Essence Of Ireland
So, if you could capture Ireland in a single mouthful, what would that mouthful be?
I think that Pádraic Óg Gallagher, he of the Boxty House, may have captured it perfectly when he drizzled Connemara Peated Single Malt Whiskey over smoked Irish salmon.
Connemara peated single malt whiskey and Irish smoked salmon
Spud Sunday: Cut And Dried
My new favourite potato thing: oven-dried crisps
Fond though I am of a proper bag of crisps, I don’t mind telling you that I am more than a little excited by these.
Last Of The Summer Rhubarb
Exotic: (adjective)
1. From another part of the world; foreign;
2. Intriguingly unusual or different; excitingly strange;
There will, no doubt, be much that fits those descriptions at this weekend’s Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire. A gloriously bubbling stew of music, dance, crafts and food from the far flung reaches of the globe. Even if food were your only interest – and who would I be to judge you for that – the festival’s International Food Traders would surely warrant a visit, as would the Global Village and the South Asian Mela Market.
All told, not a bad way to spend a few days. However, as luck and my projected geographical location for the weekend would have it, I will miss the entire thing. Clearly I will have to compensate by cooking something with a suitably international pedigree. Like ketchup. And if you suppose that such a ubiquitous sauce is too familiar to be exotic, you might have to revise your thinking when you meet the variety made from rhubarb.
Rhubarb ketchup - yes, such a thing exists
Spud Sunday: The Yield So Far
For all you know, this potato could be quite large...
The fact is that my potatoes, so far, are really quite small.
There is no shame in small potatoes, of course, but, frankly, there’s just less of them to eat.
Lemon Alert
I hereby issue a warning to all passing lemons.
I am going through a zesting phase and any lemons within range are likely to be relieved of their outer garments sharpish. Zorro-like, I will unsheath my beloved microplane zester, draw razor-sharp blades across their citrusy skins and have my wicked culinary way with the finely shredded results.
Other citrus fruit, I might add, are also at risk.
No lemon is safe...
Spud Sunday: The House Of Boxty
Sometimes it takes a foreigner to capture the truth about a nation:
Ireland … isn’t exactly the sexiest country in the world … constant gray skies, cool temperatures and an obsession with one of nature’s homeliest vegetables….
Clare, from An American in Ireland
Ouch. Harsh but true.
By tradition, we, like our food, are more hearty and plain than delicate and fancy. We are bacon and cabbage and boiled potatoes. We are soda bread, apple tart and the ubiquitous cup of tea. We are the food that you go to your Mammy’s house for. But when we eat out, we generally look to foreign cuisines for something a little outside of our Irish selves.
Perhaps, to my shame, that’s the reason why, in all my years of living in Dublin, I had managed, until now, to avoid darkening the door of Gallagher’s Boxty House. With its traditional Irish menu and diddly-eye music, it sat firmly in my “just for tourists” category.
Gallagher's Boxty House, Temple Bar
Circus Of The Vegetables
Sensational indeed.
The Temple Bar Summer Sensational, which started yesterday and runs until Sunday, is serving up a feast for the senses in and around Dublin’s Temple Bar. The festival menu, put together by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, is bursting with drama, music, art, film, comedy, dance and, well, vegetables.
Wrap your laughing gear around Cirque de Légume
Yesterday evening, as part of the festival, Cirque de Légume dished up what was by far the most creative and entertaining vegetable medley I have ever seen. Here’s the recipe.
You Say Cookies, I Say Eat
That’s the trouble with words. They mean different things to different people.
Time was when any self-respecting paddy would not have thought to call the items in the picture below anything other than biscuits or biccies.
Oatmeal, chocolate chip and redcurrant whatsits
But the fact is that we’re pretty comfortable with the term cookie these days, it being many years since “American-style Chocolate Chip Cookies” started to appear on Irish supermarket shelves.
