Everyone’s a winner at the Curry Night for Hope in The Grainstore

 Everyone’s a winner at the Curry Night for Hope in The Grainstore

All ready! The calm before the curry.

A couple of weeks back, I spotted a notice on social media about a Curry Night in the Grainstore at Ballymaloe. This could be different, I thought, and read on. A couple of things confirmed my first thoughts and hooked me in. One was that it was a fundraiser for Hope and the other was that Green Saffron’s Arun Kapil, the spice expert, was involved in the curry. Hard to resist the combination of a good cause and a good curry. Win win, I said, and booked my tickets.

Mol an oige! While she didn’t quite use that phrase, Hope’s Honorary Director Maureen Forrest (who set up the organisation in 1999), used it as a theme and praised the many young people who have helped Hope over the years. 

Hot in the kitchen. Arun's selfie
with Aoibheann and Liam in background.

Two of the current students, Aoibheann and Liam, had led this Curry Night Fundraiser and, with help, especially from Arun and Olive, put on quite an evening including cocktails and mocktails, the curry, dessert and lots of raffles sponsored by local businesses such as Frank Hederman, Cully & Sully, Green Saffron, Supervalu, Sage,  and others including Ballymaloe itself. I didn’t win any of the prizes but I still consider myself a winner such was the feel good factor.

Just to give you a taste after the event, here’s the menu:

Jolly Jaipur Cocktail or Mocktail with Smoked Salmon (marinated in Panch Phoran, Lime Juice and soft herbs) and Gol Gappas (chickpea, potato and tomato chaat). This was served upstairs, quite a “noisy” upstairs as the 100 plus diners gathered.

Curry, Dahl and Naan

Soon we all trooped downstairs, quite eagerly, to our tables. Orderly queues were organised as the main dish was served buffet style. And that was Chicken Korma, Red Lentil Dahl, Roast Cauliflower and potatoes in spices with rice, Raita and the best ever Naan! An excellent plateful.

Raffles were held during the interval and we finished with dessert at the table, another lovely dish of Mango Kulfi (ice-cream!), Garam Palmiers with rose and pistachio sprinkles. 

Students Liam and Aoibheann, well supported here by a generous East Cork community (acknowledged by Maureen Forrest) have been given the opportunity to raise funds for the Hope Foundation and travel to Kolkata, India, to visit the homes and hospital that Hope have set up in order to protect and educate children in poverty.

Since 2003, HOPE have been working with schools across Ireland through Development Education. “Engaging with students is one of the best ways to raise awareness of the work we do with street and slum children in Kolkata. Development Education is driven by the strong belief of ‘students helping students’, whereby learning and understanding the reality of poverty inspires young people to take action for change. We consider all students from primary, secondary and third levels who are involved with our work to be Ambassadors for HOPE; reaching out to young people far less fortunate and taking real steps to a better, more fair world.”

For more info contact HOPE’s Schools Coordinator – schools@hopefoundation.ie.

Taste of the Week. Cully & Sully's Tempting Tomato Risotto

Taste of the Week

Cully & Sully's Tempting Tomato Risotto

Lots of good things to eat at the weekend's Ballymaloe Grainstore's May Fair. No surprise with that and no surprise either that we found our current Taste of the Week at the Cully & Sully stall.

Of course, they had their famous soups on display but we were directed, in the best possible manner, to try their range of risottos: Tempting Tomato, Charming Chicken and Moreish Mushroom.

To make a long story short, we arrived home with a bagful and, having tasted a couple in Ballymaloe, were keen to try one in earnest and in full. 

We had eaten well around the Fair so didn't need a full dinner. So we made the Tempting Tomato the centrepiece of our supper, adding a variety of leaves from the garden, some artichoke globe quarters container bought from Olives West Cork via Neighbourfood, and some superb sourdough from the Grumpy Bakers (also bought at the May Fair). Some EVOO was added as was some of Hegarty's new Ballinvarrig cheese (we had no Parmesan in the house!) was grated (very finely) on top.

As expected, the Risotto was a winner and instantly declared our Taste of the Week. Now looking forward to trying out the Mushroom and Chicken.

Lots more info and recipes from Cully & Sully here.

* One pack of the risotto makes a meal for one, or if shared, a meal for two with the addition of other bits and pieces such as detailed above.

Very Enjoyable Outing To Grainstore's Ballymaloe May Fair

 Very Enjoyable Outing To Grainstore's Ballymaloe May Fair

Very much enjoyed my few hours at the May Fair organised by the Grainstore at Ballymaloe at the weekend. The first person I met was none other than Colm McCan who is delighted that the Pop-up Wine Shop is to open every afternoon (2.00 - 5.00pm) for the year ahead. I got a sneak peek inside and that pour illustration above may bring back memories to a few of you of great days and evenings at the Ballymaloe Pop-up Wine Shop in Brown Thomas. Colm has wine from a selection of suppliers in Ballymaloe. Not just wine though: Ballymaloe Cider and their House Gin are also available here in bottle.

Quite a few stalls in the Grainstore itself, including jewelry, clothing and more. It was here that I bought some beautifully crafted soaps from Clarkes of Dublin.              

We were also on the lookout for Massaman curry paste at the Malay Kitchen Stall and we found the two ladies from the Malay Kitchen in the Big Shed. Had a lovely chat, plus a little tasting, and came away with a kit that included the Massaman.

On the way in, we had bought a superb sourdough from the Grumpy Bakers and on the way out we got a few of their very tempting pastries. All these were destined for the home table but the beautiful treat from Yum Gelato, especially the Mango, was consumed on a nearby table in the sun. Yum! 

In between, we had another delicious tasting, this of the Cully & Sully Risotto range, very impressive indeed. Couldn't wait when we got home and, for supper, enjoyed their Tempting Tomato and that will feature as Taste of the Week very soon!

Our "main course" was just around the corner, at one of the many outdoor stalls serving hot food. Gidi's menu featured a traditional Yemenite and Moroccan family recipe with the traditional Cork title of "The Whole Shebang." 

The finest Kinsale beef and lamb, spiced and barbequed, along with a salad of green leaves, tomatoes and basil dressed with mint, yogurt and zhoug, all packed into a pitta, with a hint of chilli. Delicious, quite a dish for a tenner, and went down well with a glass of juicy ale from the nearby Wicklow Wolf Brewery stand.

More drinks stalls in the area included Blackwater Distillery (Peter Mulryan told me they have settled well into their new distillery and are planning on doing tours fairly soon). Denis from Kinsale Mead was enjoying a deadly Charcoal mint stracciatella from Yum Gelato while Valentia Vermouth were quite busy at the time.

Denis, and the early afternoon sun, had put me in the humour for a gelato and we were heading that way when I spotted Beardy Dave at the Dingle Gin and Porterhouse stall. He had a quartet of cans on offer for a tenner and they too went into the bag. In fact there was no room in the bags but Dave had a Porterhouse tote on hand!

So, after that final call to Yum and the Grumpy Baker, we were on our way, looking forward to getting through all the food and drink in the bags.

FEAST Launch. Amazing Week Coming Soon

FEAST Launch

Amazing Week Coming Soon

Cork County Mayor, Declan Hurley, was in the Malthouse of the Midleton Distillery last Tuesday to help launch FEAST, the East Cork Food and Drink Festival. The Mayor, well used to the Taste of West Cork Festival, encouraged those involved in FEAST to keep it local.

Kevin Aherne spoke on behalf of FEAST and he too stressed that provenance had to be a key factor in the festival. Not too much point in a local food festival unless the local food and drink is at the heart of it.

This is the first time that the former Midleton festival has been marketed as FEAST and the hope is to spread it even further in the East Cork area in the future. And to do that, even more sponsorship will be necessary. 

For now, the committee are grateful for the help coming from Irish Distillers, Cork County Council, Secad, Red FM, Taste Cork, Ireland’s Ancient East, Jim Crowley, Midleton Park Hotel, Market Green, Ballymaloe Relish, East Cork Journal, Pallas, Sage, Cully & Sully and Wiser Recycling.

The cooperative spirit behind the venture was well illustrated on the menu for the evening and we enjoyed a lovely four course meal in the Malthouse. The Farmgate produced the starter, a delicious combination of Ballycotton Seafood smoked salmon, crushed mint potato salad, caper and citrus dressing.

No shortage of wine as the evening progressed to the Ferrit and Lee main course: Beef feather blade marinated with Jameson, fondant potato, celeriac purée, roast onion, baby carrots and thyme jus. Perfect.

Conversation left and right at this stage, live music too, as dessert appeared, courtesy of Sage: Sixty four per cent Midleton chocolate delice, brittle, butterscotch. Say no more!

And on then to the Malthouse cheese board: Ballinrostig Gouda, Bo Rua Cheddar, and Ballymaloe Chutney. And we finished as we had started. With whiskey. On arrival, there was the perfect Jameson serve with ginger ale and lime. And the finalé was a glass of Black Barrel, one of my favourites from Jameson, so called because the barrels are well charred!

Thanks to Irish Distillers, John Wall, Frank Murphy, Village Greengrocer and Wilkies Chocolate, who also had an input in the meal.

Time for the taxis then and to look forward to the big week that begins on Monday, September 4th. You can see the daily highlights here http://www.corkbilly.com/2017/08/feast-in-east-midleton-festival-expands.html, lots of evening meals.

But the closing Saturday, beginning in Midleton at 11.00am is a big day and is indeed billed as the major event. The main street will be packed with stalls and, this year, you’ll have a long table to sit down, relax and eat some of the goodies on sale. No doubt there’ll be tasty bites too from the restaurant tent and the farmers market. And the children will have their own area with music shows, puppets and amusements.

And the FEAST demo marquee has a long list of demos including one with Justin Greene on Bertha’s Revenge Gin, a sourdough demo by top baker Patrick Ryan, a seafood masterclass by Ciaran Scully, an invite to her kitchen by Lilly Higgins and then a East v West cook-off between Kevin Aherne and Marin Shanahan (Fishy Fishy).

If you still have any energy left, then get yourself into the courtyard in Sage on Sunday for a #12 mile BBQ with music, fun and a “BBQ that Midleton has never seen before”.

September sunshine on the menu. (Sage photo)

Taste of the Week. Cully & Sully Lentil & Smoked Bacon Soup

Taste of the Week

Cully & Sully Lentil & Smoked Bacon Soup

The latest Taste of the Week is packed with flavour and makes for a great lunch after a rainy midweek morning. Full of goodness too as Lentils provide “plenty of protein, cholesterol-lowering soluble fibre and about twice as much iron as other legumes”. Cully & Sully provide lots of information on their packs and even a recipe on this one where you can combine chickpeas with the soup.

Cully & Sully have a big range of soups and also do Hot Pots and Pies, all widely available. Check it all out here, either before or after enjoying our Taste of the Week!

Cully & Sully’s Heart Soup. Helping Ireland’s Little Hearts

Cully & Sully’s Heart Soup

Helping Ireland’s Little Hearts

You’ve got to love this: two good things in the one package from Cully & Sully.

First - they've come up with a Magic Bean Soup. It is good for your heart.

Second - it is good for someone else too. Cully & Sully have pledged a donation from sales of this limited edition to the Heart Children Ireland charity, a support group for parents and families of children with a Congenital Heart Disorder.

The Limited Edition Soup has just launched ahead of Valentine’s Day with Cully and Sully hoping, in this traditional time of love, to raise awareness of the charity who do their work nationwide with no government funding. So keep an eye open over the next while for the distinctive black and red package and spread the love!

And the soup? Well I’ve just had a sample and it is red, robust and warm, perfect for these end of winter days. Great flavours and texture and packed with healthy beans (cannellini and butter) in a tasty tomato broth.

So there you are, two good reasons to try this top notch soup.

First - you’ll enjoy the soup, and so will your heart.

Two - you’ll also enjoy helping Ireland’s little bravehearts.

THE RETURN OF THE CHEF FACTOR

Chef Factor is back for 2011!

L-R: Sully, last year's winner Christine Crowley, Rachel Allen and Cully.

Colum O'Sullivan, of Cully & Sully, has been in touch with the news that the Chef Factor is to return this autumn.

"We’re proud to say that its return has been widely tipped as one of the hottest events in food to watch out for this year.  The prize is the same as last year- a place on January’s coveted 12 week Ballymaloe cookery course including accommodation, together worth over €12,000 euro and will include two weeks with myself and Cully to learn the ways of the food business. Lat year's winner Christine is doing really well now, running her own tearooms and everything!"

"Again we’re really trying to get across that Chef Factor is for anybody who wants to learn how to cook and develop their own career in food.  You don’t need to be a good cook to enter as the prize is professional training in one of the world’s leading cookery schools. We are simply looking for someone who really wants to win this once in a lifetime opportunity.  You can enter anything you like-from beans on toast  to a risotto, from steak to a cake!"

"We are also trying to remind entrants that Chef Factor is not all about online votes, as while three finalists will be determined by public vote, two wildcards will be handpicked by Cully and I to go through irrespective of votes and all finalists will be on an equal footing at the final. Everybody stands a great chance of winning the top prize!! Entrants are accepted from September 5th, 2011 and the winner is expected to be chosen in Ballymaloe on Saturday the 26th of November."

Entering is the same as last year- EASY PEASY!  All you have to do is upload a simple photo of a dish with the words “Cully & Sully” somewhere in the image and submit this to cheffactor.ie  along with a brief explanation of the dish and the reason why you deserve to win!

SUPERB SOUP

  Colum O'Regan, Horizon Organic Farm, Supplier to Just Food

BLESSED BE THE SOUPMAKERS 

Three cheers for our artisan soupmakers. They make us full. They make us warm. Especially these cold days.

I’m thinking of three in particular: Just Food , Flynn's Kitchen and Cully & Sully. And they don't stop at soup. They also make other delicious products – just click on their sites to check it out.

I recently picked up a

EATING IN

CHEZ MOI

Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin.

With so many top class food producers now operating in the area, plus the English Market on our doorstep, eating in can often be every bit as good as dining out.

Take last night for example. We have some brilliant soup makers locally, including Just Food in Cobh. Just a few miles over the road, we have Cully and Sully and it was their White Winter Vegetable Soup that we picked up in Dunne’s Stores. This winner of the Global Sial D’Or, for the World’s best new product, is made largely from potato, onion, celeriac, parsnip, leek and cauliflower and the Ballymaloe traditional essentials butter and cream.

The outside of the 400g pack, by the way, is packed with info and even a recipe and all for €2.49. Just pop it in the micro-wave for a few minutes and you have a gorgeous starter.

The main course, Mediterranean Fish, took a bit longer. Got some lovely hake from Ballycotton Seafood in the Market. The recipe came from the packed November edition of Easy Food, which cost just €3.00 and is well worth it. The other easily obtained ingredients were: cherry tomatoes, red onion, olive oil and basil pesto. This was satisfying dish and simple to make. Compliments to the chef and to Easy Food, not to mention the hunter gatherer!

We normally drink white wine with fish and we tried out a bottle of Adria Pinot Grigio 2009 (one of the new range being imported by Wine Alliance and available in quite a few outlets, including Bradley’s in North Main Street, for €9.49). It is an excellent example of this Italian wine and a great match for the hake.

THE CHEF FACTOR

Just heard from Sully of Cully and Sully...

"We are running a competition called Chef Factor - http://www.cheffactor.ie that wants people to submit a dish they made. Upload a photo of you with your dish and the words “Cully & Sully” somewhere in your
picture. You can submit ANY dish you want, big or small, starter or main, sandwich or steak!"

"The top prize is a place on the 12 week Ballymaloe Cookery Course worth €12,000 plus accommodation, knives and everything you'll need to be Ireland's next great culinary success. We hope you'll enter this too.  The top prize is redeemable in January 2011/2012."

"We're finding that people think they need to be fantastic cooks in order to enter but we're happy to take

any submission where someone has prepared a dish, be it some amazing french dish or beans on toast. We're hoping after the course the winner can become that superstar chef they want to be."

Check it out here