2011 at FoodFight.ie
Photo by peterastn
A post by lors at italian foodies
When we were in Italy this summer this was our new drink of choice, I love it as an aperitif as it’s so light and refreshing. We had friends over for dinner last week so we decided to try it at home, we couldn’t get any Aperol so we used Campari instead which was a perfect substitute. I don’t like Campari on it’s own but it really works in this cocktail but I do think you have to like bitter drinks so all you G&T lovers will probably love it. Continue reading »
A post by Beer Novice at here be beer
My comrades Beer Mat and Beer Goggles turned up in due course and after they got a bite to eat we headed up to The Black Box to the festival, stepping around the broken umbrellas and puddles as we went. I have never seen so many dead umbrellas in any city, there were hundreds of them. A testament to the earlier weather and the lack of concern for littering and rubbish in this country. (and many others of course.)
We arrived around six and the place was fairly packed. Continue reading »
A post by Kate at Pink Whisk
And what better to warm up with than a crumble? This is a very simple one from Tartlette but the addition of some cardamon to the topping brings a little extra to the mix. A big fat mug of tea in the other hand and what more could you ask for? Continue reading »
A post by noreply@blogger.com (Donal) at The Good Mood Food Blog
Who knew writing a book would actually take a bit of work! I’ve been meaning to post something over the last few weeks, but every spare minute has been focused on the writing and taking pictures. But more importantly I’m here and I have a recipe!
This is Sofie’s very first Halloween, as they don’t celebrate the night as much in Sweden. Continue reading »
A post by Caroline at Bibliocook: All About Food
Working my way through Leon: Ingredients and Recipes, Allegra McEvedy’s fantastic cookbook from the London-based restaurant chain at the moment. Continue reading »
A post by Hillary at Chew On That
It’s no surprise that it’s pumpkin season and some of us are carving away at our pumpkins trying to come up with cute and creative decorations for the fall. Well, you know what they say: “Don’t throw away those seeds!” Truth be told, I haven’t been a pumpkin carver for long, but if there’s anything I’ve learned about pumpkin carving, it’s to not let the delicious pumpkin seeds inside go to waste. Continue reading »
A post by ollie at olliesplace: organic food, farming, research, news & views with Oliver Moore
Did you know that there is a certified organic butcher on Achill Island? Or that you can have your organic apples turned into organic juice by a dedicated company in Tipperary? Or that there is an organic farm which doubles up as Zazen meditation centre in Cork, and one that runs eco summer camps in Kerry? And if you are after an organic horse livery, then Waterford is the place to go. Continue reading »
A post by noreply@blogger.com (John Ferris) at Food and Drink
I read with interest Manuel’s plight last week. No, not Russell Brand doing indescribable things to his granddaughter, his lemon incident.Because, at the weekend, I had my own incident in a supermarket.Hell, I wasn’t going to say which one, but it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that I go to Sainsbury’s if you read this blog… so that’s where it was.My weekly ritual of going to Sainsbury’s with Isabella was going as usual. Continue reading »
A post by Billy Lyons at RESTAURANTS AND FOOD IN CORK
http://www.barn-restaurant.com
BACK TO THE BARN
Recession beaters were out in force at The Barn last Friday night. Well, maybe not in force, since the expensive venue (on the Glanmire Road out of Mayfield) was half full or half empty – take your pick. The meal here (five course) does cost €50.00 a head. It is invariably good but is it worth fifty? Once rampant tigers, now with lighter wallets, may have be settling for less (then again it was the Jazz Weekend). Continue reading »
A post by JD at Cookzors
I’m a firm believer that Ireland has the potential to be up there among the world’s “Culinary Capitals”. In fact, I’d suggest that the reputations of other “Culinary Capital” countries are as much due to some clever marketing than anything else. Continue reading »
A post by Beer Novice at here be beer
I almost missed the connection to Galway.
Going from Carlow to Galway involves going east to head west, changing trains in Kildare. When I booked the ticket online I had 25 minutes to spare before the Dublin-Galway train arrived. Unfortunately I never reckoned for the first train running so late so I arrived in Kildare with 2 minutes to spare. Continue reading »
A post by Thom at Black Cat Brewery
I have neglected these pages for the last while, but with good reason, I promise. I got married a few weeks ago and this, along with our honeymoon has tied me up a bit, as you can perhaps imagine. Pile on top of this a heap of brewing science essays I have to write by the end of the month and you can see why I haven’t been around. Continue reading »
A post by admin at Robert Francis Wine Blog
Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva 2003
I was hugely excited to try this wine – hugely successful winemaker from one of favourite parts of the wine world. Expectations were high before I even took the huge amount of positive press previous vintages of this wine had received. Continue reading »
A post by Hillary at Chew On That
Brandi Koskie is the senior editor at DietsInReview.com, a healthy living resource with more than 500 diet reviews, hundreds of healthy recipes, a daily diet blog featuring articles by a team of a health and fitness professionals, and much more at the newly renovated site.
This year, you can help introduce healthier alternatives to the neighborhood kids by steering clear of the sugar-filled Halloween treats. Continue reading »
A post by noreply@blogger.com (Yann_Chef) at Food Lorists
A while back I have been contacted by a Swiss journalist asking me if I was available to help her to write an article about Dublin city by the Dubliner for the Sonnetags Zeitung newspaper.So this is the article (I know it is in German!). Continue reading »
A post by Lar at Sour Grapes
Below, Colly Murray talks to Sergio Gargari from Pieve de’ Pitti about the super Tuscan white wine, Aprilante, made from Vermentino (40%) and white Malvasia (60%).
Smell & taste
Green apples, almond and figs – with a great length. A slight savouriness said to derive from the sea breezes and the local soils of sand and fossilised shells.
Absolutely delicious.
Links
Previously on sourgrapes.ie, reds from Pieve de’ Pitti
Pieve de’ Pitti (in English). Continue reading »
A post by Hillary at Chew On That
Whenever I go out for Italian, there is one dish that I always want to order: rigatoni a la vodka. It might not always be on the menu but so long as I know they have vodka sauce and rigatoni, that’s what I request. So, when I saw that Tuscan Vodka was a flavor choice in Sauces N’ Love new Scarpetta line of pasta sauces, I knew that I’d be making rigatoni a la vodka sometime in the near future. Continue reading »
A post by Kieran at Ice Cream Ireland
Christophe, our ice cream maker, was playing around with meringues the other day, and he came up with these little ghosts for Halloween. I think they are very cute. They could be used for decoration, if you don’t eat them straight away.
I’ve been giving them out now and then over the weekend to select customers in our shops, and they have gotten a great reception.
If you want to make them, use the meringue recipe here. Continue reading »
A post by noreply@blogger.com (John Ferris) at Food and Drink
So, thanks to Nifty Nosh, I finally got around to trying Bella Italia. I had ventured through its doors before, but I’d been disappointed by the amount of pasta on offer. But on reflection, I was maybe a little harsh. I still think there could be more on the menu, or specials, but let’s move on.Mrs F has a dislike of pizza so when I order some, she normally eats six chicken wings instead. This, of course, means I rarely order pizza. Continue reading »
Photo owned by Food & Spirits Magazine (cc)
What the Sunday’s said about food.
By Sinéad Keogh
ORANGE APPEAL
Rachel Allen in the Tribune recommends cooking with pumpkins for hallowe’en. Her recipes include baked cheese fondue in a pumpkin, pumpkin soup, classic American pumpkin pie with pecan and maple cream, pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and thai yellow pumpkin curry with chickpeas. She also recommends buying pumpkin oil, saying that’s it’s very nutritious and great used in salad dressings or for drizzling over soups.
BARGAIN BASEMENT BITES
Also from the Trib, a feature on the cheapest places to eat out now that the biggest bite we’re feeling is the recession. Their top 5 are Gruel on Dame Street, Farmgate Cafe in the English Market in Cork, D’Vine in Patricks Well Lane, Drogheda, Co Louth, Cucina in Market Square, Kinsale, Co Cork and Jo’Burger in Rathmines. Readers will appreciate that the list isn’t Dublin-centric, but that only goes to show that there’s a lot of good value to be had once you get out of the capital. The other Dublin bargains they did find were The Blackboard Bistro on Clare Street, Dublin 2, Charming Noodles on Parnell Street, Cornucopia on Wicklow Street, The Cake Cafe in The Daintree Building, The Port House on South William Street and eatery120 in Ranelagh.
COOKING THE BOOKS
Finally from Tribune Magazine, a list of favoured cookbooks for the budget-conscious. They have good things to say about The Student Cookbook which focuses on cheap and nutritious fare that’s also easy to prepare; Delia Smith’s Frugal Food which is described as old fashioned and British, but with recipes that always work and The Pauper’s Cookbook with ‘delicious and also stylish’ recipes. How To Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet With Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even if You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One With an Ill-fitting Lid) and No Fancy Gadgets – Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher - basically speaks for itself while The Kitchen Revolution is ‘like a textbook’ but ‘will reward careful study with some fantastic recipes and strategies for saving time, money, effort and food’. Finally, More-with-less is tipped as having great bread recipes and also offers healthy recipes but, the writer notes, uses US measurements.
SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED
From the Sunday Business Post, Harvey Nichols are hosting a martini night on October 31st to coincide with the release of the latest James Bond movie. The evening includes tableside martini service, a two-hour martini masterclass and a one-course dinner with a glass of wine. More from 01-2910488
DUN LAOGHAIRE FARE
Also in the SBP, Vanessa Greenwood of The Cooks Academy in Dun Laoghaire has released a cookbook of the range of recipes she teaches at her three-year-old venture. Published by Gill and Macmillan, the book costs €19 and includes recipes for chickpea salad with avocado and tomato and pasta with chorizo and rocket.
FORKING OUT
The food reviews in brief.
LA VIE IN ROASTING
The Sunday Business Post’s Ross Golden Bannon visits La Vie on Exchequer Street. He was unimpressed from the off on account of difficultly communicating with the non-Englishspeaking staff and the bad start was followed by a poorly constructed menu which offered “deep-fried bree” and lacked the mandatory legal notice of where they sourced their beef. Although he did enjoy ossobuco of lamb braised in white wine with grilled aubergine potatoes and Greek yogurt sauce and a hot apple cup with freshly made biscuit, ice-cream and vanilla sauce for dessert, RGB from the SBP thinks this place needs to drop its pretention and go back to basics.
KERRYMADE
Katy McGuinness from the Tribune was in Kerry for the Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival. She heaps praise on The Global Village restaurant where grilled oyster, scallops, venison and veal and Margarita sorbet all impressed. The Tribune reviewer had many kind words for the menu, the wine and the staff and gives it 4 out of 5 stars.
WATERFOOD
The Sunday Independent’s Lucinda o’Sullivan visited Waterford Castle Hotel where the cuisine was ‘top notch’. Describing it as ‘top Irish produce cooked French-style’, O’Sullivan had good things to say about Kilmore Quay scallops on a cauliflower puree, Risotto with , Dunmore East mussels, roast wild turbot and poached figs with ice-cream, strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, and blueberries in red wine syrup among other dishes. She wasn’t a fan of the cheese board but did have kind words for the decor and the piano tinkling through dinner. She described chef Michael Quinn’s food as ’superb’.
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.