Amuse Bouche

We used to go there on Saturdays, for family outings. There’d be huge bowls of pasta, served with sauce and with stuffed escalopes of veal - alouettes san téte, ‘headless larks’, they were called - and meat balls, all cooked in the same sauce. The rooms would be full of the fragrant smell of tomatoes, basil, thyme and bay leaves. Bottles of rosé wine would be handed round in between bouts of laughter. Meals would always end with a singsong…….

from One Helluva Mess by Jean-Claude Izzo (1995). Highly Recommended.

Warm Welcome to Blairs Inn Banishes Bleak Midwinter Blues. Amazing Venison Casserole Highlight of a Hearty Lunch

Warm Welcome to Blairs Inn Banishes Bleak Midwinter Blues.

Amazing Venison Casserole Highlight of a Hearty Lunch

No shortage of craft beer in Blairs

There’s something about family run and owned places. And you see it first hand when you enter Blairs Inn, in the countryside close to Blarney and less than 30 minutes from Cork city centre. Brothers Richard and Duncan (the chef) Blair now head up the pub their parents ran for quite some years. Here, the hearty dishes are a personal expression and you find signs of seasonal and local authenticity in the well-filled plates and bowls. 

Provenance is given pride of place on the menus and, while the presentation may not be as eye-catching as in some slicker more expensive operations, it is also a long ways from being slapdash. The aim of the kitchen here is to make a pleasant impression in your belly, not necessarily on your phone camera

We are warmly greeted to the traditionally decorated inn (it is just before Christmas) by the boys' mother Anne, who guides us to our fireside table. Richard is finishing off the day’s menu, we are a little early, but soon those menus are at hand along with some of their top notch stout infused brown bread! Just a little more detail on the bread to underline the Inn's commitment to local produce: Macroom Mills Flour, Treacle and Stag Stout are the ingredients. They also do a Sherkin Lass Pale Ale, Cheddar and Herb bread.

While there is an excellent wine list here, the Inn is well-known for its selection of craft beer (which chef Duncan regularly dips into to use in the various menus). And you will note a beer or a wine suggested with the main courses.

Corned beef classic

Mains include a Roast Stuffed Loin of Timoleague Pork with apple sauce and a Longueville House Cider gravy. Naturally, a bottle of the Longueville cider is suggested here. If you’ve picked the Cottage Pie then they suggest a pint of O’Hara’s Red Nitro. On the Roast Irish Chicken? Then the Cotton Ball’s Kerry Lane Pale is the drink for you.

CL though has picked what is probably the pub’s signature dish: O’Crualaoi’s Corned Beef served on champ and cabbage with parsley sauce and the Sherkin Lass from the West Cork Brewing Co. in Baltimore is a terrific pairing here. We regularly order this dish here and it is a classic and highly recommended.

I’m always on the lookout for game this time of year and the Blair boys are also noted for serving it here. The Casserole of Wild Wicklow Venison & Stag Stout with a hint of dark chocolate catches my eye and soon my tastebuds are enjoying it. The combination, enhanced by various spices and herbs, is magnificent, quite a feast at lunchtime! And the drink? Well that’s an easy one. It’s the  equally magnificent Stag Saor from the crew at 9 White Deer, a gluten free stout stuffed with flavour.

And talking about being stuffed. Well, we were. Along with those two mega dishes, came a bowl of seasonal veg and another full of unblemished and perfectly cooked Rooster potatoes. By the way, the place was filling up nicely now and, above the rising level of conversation, I heard quite a few people ordering the venison.

Aside from the various meats, there’s also about three fish dishes available, a curry, plus various salads and sandwiches. Wicklow Pheasant is also on the menu this time of year as well as a Roast of the Day.

There’s a terrific choice of starters too including a Confit of Twomey’s Pork Belly, McCarthy’s Black Pudding with a Gubbeen Chorizo and Bean Ragu. Check out also the Tartlet of Bluebell Falls goat cheese with creamed leeks and caramelised onions. Those starters are substantial enough but some, such as the Cromane mussels Poached in a white wine and cream sauce, can also be upgraded to a mains.

Indeed, that was also the case with my pick, the Warm Salad of Cashel Blue Cheese, Roasted Pears and Honeyed Walnuts (a delicious opener at €9.40 or a mains at €14.50).  

Those of you who have not been will, I’m sure, enjoy this traditional Irish pub, the unexpectedly quality of the food (all from local produce), those craft beers, the warm fire and the very warm welcome from the whole crew here, a great place for locals and tourists alike. If you are calling at weekends for food, you would be as well off to make a reservation.

Blairs Inn

Cloghroe

Blarney

Co. Cork

Tel: (021) 438 1470

Facebook Page here 

Taste of the Week. Union Hall Smoked Salmon Paté

Taste of the Week

Union Hall Smoked Salmon Paté

Quite a selection of products from the Union Hall smokery in Bradley’s when I called to the North Main Street shop (established 1850) a day or two before Christmas.

At that stage, most of the shopping had been done but I thought to myself that their Smoked Salmon Paté would come in handy over the Christmas. It didn’t last that long, more or less demolished that very lunchtime. 

Ready to eat it says on the pack and I, having come back from the city and a call to Davidson’s, our local butchers, to collect the festival order, was ready to eat it. 

The Nolan family have been producing good quality smoked fish products in the small fishing village for the past 30 years and Missus Nolan’s delicious paté has its own unique flavour, mainly salmon of course but with a nicely judged element of a peppery spice along with citrus notes. Excellent on fresh Arbutus sourdough and our Taste of the Week. Taste of the Day more like it! It comes in a 100 gram pack and retails for €3.29.

Union Hall Smoked Fish

Union Hall

West Cork

028 33125

Christmas Cheer Reviewed. Including Drinks Gluten Free & Alcohol Free

Summer Beer Downed In December

Including Drinks Gluten Free & Alcohol Free

Very much into seasonal when it comes to my food. Not so much when it’s beer. Especially when there’s a can handy, a can from Eight Degrees called Orange Ball 5. It’s part of their 8th year anniversary celebration series called Rack ‘Em Up and intended to be a summertime sup.

But I come across it late-ish, on a December night on the run-in to Christmas, spot the 3.9 abv and I say to myself that this Fruity Pale Ale fits the bill. Athgarret Malt, Ireland’s newest maltsters, as suppliers of the wheat and oats, get much of the credit. Credit too though to the brewers at the Mitchelstown brewery who came up with this fruity sessional pale ale, silky sunshine on a cloudy day. Just the job to fit this Bill, late on a windy Friday night. A juicy wet sunshine-ey kiss, declares the label. A kiss for all seasons, methinks.

Staying a bit out of sequence here, all the better to draw your attention to the Blue Ball, number 2 in the series. This one’s a coffee infused Vienna Lager (4.50%). You usually come across coffee in stouts but the Eight Degrees boffins went outside the box - they usually do - when they got together with local coffee roaster Badger & Dodo.

I admit to be being a little sceptical when I pulled this one. So it was quite a pleasant surprise when I found the combination worked a treat both on the nose and on the palate. The balance is just spot-on, another winner racked up in North Cork. By the way, who is Dodo? I have met the badger, better known as Brock.

The Christmas dinner was excellent, both food and company, and gave me a chance to pot the black. The  #8 Black Ball Metric Stout that is! Aged in Jameson whiskey barrels, the big bold (11.5%) stout proved quite a match for the Christmas pudding.

For all the excellent beers in the Rack ‘Em Up eight, my favourite remains the Howling Gale Irish Pale Ale. It is the first beer Eight Degrees ever brewed, back in 2011. Perfect then. Perfect now.

Just going back to Christmas Day. We had quite a few visitors. Some were driving so I made sure to have a few non alcoholic beers in the house. The newish Dungarvan Brewery Main Sail was one and that went down well. One guy enjoyed the Erdinger but no one tried the Russian Baltica.

The big alcoholic attraction though was the Chateau Turcaud "Cuvée Majeure" Bordeaux blanc, a beautiful wine in an impressive magnum, a present for our 50th earlier in the year!

As usual there were bubbles - of various types. And here a local Elderflower cordial, made by Maura’s Kitchen and bought at Killavullen Market, came into its own, drawing lots of compliments. Sometimes, it was mixed with sparkling wine and, where the request was for no alcohol, with sparkling water. Really made quite a favourable impression all round.

Bīru, appropriately enough since it is the Japanese word for beer, is the name of a premium light lager with an abv of 4.3%, which also proved a favourite. It is a Japanese inspired rice beer;  ingredients also include water, malted barley, maize and hops and is also gluten free.

It certainly tastes pretty well with a very smooth mouthfeel. Easy-drinking, light and refreshing, with very little bittering, it is an ideal session drink. It is contract brewed by Cork’s Cotton Ball Brewery.

As you probably know, the 9 White Deer Brewery, from Baile Bhúirne, have a full range of Gluten Free beers and their Stag Bán ale was very popular with our guests. 

So there you are. More than one way to a Happy Christmas! Now here’s to a happy 2020.

Amuse Bouche

Steve Buissinne via Pixabay

It was the smell of bread always baking, the smell of turf-smoke, the smell of onions, of boiling, the green tongue of boiled cabbage, the pink one of bacon with grey scum like sins rising, the smell of rhubarb that grew monstrous at the edge of the dung-heap, the smell of rain in all its iterations… the living smell of wool, the dead smell of stone, the metallic ghost stench of mackerel that disobeyed the laws of nature and like Jesus outlived itself by three days.

from This is Happiness by Niall Williams (2019). Very Highly Recommended.

Happy Christmas from @CorkBilly

Happy Christmas from @CorkBilly

Pictures from Mayfield, Cork, December 2010

Amuse Bouche

“First we eat.”

And eat they did, none of the food that appeared at their table ordered by either of them, and none of it on the Marine’s laminated menu or on the list of plats du jour chalked on the blackboard… Before one dish had been see off another arrived: flash-fried fillets of red mullet; a grilled pepper and anchovy salad des Pecheurs; a couple of pavé steaks; a platter of cheese; and, finally, baked apples in Calva.

And all the while, the two men talked. The Cabrille affair… and the shoot-out in Pélisanne.

“The old man was a psycho,’…

from The Dying Minutes by Martin O’Brien (2012). Highly Recommended.

The Magic of Fermentation - Sat 25th Jan

The Magic of Fermentation - Sat 25th Jan

To kick off 2020 we are revisiting the wonderful world of fermentation with a twist. 

Book here now or keep reading to learn more. 

We kick off 2020 with three wonderful practitioners of the art of fermentation. 

• Tom Stack is a dairy farmer in conversation to organic based in Limerick. He follows the Korean Natural Farming method and fermentation is an integral part of that approach. 

• Ronan Coughlan is Head Brewer with KO Kombucha who produce a range of organic fermented drinks in Offaly - Their website 

• Terri Ann Fox runs fermentation workshops in Wicklow and the list of foods she ferments is over 25 long! -  Her instagram

You can buy your ticket(s) here and we look forward to meeting you on the night - do say hello.

Buy someone a ticket or two for Christmas :-)

Keith (Biabeag) & Julie (Highbank Organic Orchard)

 

086 2300702

(press release)

Cork Food Policy Council presents an evening of insights into Cork’s Food Landscape

Cork Food Policy Council presents an evening
 of insights into Cork’s Food Landscape

A new interactive food map sparks debate and discussion about the food system in Cork

The Cork Food Policy Council (CFPC) will host an evening of talks called Cork’s Food Landscape: Interactive Insights, inspired by the recently developed Cork Food Map. The talks will cover a range of topics including Food Poverty in Cork, Sustaining a Food Business in Cork City and the Cork Urban Soil Project. All are welcome, and entry is free but please reserve a seat via Eventbrite.

Speakers include Joe McNamee (Irish Examiner), Virginia O'Gara (My Goodness) and J.J. Healy (Cork Institute of Technology). The event takes place on Wednesday January 22nd 2020 from 6.30pm–8.30pm In Cork University Business School (CUBS) 1, Lapps Quay Cork City.

The Cork Food Map was commissioned by the CFPC as part of a larger, ongoing project to develop a complete profile of the food system in Cork to identify and address food-related issues affecting the people living in the region. 

Funded by the Healthy Ireland Fund and developed by Tomás Kelly, the Cork Food Map provides an analysis of the different types of food businesses that exist in the city, and the patterns relating to where they are located. The map presents the information in an easy to use interactive format available publicly online via the CFPC website.

The event on the 22nd of January will be chaired by food writer Joe McNamee, and include a number of presentations:

• The Power of Knowledge and the crucial role it can play in bringing about a truly sustainable Irish food system (Joe McNamee, Irish Examiner)
• An Introduction to the Cork Food Map (Janas Harrington, Chair Cork Food Policy Council)
• Utilising the food map for an assessment of Food Advertising in Cork City (Kaspurs Puspurs, School of Public Health, UCC)
• Food Poverty in Cork City (Caitriona Twomey, Cork Penny Dinners)
• The Cork Urban Soil Project (Virginia O'Gara, My Goodness)
• Argumentum ad populum (argument to the people) - Do restaurants have a high failure rate? (J.J. Healy, Cork Institute of Technology)

All are welcome, so please join us for this evening of discussion of the Cork Food Landscape. Seats can be reserved via Eventbrite.

press release

Cork Airport's First Airport In Ireland To Roast Its Own Coffee Beans

Cork Airport's First Airport In Ireland To Roast Its Own Coffee Beans

New sustainable café concept, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters opens at Ireland’s fastest growing and most punctual airport

Cork Airport is officially the first airport in Ireland to roast its own coffee beans as it welcomes the opening today  (18 Dec 2019) of a new sustainable café concept, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters.

Opened by KSG Catering in the check-in area, the contemporary Blue Bird Coffee Roastery Café at Ireland’s fastest growing and most punctual airport, champions sustainable initiatives. Using ethically sourced speciality grade coffee beans direct from Columbia, the coffee is roasted daily and stored on-site in reusable sealed containers, lowering its transport carbon footprint. All disposable packaging offered on the premises — including cups, lids, straws and cutlery — are compostable and bio-degradable, while crockery is set as the default option to help reduce the generation of waste packaging. This is the second Blue Bird Coffee Roasters to open in Ireland and the first outside of Dublin.

Commenting on the launch of the new café, Head of Aviation & Commercial Business Development at Cork Airport, Brian Gallagher said: “We are delighted see the launch of our new café offering, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters, making Cork Airport Ireland’s first airport to host an on-site roastery. Our unique food and beverage offerings — from the Airport’s Taste of Cork specialities, to now our very own freshly roasted coffee — ensures that passengers choosing to fly from Cork are in for a treat the moment they enter the terminal.

“At Cork Airport, we take our sustainability commitment very seriously, and this year we signed a landmark commitment to become net zero for our carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. Blue Bird Roastery Café’s sustainable model works in tandem with this, with a focus on waste reduction and segregation, reducing general waste and in turn increasing recycling.”

KSG’s Blue Bird Coffee Roasters replaces the offering from the company’s Refuel Café at the Airport, which operated at the transport hub for over six years with high customer satisfaction rates. The experienced staff of Refuel Café will be serving customers in the new Bluebird Coffee Roasters and have been trained on making the perfect cup of speciality coffee by KSG’s Head of Coffee.

The new spacious coffee house offers a diverse menu with a broad range of breakfast options and snacks along with signature sandwiches, healthy rice bowls, salads and of course your favourite beverage roasted in the cafe.

  

Commenting on the launch of Cork Airport’s Blue Bird Roastery Café, Managing Director Michael Gleeson at KSG, Ireland's leading restaurant service provider, said: “This is our second Blue Bird Coffee Roasters to open in Ireland, with an outlet already on-site at University College Dublin. The idea is simple — source the best AA grade beans direct from farmers in Colombia complimented by seasonal guest coffees from around the world, all speciality grade, along with having conscious sustainability initiatives around disposable packaging and single-use plastics.

“At KSG we are committed to using Irish and local suppliers as much as possible and our food in Blue Bird Coffee Roasters is freshly prepared in the café. The menu incorporates on-trend breakfast dishes, full deli offering, hot lunch bowls, bakery from Cork’s own Hassetts Bakery and, for those in a hurry, a range of grab and go sandwiches and salads made freshly in the café every day.”

 press release

Taste of the Week. El Door’s Wholemeal Sourdough

Taste of the Week

El Door’s Wholemeal Sourdough

MacCurtain Street’s El Door is now a reasonably regular call for us, usually on our way home from town. The Polish owned bakery has been there for about two years, their breads also available at farmers markets in Killavullen and Ballincollig

We usually get the regular sourdough but this time we threw in a wholemeal sourdough as well. I was just into my first slice of the wholemeal when I found myself concentrating on a beautiful experience of flavour and texture. Everything else faded away for a moment or two before I said to myself that’s my Taste of the Week. Well worth a try if you happen to be passing that way.

They do quite a range of bread types here and also offer a slicing service (not at the markets). I generally prefer mine unsliced though!

They also do a range of doughnuts and, more recently, Cornish pasties. And it’s not all take-out. They have a limited number of tables in MacCurtain Street and you can order a coffee with your cake.

El Door Bakery

MacCurtain Street

Cork

089 961 0998

Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/eldoorbakery/ 

How to make a right royal Irish Coffee - the Grace O'Malley way.

a media release

Six Christmas & New Year Wine Doubles!

Six Christmas & New Year Wine Doubles
In no particular order! 

(Click on the individual wines to see short reviews and Irish stockists.)

I      Gallina de Piel, `Ikigall` Penedès (DO) 2018, 11.5%, €20.99 Liberty Wine
Blackrock Cellar; Baggot Street Wines; McHugh’s Off Licence - Kilbarrack Rd; Bradley's, North Main St., Cork
www.winesonline.ie
           Gallina de Piel Mimetic Calatayud (DO) 2018, 14.5%, €20.99 Liberty Wine
Baggot Street Wines; Blackrock Cellar; McHugh’s Off Licence - Kilbarrack Rd; McHugh’s Off Licence - Malahide Road; Drink Store Ltd; Bradley's, North Main St., Cork; www.winesonline.ie


II    Angiolino Maule, La Biancara, Masieri Bianco Veneto (IGT) 2017, 11.5%,               €18.85;  64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny
       Angiolino Maule, La Biancara, Masieri Rosso Veneto (IGT) 2018,  14.0%,               €22.25; as above


III   Diwald Grüner Veltliner “Goldberg” Wagram (Austria) 2015, 13%, €20.75             Mary Pawle
          Domaine de la Bonne Tonne Morgon (AOC) “Cote du Py” 2015,                14%, €28.75 Mary Pawle

IV   De Alberto Organic Verdejo Rueda (DO) 13.5%, O’Brien’s
           De Martino “Gallardia” Cinsault Itata (DO) 2017 , O'Brien's


V    Lo Abarca Riesling 2017 €12.00 Marks & Spencer
       Chateau Vincens “Prestige” Cahors (AOC) 2013, 13%, €23.50 Vanilla                        Grape Kenmare

VI    Castellani Vermentino Toscana (IGT) 2017 €10.00 SuperValu
           Campo Viejo Garnacha Rioja (AOC) 2017 €10.50 SuperValu

Click on the individual wines to see reviews and Irish stockists.