2011 at FoodFight.ie
Photo by peterastn
A post by Ruth Elkin at ruth's kitchen experiments
If you are a regular reader of my blog you’ll know that I love taking part in Taste & Create (check out the new website for it!) because I love trying recipes that others have found to be blogworthy and it also usually means trying something I otherwise wouldn’t have! This month I was paired the the lovely Ivy from Little Ivy Cakes which happens to be a blog in my reader so I was quite excited to try one of her recipes. Continue reading »
A post by Ruth Elkin at ruth's kitchen experiments
This is a big round up and we have lots of new people joining us this week so let’s have a look at what people have been recreating from their own Bookmarked Recipes this week.
Becke from Columbus Foodie begins our round up this week with Traditional Beef Stroganoff using Elise from Simply Recipes‘ recipe.
Lubna from Yummy Food brings Tortillas chilli con carne wraps based on a recipe from a food magazine. Continue reading »
A post by Hillary at Chew On That
Now that the Olympics are over, it seems we Americans have created an Olympics of our own: trying to eat like Michael Phelps. Undoubtedly, the star of the 2008 Olympic Games (in America’s eyes), Phelps has inspired competitive spirits across the nation to imitate his diet. And with over 10,000 a calories a day, it’s probably not a good idea.
I’ve never seen someone’s diet be talked about so much. Continue reading »
A post by Lar at Sour Grapes
Drinking a nice white tonight with steak and roasted vegetables.
The label is Guitian in a beautiful art deco style. The grape is Godello, native to Galicia. The year was 2005.
The smell? Rich pineapple and almond.
The taste? Tropically utterly nuttily honeyly butterly with a little bit of mandarin orange peel going on in there too, just for kicks.
Overall? I really liked it. It’s not a “skin and bones” wine like a Chablis or Sancerre. Continue reading »
A post by Valerie O'Connor at Vals Kitchen
It’s the third year in row that I’ve grown tomatoes. Year one saw hurricanes and my pathetic attempts at protecting them with wimpy chicken wire cages were, quite literally, blown away. Last year I got a couple of late bloomers, but I planted my seeds too late and got a mere powdery mass masquerading as tomatoes. This year I got some seeds from Seedsavers and between them being knocked over by the cat and walked on, I ended up with three seedlings. Continue reading »
A post by Caroline at Bibliocook: All About Food
When I get time to surf the net – not so often these days with freelancing and URRU keeping me busy – I love to go through my list of favourite food bloggers and magazines, reading their entries, picking up tips for things to try, places to visit and recipes to make. Continue reading »
A post by Drew Shiel at Rocking Grass
It’s very hard to know what you’re buying at the moment, particularly in terms of labels that say “free-range”, “organic”, “added omega-3″, and so on. One thing that has been puzzling me lately is the labelling on poultry – and not just chicken, but also eggs.
The prices certainly indicate something. You can get two white-label chicken breasts in some supermarkets for about 2 euros, sometimes a bit less. Continue reading »
A post by Gavan Murphy aka The Healthy Irishman at THE HEALTHY IRISHMAN™
Sunday morning we were walking through our local farmers’ market. It was a usual stroll through until I spotted the biggest red onion I’d ever seen. I’m not sure the photo does it justice. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve never seen anything like this in my local supermarket.As soon as I made my way over there I realised that the whole stall was just onions and lots of them in all shaped and sizes. Continue reading »
A post by Ummera at Ummera Weblog
For those of you who didn’t click through to the iFoods blog with our interview, I am embedding it here for all to see! Continue reading »
A post by noreply@blogger.com (John Ferris) at Food and Drink
I was reading a post on one of the Guardian blogs this morning that reminded me of a feature that used to appear in the daily papers all the time, many years ago.Does anyone else remember the double page spreads with a huge picture of a table full of what Giant Haystacks ate in a day? You’d want to puke just looking at it. Guardian blogger Jon Henley decided to attempt to put away what gold medalist Michael Phelps eats in a day. Continue reading »
A post by Kate at Lidl Treats
I’ve repeatedly mentioned that we eat low carb, and have been asked a few times to say more about this, so I will.
I’ve been eating low carb since September 2007 and I’ll stick with it forever. It’s a topic I could talk about at ridiculous length, but I’ll try to keep it fairly brief here… Continue reading »
What the Sundays said about food.
by Sinéad Keogh
EXALT THE SALT
The Sunday Tribune’s regular column from Rachel Allen is all about that scrumptious seasoning – salt. The Ballymaloe blonde says that it is impossible to assess our daily intake because of the hidden salt in processed foods – but adds that the way to deal with this is to ditch processed foods altogether. Meanwhile, it turns out that table salt’s bad name is justified. The refined kind we’re used to shaking liberally over our chips is stripped of magnesium and potassium leading to a mineral imbalance akin to having two hands and only one glass of 7Up. Your average table salt is just sodium and chloride which is apparently just asking for trouble. However, unrefined salt (with a recommended daily intake of about 6g) has all its minerals intact and tastes just as good. Allen says that the right salt in the right amounts has many health benefits and shouldn’t be abandoned altogether – she recommends English Maldon sea salt, Welsh Halen Mon, Cornish sea salt, Sel Gris from Brittany or Celtic salt.
PEA SHOOTS, PEA SCORES
Also in the Tribune, an interesting little piece on pea shoots – the salad leaf that appears to have all but replaced rocket on plates around Ireland. The Trib suggests eating raw or dressing in vinaigrette; steamed or in a stir fry. Interesting fact – they have seven times more Vitamin C than blueberries.
A LONG WAY FROM PENNY APPLES
The Sunday Business Post brings news of a gourmet dinner and cider-tasting event on September 27th in Killarney’s Muckross Park Hotel. Tickets for the event are priced at €85 with everyday ciders, speciality and organic varieties and champagne cider on offer followed by a specially designed menu to compliment the tipples (mashed Lifelines tablets in a bed of cotton wool one wonders?) A special overnight room rate of €100 per person sharing is on offer for cider drinkers and Muckross Park Hotel is on 064-23400 or online here.
ROME-LAGH
Ranelagh’s new Pinocchio Cafe has opened up beside the luas station says the Sunday Business Post. Apparently if the wait staff lie to you their noses grow. They’re serving eat-in and take-away lunches, dinners and snack foods. Cold meats and other Italian specialities are also on offer.
BURGER BITES
Also in the Sunday Business Post, news of the newest wheel on the gourmet burger bandwagon – Gourmet Burger kitchen in Temple Bar square and Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. Using 100 per cent Aberdeen Angus beef, GBK are also after the vegetarian market with five different types of veggie burger. They’re online here.
PIE= 3.1 PHWOAR
In the Sunday Business Post again,the story behind Abbey Street’s Pie Kitchen. Based in the Epicurean Food Hall, husband and wife David and Deirdre Coffey developed their recipes having travelled the world working in the humanitarian aid sector in Asia, Africa and the Balkans. They now sell a range of 11 handmade pies. Steak and stout and lamb and rosemary are the Coffey’s most popular pie fillings. The pies are served with creamy mash, minty peas and red wine gravy while those wanting to avoid pastry can buy the pie fillings separately as stews. The Pie Kitchen range is also available in Superquinn.
INAUGURAL IRISH FOOD AWARDS
Finally in the SBP, news of Blas Na hÉireann, the first Irish Food Awards. Organised by Irish food producers including Kieran Murphy of Murphy’s Ice Cream, the awards will include 17 categories with gold, silver and bronze medals in each. All tastings will be blind and the awards will be judged by experts in their fields from retailers to food writers, chefs and food buyers. To take part, companies must be registered in Ireland and create their products here, and the products must be available in at least three commercial outlets. The awards will take place in Kerry on October 5th as part of the annual Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival. The full list of awards is online here and the deadline for entry is Friday, September 5th.
FORKING OUT
The restaurant reviews in brief.
In the Sunday Tribune, Dublin’s Shebeen Chic is reviewed. The new George’s Street eaterie gets the thumbs up with vintage décor and five different varieties of boxty from chef Seamus O’Connell.
Meanwhile the Sunday Business Post was unimpressed with Dundrum Town Centre’s Siam Thai. Friendly service and a clever wine list complete with tasting notes couldn’t make up for dishes which didn’t quite hit the mark. Though the banoffee was good, Ross Golden Bannon wasn’t happy
with his €150 bill.
Over at the Sunday Independent, Lucinda O’Sullivan was none too taken with The Westbury’s new restaurant – Wilde. If anything, the place was unkempt with chipped wine glasses and prawns so old they had grandchildren. Though the steak mains and cherry sponge desert hit the spot, O’Sullivan’s tale is one of overpriced, unimpressive sides and an unimpressive sous chef who visited their table to defend his honour when the prawns were sent back. No thanks.
A post by Ivan at Messy-Chef
Spending a lot of time out and about during the summer means there is less time in the kitchen and less time for making complicated dishes. You want something that is easy to make, easy to transport and can be prepared in advance if necessary. One such dish is Cannelloni. This is another extremely versatile recipe, you can take the basic version and add any filling you like which is great for kids because you can hide any amount of disliked ingredients inside the Cannelloni tubes! Continue reading »
A post by Sarah Bell at Stuff yer bake
I have always wanted to perfect poached eggs but never quite got them right, until now. I came across a blog post from Smitten Kitchen on the subject and plucked up my courage to give it a go and hey presto! perfect poached eggs. My new found skill has been featuring a lot now and I really wanted to try making the classic eggs Benedict. The only hard parts about it are making the hollandaise, although you could buy it, and of course poaching the eggs, so most of it really. Continue reading »
A post by admin at Robert Francis Wine Blog
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A post by noreply@blogger.com (Irish Wine Contemplations) at Irish Wine Contemplations
I’ve had a hankering for a nice pork chop ever since eating one at Jacques in Cork a month or so ago. Every butcher I’ve gone into has some scrawny, over trimmed little pork chop on offer. On Saturday afternoon I went into a decent butcher in Donnybrook and asked if they had some BIG free range pork chops on the bone and fortunately they answered yes. The butcher pulled out a full side of pork. Continue reading »
A post sponsored by FoodFight.ie
RTE Cork are currently in pre-production for a new food and business programme called Recipe for Success where they invite amateur cooks to submit their original recipe ideas. The best ideas will then be selected and participants will be invited to present their recipes to a well-respected Irish food businessman who will over several weeks select a winner. The winner will then have their product sold in the Irish market. It could be considered a Pop Idol with food.
Update: Details are available here on the RTE website.
Photo owned by Ema Yudistira (cc)
A post by Sabrina at Lidl Treats
Coconut macaroons are probably one of my very favourite sweet treats, but to make them you really need shredded rather than dessicated coconut, which I’ve never been able to get hold of in Kilkenny.
These are a sort of first cousin of macaroons, in which mozzarella is the key ingredient. They don’t taste cheesy at all,… Continue reading »
A post by Roger at Gastro Narrative
A post by Kieran at Ice Cream Ireland
A customer just informed me that Brian O’Connell picked up on my blog post about rainy Olympics and lists my top ten rainy events in his “On the Move” travel blog round-up in Go Magazine (today’s Irish Times). It’s a sign of a busy day that I haven’t managed to open the paper yet! 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.
