2011 at FoodFight.ie
Photo by peterastn
A post by Billy Lyons at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD IN CORK
Campo Viejo. Still and Sparkling
Tempranillo
Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva 2008, 13.5%, €14.31 Widely available.
Campo Viejo is the “dependable” Rioja. Even in Spain, according to our guide on a recent Tapas Trail. And not just in Spain. It is in the No. 1 Rioja position worldwide. And one can see why, or at least taste why, in this bottle. The wine has been aged for 18 months in French and American oak and a further 18 months aging in the bottle. Continue reading »
A post by Wholesome Ireland at Wholesome Ireland
Just 24 hours. That’s all we had on Inis Mór. It’s not enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. The last thing we wanted to do was to climb on board a tour bus. Hubby spends enough of his time driving buses so even if it meant we missed out on some of the landmarks, for the most part we walked.
Journey
It takes about 3 hours from Dublin to Rossaveal Harbour, where you can park your car to get aboard the ferry. Continue reading »
A post by Billy Lyons at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD IN CORK
Taste of the Week. Your Pick!
Trying to break the logjam in the Taste of the Week room. Four beauties to pick from here and, not surprisingly at this time of year, three of them are drinks, two non alcoholic by the way!
A superb ale from 9 White Deer, the new brewery in Ballyvourney.This is their first beer and has great flavour and just the requisite amount of bitterness.Well worth a try and I’ll be on the lookout for their next beers, which willinclude an oatmeal stout! Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
From the official brewery of the American outdoors comes Mama’s Little Yella Pils, a 5.3% ABV pilsner lager. Yella is right: a brilliant glaring gold, shot through with just a slight haze and topped by a stiff white foam.
I’m sure a brewery of integrity like Oskar Blues brews this from an all-malt recipe, but there’s a certain corny quality to the taste; a sweetness I normally associate with the cheaper ‘n’ nastier sort of lagers. Continue reading »
A post by Daily Spud at The Daily Spud
PEI, it’s potato country here – it’s a big part of who we are as an island, a big part of who we are as a culture
Kendra Mills, Marketing Director, PEI Potato Board
The first thing, the very first thing that Grant, my endlessly amiable guide did when I landed on Prince Edward Island – before lunch, before a cup of tea, even – was to whisk me off to the offices of the PEI Potato Board. Continue reading »
A post by donalskehan at DonalSkehan.com
Rabbit was a great food for country people for many years. Continue reading »
A post by Joanna Carley at DonalSkehan.com
I have a special place in my heart for ham hocks. Certainly not the most attractive ingredient to hold a fondness for, but I put it down to my inner cheapskate. I love the idea that for very little money you can produce something delicious. This ham hock recipe doesn’t use gelatin, but if you prefer a firmer setting you could add a leaf of gelatin to the cooking liquid once the ham hocks are cooked. You can also make the terrine in individual Kilner jars to serve. Continue reading »
A post by donalskehan at DonalSkehan.com
These are the lightest and most delicious rolls I have ever tasted. They freeze very well too. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon. Continue reading »
A post by donalskehan at DonalSkehan.com
This soup is a great favourite in the spring when the nettles are young. nettles are full of minerals and vitamins which purify the blood. In the country nettle tea was also drunk, made by pouring boiling water over chopped nettles, boiling for about 15 minutes, then straining and adding milk and sugar. This was often given to children who had measles. It is said to have been a favourite of St Columcille. Continue reading »
A post by donalskehan at DonalSkehan.com
Black Forest Cake is a traditional German dessert that has been well and truly adopted by happy dessert eaters worldwide. Typically, black forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, more cherries, and chocolate shavings. Continue reading »
A post by Joanna Carley at DonalSkehan.com
We’re coming close to the end of my RTÉ One series which finishes up next week. I’ve had such lovely feedback on twitter and facebook and I am so thrilled to hear it has brought back some wonderful food memories for many. In last week’s episode I learned the traditional Irish method of planting potatoes and I got to cook surprisingly delicious cheddar yeast rolls with mashed potato as a key ingredient, in a bastible over an open fire. Continue reading »
A post by sheila kiely at Gimme the recipe
A post by Conor Bofin at One Man's Meat
A post by peter at CheapEats.ie
Heading to the Kingdom this summer? Eva Schmid of Kerry’s Ard na Sidhe hotel has put together this really delightful and useful infographic on Kerry’s food festivals, cafes and tea rooms, cooking courses, farmers markets and food stores.
The Kenmare Food Carnival has been and gone, but there’s plenty more places left to visit, including the family-friendly Taste of Killorglin in early September. Continue reading »
A post by Billy Lyons at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD IN CORK
Friendly Festival at The Slí Eile FarmHarvest Festival in Churchtown
The Slí Eile Farm was the venue for a lively Harvest Festival on Sunday. The Churchtown event had something for everyone: lots of food stalls, advice (on organic growing, men’s sheds), a dog show, entertainment (bouncy castle, pony rides, penalty kicks, archery and more) for the kids, while the adults were entertained with some old fashioned farming, a thatching demo, and music. Continue reading »
A post by dudara at Stitch and Bear
This current fine weather will forever collectively be known in the collective Irish memory as “The summer of 2014″ (as compared to the “Floods of 1986″ or the “Snow of 2010″). It will also be known as the year that hordes of aggressive seagulls descended on Dublin, terrorising the urban dwellers unaccustomed to malevolent birds. Anyone bought up in the country will be used to eyeballing gigantic rooks and crows, but this year it is all about seagulls. Continue reading »
A post by Wholesome Ireland at Wholesome Ireland
I believed that grocery prices in Ireland are expensive; I felt they are steadily on the rise again, spurred on by the report from The Guardian published on Saturday, I’ve revisited my grocery shopping list from a few years ago to see how the prices differ.
One of the things I have noticed is how much prices vary when you move away from a main supermarket. Continue reading »
A post by Billy Lyons at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD IN CORK
Krug at Ballymaloe
Patience and perfection
Toast to the harvest! The Krug is served in its special Riedel glasses.
“Champagne is all about pleasure.”
Nicole Brown got widespread agreement on her opening statement at Ballymaloe last Thursday evening. And that agreement was reinforced by the time the audience in the famous Cookery School had sampled the amazing Krug Grand Cuvée. Continue reading »
A post by Ken McGuire at Any Given Food
The Tastefully Yours team pictured at the launch of the Irish Food Co-op in Kilkenny on Friday 25 July 2014.
The idyllic setting of Butler House in Kilkenny was the backdrop for the launch of the Irish Food Co-op on Friday last.
With a physical presence in Piltown, Co. Kilkenny, the newly established Irish Food Co-op brings together seven producers from the south east region under a mantra of “one invoice, one contact, one delivery”. Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
The newest pair of beers from Dublin-based Brown Paper Bag Project arrived a couple of weeks ago, heralded by a barbecue and garden party out the back of L. Mulligan Grocer where projecteers Colin and Brian introduced the débutantes.
Look at that lovely head
Vlad the Baker is a lager, lagered the proper way in Vyškov, in central Moravia. Continue reading »
Pairing great wine with great holiday food is what CuriousWines.ie’s Cracking Christmas Case is all about, hand-picked favourites including holiday classics and some of their best-selling wines of 2011 are all brought together in this glorious mixed case, complimenting Christmas fare from roasts to puddings in spectacular style.
Curious cases start at just €95.00 with free delivery, and this particular case of festive delight retails for a deeply discounted €115. Happily, we’ve got one to give away to a lucky winner at FoodFight.ie. – all you need to do to enter is tell us in the comments below what you’ll be cooking up for Christmas dinner this year, and we’ll pick a winner from the entries on December 16th. (And if you don’t win and still want to grab yourself a holiday bargain, last orders for Christmas dispatch are December 20th!)
Every cook we know loves their iPad (or lusts after one) for clipping, reading and cooking from online recipes right in the kitchen. Well, Clickcase.ie has what may be the ultimate kitchen gadget for iPad lovers: the Speck Handyshell slots around your iPad 2 so it can be hung from any rack, drawer or cabinet knob, keeping your iPad at eye level and safe from spills and mess. Genius!
Clickcase, Irish retailer of brilliant iPad and iPhone accessories, is giving one crimble red Handyshell away to a FoodFight.ie reader just in time for Christmas. To enter, all you have to do is head over to the Clickcase Facebook page before December 8th and tell us why you love your iPad or iPhone in the kitchen!
Bake, sell, raise money and help Temple Street Children’s University Hospital.
This November The Great Irish Bake is back and Kitchen Hero Donal Skehan is helping out with sharing recipes and promoting the event. The Great Irish Bake is in aid of helping sick and seriously ill children get the treatment they need. Head over to The Great Irish Bake to register online and be in the chance of winning a trip to New York when you help raise funds for Temple Street Children’s University Hospital. The site also has hints, tips, recipes and all that goes with an event like this.
This is the Facebook for The Great Irish Bake and of course the Twitter hashtag is: #thegreatirishbake
The Great Irish Bake organisers have shared a recipe with us and also a picture of Donal Skehan with his kids from his first marriage. Some of this might be a lie.
Ingredients (Makes approx 30)
- 300g of plain flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of mixed spice
- 100g of muscavado sugar
- 150g of butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 pack of foxes fruits or jolly ranchers
The Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a standalone mixture beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and
mix through.
3. Using a wooden spoon mix through the flour, baking powder, salt, mixed spice
and vanilla extract until you have a biscuit dough.
4. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and roll out to about 1cm in thickness.
5. Cut out biscuit shapes, place on the lined baking tray, then using a smaller cutter
or a small knife cut out the center of each cookie.
6. Sprinkle the crushed sweets into the centre of the cookie and place in the oven
7. Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire
wrack.