BALLYCOTTON SEAFOOD
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| Salmon & Sweet Chili |
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| Mediterranean Cod Gratin |
Always like calling to see the folks at the
Ballycotton Seafood in the English Market and also make the odd call to their
shop in Midleton.
Now the good news for
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
EL GORDO
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| Pics from today's Spanish Wine Show in Cork....post to follow..click on image to enlarge Top:Claire Lemasney (Gilbeys); Mark McCloskey (Greenlea); Stephen Morrissey (Barry & Fitzwilliam), Paul Kiernan and Billy Forrester (Bubble Bros). Bottom: Antonio Lorente & Rafael Salazar (Vinos Tito); Joe Karwig and Billy Lyons; Bren Smith (Mackenway) and Marcus Gates (Karwig). |
THE BIG SPANISH WINE SHOW
“Wines from Spain:
Changing Ways 2011” was the name of the big Spanish wine show that was held in
the Imperial Hotel (Cork) yesterday. El Gordo (The Big One) is associated with
the Spanish lottery but there was no gamble in
KILLAVULLEN FARMERS MARKET
Think I'll head up here on Saturday morning - with the shopping bags!!
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| Click on image to enlarge |
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
LORGE AT LARGE
LORGE AT LARGE
I met Kerry chocalatier Benoit Lorge for the first
time at last Saturday’s Midleton Food Festival. You just couldn’t pass the range
of tempting creations at his stall. And, when you study his brochure, you
realise that this is only a fraction of his portfolio of chocolate goodies.
You can buy singles or boxes (with anything from two
to 54 pieces). You can fill a mixed bag, like I did, 10 for €6.00. He also does
chocolate bars including an award winning Praline and also Nougat (nice stuff
too – I got some in Manning’s Ballylickey two months ago). His truffles - buy
by the bag – are multi-awards winners, gold going to the Rum Bitter, the soft
Rum and Caramel and also to the Orange and Cointreau.
I had whiskey and rum included in my selection and
you may also get Baileys and other liqueurs.
But you may also avoid the
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Roger Ravoire Wine Dinner at Donnybrook Fair
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| Lubernon vines with Ménerbes in background |
Roger Ravoire Wine dinner at Donnybrook Fair
Olivier Ravoire (above) from Roger Ravoire will host a wine dinner on Wednesday 19th October at 7.45pm in The Restaurant @ Donnybrook Fair. Olivier will introduce a selection of wines from his family’s winery located in the heart of the
Monday, September 12, 2011
APPLE RECIPES
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| Apple & Blackberry Cobbler |
APPLE RECIPES
It is the apple time of year, lots of them now becoming
available at fruit farms and in the farmers markets. Thanks to our friends at
All Recipes UK and Ireland, we’ve got no less than 482 apple recipes for you!
More than an apple a day.
Find apple recipes for all of your favourites -
apple cake, apple crumble, apple pie. They have savoury ways with apples, too -
apple-stuffed chicken breast, apple and cheese bruschetta and more.
So get picking and peeling and click right here
LES GOURMANDISES: Premiere classe
LES GOURMANDISES
With recent Food & Wine kudos for both the chef and the sommelier, you’d have thought we were on a good thing when we visited Les Gourmandises at the weekend. Well, we were but we knew that even before the awards were announced as this Cook Street restaurant is, and has been for some time now, one of the very best in Cork.
Started with the Les Gourmandises tasting plate: Parsnip Soup, Black Pudding with Foie Gras and breaded John Dory with green puree. The Parsnip soup was delightful; the Black Pudding outshone the Foie Gras while the fish was spot on. A good start is half the battle.
Next up for me was the Roasted duck leg confit with confit potato and cherry. A beautiful piece of duck, so well cooked. It also looked fantastic, a tempting light colour, and it fell away from the bone at the slightest touch. Tasted as well as it looked, much better than similar efforts I ate in the Dordogne in the summer of 2010.
CL was also very happy with Fillet of Cod with Celeriac and Apple puree and mushrooms. The fish and puree combination was top class, every little bit welcomed onto the palate. We both got a side dish of sautéed potatoes, shaped into small globes, not much bigger than marbles (or glassy alleys, as we say around here).
We each had the same dessert: Red Berry Jelly and Lavender Panacotta, with a Lemon Madeleine. I’ve had some variation of this here previously. It was fresh and lively, a really smashing way to finish off a meal, the combination of sight and taste sending two happy customers on our way into the night.
We were on the Prix Fixe menu which is priced at €27.50 for two courses, €29.50 for three. Do the math and you’ll see that the dessert cost just two euro! Two glasses of Lombeline wine, one Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire, the other Syrah/Grenache from the Gard, brought the bill to €72.70.
No complaints with the wines, each was excellent. The following day, by chance, I spotted that The Wine Store sells the Sauvignon Blanc for €10.99 a bottle. The glass at Les Gourmandises is priced at €6.85. The Bridge Bar and Grill in Dublin internet site lists their glass price at €7.00, their bottle at €24.00. These would all seem to be rather large mark ups.
And the other thing about Irish restaurants selling wine by the glass is that you are rarely told how much wine is your glass, whereas in some European countries, Austria for example, you have the choice of one or two decilitres and, in some cases, the glass is marked.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
MIDLETON FOOD FESTIVAL
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| Midleton Food Festival 10.09.11. Click on image to enlarge. Post to follow... |
MIDLETON FOOD FESTIVAL
Had really been looking forward to this year’s Midleton
Food Festival and neither the food on offer nor the people offering it let me
down in any way. A stroll down (and up, and down and up again) the main street this
Saturday morning was a foodie pleasure.
Enjoyed my chat with Claire of Amandine who make sweet temptations from the most gorgeous French style pastries
to personalised birthday cakes. Two of her pastries, Pear & Almond and
Lemon Meringue Tarts, have been shortlisted for the 2011 Irish Food Awards in Dingle
and they were the two we bought.
One of the pleasures of these festivals, especially
if you go early, is the opportunity to chat with the stallholders and we
compared notes with Claire on Provence (where she is from and where we, and
she, holidayed this year). Bonne chance in Dingle, Claire.
Also had a chat with Jon Ward and Kevin Aherne from the
inventive Sage Restaurant who played a big part in the festival with a few stands out on the street
as well as one in the courtyard.
Also called to the regular Farmers Market which was also running and delighted here to meet up with Noreen and son Henry
from Woodside Farm and also the busy and ever inventive Deirdre Hilliard of Cobh’s Just Food
.
Back to the food now. Let’s start with the bread, a
lovely sourdough (already tested) from the Granary who have a pleasant permanent
position just off the main street. Three lots of cheese came back to the city:
two from the Old Irish Creamery and
one from Ardsallagh .
Isabelle Sheridan was manning the On the Pig’s Back stand
and here we helped ourselves to some Chicken liver pate and to a slab of Venison
Terrine. Also a box of Victoria plums from the Rose Cottage Fruit farm .
At the Farmers Market, we bought the veg from Ballycurraginny
Farm (regulars at Mahon Point), got some Pork and Apple Burgers from Woodside
and a Muesli and pot of Ratatouille from Just Food.
Madeline from Pure Sushi told
me she was delighted with her award at the Mitchelstown Festival and we treated
ourselves to a six pack for this evening. Some sweet stuff too. In addition to
the cakes from Amandine (who have a permanent stand in the Mahon Shopping complex),
we spoiled ourselves with a bag of gorgeous mixed chocolates from Benoit Lorge .
As you know, I regularly buy Irish, buy local. But
it is not always easy. Lorge has quite a reputation in the chocolate field and
many of you may have seen Eve Chocolates from
Dennehys Cross highlighted in the Evening Echo during the week.
Yet last week, at the English Market, two US travel agents
told me they were disappointed to find only two Irish chocolate products on
sale in an otherwise well stocked chocolate shop there.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
SOUTH AUSTRALIA GEMS FROM MORAMBRO CREEK
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| Click to enlarge |
SOUTH AUSTRALIA GEMS FROM MORAMBRO CREEK
Brad Rey, Brand Manager at
Morambro Creek, the
home of Jip Jip Rocks and Mt Monster, was
at Karwig Wines in
Carrigaline last Wednesday and oversaw one of the most fascinating tastings
I’ve ever been at.
And it wasn't just because of
the wines, which included a few surprises for this punter and were all of
outstanding quality, that I’ll remember Brad. It was mostly for his convictions
about wine and his common sense.
The Canadian born and raised
Brad brought a breath of fresh Rockies air to the proceedings.
“Most of New World Chardonnay..is concocted
crap.”
“Oak shouldn't be the dominant
characteristic. Wine is made from grapes and should taste of the fruit.”
“The earth is like a tea bag.
All that grows in the vicinity...elephant fennel, wild
rosemary..eucalyptus..finds its way in.....and ends up in the glass.”
“Don't wash your wine glass
with water (fluoride in Ireland!). Wash it with wine, maybe bottled water.”
There were three sparklers on
the table. A Mt Monster brut, an easy drinker, something like an
“Aussie Cremant” was the first. Then came the Jip Jip Cuvee from 2009. Very
pleasant indeed and again easy drinking.
Brad maintains that Aussie sparklers
are on the up and up. They were up too, many moons ago. They’ve been making them
since 1890s and they were extremely popular in Oz in the early 1900s, then
seemed to lose their way but are now on the firmly on the way back.
And the third sparkler seemed
to confirm this. It was Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz, a medium bodied mouth friendly
wine. A very pleasant surprise indeed and Brad recommended using it with pork
or duck or “anything you’d use Pinot Noir with”. Must try that.
After knocking much of the New
World Chardonnay, Brad opened his own bottle. “I try to let the fruit speak,
let Mother Nature do the job.” And this unoaked bottle spoke the fruit. Gorgeous
and refreshing with a little richness added through limited contact with the
lees, perhaps another lesson from the Loire which Brad knows and likes.
And France was in his mind too
when making the Jip Jip 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. Citrusy and soft, fresh and clean
and well balanced, made that way because Brad doesn't like high acidity.
He was delighted with his Mt Monster
Shiraz of 2008. “Good, the way I want to see it. Very minimal oak. May be
served slightly chilled. It is light fruit, blueberries and raspberries and the
tannins are fruit tannins. This is about balance and reminds me of the joven I
used to make in Spain.”
Then we moved on to a more
traditional Shiraz, the 2009 Jip Jip, a multi medal winner that has spent quite
a while in 2, 3 and 4 year old French oak. But the oak doesn't dominate. “Drink
it on its own; it is easy drinking.”
He was quite proud of the next
one also as it has been his “first go” at Morambro Creek Shiraz. This 2008 had
been in 20% US oak but from now on it will be 100% French barriques. The annual
spend on oak is now massive, well over a million Australian dollars. Good wine,
though!
The finish was a beautiful Mt Monster
Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. No oak, lovely and bright, not heavy, tannins enough
and easy drinking, according to Brad who admitted to being “chuffed by that”.
Remember, Brad hasn’t seen most of these wines for a while as they are
long gone from Morambro.
The fennel is in here, fresh
mint, cassis, blue and red fruits, all in a rich texture with velvety tannins.
It has been getting a great reaction.
Morambro is certainly a name
(three names really) to watch out for and to make it easier, you can get all
three at Karwig Wines.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Karwig Wines: Cannonau di Sardegna
Stella & Mosca’s Cannonau di
Sardegna
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| Barriques |
Cannonau di Sardegna DOC Vendemmia*
2008, 13.5%, €11.95 (Karwig), 3.5 stars.
This
island wine held my interest from start to finish. Colour is a weakish medium
red but this is Grenache with muscle: mouth filling, juicy, fruity, spicy,
straight-up. A lovely lively wine made from the Cannonau grape, a cousin or
clone of Garnacha. I’m deliberately using the Garnacha here as it was the
Spanish who planted up the island many
moons ago.
This
rugged island version is some distance from the smooth and polite Grenache you
find on the Rhone and none the worse for
that. Variety is the spice of life and this Sardinian effort underlines it.
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| Shop |
Cannonau di Sardegna DOC Riserva 2007,
14%, €15.25 (Karwig)
Noah, it is said, used
a garnet lantern to help him steer his ark through the dark night. Garrnet is the
colour of this wine and I wouldn’t mind having more of this in the dark nights to
come.
It is a while since I
smelled violets so I can't confirm the label’s description of the bouquet
except to say it is quite a pleasant one. But the mega pleasure comes when the
wine hits the palate. It is like velvet.
The basic Cannonau
above may be Grenache with muscle; this Riserva doesn't lack muscle but let us
say that it is extremely well toned, supple and subtle, positively smooth and altogether
very attractive.
It is a beautiful
mouthful, the finish long and delicious and there are subtle spices from start
to end. One to note, for sure.
·
Vendemmia = Harvest or
vintage.
·
The Cannonau, with a
big load of flavanoids, may be good for your health. Check it out here.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
TOP NOTCH SANTA RITA RESERVAS
FIRST CLASS SANTA RITA WINES
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| Carlos (right) and yours truly at Isaacs |
Carlos Gatica, Chief Winemaker
with Santa Rita, the
second biggest wine producer in Chile, was in Cork yesterday and brought a
strong line-up to the Gilbeys Wine Tasting Lunch at Isaacs.
Many of you will be familiar
with the Chilean winery’s 120 series and Carlos referred to the story (with a
strong Irish connection) behind the 120 and you may read more on that here.
Santa Rita’s current mission
though is to “educate” their Irish sellers, including hotels and restaurants
who were well represented here, in an effort to broaden the appreciation of the
better Santa Rita wines and particularly their reservas.
The introductory handshake was
a very pleasant concentrated white: the Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2010. This was
accompanied by a selection of tempting tapas.
Could have happily stayed with
those tasty bites but move on we did and Carlos then presented their 2009 Gran Reserva
Medalla Real Chardonnay,
This has quite an intense
bouquet and is a well balanced wine with silky texture and went down well with
a warm salad of Marinated Chicken, smoked bacon and rustic potatoes.
Now it was on to the steak and
the first of the reds. This was the superb Pehmén Carménère 2007 made with grapes from an old vineyard in the
Apalta Valley. Aging is in 100% French oak barrels for 18 months. Really liked
this flavoursome persistent wine.
The cheese made its appearance
as it was time for the piece de résistance: a vertical tasting of the classic
Casa Real. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon “seeks to obtain the maximum expression
of the Alto Jaheul terroir”. New French oak barrels are used.
Many of you will know that
vertical tasting means tasting the same wine from different years. The vintages
at Isaacs were 2007, 2002 and 1999. The still young 2007, marginally higher in
ABV @ 14.5%, was of excellent quality, the fruit concentrated after a good
year, but was overshadowed by the other two.
The very elegant and
concentrated 2002 (14.4%) was perhaps my favourite. Well balanced with ripe
flavours and tannins, it has a full body and “a sleek finish”.
No vote was taken but the
number one choice was the 1999 (4.3%), an “opulent” wine from an “opulent”
year. The winemaker’s comments covered it all: "As a terroir concept, the 1999
vintage has been undoubtedly considered as the maximum expression of a 100%
Cabernet Sauvignon to date.”
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| Maipo Valley |
Interesting to note that Santa
Rita has a presence in six wine areas of the country, allowing it to grow many
different kinds of grape and expand its portfolio. Some of their areas are
north of Santiago de Chile, some to the south (Carlos lives in Curicó), some
are close to the coast, others in the foothills of the Andes. The valleys are
Limari, Casablanca, Leyda, Rapel, Maipo and Apalto.
Credit to Gilbeys for putting
on this excellent event “the first of many around the country”. Well done also
to Carlos for his descriptions and humour and for bringing such a stunning selection
to Isaacs.
Monday, September 5, 2011
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