Taste of the Week

Taste of the Week

This week’s Taste of the Week is a delicious Spicy Lentil Pie by Gan Gluten. Clare O’Brien is an excellent baker and the pastry here is top notch. The filling is full of flavour and not overly spicy at all. Just a lovely snack at lunch-time or add a few bits and pieces to it and you're well on the way to a tasty dinner.

Clare, whose sisters run the Farmgates (in the city and in Midleton), sells her cakes, breads and savouries at Mahon Farmers Market every Thursday and also sells to restaurants, cafes and delis. Why not check out her stall on Mahon Point this morning? I might meet you there!

Single Origin Coffees. East Timor - Assui Craik and Mexico - Finca Muxbal

Single Origin Coffees

East Timor - Assui Craik

Mexico - Finca Muxbal

Coffee cherries on the tree.
Each cherry produces 1, 2, even 3 (rarely) beans.

I’ve been sipping some really great coffee the past few days, thanks to Hancock and Abberton    who recently introduced me to their Brands of Distinction line. The two above are each a limited Edition Coffee and also a Single Origin speciality. Many people now wonder if the coffee they drink is ethically traded and you may check the providence of these gems here. Briefly, the Mexican is produced by a son and mother team while the East Timor coffee comes via a 16 strong farmers group.

The coffee industry in East Timor was largely destroyed during the turn of the century invasion by Indonesian militias that many of you may remember. It is still though a “major export commodity and provides a substantial income for a quarter of the population”.

Mexico is the 5th largest coffee producer in the world. Chiapas is the largest coffee producing state and it is from here that these incredible Muxbal beans originate. The word means “surrounded by clouds”, rather appropriate considering the farm, managed by mother and son duo Maeggi Rodriguez and Jorge Gallardo, is at around 1600 metres above sea level, more or less the same height as its counterpart in East Timor.

East Timor is much further south than Mexico and this leads to a difference in the harvest season. The Mexicans harvest during December to March while the farmers in East Timor do so in July to September.

Coffee tasting specialists have rated both coffees very highly and rightly so. So, how would a non specialist amateur like myself find them? Can honestly say that I though both were excellent, though I did have the slightest of preferences for the Mexican cuppa.

This is a medium roast with a superb creamy feel on the palate and a clean almost dry finish. Traces too of sweetness, honey (they say) and indeed they also mention peaches with the creaminess. In any event, it all adds up to great few minutes in the morning.

And I was very pleased too with the Assui Craik (the coffee is named after the local village). This has a lighter roast with quite a complex fruity palate (stewed plums and blackberries are suggested) and then the finish is sweet, hints of chocolate present.  That bit different from the Mexican but another lovely cup of a morning (which is when I drink most of my coffee).

If you would like to try these, or other similar coffees yourself, Hancock & Abberton, based on the Naas Road in Dublin, have a subscription service. You can sign up for three months but the savings are more if you sign for twelve. Check out the various packages here. Remember that these batch runs are limited and will sell out. Each coffee will be accompanied by the provenance, tasting notes and blend profile.

Ballymaloe Garden Festival

Ballymaloe Garden Festival
Marking Ballymaloe's 50th Anniversary

Welcome!

Naturally enough, there will be quite a focus on food when the second annual Ballymaloe Garden Festival is held on 30th and 31st of August. Klaus Laitenberger will show you how to grow organic vegetables, Debbie Shaw will tell you all about raw food while Michael Kelly will present his guide to growing your own food.  

If you feel hungry after all that gardening, you’ll have choices. The Big Shed will be in use again and there will be food served by local market heroes. And that’s not all. Tom and Johann Doorley will be on hand on Sunday to show you “how to eat your garden”. They believe that good food should be enjoyed by everybody and that cooking is therefore a vital life skill.

The Festival, to be held in the grounds at Ballymaloe House, promises to be a wonderful weekend full of garden workshops, walks, and talks, says Aoife McCann. “We will have specialist nursery stalls filled with seeds, rare and old fashioned trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials, fruit, culinary and medicinal herbs and garden equipment all manned by experts.”

FORM Sculpture trail

“It will be all about sustainable garden design, layered pruning, saving seeds and our traditional native heritage, demonstrating different methods of propagation, growing interesting and unusual food, forgotten skills of  bygone times, foraging for cuttings and flowers for fabulous floral arrangements, growing your own vegetables from seeds, growing a market garden business, a photography workshop, cookery demonstration, first aid from your garden, native Irish bees and so much more.”

“We will be joined this year by Gary Graham, Brian Cross, Caroline Holmes, Fiann Ó Nualláin, Michael Kelly, Debbie Shaw, Tom and Johann Doorley, Thady Barrett and many others ……The timetable of events is available here.”

This year sees Ballymaloe celebrate its 50th year and to mark this Susan Turner has designed a new garden for the Festival, set within the walled garden. Susan will give the opening talk of the festival introducing the  50th Year Anniversary Garden and her design.

Borage.

Richie Scott of Artistic Alliance, together with some of the exhibiting artists, will give tours of  FORM,  an outdoor sculpture exhibition on the grounds of Ballymaloe House.

“The Big Shed will be back with a children’s area, plant, craft and gardening tools stalls. Lots of free talks given by our garden experts. There will be food served by our local market heroes. A delicious time to be had while learning about saving seeds, our edible landscape, first aid from the garden, conservatory plants and garden equipment demonstrations.”

Cost of entry to the festival is €5 per adult, with children under 16 free. Entrance tickets available on the day.

The garden lectures and workshops held in the Grainstore/Walled Garden will be priced individually, tickets will be available on the day and on website .

Any enquiries please email GardenFestival@ballymaloe.com or phone Aoife on 087 2675022.

Know Their Onions in Market Lane

Know Their Onions in Market Lane

Just after 12.30pm on Friday, I joined the queue going into Market Lane. We were seated in no time and the place was buzzing, customers chatting, staff welcoming, smiles and a happy buzz all round. And the food wasn't bad either! Excellent actually.

Hadn't been in for  a while but was glad to see that French Onion Soup (€5.95) still on the menu. It is still gorgeous, full of standout flavours and I just love the added Gruyere and Croutons. Reckon I’ll always be looking out for that one.

Our other starter was also a beauty: Baked Ardsallagh goat’s cheese, caramelised pear and spinach on a quinoa and walnut tart with a beetroot, orange and rocket salad (7.95). I know quinoa doesn't always get a good press but this was a delicious good looking combination, full of attractive flavours and textures.

The high standard was maintained throughout. My main course, a vegetarian one, was the Moussaka with aubergine, fennel, beans, cinnamon, lentils and cheddar cheese with a feta, orange and rocket salad. Loved this, full of juicy flavours and some good chunky bites there too, all for €13.95.

The big spender choose the Spiced Lamb Shoulder with Bombay aloo potatoes, organic leaves, pickled cauliflower, shallots and mint and cucumber raita (11.95). She would have preferred a few more potatoes but made short work of yet another delicious dish from the Market Lane kitchen.

No time unfortunately for their tempting desserts. Indeed, with an evening visit to a local brewery on the cards, I didn't even have a glass of wine. And here you get a generous glass, 187 mls no less; besides, the price is in proportion to the full bottle price. And they have some lovely craft beer on offer as well, including their own Angel Lane Stout. Watch out for more of their own beers in the very near future as their very own Elbow Lane Brewery nears completion.

Market Lane, open seven days a week, caters for all sizes of wallet, all sizes of stomach! That goat’s cheese salad, for instance is available in two sizes. If you are in a hurry, you may avail of their Special €10.00 Lunch Offer of Soup, Half-sandwich, mini-chocolate pot and tea or coffee. Quite a bargain.

And watch out as well for their 3-course Early Evening Meal which has some great choices and indeed includes many of the regular main courses. A great way to get to know a really good quality good value restaurant. And, by the way, you won't be on your own. Always a buzz here.

Amuse Bouche

(especially for Alone in Cork City)

I can’t stand it when people grin with just their teeth, it happens quite a lot in New York, especially in restaurants. And what I’d like to know is why do they also prick up their little ballerina eyebrow and ask just one? as if there’s something wrong with you, I mean my wife died in childbirth, maybe I’ve just woken up from a five year coma and don’t know where my buddies are, maybe I’m happy sitting on my own with my black diary and my iPod, OK?.

Maybe I choose to be alone. I don’t, but the possibility should be permitted the way it is for the very rich, very beautiful and very vain who waltz through New York and through Life, without ever being accosted by some snotty, accusatory cow - Just one?

from The Companion by Lorcan Roche

Bakestone Cafe. Ali Honour and All Those Cakes

Bakestone Cafe

Ali Honour and the 403 Cakes

Almond and Orange Tart.

The $64,000 dollar question. How many cakes does Ali Honour bake in a year? I don't know. And I don't know where you'll get the dollars either! The question came to mind on Wednesday when I spoke to Ali after a very tasty meal in her Bakestone Cafe at Ballyseedy at Cobh Cross. Not sure Ali knows either but she does know, and fully appreciates, that Cork people have an insatiable appetite for her gorgeous creations.

First things first. I started with a big bowl of Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup. It was a terrific soup and good value at €4.50.  A slice of Bakestone’s superb seeded Brown Bread came with it and I bought a loaf of that on the way out. By the way, Bakestone have lots of Gluten Free products. Check the huge blackboard for details.

Chicken and rich tomato sauce.

 Value too at main course level. There were three specials on the board. CL picked the Chicken on a Rich Tomato Sauce, topped with Parmesan, served with toasted sourdough and dressed leaves (€10.50). A really excellent plateful, a little bit different but full of flavours and colours and a variety of textures. And much the same could be said about my Beef Quesadillas with Guacamole, sour cream, and refried beans (€10.75). Great stuff.

Various tarts and quiches are always available and the third special on Wednesday was the Salad of Roast Thyme Squash Goats Cheese, sun dried tomato, toasted hazelnuts with sourdough croutons and pesto dressing (€9.90).

Having finished the mains, there was just enough room left for the sweet stuff and a cup of that excellent Badger & Dodo Coffee. My choice was the Mixed Berry Tart while CL took the Almond and Orange Tart. Needless to say, the selection on the counter was mega!

Maybe not 40 but not too far off it! The two we had were gorgeous - I almost stole the Almond and Orange - and so it was two happy customers, two quite full costumers, that left the cafe.

Beef Quesadillas with Guacamole

Great too to have a quick chat with the busy Ali who is rightly proud of her recent venture into sourdough, quit a success by the taste of it in our dishes. There is quite a excellent crew on duty here, all helpful and very efficient as well. Very Highly Recommended. And not just for the buns and cakes!

By the way, 403=64,000. I didn’t know that!!

Marvels of Moulis

Marvels of Moulis
Moulis is not the first name that trips off the tongue when you are asked about Bordeaux. It is indeed the smallest appellation in the area but that doesn't prevent it from producing some very fine wines. I got to know the little village fairly well this summer, driving up and down the street quite a few times in a vain attempt to find the region’s Maison du Vin (closed down, methinks).

If you’d like to try a wine from Moulis, you could well be in luck as my search on Wine-searcher.com revealed that both wines below (maybe not the exact year) are available in Ireland. If you do get your hands on the 2006 Brillette, decant and make sure it is at room temperature before pouring.

L’Oratoire de Chasse Spleen, Moulis 2011, 13%

Chasse Spleen, according to Hugh Johnson, is “one of the surest things in Bordeaux” and the current edition of the Wine Atlas says “it can be viewed as an honorary St Julien for  its smoothness, its accessibility”. High praise indeed for the chateau with the unusual name, sometimes credited to Baudelaire, sometimes to Byron.

This is a second wine of the estate. Cabernet Sauvignon (50%) and Merlot (40) are the main players in the blend. The chateau says the Cab Sauv helps make it fresh and velvety while the Merlot is credited with giving it opulence and smoothness.

But I've been told forget the label: “Listen to your palate”. So here goes. The wine is a brilliant medium red with fruit aromas, including plum, some mint and pepper. On the palate, there is no shortage of fruit flavours; fine tannins are present but nothing too gripping. This is a fresh well-made well-balanced wine with a persistent finalé. Wouldn’t mind renewing acquaintance with it in a few years time.

Chateau Brillette, Comte de Perier de Larsan, Moulis 2006, 13.5%

This wine, a blend of Merlot (52%), Cabernet Sauvignon (40) and Petit Verdot (8), comes well recommended. A Jancis Robinson tasting gave it 16 out of 20 which equates to “distinguished”. She also advised drinking it between 2012 and 2018. Guess I got that right!

This is a dark rich red, lighter towards the rim, and it has complex fruit aromas (mainly plum, for me). Rounded fruit flavours on the palate, generous with notes of pepper and wood, soft tannins and good acidity. Decent enough finish as well. Think I’d be happy to agree with the rating by Jancis!

Taste of the Week

Today's Taste of the Week brings together two of Cork's best known food companies in a very flavoursome combination indeed, a lovely Chicken Korma.
The slow cooked chicken came from The Chicken Inn, stars of the English Market since 1955. And the magic sauce came in a jar from Midleton's Green Saffron, a relative youngster compared to Chicken Inn.
Arun is the face of Green Saffron and he is soon to publish a book. Will Chicken Inn's Tim Mulcahy follow suit? In the meantime, enjoy our Taste of the Week. So simple, so good.

Oscars for Oysters. Market Menu a Winner

Oscars for Oysters

Market Menu a Winner

If I had some Oscar statuettes handy last Wednesday evening, I’d have been handing them out to the crew at Oysters. Best restaurant! Best chef! Best of everything! No doubt I'd have got a few arguments from city rivals but their Market Menu, served every Wednesday, is brilliant and, with four beautifully cooked courses for twenty five euro, outstanding value.

Head Chef Alex Petit is a regular at the English Market and his well trained eye picks out the best available for this weekly treat. You won't have a choice here. But I learned a long time ago, in a small back street French restaurant where the menu had “selon jour” attached, that a no-choice list can be surprisingly brilliant. Besides, you waste no time going through the menu: the job has been done for you.

And that is the case here. As I sipped a Kir and tucked into the lovely breads, served with Lemon Butter and also scallop and herb mousse, we read the short list for last Wednesday's Market Menu and were immediately impressed. Even more so when a terrific amuse bouche - Smoked salmon and poached pear - arrived.

First course were Oysterhaven Rock Oysters, fresh and tangy and the best I’ve had in Ireland with a while.

Piano music was now drifting across the room and we had moved on to the wine, a pretty good glass of Illuminati Riparosso Montepulciano (€8.00), in readiness for the main course: 19 hour braised Irish beef cheek, squash fondant, wild mushroom, smoked beurre blanc. And served with a side dish of tasty potatoes. This was a brilliant treat, melt in the mouth stuff and some great flavours on the palate. It was worth the twenty five euro on its own!

Next up was Bellingham Blue Cheese, served with poached pear and raspberry dressing. This is an award winning cheese from County Louth, a fine full flavoured Irish farmhouse cheese, made from cow’s milk. Very good indeed.

We had a superb lingering finish with the Rosscarbery strawberries and Hibiscus syrup. This looked very tempting and delivered on that promise. The strawberries were cut into tiny cubes and that made us linger and drool all the more. Terrific finish to an excellent meal. Very Highly Recommended.

Oysters, under proprietor Donald Morrissey, is a great supporter of local producers and suppliers listed on the main menu include O’Connell Seafood, Seafood Cuisine (Skibbereen), David Busby (Fruits), Keeling Fruit and Vegetables, Waterfall Farm, Ballyhoura  Mushrooms, O'Mahony Butchers, On the Pig’s Back, Max e’ Mattia Italicatessen, Michelle Wild Seaweed, Arbutus Bakery and Mr Darragh Brady The Clarion.

Oysters

5 Lapps Quay,

Cork

(In the Clarion Hotel)

Phone	(021) 427 3777
Website	https://www.oysters.ie

Be sure and check their facebook site and note the free bottle of wine offer for the month!

Orphans. Play for Penny Dinners.

Prodeeds from show are going to Cork's Penny Dinners

Church Lane. Holy Tapas!

Church Lane

Holy Tapas!

When you're travelling between Killarney and Cork and need an evening bite, but not a full evening meal, where do you stop? I asked myself that question one evening last week and Church Lane in Macroom came to mind. Not quite. I must admit, I thought of Chapel Lane but a quick google search on the phone yielded the correct name Church Lane. It turned out to be a terrific choice.

The multi-roomed restaurant, which supports local producers, is right along side an old churchyard in Macroom and has a large enough outside space and it was there that we were seated.

Church Lane’s philosophy “is to serve food that is naturally full of flavour and goodness by cooking with seasonal ingredients locally sourced and from places we trust. West Cork and the locality is full of really excellent food producers and our menu showcases the best of local and artisan produce”.

Quickly decided on the wine and picked the Grant Burge Chardonnay Viognier (Australia) 2012, (€6.00 a glass) and the Lamberti Santepietre Pinot Grigio (Italy) 2013, (€6.20). Then we sat back in the sun. Water, breads, and menus were quickly delivered and we concentrated on the tapas menu. Really, most of them were small plates, more or less starter portions, and most cost just under a fiver.

They have quite a  selection; some meat based, some fish based and some veggie options. As it turned out, the pair we choose were vegetarian and both were absolutely first class, a terrific balance of flavours and really well cooked. We thoroughly enjoyed the Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli with a red pepper bisque and shaved Parmesan (4.95) and Roasted Aubergine with tomato chickpea, spinach and smoked cheese (4.50).

Some others on the list were Roasted Red Pepper filled with spicy beef (4.50) and Calamari with a Thyme and Tabasco Sauce (5.00). The cooking skills shown in the tapas are almost sure to be evident in the main menus (there’s no reason why they shouldn't be) and so another visit to Church Lane is on the cards.

They have two Sharing Plates listed on the Tapas Menu. One is a Mediterranean Charcuterie and Cheese Selection. The other, our choice on this occasion, was the Seafood Platter (smoked salmon, poached salmon, prawns, crab meat, and anchovies, all served with three dips and more bread, all for €19.95). This was another excellent combination of contrasting flavours and textures and, as we had eaten earlier in the day, was a perfect solution for this pair of travellers!

Church Lane

Castle Street

Macroom

County Cork

Phone	(026) 23402
Email	churchlanerestaurant@hotmail.com
Website	http://www.churchlanerestaurant.ie

Hours

Wed - Sat: 12:00 pm - 9:30 pm Sun: 12:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Amuse Bouche

I scan the room, searching for the man…. The interior of the juke isn’t as dim as I expected, but it smells like every other one I’ve entered in my life. The first wave of odors confuses the olfactory senses - a strange brew of delicious aromas and suspicious funk. Frying chicken, sizzling lard, baking biscuits, fresh corn bread, and onions battle dead fish, stale beer, old garbage, disinfectant, sugary wine, and cigarette smoke… The flashing jukebox in the corner sends Bobby “Blue” Bland throughout the club with bone-shaking bass.

from Natchez Burning by Greg Iles.

Heather’s Sunny Opening. New Gap of Dunloe Restaurant.

Heather’s Sunny Opening
New Gap of Dunloe Restaurant

Rachel Allen and Denis Pio Moriarty at Heather opening.

The sun shone, the band played, the crowd came, saw and approved as Heather, the new restaurant at The Gap of Dunloe, was officially opened by Rachel Allen yesterday. Ailish and Denis Pio Moriarty are the enterprising couple behind Heather, on the same site where Denis Pio’s parents established a shop, “in a shed”, fifty years ago. Amazingly that little shop has grown gradually into an amazing place.

Still some growing to do though. Ailish and Denis Pio have invested here both in the restaurant and in the large split level garden around it. The gardens looked well yesterday but I’m really looking forward to seeing them fully in bloom come next summer.

Rachel Allen, who obviously enjoyed the engagement, immediately saw similarities between the Moriartys and her own family, noting their shared commitment to good Irish food. And the Moriartys had some of their producers there yesterday, including Mountain Man and his craft beers, some gorgeous Kerry cheeses, Sasta Sausages (long queues for their products!), and Maurice Gilbert of Ballyhoura Apples with his great range of apple drinks.

Knockatee cheese

By the way, the gardens, which have amazing views towards the famous Gap of Dunloe, are not entirely decorative. Many fruit bushes have been planted on the slopes and the fruits will be used for jams, relishes and chutneys. And just across the little river that runs in front of the shop and restaurant, the newly built polytunnel is already producing salads and edible flowers for the restaurant and Head Chef Christian Conte is making the best of them.

Lots of samples from the kitchen were available for the guests yesterday. The wine flowed but the most popular drink was the Elderflower and Sparkling Water Cordial. That went down well with young and old and beat tea into second place!

Clare, Yours Truly, Jennifer and Karen

Delighted to meet up with Ailish and Denis Pio again and also with restaurant manager Jennifer Dowling. Also with Greg Canty and Deirdre Waldron of Fuzion who helped make the relaxed event run like clockwork - not that they were waving stop watches or anything. No shortage of tweeters either and we enjoyed the chats with Karen Coakley and Elke O’Mahony.

Heather is now up and running, a far cry from the time when young budding entrepreneur Michael Moriarty went up the mountain many years ago to pick bunches of heather flowers to sell to the passing tourists. A little enterprise goes a long long way!

A lovely day and I’m sure there’ll be many many more of them in the years to come.