Easy Food Home-Cook Hero Awards 2013 Finalists

Finalists Announced For Easy Food Home-Cook Hero Awards 2013

After months of entries, short-listing and deliberations, the 30 finalists have been selected for the upcoming Easy Food Home-Cook Hero Awards 2013, which takes place on Saturday, November 9th in Dublin.

The Easy Food Home-Cook Hero Awards, run by Ireland’s number one food magazine, is a national cookery competition open to all ages and 2013 sees its third year, and possibly highly contested and most popular to date!

Three finalists were selected for each of the ten varied categories from thousands of entries for their unique, tasty and creative recipes. Finalists are asked to take part in a cook-off final on the morning of Saturday, November 9th at Cooks Academy cookery school, South William Street, Dublin 2, where each person will cook their dishes for the competition judges.

One of our youngest finalists this year is eleven-year-old Andrew Ryan, from Navan, Co. Meath, who created ‘Andy’s Banana and Caramel Invention’ in the Tiny Taste category. “I made it for my Mam after dinner on Mother’s Day. My Dad made the dinner which turned out very bad but Mam said my Banana and Caramel Invention was the best thing ever.”

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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.