Food and Drink Spotting. A Friday Special.
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| Cornstore Head Chef Mike Ryan launches their Seafood Summer Collection |
Cornstore focus on local produce and in-house
innovation
with Summer Seafood and Infused Cocktail Collection.
Sticking to
their ethos of ‘quality food sourced locally’ – Munster restaurant group the
Cornstore now bring you the bounty of our local seas, with the launch of their
Summer Seafood Collection. The menu positively showcases the freshest fish and
seafood, delivered daily from only the most reputable suppliers.
Seafood
enthusiasts and crustacean connoisseurs can expect anything from Whole Baked
Fish wrapped in seaweed and fresh herbs to Natural Rock Oysters on ice with
Himalayan salt and lemon juice, and if your taste buds aren’t watering yet, a
Whole Grilled Lobster with clarified butter might just do the trick.
However, it’s
not just the chefs having all the fun this summer. The group’s resident
mixologists have taken on the task of ageing fruit and plant based elixirs
in-house resulting in a range of signature infused cocktails. ‘In recent years
we’ve seen an increase in flavoured spirits and liquors across our shelves’,
said restaurateur Padraic Frawley. ‘We’ve decided to prove that nothing can
beat the real thing and our customers love the fact that we’ve always got
something new to try’.
Specialising in
seafood and steak, the group’s restaurants are located in both Cork and
Limerick. Just last month they launched an in-house beef dry-ageing process in
each location – being the first restaurant group in Ireland to invest in such
an initiative. This current project looks like the perfect summer marriage,
sure to see these restaurants become a pilgrim destination for any seafood and
cocktail lovers.
Carewswood Garden Centre & Café: “every
gardener’s cup of tea!”
In a bright and airy premises, that also
offers a crafts shop with a range of beautiful gifts for the home and garden as
well as practical items such as tools and planters, Carewswood Garden Centre
also boasts a homely café, where you can find “a range of delicious freshly
baked goods and local artisan and organic foods which prides itself on ‘honest
food’ with no artificial colourings or preservatives.”
Carewswood is
a destination suited to all the family with an on-site playground to keep
children entertained. They can also visit the estate’s hens which provide fresh
eggs for the café. And of course parents
will be able to entice children into eating all their greens by letting them
pick out their own vegetables to grow.
The renewal
of Carewswood, which reopened in April, is the brainchild of a passionate and
energetic young couple Daniel Leahy and Juulika Lomp (pictured) who hope that by combining
their horticultural and culinary skills and through nurture and care, it will
grow to become Cork’s favourite garden centre.
They also pride themselves on a strong eco friendly ethos. Along with
using as many recycled materials as possible in the refurbishments of the
property, they also use recyclable and biodegradable materials where possible
and have a motto not to waste anything.
Since opening
its doors this April, the Garden Centre and Café have seen their visitors grow
day by day as horticulturalists and day-trippers alike discover their unique
and scenic location. The Centre is set within a traditional 19th Century walled
garden, Carewswood is only a half-hour drive from Cork City and is a great
destination for those with green fingers as it has a wide range of plants,
shrubs, flowers and grow your own vegetables, along with the necessary tools,
books and of course, expert advice.
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Barbeques With Planking???
Another great culinary suggestion from Executive
Chef Niall Hill at The Butler’s Pantry –
Award winning purveyors of hand-made Irish food, The Butler’s
Pantry, are offering a new and exciting way to add the wow factor to your
barbeques this summer with their Red Cedar Planks which will
be on sale in all ten of its shops in Dublin and Wicklow from this Monday.
Cedar Planks offer a modern method of experiencing back-to nature
cooking that cooks and smokes meat, fish, seafood, fruit, vegetables and cheese
in a uniquely woody, tender and aromatic style.
The Butler’s Pantry Executive Chef Niall Hill, said of Plank
cooking, “When I first came across planking when working in Canada many years
ago, it was like a light went off in my head. It opened up a whole new
avenue of cooking ideas that I had never explored before for grilling and hot
smoking almost every type of food from cheese, meat, fish, to fruit and vegetables
right across to desserts, the list of dishes you can cook on a plank is
endless.”
Niall has also developed a number of unique recipes for you to try for
both sweet and savoury foods as well as serving suggestions for al fresco
dining and plank parties! (see attached).
Made of local red cedar wood and measuring 2 ft x 1 ft the barbeque plank
is available in all The Butler’s Pantry Shops in Bray, Clontarf,
Donnybrook, Greystones, Monkstown, Mount Merrion Avenue, Rathgar, Sandycove and
Sandymount, priced €3.95 each.
Remember
plank cooking is not just for summer but can be done all year end as it gets
best results with the lid closed on the BBQ. A great way to have summer time
cooking 365 days of the year!
Shorts
