2011 at FoodFight.ie
Photo by peterastn
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
I prefer cognac
Ringo offset his notorious dislike of onions and spicy foods – he was the Beatle who brought baked beans with him to Rishikesh in 1968 – with an everyman diet. “I’m easy to please,” he said of his palate. “Fish, meat, nothin’ fancy. I don’t need your curries and chop sueys. Garlic and onions kill me. I prefer cognac.”
But his history of intestinal troubles caught up to him in April 1979 while he was in Monaco…. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Taste of the Week
Glendalough Beech Leaf Gin
You may have to hurry if you want to get your hands on our latest Taste of the Week, the Beech Leaf Gin from Glendalough Distilleries. They haven’t made much of the latest addition to the award-winning range! It is a limited edition with a “beautiful colour”. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Still, when he beheld his breakfast on its sunny yellow plate, his resolve began to decay. He couldn’t help but think of properly fried bacon, of hash browns, and fluffy free-rangers, of a coffee upon whose bronzed crema a spoonful of sugar might wallow, like a cherub upon a cloud. As he struggled with some aberrant species of ham-and-cheese croissant that clung to his gums like denture glue, he began to wonder if he might just man up after all and make a dash for Bub’s. Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
The missus is moving jobs, which seems likely to bring an end to the regular supply of odd beers from the off licences of Brussels. Today’s post concerns the final three, all from companies based within the city itself, where brewing is very gradually starting to become a local industry again.
¡Déu N’Hi Do! is a hell of a name for a beer, and I’ll leave it up to you to pronounce. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Dine by the Water
Superb food and superb views
Bunnyconnellan’s
I’ve been very lucky this past few years to have dined in some well placed restaurants and cafes, places from Cork to Donegal that have a dining room with a view over water. Sometimes over a river, maybe over an estuary, over a lake perhaps, and then sometimes over the ocean. I was lucky too to have brilliant weather in most of the places. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
A Grand Sparkler and a Little Scamp!
Meyer-Fonné Crémant d’Alsace (AOC) Brut Extra NV, 12%, €26.85, Le Caveau
Crémant is the term for any French sparkling wine produced by the méthode traditionnelle, outside of the Champagne region. Subject to similar rigid guidelines, Crémant d’Alsace is produced at the highest level of quality, but available at a fraction of the cost. The Alsace version scores well on quality and price and Crémant d’Alsace is a top-seller in France. Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
A little background before I start in on today’s reviews. There has been a brewery on Achill Island in Co. Mayo since last year. Its beers don’t get very far from it so I hadn’t had a chance to try them when one showed up on The Fine Ale Countdown podcast recently. The guys didn’t log a formal review because the bottles they had were considerably less than fresh, but they were not fans of what they found, to say the least. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
My “North Cork” CollectionIncluding the Old Butter Roads Food Trail
Corrin Hill, one of many walks in North Cork area.
The Old Butter Roads Food Trail, launched earlier this year, is a cooperative effort between restaurants, producers and accommodation and activity providers in the North Cork area. North Cork is not an administrative area but then neither is West Cork. The boundaries are a bit flexible. Continue reading »
A post by Conor Bofin at One Man's Meat
I have a bit in common with apricots. I can be a bit dull and uninteresting, often outshone by others. However, like apricots, if I’m pickled in brandy for long enough, I too am transformed into a thing of glorious beauty and attractiveness. Perhaps I might abandon the analogy at this stage as this personal transformation only goes on in my head, the effects don’t last and the memory tends to make me shudder with guilt and remorse. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Taste of the Week
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On the double: Crépinettes and Cider
Just west of the city, Mark Hennessy raises a few free range pigs. Continue reading »
A post by dudara at Stitch and Bear
The incredible growth and creativity that the Irish cocktail scene has exhibited in the past few years is a wonderful cause for celebration. The parallel explosion in the Irish spirits industry, including whiskey, gin and vodka, has given Irish bartenders expanded access to top quality ingredients for their creations.
Many bars and hotels now have a cocktail programme of one form or another, which can range from the pedestrian but decent, to the original and highly creative. Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
Saisons, lagers, wheat beers, and the inevitable IPAs: it’s been a busy couple of months on the Irish beer scene, from festival to pub to beer launch. Here’s what I’ve been drinking lately, in my attempt to keep up with it all.
There wasn’t a huge amount of fuss about Marching Powder, perhaps surprisingly. This new IPA from Black’s of Kinsale is the first in the country brewed with lupulin powder, the next stage in ingredient evolution, past whole hops and pellets. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Beer for the men
Most of the men dined on egg and chips with wine or beer as they couldn’t afford much else. Officers and other ranks generally dined at different premises. Officers were allowed to drink spirits when not on duty but soldiers were not. Some cafes ignored this rule and put spirits into the men’s coffee…. it became necessary for military police to conduct spot checks.. and smell the cups the soldiers were drinking from. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
I was thirteen years old and running the kitchen as though I had been a faithful and refined domestic in a previous life.
Big Mama was an inspiration. In the kitchen stirring the pots, she was a culinary sorceress. I watched her thin, elegant hands. Dusted with flour, they gently pressed out dough for cobblers. Under running water, they scooped blackberries from down the hill where the McAdoo family lived. With a magician’s grace, they pulled pin bones from fish. Continue reading »
A post by themotleycru at the motley cru
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
It took Gail Ann Williams of the San Francisco-based Beer by BART blog to bring The Session around to the inevitable topic of New England IPA, a style which seems to be just clinging on as the current darling of the beer-geek-at-large. It is, of course, not without controversy, breaking many of the hard rules of brewing IPA in the American style, where cleanness was once king, and accepted as the best way to optimise quality hops. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
Azienda Ampeleia ‘Un Litro’ Costa Toscano (IGT) 2016, 12.5%, €21.95 Le Caveau
Vines in the Wild
This relatively new estate – Ampeleia is the Greek for wine – is certified organic and biodynamic; it is biodiverse with the vineyards interspersed with chestnut and cork oak forests as well as scrub. Continue reading »
A post by Cork Billy at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD
The Aresti Family, Highly Rated Chilean Winemakers
Jon (right) with Yours Truly
Though established in 1951, it was 1999 before the Aresti family began producing wine under their own label on their Bellavista estate in Chile’s Curicó Valley. Now, according to Wines of South America, they have “one thousand cultivated acres”. Continue reading »
A post by The Beer Nut at The Beer Nut
It was a surprise to find beers from venerable Estonian brewery A. Le Coq on the shelves at SuperValu. I snapped them up, of course. It’s not every day that beer by appointment to his imperial majesty shows up in suburban west Dublin. Am I supposed to curtsy?
First in the trilogy of lagers is Imperial Gold. Continue reading »
A post by Conor Bofin at One Man's Meat
The traditionalists amongst you might be a bit horrified at the prospect of drinking red wine with fish. Particularly with a fish as ‘white’ as hake. The key is the other ingredients in this sort of stew / soup / bowl of deliciousness. When you have got over your shock at my suggestion of red wine with fish, I encourage you to try Poached Hake in Tomato and Red Wine Sauce. Anybody who enjoys a good read will love preparing this.
You will need a couple of things to get this to work. 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.