions, tip in the tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Put in the lamb, cover generously with water (about 450ml), bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Cover and cook in the oven for 11⁄2-2 hours

Remove from the oven and stir in the remaining spice mixture, the tinned chick peas, saffron and cinnamon, carrots, apricots, honey and salt. Cover and return to the oven for 45 minutes-1 hour until the lamb is tender and the vegetables cooked.

Scatter the almonds and coriander on top.

We usually eat this with some cous cous flavoured with lemon and coriander, just a little cos the main dish is so filling!

The original recipe I have is torn from an old Good Food magazine.

December/New Year Nosh

2012-01-11T10:40:00.000Z

Yes, I am paying the price for all this gorgeousness and calorificness as I pound the roads trying to claw back a pound or two but you know what - it was worth it and I enjoyed every morsel - so there!!!!!

My lovely Yule Log

covered in marzipand and dark chocolate, filled with a sweetened chocolate chestnut puree.

Our delicious and attractive Christmas day breakfast, lovely creamy scrambled eggs with eggs from my brother, strips of smoked salmon and rye toast, washed down with some prosecco with fresh orange juice.

Christmas Dinner starter, Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Kilpatrick - I will post the recipes for these divine bites later! For anyone who doesn't like the texture of raw oysters (like me!) these are a revelation.

Our Christmas dinner dessert - a Christmas pudding bombe, the Italian meringue encased a vanilla ice cream enriched with Christmas Pudding, dates and brandy. The base of the pudding was a disc of sponge and just before serving some hot chocolate sauce was inserted with a squeezy bottle under the meringue. Oh. My. God!

Stephen's day dinner was kept light, gently poached lobster, some Dublin Bay Prawns, smoked salmon and Marie Rose sauce.

This was followed with a selection of gorgeous cheeses enhanced by serving them on the lovely slate cheeseboard I won on a fellow food blogger's site - Mona's blog is fab! Check it out here . The slate cheeseboard and knife were coutesy of Slated.ie

A light lunch over Christmas - Scallops with Jack McCarthy's black pudding and a drizzle of Highbank Orchard Apple Syrup and a few slivers of fried chilli on top - nom!

And we had a wee bit of dining out, with a couple of Billy's colleagues and their other halves we went to Chapter 40 in Killarney and had a fantastic meal, really top notch nosh, flavour and presentation were faultless! These guys produce art on a plate!

My starter - Crab - potted,doughnut, cone!

My main course - Seafood - Vegetable Tempura, Crab and Grapefruit Salad (Oh MOMMA!!!!!)

My Dessert - Doughnuts - Pistachio Ice Cream, Cappuccino Mousse

The following night was New Year's Eve and we were at the Station House in Blennerville which is our favourite local restaurant in Tralee. We had a lovely night there, great food for superb value. An amuse bouche, starter, sorbet, mains, dessert, tea/coffee and a bottle of wine thrown in for €49 per person, AND a magician on tap between courses to keep diners amused!

I had the confit duck leg served on a bed of sublime red cabbage which I totally enjoyed - I'm a divil for going for seafood when I'm dining out so it was nice to try this for a change.

And to end 2011 we bought a new table and chairs - looking forward to getting the new kitchen to match them in 2012 - fingers crossed!!!!

It's here.....

2011-12-13T11:38:00.001Z

Lots of happy dancing here today ....

Look what arrived by courier this morning ...

Cannot wait to use it!
So why am I on the net then....... ??? Cos I had to tell the world about my new arrival! Insert proud new kitchen appliance Momma moment here!!!

Dining out in November

2011-12-12T22:05:00.000Z

November saw a nice bit of dining out for me, first off myself and 4 of the lovely ladies I work with took ourselves off to The Old Convent in Clogheen for a night of fine dining, chat and craic.

Here's "the Girls" Kate, Mary, Phil & Sheila.

Dermot's food as usual was superlative and I was so glad that the girls enjoyed it as it was their first visit to The Old Convent. I adored the the course that started our meal - Ummera Smoked Duck Breast with Parmesan toast, and High Bank Orchard Apple Syrup. (So much so that I tracked down said syrup once I got home, managed to get it at the local farmer's market here in Tralee. Superb stuff!) The ladies and I are planning our return visit for 2012!

Dermot's second dessert - chocolate heaven!

Then Billy and I went to the Tom Doorley event at The Brehon in Killarney, a lovely night where we were regaled with some fun and informative wine related anecdotes by Tom, while sampling the lovely food offered by Danú restaurant at The Brehon. The main was lovely lamb wellington, with roasted shallot, potato fondant, broad beans and a wine jus.

The night was unbelievable value at €45 per person and that included an amuse bouche, a starter, a veloute, the mains, a goats cheese panacotta and then a deliciously chocolately dessert and petit fours and tea/coffee and 3 very generous glasses of wine and a glass of port.Amazing value!

The following night we were off to Killarney again, this time to Treyvaud's restaurant for their annual game night, we were looking forward to this and trying a few new tastes. The Santa-esque gent here in Mr Treyvaud Senior who comes out of retirement for this event every year. The buffet table was laden down with all types of terrines, pates, sausages, salamis, salads etc, and it was from this we helped ourselves to the starter.

Then we had a Wild game consomme.

From the menu for mains Billy chose Roast Breast of Pigeon and I went with the Pheasant, loved my pheasant, Billy's pigeon I could live without but he ate it happily.

The meal ended with Xmas pud with a divine Brandy sauce.

The cost of this was a very reasonable €50 per person.

I saw somewhere that they also do a seafood night, will be checking that out in 2012!

Parmesan Tartlets with Red Onion Marmalade

2011-12-11T22:00:00.001Z

These little tartlets are lovely as a starter or a light lunch and the accompanying red onion marmalade is gorgeous and keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge. It would make a great addition to a hamper of homemade goodies for Christmas.

The original recipe is by Jenny Bristow and appeared in the Irish Independent supplement Weekend one Saturday and was promptly torn out and has been used many times

Here's what you'll need: This makes 6 tartlets.

For the pastry
225g flour, sieved
125g butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 dessert spoons cold water

For the filling

25g butter

½ small onion, finely sliced
Small bunch watercress, lightly steamed - Now I do find it difficult to get watercress but I get mixed salad bags that have watercress, baby spinach and rocket in them and I use that mix.
3 eggs, lightly beaten
275ml double cream
110g Parmesan
½ tsp paprika

Red onion marmalade
25g butter
2 red onions, finely sliced
3-4 dessertspoons water
4 dessertspoons red-wine vinegar
50g soft brown sugar
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Here's what you'll need to do:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees fan/190 degrees regular oven.

Place the ingredients for the tartlets in a food processor and whiz until they bind together to form a soft dough or you can do it by hand - rub the butter into the pastry till it resembles breadcrumbs, add in the egg and a little of the water so that a dough forms.. Roll out the pastry, then, using a pastry cutter, cut it into six rounds of approximately 5in in diameter. This of course depends on your tartlet tins size, so you're as well to put your tin down and cut around giving it about an inch extra all round.

Line individual, lightly greased moulds or tins with the pastry and lightly prick each base with a fork. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.

Remove from the fridge and cover with a layer of greaseproof paper and a layer of ceramic baking beans to prevent the pastry cases rising in the centre. Bake in the oven at 190°C/Gas Mark 5 for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the baking beans and the paper and set to one side to cool.

Tip: If you haven't got baking beans you can always use some rice, lentils or dried beans in their stead. When you're done pop them into a clean jar and keep them for further use in blind baking.

For the filling, melt the butter in a small pan. Add the onion and cook lightly for one minute. Add the watercress and remove the pan from the heat. Leave to cool.

Beat together the eggs and cream, then mix in the Parmesan, paprika, onion and watercress. Pour the mixture into the pastry shells and bake in the oven at 160° fan/180° regular for approximately 25 minutes until the tarts are golden and firm to the touch.

Meanwhile, make the red onion marmalade.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onions, water, vinegar and sugar. Cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has reduced and the onions have softened. Season to taste and set to one side to cool slightly.
Remove the tartlets from the moulds.
Serve warm or cold, with a little red onion marmalade.

In other news I am anxiously waiting on the delivery of my new baby - this fabby kitchenaid - should have it this week and I can't wait! It's colour is Boysenberry and ain't it so CUTE!!!

AND.... I won,( hip hip! Jump up and down excitedly!!!) a lovely slate cheeseboard and knife from Slated Ireland courtesy of the lovely Mona Wise's blog giveaway. Mona's blog is great, I've laughed and cried in equal measure while reading it, always a sign of a good story that it will invoke emotions like these.Mona is in the process of writing a book which will be out next year, there will be stories from Mona, recipes from her chef husband and I'm sure a few pics of their delightful children. Mona has the right philosophy - "she writes, he cooks and they all eat it"!

Many thanks to Mona & Slated!

Chocolate Truffles

2011-12-06T11:51:00.001Z

These babies are seriously divine, they're easy to make, you don't need to scour the shops for any special ingredients or equipment (which is the absolute bane of my cooking life!!!), they look impressive to serve up to your friends and family after a meal or to give as a gift wrapped in some simple cellophane and tied with a pretty ribbon or a nice little box lined with tissue paper or a pretty paper napkin.

Ok there has to be bad news, per truffle we're talking serious calories and for anyone doing Weightwatchers (like moi) they work out at 3 whole propoints each - eek!!! Nonetheless .....they are worth it!! Hehe!!!

A tip : The ones coated in cocoa powder wold be very slightly less calorific than the vermicelli coated truffles!

The following recipe makes about 21 truffles, yes, yes I am ~~painfully~~ aware there are 18 on the plate in the picture above - I gave himself ONE and shur I had to make sure they tasted okay myself! If one didn't taste the mixture as it was cooling etc one might have got 24 truffles

Here's what you'll need:

120mls cream

30g icing sugar

100g Dark chocolate 70% cocoa solids broken into small pieces

50g Milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

25g butter

30 mls Baileys Irish Cream or other liqueur of your choice (Tia Maria, Creme de Menthe, Cherry Brandy, Malibu, whatever floats your boat!)

Chocolate vermicelli and cocoa powder for rolling the finished truffles in.

Re the chocolate - I do a mix of dark and milk chocolate, but if you prefer use all dark, 'tis up to you!

Here's what you'll need to do:

Put the cream and icing sugar in a saucepan and gently heat, do not let it come to a boil!

Take off the heat.

Put the chocolates in a bowl, pour the hot cream/icing sugar mix over it.

Stir well until the chocolate is melted.

Add the Baileys or liqueur of choice, stir well.

Cover and put in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours until set.

Use a teaspoon scoop out amounts of the mixture similar in size to a Ferrero Rocher, roll into balls with your hands.

A tip: Try to have your hands cold for this part and the kitchen ideally wouldn't be meltingly warm either!

Have a couple of plates ready with chocolate vermicelli and cocoa powder and roll the truffles in these as desired.

If liked you could dip them in some melted and cooled chocolate instead.

These will keep in a container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Next time I'm going to try some White Chocolate and Limoncello Truffles so watch this space!

Jack McCarthy's Rose veal chops

2011-11-08T21:17:00.000Z

Jack McCarthy - Ireland's finest artisan butcher - put the call out last week on Twitter that he had ten month old rose veal in stock. We were mega excited! Jack and his son Tim have a fine butcher's shop in Kanturk, Co Cork, with not just the usual fare but also their award winning puddings and sausages.

We have eaten veal many times but never actually cooked it ourselves, mainly because we could never source it. So after work last Friday I headed to Kanturk and as well as the fabulous Rose veal I came home with black puddings, white puddings, nitrate free rashers, air dried pork, Ardrahan cheese & smoky bacon sausages and Apple & Pork sausages. We'll be well fed for a good while!

The dish that was planned for Saturday night was ditched in favour of the veal, cookery books were scoured and it was between a Gordon Ramsay recipe and one we found online by Matt Tebbutt, the fennel in the latter one swung it for us as it's one of our favourite veg.

Here's what you'll need:

2 Rose veal chops

Olive oil for frying

2 cloves garlic crushed

White wine

For the fennel gratin:

2 fennel, cut into batons, green fronds finely chopped

A knob of butter, plus extra for greasing

300 ml double cream

1 cloves garlic, crushed

70 g emmental cheese, grated

For the crispy onions

½ onion, finely sliced

Milk, for soaking

Cornflour, for coating

Vegetable oil, for frying

Here's what you'll need to do:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. For the fennel gratin: bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the fennel batons and blanch for 1 minute.
Drain immediately and, while still warm, toss the batons with a knob of butter and the finely chopped fennel fronds. (If your fennel had no tops, you can use finely chopped dill instead.)
Transfer the fennel to a buttered ovenproof dish.

Put the cream into a medium saucepan with the garlic, bring it to a simmer, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
Pour the cream over the fennel, top with the grated cheese and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden and bubbling. While the gratin is cooking, prepare the veal chops.

Season the veal chops with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan until hot and cook the chops until golden and brown on each side.

When the veal is almost cooked, add the garlic and a splash of wine and stir to deglaze the pan. Add a good knob of butter, spoon this over the chops, then remove the pan from the heat and leave to rest, covered with foil, in a warm place for about 10 minutes.

For the crispy onions cover the sliced onions with milk and leave to soak for 10 minutes to remove some of the strong flavour.

Drain and pat dry, discarding the milk.
Season a little cornflour with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dip the onion rings in the seasoned cornflour and shallow fry in hot oil until nice and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.

To serve, put the veal chops on plates and drizzle with the pan juices. Accompany with the fennel gratin and crispy onions.

We made some very chunky chips to go with the dish. It was lip smacking gorgeous - the veal was juicy, tender and tasty, scrummy!

And we teamed it with this wine which was quite nice, not too heavy with the Rose veal. And best of all we have 2 chops in the freezer so Gordon's recipe will get an airing one of these days!

More of Jack McCarthy's produce graced the table for Sunday's brunch along with great brown bread also from Kanturk (Philpott's) and all teamed with eggs from my brother's farm in Portmagee. The nitrate free rashers are great, just like rashers used to taste when I was a child! ( I was going to say in the old days but we won't go there!!!)

Lamb Sausages with Lentils and Braised Pears

2011-11-02T23:58:00.002Z

I'm afraid after the last few posts showing the gorgeousness of the food we consumed for our birthday feasting ye're now going to be left with my food for a while.

We headed to Limerick's Milk Market last Saturday as we'd heard great things about it. We got some gorgeous nosh - basil Gouda cheese, Parmesan, Brie- these from The Flying Cheese Brigade, squid and undyed smoked haddock from O'Driscoll bros, lamb sausages from Castlegregory's Wild Side, great bread, corn on the cob, chocolate and fudge - FEAST! Oh and some great plants for the winter window boxes too.

We decided on doing something with the lamb sausages the other evening and thank goodness for Google - a recipe was found here. It was for 6 so I tweaked it for just the 2 of us. I never used to use recipes with cups till the last couple of years when I got a set of cup measurements in Tescos I think and shur it's easy peasy since to do any recipe.

Lamb sausages are also known as Merguez sausages and very popular in North African cuisine which probably explains the harissa flavouring in them.

Lamb sausages with lentils and Braised Pears

Here's what you'll need - this is a generous serving for 2, so generous that Billy had leftovers for his lunch box the following day.
As ye can see I'm getting good at this blogging craic - a pic of the ingredients!
(We attended a cookery demo at the Dingle Food fest hosted by Mark Murphy and one of his suggestions was to get all the ingredients for a dish out and prepped and put in suitable containers, great tip - seems like a wee bit of bother to start but really keeps me tidy.)

1 cups brown lentils

2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 carrots, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 celery rib, diced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 roasted red peppers cut into thin strips (As I love roasted red pepper I might do two the next time)

5 or 6 lamb sausages - 2 is loads per person

1 ripe Bartlett pears, cored and cut into eighths

Here's what you'll need to do:

In a large heatproof bowl, cover the lentils with the boiling water and let stand for 30 minutes. Drain.

In a large saucepan, heat half of the olive oil.

Add the diced carrots, onion and celery and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.

Add the lentils and about a cup of water and season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook over low heat until the lentils are just tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir in a tablespoon olive oil, the cider vinegar and the roasted red peppers and season with salt and pepper. Divide lentil mixture between hot plates and keep warm.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan. Add the lamb sausages and cook over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes.

Arrange the sausages around the lentils and pour over any accumulated juices.

Return the pan to high heat. Add the pears and cook, turning once, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.

Serve up and enjoy!

Birthday Feast Part 3 Cliff House Hotel

2011-11-01T23:28:00.004Z

After our beautiful breakfast we headed for Villierstown, Co Waterford as Christine at The Old Convent had told us about the Hindu/Gothic gate lodge built there in the mid 1800's to commemorate the wedding of the owner of Dromana House.

We arrived early afternoon (Sat 22nd Oct) at Cliff House Hotel as the rain was pouring down. Check in was quick and efficient and a very friendly chap showed us to our room and explained the layout of the hotel etc. We had a lovely room (25) with heathery shades, fab bathroom and a wet terrace with a panoramic view of the Waterford coastline.

Luckily the weather cleared up so we headed on the cliff walk and how amazing is that - talk about a potted history of Ireland! We passed a shipwreck, The Sampson which got wrecked in 1987, the Old Coastguard station, A lookout post, Fr O'Donnell's well. We passed fields planted with parsnips, carrots, potatoes and beet - the smell of parsnips in abundance is amazing. We then came to the graveyard which has the 12th century Round Tower, the remains of an ancient church with really well preserved carvings on the wall, a sailor's grave from 1947 where 11 of the crew of the SS Ary are buried.

Trust Billy to have got the one pair of wellies in the hotel that were leaking! Lmao! So at that stage we headed back to the hotel.

We spent a while enjoying the beautiful pool, outdoor hot tub, sauna and steam room and by this time we had a fine appetite built up for dinner having had ZILCH since breakfast. Cliff House's chef is Dutch man Martijn Kajuiter and they hold Munster's only Michelin Star.

Polished ourselves up a bit and headed to the bar for a pre-dinner cocktail - I had a beautiful Green Apple Martini - €12. Once again we were having the tasting menu with paired wines - €85per person for the dinner and €40pp for the wines. I was quite happy to see the menu had the wine pairing written underneath the food on the menu, it's impossible to remember what wine one had otherwise.

As I have already said in earlier posts I do not have adequate words to describe the intensity of the flavours, the food pairings, the art on a plate so if you have the opportunity go there for yourself and let your taste buds and your eyes be amazed by the plates you will be presented with.

On the table when we sat down was a little pack of crisps, delicious salty slightly greasy crisps - Mr Tayto eat your heart out boy!

We were then given an amuse bouche - the thing of beauty on the right of the picture is a beetroot meringue-ey type thing with goat's cheese, so melt on the tongue. Save us all from old age but neither me nor himself can for the life of us remember what the yoke in the glass was! There were hazelnuts sprinkled on top and it tasted delicious, ok!

Edited 2/11/11 - This morning thanks to Twitter, where my inner foodie is realeased with a passion, Martijn, the genius chef at Cliff House told me what was in the glass - Thank you Martijn !

@Kajuiter Kajuiter

@CaroCreates Whipped and Peppered Glenilen Yoghurt, Ardmore Carrots Jelly - crunch of dehydrated Yoghurt,Hazelnut and Blue berry Blossoms..

3 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

The breads were presented on a small slate plate, a sea salt brioche and a soda type bread with a slab of butter made at the Cliff House.

Next up what was described on the menu as The Cliff House "Snacks" -

These were paired with Pinot Blanc "Vieille Vigne", Meyer-Fonne, Alsace, France, 2008.

In this picture we have West Cork Scallop/Garden Spinach/Samphire.

Baby potato/Glenilen Yoghurt/Irish Caviar -

Quail egg "-20*C Cured/Squash/Veal/Hazelnut

Foie Gras/Red Cabbage Textures/Celeriac

Next - Bantry bay Organic Salmon/ Garden Beetroot/Cucumber/Oak Smoke.

This is presented under a glass dome which when lifted there's a rush of smoke out and the smell lingers on whilst eating.

The complementing wine was Marsanne, Chateau Tabhilk, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria, Australia 2008.

I'm not sure what was in those pink pearly things, see 3o'clock position on plate but they tasted so salmony.

Ya ok I know, my food descriptive writing skills are shite!

Then onto Helvick Cod/Irish Abalone/Garden leeks/Sea vegetable

It was good believe me - must've been - I forgot to take a pic!

It was paired with an Austrian wine 2010, Gruner Veltliner "von den Terrasen" Sepp Moser, Kremstal.

McGrath's Black Angus Beef followed with Garden vegetables/Bone Marrow/Beef Tea 2011.

There is a bit of a production with the beef tea which we enjoyed, the waitress brought a cafetiere with herbs - rosemary, thyme, parsley and garlic. She then poured the contents of a tea pot, a rich beef jus into the cafetiere, it infuses for a few minutes to give a rich flavoursome "gravy".

The teamed wine was Seleccion Especial, Albadia Retuerta, Ribera del Duero, Spain 2008.

Next we got a fennel sorbet as a pre-dessert

Next onto the first of two desserts and numero uno came to us like this - a pizza box arrived at the table!

Inside was this deliciousness - Apple Discovery the menu reads with Cranberry/Apricot/Tonka Bean/Lemon/Hibiscus

And finally in excess of 3 hours after we sat down Dark Chocolate 70% - White Coffee Ice Cream/Olive Oil/Sea Salt

The accompanying wine was Rivesaltes Ambre, Domaine Cazes, Roussillon, France 1999

So the following morning we had a delicious breakfast - the ubiquitous full Irish for Billy, kippers with herb butter for me and we headed on the road home. I have to say the three nights of fine dining were magnificent, 3 very different places to stay and all offering and showcasing the very best of Irish food,

BEST BIRTHDAYS EVER!!!

Birthday Feast Part 2 - The Old Convent

2011-10-28T00:04:00.003+01:00

Birthday Feasting Part 2 was scheduled for The Old Convent in Clogheen, Co Tipperary -We left Gregan's Castle and headed for Cahir where we stopped off and wandered around the fantastic well preserved 13th century Cahir castle - well worth a visit if you're in the area and only €3 each for the entry.

We had stayed in The Old Convent before in June and we absolutely loved it - the warmth of the welcome, the comfort of the rooms, the dinner, the breakfast, the lovely drawing room, the many books strewn around, and the food :-) Dermot and Christine are exceptional, Dermot is a magnificent chef and Christine does front of house with a charm that is really unequalled in any place I've ever stayed, and next year they will be joined by baby Gannon! Congrats to them!

This time we had room 3 which is compact but oh so cute with a raised seated area, the most comfortable of beds, warm snuggly duvet and great pillows - I have truly turned into my mother judging a place by the quality of their pillow - she actually used to take her own pillow with her when she went anywhere - no need for that in The Old Convent! A beautiful touch was the vase of coral roses in the window.

Down to the drawing room with us just after 7.30p.m. where we enjoyed a glass of Prosecco for me and a Tempranillio for himself, and we got a bottle of each to accompany the dinner, it was our birthdays after all ya know!!! (Excuses, excuses....) - €36 and €24 respectively, wouldn't it be great if those were our ages instead of the wine prices ;-)

Dermot's 8 course tasting menu is €65 per person and finished off with tea or coffee.

We began with Baked Dunmore East Crab with Glenelin Creme Fraiche and a couple of brioche soldiers, beautifully served in an egg shell and ( insert rolly eyes here) your intrepid food reporter - 'tis good to dream dear reader!!!! - forgot to take a photo till the plate was almost cleaned! Not much point taking a pic of an empty egg shell!

Next up was30 hour slow roast Ballinwilliam Rare Breed Pork with polenta, Crozier Blue, baby pear and candied pecans - utterly delicious, loved the micro red shiso. Billy, being Billy!, enquired as to what breed of pork we were eating, the lovely young girl serving us went off and promptly came back to tell us it was a Wild Boar and Tamworth cross.

This was followed by a Aubergine veloute with truffle oil served in a pretty purple espresso cup. Took a pic but it turned out crap!

Then we had Buttermilk Connemara Smokehouse Organic salmon with handmade potato gnocchi, sunchoke and Saffron cream. Scrummy!

Green Apple Sorbet with Traas farm strawberry apple jelly was then enjoyed, forgot to take a pic - bold me!

Mains was maple & Mint Braised Mountain Lamb with creamy white cocoa beans and autumn veggies.

Then Lemon Posset with blueberries and a warm ginger meringue. We actually had this also in June sans blueberries and it's delightful, LOVE the ginger meringue. In fact made it ourselves one night here and twas just luverly ;-)

The last dessert of the night was a Valrhona Dark Chocolate Pot with white chocolate mousse, cherries and caramelised hazelnuts. Had a taste of all the elements in the interests of being able to report for this blog but forgot to take a pic, probably the Prosecco kicking in there!

We then spent an enjoyable hour in the Drawing Room chatting with a few of the other guests and Christine, and a fantastic night's sleep after that.

Breakfast at The Old Convent is without doubt in my opinion FANTASTIC!! Great juices - orange or blackberry and apple. A glass with yogurt, fresh fruit, to-die-for candied nuts and cherry syrup. A great basket of breads - a brown soda with caraway seeds and a polenta, goat's cheese and pine nut concoction that was great!

Billy had the full Irish - no shock there then! - and it is one of the best Irish breakfasts ever - no arguments! The one Billy had was supplemented with delicious herby mushrooms with white beans, I decided he'd be ill if he ate them so devoured his portion. The kind server brought out a little extra dish of them.

I went for the waffles with bananas, cinnamon and white chocolate mousse - oh sweet Jesus - talk about decadence at breakfast!

Absolutely wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend The Old Convent - a gourmet hideaway in a beautiful part of the country.

And the very best part I'll be back here for dinner again in just over 2 weeks time with a few of my colleagues - looking forward to it!

Birthday feast Part 1 - Gregan's Castle.

2011-10-26T21:42:00.000+01:00

So our much awaited birthday feast weekend started last Thursday and we headed off for Tarbert and took the ferry across to Killimer in Co.Clare, my first time being on the ferry and it's so handy and time saving, not that we were in any mad rush!

We meandered up along the coast of Clare with the ~~sun shining down on us,~~ ok, rain and fog! We arrived at Gregan's Castle Hotel early afternoon and were shown to our room, loved the colour scheme, my kinda colours - shades of purple and green - No tea/coffee facilities in the bedroom but not a mad priority for us. We decided on going to the Bird of Prey centre at the Alliwee caves and enjoyed the bird display and show despite the rain bucketing down!

Had a hot whiskey in the bar on our return, I must say I was tad dismayed to find the whisky poured into a non heated glass and NO lemon or cloves but it did the job and took the chill out of my bones! The genial manager/barman James is from Kanturk where I lived for 7 years.

Anyway it wasn't the hot whiskies I was here for so after a lil nap it was time to get ready for the highlight of our trip.

Gregan's castle have won tons of awards, the head chef is Mickael Viljanen. The man is a genius! Not only a genius and a chef but an artist. The food was phenomenal. I am not a food writer and don't have adequate words to describe the taste sensations and the fabulous flavours we enjoyed. In fact Billy laughed that for once words evaded me so caught up was I in the intensity of flavours. The best I could come up with was that apples were so appley, salmon so salmony, cucumber so cucumbery - you get the drift!!! it was as if a single sliver of apple was imbued with the flavour of a thousand apples and the same for every other item on the plate - of which there were many!

We opted for the tasting menu with matching wines which was €130 each. When the dishes are presented by the very courteous servers they tell you what is on the plate and point each individual item out BUT I was so blown away by all in front of me that I didn't take on board half of it so I earwigged happily when other tables got served!

These were the canapes, From left to right - a scallop ceviche, a jellied smoked potato cube, a beetroot meringue with goats cheese and a pig's cheek croquette.
The paired wine was a sauvignon blanc and was the same for 2 courses.

Next up was the salmon plate, this featured salmom - doh! - and cucumber textures and a squid ink wafer.

Onto the foie gras - now this was my first time ever having foie gras as I'm a bit iffy about offaly things and the nature of foie gras production but in the spirit of the dining experience said I'd give it a bash - OMG I LOVED IT!!!!! The pic is crap though!
Our wine pairing with this was a Pedro Jiminez sherry which was also used as a gel on top of the foie gras. It was accompanied by apple in different textures, salted caramel, candied nuts and honeycomb. Did I say I LOVED it!!!!

Smoked Lobster and Sweetbreads, lobster is my favourist food ever! Never had sweetbreads before either - a wee bit of a wuss am I! Paired with a Chablis.

Scallops next - MEGA! On the plate were salsify, herb stems, cauliflower textures, mushrooms. This was paired with a Sancerre.

The meat dish was venison, a disc of bone marrow on top (another first for me and yuk to that!) There was beetroot, parsnip and potato on this beautiful dish. The wine pairing was a Rioja.

The pre dessert was a coconut pannacotta with pineapple - saying of the day - "the pineapple is so pineappley!" With this came the first dessert wine.

Then along came a blackberry souffle with a blackberry sorbet, fresh blackberries and a blackberry sorbet. To offset the sweetness a jug of a citrus sauce was poured into the souffle and dessert wine number 2 really complemented it, not being over sweet but having a light citrussy note.

The meal finished with a blimming lovely selection of petit fours which I forgot to take a pic of, such was my food coma at this stage!

Billy then finished off with a cheese board and a port (extra to the tasting menu) - exceptional cheeses and delicious sesame crisps amd fig jam, the fig bread was just a bit cloying and heavy for my taste.

Left the diningroom two VERY happy campers.

Breakfast was delightful - a great buffet with cold meats, cheese, smoked salmon, fruits, cumin cheese from the Burren, cute little pots of yogurt with jam, prunes with cinnamon - nom nom nom!!!!!, apricots etc etc! Tea was proper leaf tea with strainers.

I knew from one of my food blogging friends Mona who stayed there lately that the eggs benedict were good and they were scrumptious! Billy went for the traditional Irish.

Totally enjoyed the foodie section of part one of our birthday break and the revelation that Foie gras is so divine!

Will we be back to Gregan's Castle - hell yeah!!!!

Part Two of our birthday weekend coming soon - The Old Convent.

Saturday's Grub...

2011-10-11T23:37:00.004+01:00

Saturday night last we had Billy's colleague Paudie and his lovely wife Linda in for dinner. I didn't take pics of the plates of food that were served, still at the stage when I think that's just a wee bit OTT - though my fingers were itching to get the camera or even the phone in action! The dishes below are recreations - from the leftovers - shhhhh!!! NOT leftovers from the plates!!!! no, leftovers from what was left in the pots when I'd served! - phew! just had to clarify that!

Linda and Paudie have grown a load of veg this year in their poly tunnel - lucky ducks!, and we have been lucky to have been the recipients of some fab courgettes which as it happens are one of my favourite veggies.

Saturday night's menu was Parmesan and watercress tartlets with baby leaf salad and homemade red onion marmalade. (No pic though I do have a fine kilner jar of the red onion marmalade in the fridge so will post a recipe and pic soon).

This was followed up with a serving of Courgette and Ginger soup, served in a little coffee cup. Aren't the cups so cute, they are from a set I bought my parents for their 20th wedding anniversary many many moons ago and have the most darling coffee pot, jug and sugar bowl to match. They are 33 years old almost - eek!!!! Obviously I bought them when I was in my pram!

Courgette & Ginger soup Recipe:

What you'll need:

One big courgette if you're lucky enough to have a home grown one or 2 supermarket sized ones, cut into dice of about 1 centimetre.

A piece of root ginger about 3 centimetres long, peeled and thinly diced.

3 banana shallots, peeled and chopped.

2 tablespoons oil.

500 ml chicken stock.

A good glug of cream, don't know how much I put in, maybe up to 200ml.

(Note: If you want a super healthy and low cal version omit the cream! But sometimes a little cream doesn't do us any harm and adds oodles of flavour!)

White pepper and salt.

What you'll need to do;

Put the oil in a largish saucepan, add the shallots, lightly fry for about 3 mins, add the diced ginger and fry for a minute.

Add the diced courgette to this along with the chicken stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for about 6 minutes till soft.

Liquidise it all with either a stick blender or in a liquidiser. If doing it in a liquidiser be careful and wrap a tea towel round the bowl of it cause it can explode out of the bowl and we don't want that do we!

Return to the saucepan.

Finally add the cream and seasoning.

Garnish with some finely chopped ginger and a couple of dots of oil before serving.

To follow this we had oven roasted monfish stuffed with sundried tomatoes and thyme, wrapped in parma ham. This was served with black pudding mash, homemade pesto and caperberries.

When we were planning what to have for dessert I said it had to be chocolate - no arguments! So chocolate and raspberry mousse was decided upon. With it we served a caramel glass with pistachios and sea salt, so kicking myself I didn't take a pic of that, and it was all gone by the time I took this pic. Anyways here's a pic - recipe another time!

Dingle food fest.

2011-10-10T17:28:00.000+01:00

October is going to be a very exciting month for us food wise as it's the month of birthdays and our birthday gastronomy weekend!

However to get the month off to a good start on Sunday 2nd we headed back to Dingle for the Dingle food fest.

We got there round 12 ish and had a gander round the Farmer's Market first of all, our bag wasn't long in filling up with delicious smoked chicken breasts from Carrig na Breac smokehouse in Leitrim, a selection of cheeses from The Old Irish Creamery in Effin, Co Limerick and wow what a selection they have, curry, chocolate, porter, chili, Jameson whiskey, smoked, herbs, garlic, you name it they have a cheese with it! We got delicious venison sausages from The Wild Side Food Artisan, a French man who lives out in Castlegregory. From The Green Apron I got the most deliciously indulgent Chocolate Raspberry Conserve. Scrummy Apricot salsa from the Phoenix restaurant, absolute heaven!

Recipes will be added later for the superb Smoked Chicken risotto and the Venison sausage & Red wine casserole that were enjoyed from this haul.

And then it was onto the food trail, unfortunately I hadn't brought my camera so the pics off the phone are rather dire! (Note to self check to see when Vodafone are bringing out the iphone 4s!)

We nibbled our way around town starting with Teriyaki salmon skewers and a warm sake shot at Fish at the Marina.

Tim's taste of the sea at Out of the Blue was a little trio of tasters - lobster and langoustine bisque, cured salmon with herbed cream and a little scatter of caviar (Yum!) and a swirl of smoked mackeral pate with a carpaccio of salted mackeral on top.

In The Waterside Restaurant Billy had suckling pig and I had the crab toastie - loved the crackling not that too much was offered to me!

In Murphy's Ice Cream we shared a Kerry strawberry and champagne chocolate covered popsicle, nom, nom! My turn here to be mean with the sharing!

We stopped in Murphy's Bar for a pint for himself and a cup of tea for me and I was asking the bar man about the Crean's lager and he very kindly poured me a quarter pint of it on the house. I'm not a larger/beer drinker but this actually tasted quite ok. A barmaid here also gave us the head's up on barbecued kangaroo available at Finn McCool's Surf Shop. WE got one of the skewers and it was lovely, very juicy and succulent.

We stopped off at St James' Church and took in two cookery demo's - Jean Marie Vaireaux from Out of the Blue restaurant did hake fillet, Sauce Vierge and beetroot chutney and it was finger lickin' good!
Then Mark Murphy did what was down as a dessert delight, he made a chocolate ganache served in an espresso cup, a little chocolate millefuille layered with creme paistisserie - pastry cream, a smear of raspberry coulis and candied orange peel.

End of the day we stopped off in John Benny's bar and Billy got a couple of oysters, I tried oysters au naturel once and did NOT like them so I passed up on these. On another occasion I have lightly grilled them wrapped in bacon and loved them though.

The 2012 festival will run from Friday 5th October – Sunday 7th October - a great day out or even a weekend!

Quinces & Aprons!

2011-09-28T13:01:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday in my search for the ~~Holy Grail~~, ahem, the jar of mustard fruits needed for the rabbit recipe I went to a lovely food and wine store here in town - The Kingdom Store. This is a fab shop stocking lots of foodie goodies and great wines. Anyways no sign of the Mustard fruits but from the corner of my eye I spotted what I thought were Capri lemons and made a beeline for them, turned out they were Quinces. Hmmmm... interesting I thought and sur I had to bring a couple home with me.

Quinces have a tough golden skin when ripe with a firm acid flesh that is highly aromatic, generally used for jams and jellies or to flavour pies.

I found a great recipe online - Gordon Ramsay's Pan roasted duck with caramelised quince and pear.

Serves 4

100g caster sugar
100ml cider vinegar
4 star anise
3 cinnamon sticks
1 quince, cored and cut into 2cm-thick wedges
4 duck breasts, about 175g each
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Handful of thyme sprigs
1 pear, cored
50g butter, cut into cubes
Splash of balsamic vinegar

Put the sugar in a small pan and pour in the vinegar and 200ml water. Dissolve the sugar over a low heat; once the liquid is clear, add 2 star anise and 1 cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Carefully add the quince to the pan, return to the boil and poach uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove the quince and drain on kitchen paper.

Pat the duck breasts dry with kitchen paper. Score the skin in a crisscross pattern and season generously with salt and pepper. Place the duck breasts skin-side down in a dry, ovenproof pan with the remaining spices and thyme. Cook over a low heat to render down most of the fat. This will take 10-15 minutes. Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Increase the heat under the duck and fry until the skin is crisp. Turn them over and seal the other side for 1 minute. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 8 minutes for medium-rare – the meat should feel slightly springy when pressed. Rest the duck on a warm plate for 10 minutes.

While the duck rests, cut the pears into 2cm-thick wedges. Pat the quince and pear dry with kitchen paper. Melt the butter in a heavy-based frying pan, then add the fruit. Cook for 5 minutes over a moderate heat, turning halfway and seasoning as it cooks. Once tender and lightly caramelised, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and any juices from the duck. Cook until syrupy.

Carve the duck into thick slices and serve with the caramelised quince and pears, and the pan juices poured over.

We had it with some stirfried cabbage and fondant potatoes.

I will not and cannot cook without wearing an apron and I love them, I have loads - dotty ones, stripey ones, flowery ones, fruity ones, plain ones and last Saturday I got this beaut in Carrig Donn and better again reduced from €15 to €9!

Looking forward to the Dingle Food & Wine Festival at the weekend, we'll be heading over on Sunday.

Saturday night with Bugs Bunny!

2011-09-26T23:10:00.006+01:00

Sometimes, just sometimes one gets carried away with oneself ... yes indeedy!!!
Friday night we were watching Australian Masterchef and they were doing a Masterclass. I love Masterchef, whatever nationality it is and I'm so glad it has come to Irish shores - the calibre of cooks on the show is extremely high. I don't watch much TV but I could happily watch cooking programs all day long and in truth often did on a rainy Saturday or Sunday in single days.

On a Saturday Billy and I generally cook something a bit more complex than the usual after work fare and we were contemplating doing Jason Atherton's Eastern Spiced Quail again but nothing had been finalised. So we were relaxing watching the aforementioned Australian Masterchef and George was preparing a rabbit dish with ingredients the contestants had received in a mystery box challenge earlier in the week. We seriously liked the look of the dish and as we had a wee bunny in the freezer courtesy of my last trip to the English Market we decided this would be Saturday night's dindins!

Saturday was one of those days that just didn't go to plan, when Billy got home he had to powerhose the concrete area of the backyard so dinner preparation was left to me for the dish which to give it it's official title is
Cannon of Rabbit, Garlic Custard and Rabbit Consomme

In comparison with George's bunny mine looked like some sort of famine victim, or else George's fellow went on steroids before the show!

First of all Bugs had to be jointed, filletted and his rack had to be french trimmed. The meat had to be removed from his legs. I was like an eejit running from the kitchen to the TV with remote control in hand to make sure I was doing it ala George!

Play, rewind and pause....

His bones went to make a stock.

Veggies had to be turned, carrots and turnips, I also threw in a couple of spuds to keep himself happy.

A "raft" (WTF!!!) had to be made to add to the stock to clarify it.

A paste of olives and mustard fruits had to be made - could NOT find mustard fruits in Tralee so decided to make my own version of same with limes, sugar, white wine vinegar, water and pears and English mustard powder, I kinda threw together elements from a couple of online recipes I found. No idea if the end result was remotely like what mustard fruits are supposed to taste like but it served my purpose well enough.

The paste was used for the rabbit cannon and back straps and these were wrapped in pancetta and rolled into a cylinder and cooked in the oven.

A garlic custard had to be made.

At this stage I was contemplating giving it all to the dog and ordering from Domino's Pizza!

The rabbit belly had to be cut into pieces, coated in semolina and fried twice - but I forgot that part!!!!

The french trimmed rack of rabbit, his liver and kidneys were fried.

And then it was time to plate up....

This is what emerged having taken a lot of my sanity with it!

By the way this took me all of about 3 and a half hours!

(A note - my late mother often told us she regularly ate rabbit as a child - I'm damn sure her Stepmother who reared 5 stepkids and 9 of her own didn't spend 3 1/2 hours making dinner, even for all of them!)

In fairness it was delicious, the consomme was full of flavour and absolutely clear. The garlic custard tasted ok, but I think the consistency was wrong. Obviously my veg turning skills are a bit slack!! The french trimmed rack of rabbit was nice - stayed succulent. The star of the show for me was the cannon of lamb with olive and mustard fruits stuffing wrapped in pancetta - worth all the prep and cooking time!

If anyone wants the link to the recipe and the way it should look have a gander here

Treyvaud's Restaurant, Killarney

2011-09-21T12:10:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago we had tickets for Riverdance at the INEC in Killarney so we decided to have dinner beforehand in Treyvaud'sRestaurant. I had lunch there ages and ages ago and had eaten THE most amazing mushroom soup, really really good.

We arrived early around 6.15p.m. so we'd have time to spend some time over the meal before heading down to the INEC. It's a pretty place from the outside, painted timber panels with an old shop front type of feel. The restaurant decor itself just feels a bit jaded but it was quite busy even for such an early dinner time. We were seated beside the front window which was nice.

I had of course perused the online menu beforehand and had already picked out what I was having, these being Warm salad of duck confit with wild rocket, walnut and beetroot salsa to start and Grilled fresh Ray wings with lemon and caper butter for mains. Neither were on the menu :-( but nonetheless I ploughed on bravely and made second choices!

For starters I had the Deep Fried calamari with a saffron and citrus roille. They came in a lovely stack of calamari rings, beautifully crispy and not greasy, and the roille was really flavoursome - €8.50

Billy had the Treyvaud's fishcakes with wholegrain mustard and chives with garlic aioli - 2 massive fishcakes with a fabulous garliccy aioli. I'd have been happy with the aioli on it's own! - €8.95

To follow I had the duck with a red wine jus, red cabbage and a potato rosti - €25.95
The duck was nicely succulent but the rosti was soggy.

Billy had the half roast guinea fowl with a wild mushroom cream sauce - €24.75.
It was fabulous!!! Neither of us had eaten Guinea fowl before and we were both quite pleasantly surprised, it tastes like a really chickeny chicken! I had thought it would be quite gamey but not at all. The wild mushroom cream sauce was really earthy and creamy and a perfect complement to the guinea fowl.

All main courses have a choice of salad, vegetables, fries or potatoes - we both opted for the spuds and veg.
I had a glass of house white - a very generous measure for €5.95 and Billy had a bottle of the house red - €21.75.

Because we're greedy piggy's we both decided on dessert, a chocolate fudge cake for me and a pannacotta for Billy - both €6.95, and 2 coffees at €2.50 each.

By the time we had got to main course the restaurant had really filled up as they had a large tour group of American's in but service was excellent, very attentive without being overly so.

I had read on their web site that they do a Wild Game night annually in November and we inquired about it and we hope to be there for it!

Our total bill was €103.25.

Food for friends...

2011-09-19T19:17:00.002+01:00

We had a couple of friends round for dinner on Saturday night - the craic was great, great food, great wine, great Coke for Fergus (of the liquid variety!) and most of all great company!

It was the aforementioned Finicky Jules and Fergus so I couldn't serve any of Neptune's bounty - blame apportioned to Jules here and not Fergus!!!.

Above we have Moi, Jules and Fergus.

I give ye the one photo taken that was in anyway food related...

I made an amuse bouche of Gazpacho which was served in a shot glass.

Followed by Black Pudding and apple stack with my cider, honey and chili dressing served on baby salad leaves.

For mains we had individual Beef wellingtons, served with a port and red wine jus, twice baked leek and cheese souffle, green beans and superb fondant potatoes - I used the oil from Friday's confit duck legs for these and believe me it's as good a reason as ny to confit a duck leg!

Dessert was Billy's chocolate fondants which turned out just right, served with my Rum & raisin Ice cream.

Nom, nom, nom!!!

I saw this downtown in Carrig Donn on Saturday and had to have it - we're not huge into cupcakes - see previous entries on Weightwatchers but I was thinking how cute it would be to serve a cheese course on this.

Jamie's Confit Duck with Lentils

2011-09-16T22:55:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I had an appointment with a periodontist in Cork - wasn't looking forward to that but I certainly salivated at the prospect of visiting the English Market. As Billy said I'm one of the few women he knows who doesn't go clothes/shoe/bag shopping when I get a couple of spare hours in the Big Smoke, nope I head for Cork Art Supplies and the English Market and I'm as happy as a pig in poop for ages afterwards.

I always stock up on the things that aren't easily available here - ~~bloody impossible to get!~~. Plump little Quails, Skeaghamore Duck legs and breasts, fresh rabbit and beautifully creamy Mozarella from Toonsbridge dairy in Macroom, usually some delicious cheeses and a nice crusty bread or two also.

So yesterday I was in Tesco's and I picked up the latest Jamie (Oliver) magazine. Now I have to admit he wouldn't be one of my hero chefs but glancing thru the magazine I noticed a recipe for Duck confit and the duck legs that were in my freezer called to me and said "Confit me, confit me". Now, I have never confit-ed anything before - is confit-ed a real verb????? But jamie's recipe sounded ok, apart from calling for duck fat - didn't have any so I checked out another couple of duck confit recipes when I got home and The Cliff House cookbook had confit duck legs but confit-ed in sunflower oil so I subbed the sunflower oil for the duck fat.

Here's what's needed:

Recipe is not strictly true to Jamie's one and has been altered a little.
Serves 2

2 Duck legs
A few Juniper berries
A few allspice berries
A couple cloves garlic peeled and crushed.
A sprig of rosemary.
A leafy sprig of thyme.
About a tablespoon of coarse sea salt. Next time I might reduce this as himself thought it was a tad too salty and truth be told he wasn't wrong.

Here's what you'll need to do:

Put duck in a flat dish.
Bash the juniper, allspice, garlic together in a pestle and mortar. Mix with the salt and scatter over the duck. Tear the herbs over the duck and rub all into the duck.
Cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate in fridge for about 12 hours or overnight.

Next day, rinse the duck under cold water and pat dry with kitchen towel.
Place a large heavy deep pan over a low heat and place the duck legs in, cover with sunflower oil. Bring to a soft boil and then simmer on the very lowest heat for 2 to 2 and half hours.
When the time is up take the pan off the heat and leave the duck to cool. The meat should pull apart easily.

Keep the remaining oil for roasties etc.

The duck legs can now be preserved but I used mine for dinner tonight so when I needed them I just fried them in a hot dry pan till the skin got crispy and the meat was heated through.

Jamie's mag recommended serving them with Lentils and red onion gravy.
The lentils were fab, unctuous even - though i did read somewhere lately that one should not use the term "unctuous" in food blogging, well whether or not they were flippin' unctuous so the unctuous stays!!!!

THE LENTIL RECIPE!

For 2 generous servings

125g puy lentils
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon
Olive oil
Small red onion, finely chopped
Small carrot finely chopped
1 celery stick finely chopped
A bouquet garni
About 1/2 litre hot chicken stock
100g baby spinach
Red wine vinegar

Soak the lentils in cold water for about 10 mins, then drain well.
Add a little oil to a large pan and fry the bacon till golden.
Add the veg and cook over a medium heat till softened, but not coloured.
Add the bouquet garni, lentils and stock.
Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 45 mins till lentils are soft. Add some extra stock if too dry.
remove the bouquet garni from the lentils and stir in the spinach. Cook for a few more mins, taste and season with some salt, pepper, a dash of olive oil and the red vinegar.

Absolutely scrummylicious!!!!

Love and hate and Roasted Red Pepper Soup!

2011-09-15T22:46:00.000+01:00

OK as this blog testifies I LOVE food , but there's a bit of love and hate thing involved in our relationship - I am an overweight Type 2 diabetic who was diagnosed some 6 years or so ago when I very brilliantly failed the medical for a job I had just been offered! Times I have said "Feck it" and muddled along as normal, but having had a very sick January and the threat of insulin shots loomimg I headed to Weightwatchers the Thursday before Easter henceforth known as the feast of chocolate!

To date I am pleased to report I have lost 25 1/2 pounds and it hasn't been that much hardship. (Tip of the iceberg though and only about half way there!)

OK the weight loss is fantastic but the health benefits have been enormous - my blood sugars are now NORMAL and I no longer have the threat of insulin shots looming, my tablets have been reduced from 11 per day to 5 now and my blood pressure has gone from a very high to normal. And I have done it WITHOUT resorting to WW or other brand ready meals -Most days I have porridge with fresh berries for breakfast, maybe a slice of brown soda bread with a banana round 11a.m., lunch could be some homemade soup or a sandwich or a salad. Dinner is mostly always homemade and never just "rabbit" food - I eat out regularly and successfully fit it into my weight loss program.

We eat well and enjoy what we eat!

This is a fabulous soup which I have put together from a few recipes to get one I liked. And for someone like myself battling the bulge very low on calories - if you're doing Weightwatchers it works out about 1 Propoint per serving if you use Low cal spray oil or give it 2 pp's if you use REAL OIL (my preference!)

What you'll need:

4 red peppers, deseeded and cut in half.
Either a sprinkle Olive oil or Low cal spray oil
1 large onion, diced.
2 to 3 Garlic cloves, crushed.
1 chilli, chopped. I use whatever colour I have be it red or green.
300mls Passata.
600 mls vegetable stock.
2 tablespoons chopped basil.
Few basil sprigs for garnishing.

What you'll need to do:

Preheat oven to 180C Fan.
Rub the skin of the peppers with a dash of olive oil and place skin side up on a baking tray.
Place in the oven for about 15 mins till the skin is charred.
Remove and place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave for about 10 mins.
The skins can now easily be peeled from the peppers. Chop into smaller pieces.

Fry off the onion, garli and chilli in a little oil till softened but not coloured. Add the peppers, the passata, vegetable stock and bring to the boil stirring well.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 to 15 mins, adding the basil for the last couple of mins.

Puree in a food processor or with a stick blender till smooth.

Garnish with basil sprigs.

Absolutely delish!!!!

Fruity Pork

2011-09-14T10:27:00.000+01:00

Tore the recipe for this from a newspaper a thousand years ago.This is one of those staple dinners in No 77, can be made for a quickie dinner a deux or will usually satisfy the fish/lamb hating dinner guest and can be dressed up for the occasion - the plate of food that is not the dinner guest!
This even passed muster with my friend Jules whose middle name is finicky!!!

What you'll need :

One average sized pork steak will generally do 3 to 4 people. trim it of fat and cut into 2 inch rounds.
2 teaspoons Chinese 5 spice powder
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 large red onion cut into wedges thru the root.
2 red apples cored and cut into lengths.
2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly.
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.
200 mls chicken stock.

What you'll need to do:

Dust pork with 5 spice powder.
Heat half the oil in a frying pan and fry pork for 3 minutes on each side till browned and cooked thru.
Transfer to warm plate and keep hot.
Add remaining oil to pan, reduce heat slightly, fry onion wedges for 2 minutes.
Add apples and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add redcurrant jelly, the vinegar and the stock.
Bring to the boil, simmer rapidly uncovered for approx 8 to 10 minutes till the sauce is slightly syrupy and the apples tender.
Gently reheat the pork in the sauce, turning to glaze each side.

Served as in the pic above with some mashed potato, asparagus and baby carrots, also damn good with buttered savoy cabbage.

Scallops ...

2011-09-13T14:31:00.005+01:00

I can never resist a gorgeous plump scallop, so beautiful fried with a wee bit of butter or served with a rasher - oh yumminess!!! Unfortunately the days of heading to the strand at home to fill up a bag with them for free are gone but I do nab them when I see really nice ones at the fish shop with their lovely orange corals attached.

Scallops with potato pancakes, shallot purée and salsa verde

- It's a recipe from Masterchef the Professionals that I tweaked a bit to use ingredients I could locate. Pea shoots in Tralee - ya right! Though actually I did find a bag of pea shoots and watercress one day in Dunnes! I bought them though I didn't have anything scheduled for them cos I reckoned if they were selling they'd be inclined to stock them regularly - an advertiser's dream I am!

Recipe serves 4 as a very substansial starter, but I make the full lot up for the two of us as a main course. (Truth be told would be very adequate for 4 people as a main course if having another couple of courses!)

My photography will have to be excused cos I'm a lazy git and instead of getting out my canon SLR for food photography I usually use the mobile!

For the salsa verde dressing

A punnet of pea shoots - if you can find them!
Large handful flat leaf parsley
100g/4oz capers, rinsed
50g/2oz cornichons or gherkins, drained
1-2 tsp English mustard (or to taste)
75ml/3fl oz-100ml/4fl oz extra virgin olive oil, as necessary
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salsa verde, put punnet of pea shoots and all of the parsley, capers, cornichons (or gherkins) and mustard into a food processor. With the motor running, gradually trickle in the olive oil to form a smooth, thick sauce. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

For the golden crumbs

4 slices white bread, crusts removed, cut into small dice
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Place the bread cubes onto a baking sheet. Drizzle over the olive oil and, using your hands, mix together until coated evenly. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove the bread cubes from the oven and drizzle again with olive oil. Mix again using tongs or a wooden spoon. Bake for a further 4-5 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Transfer to a food processor and pulse to coarse crumbs.

For the shallot purée

large knob of butter
10 shallots, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped
300ml/½ pint chicken stock
splash red wine vinegar

Heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots and celery and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until softened.
Pour in the stock and red wine vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Strain, reserving the cooking liquuid.
Purée the strained shallots and celery in a food processor until smooth, adding a little of the reserved cooking liquid to loosen the mixture if necessary. Keep warm.

For the potato pancakes

4 floury potatoes
2 free-range eggs, separated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g/2oz plain flour
knob of butter
vegetable oil, for shallow frying

Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10-15 minutes, or until tender. Mash with the egg yolks until smooth, then season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.
Beat the flour into the mashed potatoes, then fold in the egg whites. Divide mixture into 8-12 equal-sized patties.
Heat the butter and oil in a heavy-based frying pan over a medium to high heat until a breadcrumb sizzles and turns golden-brown when dropped into it. Fry the potato pancakes, in batches, for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown. Keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining potato pancakes.

For the bacon, peas and lettuce
4 slices dry-cured pancetta - I used rashers of dry cured streaky bacon.
225g/8oz frozen peas
150ml/¼ pint dark chicken stock (simmered in a saucepan until well reduced)
2 Little Gem lettuces, trimmed and cut into quarters.

Preheat oven to its highest setting. Sandwich the pancetta between 2 heavy baking sheets and cook in oven for 8-10 minutes, or until crisp.
Meanwhile, boil the peas in the reduced chicken stock for 3-4 minutes, or until the peas are tender and the volume of stock has reduced further. Add the lettuce and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until just wilted.

For the scallops
25g/1oz butter
1 tbsp olive oil
12-16 scallops, depending on size, meat only

Melt butter with the olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Fry the scallops for just a few seconds on each side, or until just cooked through.

Putting it all together -

To serve, divide the lettuce and peas among the serving plates. Arrange the potato pancakes and scallops on top. Spoon the salsa verde over the top. Drizzle a little shallot purée around the edge of the plate. Pile a slice of crispy bacon alongside, sprinkled with the golden crumbs. Garnish with the pea shoots unless you're in Tralee and haven't been able to find any!

Enjoy with a crisp glass of white wine!

Parcels and presents!

2011-09-13T13:51:00.000+01:00

'Twas great to answer the door to the postman this morning and get a package from him. Our copy of the Cliff House Hotel cook book, sat down with my porridge with raspberries and blueberries and drooled over the pages with their gorgeous recipes, I have earmarked a few already for our culinary delectation and delight!

I am delighted to say Billy and I are going to the Cliff House in October, a great little plan by yours truly! Our birthdays are 8 days apart in October and to be honest there's not much we need in the way of stuff for birthday pressies - ask Billy what he wants and the reply is "get me a book please" - you should see the amount already in his to read pile! Anyway last month I had just got the new copy of Food and Wine magazine and it had their annual awards in it and the winner of the restaurants category was Gregan's Castle so the typical light bulb moment ensued - for OUR birthday we would go and stay and dine in Gregan's in Co Clare, the following night pay a return visit to The Old Convent in Tipperary and round it off with a night in Cliff House. I am salivating already at the thoughts of our birthday present, 'twill be one of the best yet!!!

An end to procrastination....

2011-09-12T10:02:00.001+01:00

Long threatening comes at last and today I start my food blog where I hope to record some of the recipes we try, the food we eat, the books we read about it, the places we eat it in.

I love food and have done so for a very long time now, from being a child - one of my earliest memories is of my mother giving me delicious fresh from the farmyard eggs in a cup mixed with a bit of butter when I was a very wee toddler, to being a bit older and giving the siblings Galtee cheese with blackcurrant jam sandwiches when I was left in charge of them and their lunch for the day - funnily enough I don't recall them being too impressed with my culinary prowess!

I remember, with love and longing, the crab claws Dad would bring home that would be roasted on top of the range in the kitchen and cracked open and eaten - in those dark and distant days there was no "meas" (respect) for crab claws and they only sold the bodies. As for the scallops - oh my oh my - down to the strand we'd go when there was low tide and fill our bags, huge juicy scallops fried in a bit of butter - heaven on earth! Getting up at 6a.m. to go foraging for field mushrooms and frying them with a bit of butter, making homemade mushroom soup - the likes of which I've never tasted since! Unfortunately wild mushrooms are harder to be got in that neck of the woods nowadays with fertiliser being liberally applied to the fields.

When there was work going on in the farm, hay making, cutting the turf etc., I wouldn't go and dirty my hands with that, nope, I'd stay home and do the dinner and the tea for the men instead and maybe squeeze in a chapter or two of my current book along the way. Then at the age of 16 I decided to make a special meal for my parents, myself and my 3 siblings for the parent's 20th anniversary and I got a duck , yes one ickle duck for all 6 of us and my father a farming man with a farming man's appetite, needless to say a pan of sausages and rashers went on shortly afterwards!

So over the years I've dibbled and dabbled in food, at one stage I supplied a fish shop with salads, seafood vol au vents, dressed salmons and the like. I did bed and breakfast in my home for 12 years and provided the guests with a beautiful breakfast menu at a time when the standard fare would have been the full Irish - take it or leave it! Also made evening meals for them using simple local produce - local lamb and spanking fresh seafood.

Life moves on and 2 and 2/3 years ago I met Billy, our first conversation was about the merits of wine - said conversation washed down with copious quantities of Jack Daniels by yours truly! Turned out Billy is a bit of a foodie too. One of the highlights of our time together has been a visit to a Michelin Star restaurant -Il Buco - in Sorrento, foodgasmic! Our "together time" on a Saturday night is spent cooking and eating. During the week we plan what's going on the menu, going thru our large collection of cookery books, then Saturday afternoon we gather together our ingredients and cook and eat and wash it down with some vino! It has resulted in some fantastic food, a lot of which has been photographed for the food blog.... so here we are food blogging!