Post the Roast 06/09/08

Photo owned by Gaetan Lee (cc)

What the Sundays said about food.

By Sinéad Keogh

COURSE BOOK

Darina Allen’s Easy Entertaining has been re-released on the 25th anniversary of the Ballymaloe Cookery School, says the Sunday Business Post. The cookbook features dinner party recipes for all abilities as well as a number of courses that can be pre-made ahead of the event for those who aren’t natural pressure cookers.

PASTA PARCEL

Rachel Allen’s Tribune Magazine column talks pasta dishes. She recommends pasta and greens as a quick, easy and healthy meal for kids in wintertime. Suggested greens include herbs like basil and parsley and leaves like kale and spinach. Her pasta-cooking tip is to drain the pasta and keep back 100mls of water, pouring this back into the pasta to loosen it and stop it sticking.

DRUMM ROLE

Chef Aine Maguire uses the Drumm Kitchen Showrooms on the Naas Road to do a free cookery demonstration on October 11th, advises the SBP. The event, themed From Field to Fork, focuses on autumn cooking. Places are limited so those wishing to attend are advised to email aine@drumms.ie

A BRASSERIE EUROSAVER

Also in the SBP, Clonskeagh’s Berman and Wallace in Belfield Office Park are offering a Credit Crunch Lunch deal with courses for just €10. Changing every day, the menu generally includes such dishes as braised lamb shank and bangers and mash. More info here

RIGHT SAID BREAD

If you could make the perfect sandwich by numbers, the digits would probably be 75, 14 and 1. 75 fillings, 14 different types of bread and 1 MYO (Make Your Own) sandwich franchise in the old Excise Bar in the IFSC. Opened by fomer hotel manager Mark Howell, who first came across the franchise in Australia, the latest sandwich outfit allows customers to assemble their own sandwich for a max price of €4.90, says Tribune Magazine.

SIX ON FIRE

Also in Tribune Magazine, six of the best new cookbooks. Gino D’Acampo’s Buonissimo!is named best for ‘Sexy Italian Food while John Torode’s Beef & Other Bovine Matters gets the ‘Best for Carnivores’ title. Rachel Allen’s Bake comes up ‘Best for Comfort Food’, while Anthony Demetre earns the ‘Best for Gallic Chic’ tag (what’s that when it’s at home?) for Today’s Special: A New Take On Bistro Food and Gordon Ramsay’s Cooking for Friends is named ‘Best for Easy Entertaining’. The final choice, Daisy Garnett’s Cooking Lessons: Tales From the Kitchen and Other Stories is not a conventional cookbook, but rather  some recipies from Vogue’s Daisy, who only learned to cook in the past six years, and stories about her learning curve. It takes Trib Magazine’s ‘Best to Curl Up in Bed With’ gong.

FORKING OUT

The food reviews in brief.

TREATS OF LONDON

Trib Magazine’s Katy McGuinness takes her reviewing pen to The Wolseley in London’s Picadilly. It gets 4 out of 5 stars fromMcGuinness who classes the clientele as a mix of celebs and civilians. Dishes included mackeral with cucumber and gooseberry relish, Fines de Claire oysters and dressed Dorset crab. Costing £164.81 for three courses and wine for two, it’s not exactly one to try on a whim on the strength of a review, but worth keeping in mind if you are going to London Town soon.

GREEN WITH OYSTER

The SBP’s Ross Golden Bannon visits Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill on St Stephen’s Green. Golden Bannon planned his visit for when chef Richard Corrigan was out of town to see if the restaurant could hold its own without him. With starters of oyster Rockafeller and squid stuffed with chorizo and organic feta, mains of fish pie and black sole and buttermilk pannacotta with fresh blackberries and pecan nuts for dessert, Golden Bannon was mostly impressed with the upmarket Bentley’s, but did find that the staff were a little slow to notice tables looking for attention.