Cooking the goose...

Well, my goose was cooked well ahead of time - and eaten! I came down with some flu bug or other last week, and so had done very little to organise the famous Christmas pressies, or food or wine, and I was in dire need of a pick-me-up to get me into the frame of mind for all the hassle. I love goose, as does my mother and my husband. My brother was a little unsure of whether or not it would be to his liking, but was prepared to give it a go. So, on Sunday - well ahead of the Christmas day dinner - I cooked a goose for us to have. No ordinary goose though - this was a Jenny special - organic beautiful goose, well-reared and ready for cooking! I collected it on Saturday, and cooked it on Sunday. No additives whatsoever - just goose and heat. I took my timings from Richard Corrigans cookbook, although I didnt bother with the rest of his recipe - I wanted simple plain cooking to show off the flavours of this wonderful bird. Amazingly, I didnt add even lemon or garlic to the cooking - all I did was to prick the goose all over with a sharp knife so that the fat could come out of the flesh, placed it in the oven at a high temperature for the first 20 minutes and then reduced the heat to 160 for a further 2 1/2 hours. And the result? The most sublime taste, served with roast potatoes (naturally cooked in the goose fat) and roast carrots, along with some organic cauliflower and a simple apple sauce. We had it with some red Burgundy - although a good Bordeaux or Italian red would have worked really well. And we have great goose fat left to use for more roast spuds or whatever for the next while - just enough to bring back the memories of this great meal!

Help! Its Christmas...

All of a sudden, its only a week to Christmas. And to say that I am not organised for it is a serious understatement. I have put up the wreath - a beautiful one from Judith at the market, I have found last year's Christmas decorations after much searching, but they are still in a bag looking at me balefully - or is that me looking at them balefully?? As anyone who knows me will appreciate, I wouldnt ignore the food side of things so I have ordered goose and lamb for Christmas and that will happen ok, but I am so not on top of the Christmas present buying, it is not funny. My plan had been to make loads of edible pressies, and to use them to personalise whatever other small gift I would find for friends and family. But, apart from a couple of jars of preserves, I havent actually made anything else yet! Nor have I done much searching for the presents that have to be bought. I had a sense of complacency due to my having found the perfect present for my mother - but hadnt actually bought it. Of course, when I went back to buy it - they were all sold out. That deflated my admittedly mild enthusiasm for going out into shops full of hordes of people all with grim determination to find that perfect present. However, time for prevarication and procrastination is now over. Today is the day - if only I could summon up the energy that is lacking due to me being awake for a few hours in the middle of the night pondering about all sorts of things, before falling into an unrestful few hours sleep, where I had nightmares about weird Christmas presents. Very sad, I am...

Pig meat recall in Ireland

Listening to the radio this morning, I was very taken aback at the news that all pig meat was being recalled in Ireland (and on its export market) due to the presence of PCBs in routine samples taken earlier this week. It emerged that the cause of the toxins was due to animal feed from one feed supplier, and apparently only a small number of farms used that feed supplier. However, as pig processing is carried out in a very small number of plants around the country, it was impossible to separate out the pork products. I am puzzled that this is the case, as surely we have traceability schemes in place for this very sort of reason? What is the point of having extensive management systems in place - which presumably add considerable cost to meat production - if these systems dont work when there is a problem?

It does of course throw up many other issues - not least whether or not it was a wise decision to concentrate meat processing into a small number of plants around the country? While perfectly understandable from a logical perspective - that it is easier to control and manage large scale facilities rather than a myriad of small-scale processors - it does mean that when there is a problem, it becomes a large problem very quickly, and a whole section of the industry has gone into crisis due to an initially small problem. Diversification and dispersion of effort has its own benefits which shouldnt be ignored or forgotten.

I feel very sorry for the people who have now been caught up in a crisis not of their own making, particularly at this time of year when the Christmas tradition of having a ham as part of Christmas dinner would have meant a major boost to incomes at a difficult time in the economy and in farming - as well as the many other products which are being affected. The versatility of pork products will mean that all sorts of prepared and processed foods will also have to be recalled, and throw a lot of businesses into chaos.

One does wonder how PCBs managed to infiltrate animal feed - one rumour is that the covers of stale bread managed to get into the feed? Are PCBs in materials used to wrap bread - that is nearly more scary! Back to meat though - Given that humans are at the top of the food chain, maybe it is time to rethink our approach to cheap meat production - if the end result is food with toxins in it. Bad source materials at one end of the food chain surely will not disappear at the other end of the food chain - are we that foolish that we dont see the connection?

Recessionary times and healthy eating & living

As most of the world seems to be in the grips of a recession (I've even heard it being called a depression, which is even worse!), it is hard to know how people will respond when they have less money in their pockets, and in their bank accounts - that is if they still trust the banks to mind their money properly...

On the one hand, it could make people learn to cook at home, creating a whole new wave of social behaviour of eating healthy good food, cooked from scratch, because the ready-made food section is very expensive for what you get, and anyway, if you're at home because you cant afford to go out, then it makes great use of all that extra time you have - and lets face it, TV is fairly awful most of the time, so you cant really watch the rerun of the rerun of a not very good comedy show - again!! And if you cook that little bit extra - then you have the leftovers for your lunch the next day (yes, it is time to buy that lunch-box and pack it with home-cooked food!).

On the other hand, and this is probably more likely, people will have to work harder to stay at work, worried about holding onto their job and prepared to work all hours to be seen to be doing a good job. They'll then head home and will have little choice of fresh food available to them on their way home, and then will be too tired to cook from scratch when they arrive in the door, so will pick up a take-away meal, or a convenience meal or a frozen pizza or whatever the easiest option will be... and the end result will be poorer health - you cant be healthy if you dont eat healthily - it is simply an impossibility in the long-term. This will then turn into a vicious circle, as if you are less healthy, you'll have less energy, and then working long hours will mean that your energy reserves will be depleted, and then you'll be prone to illness, or just plain tiredness...

So, if anyone is looking for a New Year's resolution - yes I know its a bit early, but at the same time... why not think about how you can turn recessionary times into a recipe for better health? Things to try... - dont try them all at the same time, as you'll never do it - just add one each fortnight and see how you get on...

Get out and walk or cycle to work - save yourself the bus-fare, or the petrol if you normally drive - and yes, there are dry days in January/February so no excuses for not doing healthy exercise three times a week at least.

Try and cook your evening meal from scratch - yes, starting with fresh raw ingredients - just go for it at least part of the week. If your cooking skills are non-existent, then learn some (you could even come to one of my cookery courses, but of course there are lots of them around). If you cant afford to pay for a cookery course, then get a friend who can cook to teach you - it is great fun and really easy to learn - so, no excuses on that one!

If you think that you'll be too tired during the week, then do your main shopping at the week-end. For me certainly, I never mind the cooking, its the shopping I dont like - crowds in the supermarket, dismal lack of choice and people looking like zombies - not the kind of experience to cheer you up at the end of a long day... If you go to a farmer's market, rather than to your supermarket, you are likely to get fresher food, and it'll be a positive experience as most stall-holders are only too happy to talk to you - a far cry from the experience in most supermarkets I know of. Find out when there is one near you. Then pick healthy ingredients - yes, you do know which ones to go for - and if you dont, email me and I'll be happy to help you with a top 20 list of good foods.

When you cook your dinner, make enough to freeze for another day, or enough to throw together a lunch-box for work the next day. Occasionally, make up a batch of fresh soup - great to have in the freezer for emergencies - there are literally thousands of recipes on the internet for soups, but if you want some ideas, I'm happy to help with some recipes - for starters try the squash soup recipe on this blog.

If you have any garden at all - or even a window box - grow some edible plants, particularly herbs - many of them have medicinal extra benefits as well as adding great tastes to your food - and the sense of pride you get when you can pick your own herbs to add to dishes is fantastic.

Is that enough??

Join the library - these days the range of books is pretty good, and it is free for the most-part (well, unless you're like me and forget to bring back the books, thus defeating the whole purpose of getting free books, because you've to pay huge fines!)

Join a book-club - I joined one earlier this year and have made some lovely new friends. If you're not into books, join a club which does interest you - most of them are really cheap to join and you'll get out and about with a purpose while the dark winter nights pass by!

You dont have to join a gym to get fit - walking an hour a day at a good pace will do the trick - just make sure you have good fitting walking shoes and that you wear visible clothing if you are walking in a non-lit area. Other sports clubs always welcome new people - and you dont even have to play competitively - there are lots of things that non-playing members can help out with, and you can just join in the practice sessions.

I think the most important thing of all is to remain positive. If our recession does indeed turn into a depression - it is called that for a reason, so dont give into it. As there are really strong links between healthy eating and energy, and between healthy exercise and even more energy, these are the things to focus on while the world economy tries to sort itself out. And who knows what opportunities times like this could throw your direction, so stay alert!

Lamb meat-balls with tomato, roast peppers and herby dip

I was experimenting with flavours last week, for once trying to prepare a dish that would match a wine, rather than the other way around. The wine in question was a St Emilion Grand Cru, one of the wines that we are working with our wine importing partners to market and showcase. I decided that lamb would work well, with a tomato and herb-based dip to go with some lamb meatballs. Due to the higher fat content in lamb, I thought it would work better to reheat than beef meatballs, and I wanted to play with the tastes in the dip to match. I roasted some red and yellow peppers in the oven - 20 minutes max, and then didnt even try and remove the skin afterwards. In the meantime, I chopped up a large clove of garlic, and softened it in some warm olive oil. I then hunted in the garden for some herbs and found some thyme, oregano and mint - mostly mint! I added this to the olive oil and garlic mix. I then blitzed the peppers and herb mix in the food processor and put them back onto the heat once they were fairly well blitzed. I then added about 200ml of tomato passata and about a glass of red wine and a generous squeeze of lemon juice (you have to taste it at this stage to know how much lemon juice to add, as it all depends on the sweetness of the peppers and the style of red wine. Finally, I seasoned it fairly generously with salt and black pepper. For the lamb meatballs: Cook off finely chopped onion (about half a small onion for a kilo of lamb mince and garlic - and some chilli if you are so inclined!. Then when that has cooled, add into lamb mince, salt and pepper - you can then form either small meatballs or larger kofti shaped ones - or even burger size if you want... Fry them in olive oil until browned and then finish off in the oven - 5 minutes for the smaller ones, up to 10 if you have burger size. As this dish went down so well, I will have to do it again, paying more attention to the quantities, and publish it on the website as a proper recipe... And it worked really well with the St Emilion - great dish for a supper party as it reheats wonderfully well...

Rabbit food!

I have been struggling for a while now to get a recipe to cook rabbit, which looks and tastes good. One recipe tasted great (lots of red wine and slow cooking), but looked unappetising - mainly a dull grey colour! The other recipe - loosely based on something someone had eaten in Spain - was incredibly tough (a quick cook recipe) and the rabbit tasted extremely gamey! A friend - Charlotte - who is french, suggested the following, which she has cooked a number of times and tells me tastes and looks delicious...

"One of my favorite dishes in the world is lapin a la moutarde it is yummy. Basically a chopped rabbit cooked in a stew dish with 1 cup water, once cooked slowly for 1-2 hours add a 50/50 mixture of French mustard and crème fraiche about 250ml of each and mushrooms (thinly sliced). You can have it with rice it is yummy the rabbit flakes off (can do same dish with chicken).We had it a few weeks ago with irish wild rabbit (cavistons I think) it did not taste too gamey."

So, there you go - I'll be trying it out one of the days, but in the meantime, if you want to try it, take a photo of the end result and send it to me with your verdict!





This is what it is supposed to look like...

November lunch for 7 - including a vegetarian!

I was planning a lunch for a group of wine-tasters recently, when I realised that one of them is a vegetarian (I always check with people these days). This put a different perspective on lunch, as up to that point, I was planning a warming lamb casserole with Indian spices and flavours, which I had planned to prepare the day before. I know that a lot of vegetarians hate the idea that they are left with the 'side dishes' while everyone else scoffs down the dish that is the centre-piece of lunch, so I had to rethink my approach. It was made even more complicated by the fact that said vegetarian has also been diagnosed with wheat intolerance. So, I decided that a series of 'help yourself' dishes would work well - that way each dish would be interesting in itself, and the vegetarian luncher could simply not eat the meat dish. It worked out extremely well! I included the following:


Roasted squash (yes, more of the wonderful Crown Prince!), with lots of rocket, roasted pine nuts, little chunks of goats cheese, pink peppercorns and dressed with a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and cider vinegar. Because this dish is quite robust and filling, I reckoned that the vegetarian would get enough to eat! I hadnt reckoned on it going down as well as it did for the carnivores around the table, so it was just as well that I had hedged my bets with some 'meaty' aubergine as well! Everyone commented on how delicious the squash was - most people saying that they are sick of butternut squash at this stage, so something different and more interesting in taste was great. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I will the next time I make it and post the photo to my blog.


Tomato salad - I used the last of my home-grown toms, and the rest of them were bought at the market, so they tasted delicious! I added some red onion, some long red pepper slices and some basil, then drizzled some olive oil on top.


I made some tztaziki, and bought some really good hummus from Lilliput Stores in Stoneybatter, and I made some flatbreads with spelt flour. I also roasted some aubergine that morning.


Last, but not least, I roasted some lamb in the oven - fillet of lamb off the leg, which had marinated in garlic, mint, olive oil and thyme for a while beforehand. Unfortunately, while concentrating on making the flatbreads, I left the lamb in the oven for about ten minutes too long, so it was more done that I would have liked, but otherwise it was delicious!


We had a lovely meal out of all this - everyone just helped themselves to the various dishes and I dont think that anyone else realised that one of the guests was a vegetarian at all! And just about everything we ate was healthy - lots of organic vegetables, healthy fats, dips made from healthy ingredients (hummus with chickpeas and tztazaki from yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and mint), organic lamb, organic spelt flour, etc...


To drink with the food, we had a French Syrah Les Grands Augustins from Tardieu Laurent in the Vin de Pays d'Oc, which complemented the food beautifully!

Let me know if you would like any of these recipes, I would be delighted to send further details to you... The whole meal took about an hour and a half to prepare, so a great option for a relaxed Sunday lunch maybe followed with some more cheese and fruit to round it off...

Autumn fare and photos

I recently spent a lovely hour in the Botanic Gardens near me in Dublin, taking photos. It is a place where I go for walks a number of times a week, and it is great to have such a resource nearby. They have launched an organic fruit, vegetable and herb garden there this year, and it has been a wonderful addition to the place. This is a photo of some of the produce, on display at the moment as we approach Halloween.

The images inspired me to come home and make some soup - always a comforting activity on a cold day! I had some wonderful Crown Prince Squash sitting in my vegetable bowl, so I decided to use one of those. As usual, my supplier of choice was Jenny McNally at Temple Bar Farmers Market, and she had told me that the Crown Prince is her own favourite - and it certainly made a great soup! This is the recipe that I used, which I've often used for butternut squash, so I would say it'll work for most types of squash.

Ingredients:

1 medium squash (organic if possible)
1 tsp of coriander seeds (whole)
2 cloves of garlic
750 ml of stock (either vegetable or chicken) or water – plus more if necessary
1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil

To garnish: small handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped, and plain yoghurt (sheep’s milk based if dairy intolerant)

To prepare:
Heat the oven to 200°
Split the squash lengthwise into two halves, and then into wedge-shaped chunks and remove the seeds with a spoon; rub over with olive oil, and sprinkle with the coriander seeds. Place clove of garlic (do not remove skin) in the centre of each half of the squash.
Bake in the oven for approximately 40 minutes, or until a knife can easily be inserted through the squash – it might take longer depending on how ripe the squash is.
Meanwhile, sauté the onion in a little olive oil until soft and transparent – this takes a little while, but keep the heat low as otherwise the onion will burn!
When the squash is cooked, leave to cool for a few minutes until it can be handled. Then peel off the skin – or scoop out the flesh - and chop roughly. Squeeze the cooked garlic centre out from the skins (it should come away easily)
Add to the cooked onion, and add half the stock (or water).
Blitz with a hand blender or use a food processor.
Add the rest of the stock or water to get the consistency you like – ideally quite thick but not a puree.
Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and sprinkle with coriander leaves

Other options on the spices would include cumin or fennel seeds, both equally delicious. Any left-over soup freezes really well.

Exploring healthy eating advice

I am an avid reader of books which advise on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, along with pretty consistent online research on the same topic. However, I was pretty startled to read about claims as to the extent to which the ph of your body affects your health. I was aware that an alkaline digestive system is a desirable thing, but reading about the claims that having your whole body in an alkaline state totally discourages cancer from flourishing was a new concept for me. Having also recently read that sugar encourages cancer cells in the body to replicate - and ingesting simple carbs makes your system acidic apparently - the two theories seem to complement each other. Also, stress can very quickly turn your system from alkaline to acidic - in as little as five minutes! All very interesting, but are these theories sustained by good research and lots of empirical evidence? As usual, it is very difficult to tell how well founded some of these theories are, and if the paranoia about the efforts made by big business to suppress some of these findings has any basis in reality. However, if these claims have even a small grain of truth then they should be explored by everyone to see if making changes to diet can improve health and longevity - not just to tackle obesity, but to address other major illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes and cancer.

On cooking rice...and other grain topics

While finalising my Tips & Tricks Guidelines for my Asian Inspiration cookery workshops, I decided to do a bit of online research on other people's experiences with cooking brown rice, which is the only type of rice that we now cook with (in fact I actually dont like white rice anymore when compared with brown). There seems to be a bit of mystique out there about how to cook brown rice, when I have found it to be much more forgiving than its white counterpart, which is apt to turn into a gelatinous mess if you turn your back on it for a minute! Brown rice on the other hand is difficult to overcook, and each rice particle remains separate even when the rice has gone cold. All this and its so much better for you - holding onto its vitamins and minerals and all the fibre that makes it a low-medium GI food to eat - and it tastes better - what more could you want?! So, go on, get out there and buy some brown Basmati rice, cook it for 30 minutes with double the quantity of water to rice and hey presto - great rice!

On a related carbohydrate topic - have you ever traipsed around a city mid-afternoon with someone who is wheat intolerant, in search of something quick to eat to tide you both over from an insubstantial and early lunch through to a late dinner? Well, it is an experience that you wont want to repeat if you can help it, but it is one that I went through recently in Dublin. Outside of lunchtime, the food options for people who are wheat intolerant - and up to 20% of people apparently have serious difficulties in digesting wheat - reduces to almost 0! Unless you count fast-food joints, which ironically are probably the only option available, where you can have chips and a burger, but you would prefer something slightly more healthy than that. We went from one end of the city centre to the other, and the vast majority of places which were serving food had wheat-based bread and no other options. So there was traditional Irish soda bread, Italian panini, French baguette, brown sandwiches, white bread sandwiches, pasta, pizza, but no other form of carbohydrate in sight! Why hasnt anyone tried to provide even spelt-bread based sandwiches as an option around the city? Perhaps we could have gone as far as the Maison des Gourmets in Castle Market - where they do sell spelt bread in their bakery - they might have managed to put something together for us. However, by the time we had got to that part of the city, our will to continue the search had waned considerably, so we ended up in a Mexican restaurant, which in fairness to them, they managed some corn-based tortillas and nachos for us - which at least gave us enough of a boost to contemplate the bus ride home!

Jamie Olivers Ministry of Food

I watched the first programme of this very intriguing new series on TV last night, and think that if Jamie Oliver can pull this one off, he can hope to make a real difference to the health of the nation - of Britain that is - not sure if we can emulate it here in Ireland or not! The main thrust of the programme is to take an entire community (Rotherham in Yorkshire) and persuade them into healthier food habits -apparently Rotherham is high on the UK list for obesity, fast-food eaters and many other indicators of poor health habits.

His way of persuading people is to teach them to cook, using healthy ingredients, and then to get them to 'pass it on' to at least two friends. He has started with 8 people and by a pyramid arrangement is hoping that they will have 'passed it on' to enough people who will pass it on to enough people etc etc to do all of Rotherham within the period of the programme - which I think is a month of episodes! It is hard to know if the eating patterns in evidence would be the same here in Ireland, but certainly the direction is the same for many people. However, it was shocking that one 5 year old child had never had a meal cooked for her by her mother (who by the way came across as a highly intelligent, articulate young woman caught in a horrible poverty trap). In the first programme, the mother showed a great aptitude for cooking but her problems in making ends meet financially are causing her difficulties with being able to stay with the new way of doing things and also being able to pass it on to others. It'll be very interesting to see if Jamie can make it work...

By the way, the Ministry of Food title is a throw-back to the second world war where the Government in Britain had to get people to make do with what was available to them during the war period - I seem to remember hearing/reading that the British people were at their healthiest ever during that period (well, presumably those who werent killed in the war or had bombs fall on them!) which was a combination of an incredibly healthy diet and masses of exercise!

I have actually joined the Pass it On movement on the Minister of Food website - dont know if it'll catch on in Ireland, but we could certainly do with it! So, if anyone wants to be a part of my 'pass it on' group and you want to learn how to make one of Jamie's recipes, then get in touch with me... alternatively if you want to join and teach others then

the address is http://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/jo/home.html

More on the hot wok gas burner...

Well, it arrived and looked exactly like the picture on the web! However, it arrived with a propane connector, not a butane one, which was not what I expected. Much tooing and froing ensued between me, the UK supplier and the original manufacturers - and eventually, it appeared that we just needed to attach a butane regulator, which we duly did (well, my husband did!) and hey presto - it worked! Roll on Asian cookery demonstrations, and a renewed interest in wok-based cooking over the winter...

The wok burner would be a great option for someone who has an electric hob, but who likes to be able to cook food for which gas is the best option - Asian cooking being a prime example...

Thanks to Mark at The Cowshed in the UK, who helped sort out the problem www.thecowshed.biz

On Cookery classes, workshops, lessons and coaching

Do you know what you're looking for when you search on 'cookery classes, workshops, lessons, courses and coaching' or any combination of these? I did a search recently to see how to describe our cookery workshops (as I've decided to call them!) and came across all of these descriptions which essentially seem to be offering similar type services, but all trying to differentiate themselves from the others. Are potential customers bewildered, or is it a case of reading a bit more and then deciding which suits - which may be more of an issue around location or type of cooking being taught, rather than how the event (for want of a better word!) is perceived.

The Tasting Room philosophy is to make cooking, wine tasting and eating very informal and accessible, with small groups being the norm, and giving the occasion as much of a social dimension as a culinary one - believing as we do that people learn better when they are relaxed and open to conversation rather than when they feel uptight and constrained and under pressure. So, thats why we think that workshop describes what we do a bit more accurately than 'course' or 'class' although there is an appeal around the use of the word 'coaching' - or maybe 'mentoring' to get away from words starting with the letter 'C'! Any other suggestions?

Bread-making

I spent most of today doing a bread-making workshop with a small group of people (all female!). We had a great day - the sun was shining in through the conservatory roof, and it was warm enough for our bread dough to prove outside in the sun. We started the day with some coffee, fruit and my experimentation with a new health bread which I had baked the other day. The taste combination of spelt flour, honey, bananas, blueberries and nuts went down a treat, so I'll have to write up the recipe and publish it (contact me if you would like a sneak preview!).

After the bread and coffee, we got down to the real business of the day. We made up our dough for focaccia and set it aside to prove. We then moved onto the healthy wholemeal spelt bread with its linseeds and pumpkin seeds, and made scones and a loaf each. Then revisited the focaccia dough to give it its second stage - putting it back out in the sun for its second proving, while the scones were sampled, straight out of the oven, with some butter and homemade strawberry jam. The group got on really well - career advice was exchanged as well as many foodie conversations!

We finally made up the focaccia bread - keeping it classical with toppings of garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt. All the breads were a great success - I'm not sure if that was down to the creative talents of the group, or my teaching ability, or maybe a combination of both! One of the group has promised to send me on the photo she took of the fruits of our labour - and when she does, I'll publish it to my blog... Hopefully everyone will try out the recipes at home and get to the stage where they'll be making bread without having to even think!

Buying a portable gas wok burner

It has been a bit of a saga - trying to buy a wok gas burner to be able to demonstrate Asian cuisine to small groups. Amazon threw up some options, but there didnt seem to be enough information to judge the quality of the offerings, and they dont deliver heavy items to Ireland. I tried a number of local catering supply companies - the only one of any significance wanted to charge me €1400 plus VAT for the privilege! I went back to the Web and went to a couple of the suppliers who sell through Amazon. The first of these didnt bother answering the query I sent to them (via a contact form on their website!) The second didnt respond to the email that I sent - and at this stage I was becoming more than slightly irate. Eventually a very nice man rang me from The Cow Shed - very promptly after my sending off my query! He answered all my questions knowledgably, and was very apologetic telling me that he would have to charge me £20 extra for delivery to Dublin... So, I'm now awaiting my snazzy looking 3.7kw portable gas 'Hot Wok' burner - apparently it has been shipped within 12 hours of me ordering it - hopefully it will do the trick nicely - time will tell...

Healthy eating...some renewed resolutions

There was a time when the only salt we knew (in Ireland anyway) was common table salt, and we added it to everything without pausing to think. Saxa 'fine flowing' was the one that most Irish people identified with. Then along came sea-salt and rock salt - and in fairness most of us ignored them as being awkward to use and didnt give the same saltiness.

Then came all the scares about salt and its impact on our health - mainly on blood-pressure, and many of us cut back or looked to use LoSalt or the like, with its lower sodium content (cant say that I ever liked any of these!). Now we can get Maldon and Sel de Guerande and other such salts, which are supposed to be actually good for us again - mainly due to the presence of sea minerals and some of the stuff that you get in seaweed (iodine, isnt it?).

If we move onto butter then - once again this was a great staple of the Irish diet - lashings of it on our spuds and our bread (that was in the days when most Irish mammies baked bread every day!). Then the margarine and other less natural products came on the scene (including the dreaded trans-fats!) and we were persuaded that they were much better for us than saturated fats such as butter... and so on through the various flavours of the month, as each manufacturer tried to persuade us that their product was good for our health - some by more honourable means than others (always check the background to any new health report to see who funded it!).

At this stage of the game, I'm taking my lead from a book that I've been reading recently - called the Mood Cure (by Julia Ross). She puts forward some great arguments for us using butter and olive oil as our staples for cooking and eating. I'm not going to go into her arguments here (buy the book if you are that interested - it is well worth it!), but what she said made a lot of sense to me, so I'm giving it a go for the next while...

Will I go on to low-carb vs high-carb diets, whether eggs reduce, increase or have no impact on cholesterol, is meat good for you or bad for you (and does it depend on whether it was raised on grass out in the field, or on grain indoors - and the answer seems to be - probably!). Is there no end to the confusion out there for those of us who want to eat the best possible diet for our health into the future??? The conclusions I've come to are:

I will use butter and or olive oil

I will eat all kinds of meat - variety and portion size are probably very important here as well

I will use only 'good salt' and limit the amount of it

I will minimise sugar, white flour and white rice and substitute brown versions in the flour and rice categories and nothing at all except maybe some honey for cooking with instead of sugar

I will eat lots and lots and lots of vegetables and salads - as many of them organic as I can manage

I will use garlic, ginger, chillies, spices and herbs for flavour and their health-giving qualities

I will cut down on caffeine (this is proving very difficult to give up altogether!)

Ditto for wine (trying to keep it for a treat at week-ends for a while)

I will get my carbohydrates from complex carb sources as far as possible

Fruit in moderation and on its own inbetween meals

Good vitamin, mineral and amino-acid supplements!

No problem...

PS: Just in case any of you interpret the photo in this blog entry as me tilting at windmills - the photo is actually of salt flats where they dry grey salt in Sicily!

Plans for the Autumn...

The plans for The Tasting Room for the next few months are coming together nicely. We will continue to run wine-tasting evenings for the corporate sector, and our 1-day wine courses. We are also planning to continue our cookery workshops, following on the success of our BBQ workshops which we ran over the summer (despite the awful rain!). One theme for the Autumn will be Asian cuisine, and the other will be quick-fix delicious mid-week suppers. As we limit our numbers to a maximum of ten, it means that everyone gets the chance to really get close to the action, and they get to taste everything that they see demonstrated. As they also get to hear about and taste wines that complement the food, it is a total experience. At our workshops, people get to ask any question they like, and if we dont have the answer there and then, we research it and tell people afterwards.

Some new services which we will be adding include wine-tasting evenings which will be ticket-based (we're finding it difficult to source suitable venues for this, which dont cost a fortune!) and a six-week wine course.

Playing with Photoshop

I've just spent most of my Saturday afternoon playing with Photoshop in an attempt to improve our website (http://www.thetastingroom.ie/). We had our logo designed for us a few months ago, and we're very pleased with how it looks on business cards etc. On the website, however, since we are constrained by the limitations of our web publishing package, it hasnt worked as well for us. Also, the workshop I went to a few months ago on how to optimise people's visits to our website led me to make some changes, so that the site isnt as visually appealing as it was. So, now we're experimenting with using some of the photos we've taken in the last while, and editing them for the site. Have a look to see what you think, and please let us know if you have any suggestions for improvement at info@thetastingroom.ie! This is one of the new photo montages that we're working with at the moment... can anyone guess what wine is in the last photo?

Post party review...

All over now, party girl has departed for a few days to recouperate in West Cork, and the rest of us are still in recovery mode. Despite the weather being pretty inclement, it all went off extremely well, everyone had a great time and the party atmosphere lasted four days. Photos will appear soon, when I've had the chance to reduce them for the web, but all in all, the advance planning paid off. I decided to cook something from a new cookery book (A year in my kitchen by Skye Gyngell) which was an Asian inspired lamb and prune slow-cooked dish, in which the flavours really appealed to me - and as it turned out, they appealed to all the guests as well. Someone pointed out to me that it really isnt a great idea to try a new dish for the first time for 60 people (thank you Iarlaith!), and normally I would heartily concur with that. However, I had used similar techniques many times before, and couldnt resist trying it out. The wines went down a treat as well (a Macon Vinzelles from Burgundy and a red Cotes du Rhone), the entertainment was a piano player extraordinaire, who electrified the party with his playing and singing (he also I suspect electrified half the street at times, and had to be toned down later on in the evening!). Despite my misgivings about how 60 people would fit into the house, there was no great problem at all, it was just nicely packed, encouraging people to mingle and talk... an aunt of ours made the suggestion that we should make it an annual event (not likely to happen) and my now 50 year old sister is starting to look at ideas for my equivalent celebrations in two years time...

The party countdown has begun...

Well, how quickly has that year gone by??!! Instead of having almost 12 months to plan the sister's party, I now have 4 days - help!! Lots of the planned work has been done, but all of a sudden there is a lot left to be done and very little time in which to do everything. It looks like the weather is not going to be kind to us - none of the forecasts are exactly predicting sunshine and if the last few weeks are anything to go by, its going to continue to be one of the wettest Augusts in Dublin since records began. The most hopeful forecast was the MSN one, but even it has now given up the ghost on predicting sunshine for the 23rd - and the best we can hope for is a cloudy cool evening - not exactly BBQ weather. Crowding over 50 people into the house will be an interesting experience....

Ah well, the guna (dress to the non-Irish speakers!) has been bought, the teach (house) will be clean, the bia (food) will be good (I hope!), and the fion (wine) will go down very well. The ceol (music) will be live and lively, the daoine (guests) will be on for the craic (all want to have a good time), so I'm going to stop being imnioch (anxious) and just get on with it!!

A year on...

About this time last year, I was in the city centre, buying my requisite chef's jackets for the cookery course that I was about to start. I was hopeful of many things - mainly that I would learn a lot more about cooking than I then knew, and secondly that I would meet some nice new friends! I certainly did learn a lot about food and cooking (while also confirming that I actually knew a lot more than I gave myself credit for!) and I also ended up with a whole circle of friends, many of whom I still see regularly. That has been a fabulous bonus for me - wandering in and out of new friends' hopes, ambitions and experiences - giving a hand here and there, and receiving help back - mostly without even having to ask for it! Most of those new friends were also at cross-roads in their lives so it has been an exciting time seeing their horizons change over the past year. It has also broadened my circle of friends beyond those that I have known for many years, and because I know my old friends so well, they rarely surprise me anymore, so it adds a new quirkiness to my life. So, go on, try something new and different this Autumn - it is definitely worth it!

Ordering at French restaurants

Things to watch out for when ordering food in French restaurants...

If you are not travelling with someone well-versed in the type of food on French menus – bring a dictionary or travel guide book with you. We didnt remember it a few times with some interesting results! The French are well-renowned for their love of offal, so if you are anything other than adventurous about the innards of various animals, then avoid things like ‘rognons’ – kidneys or ‘nois de Riz’ – sweetbreads, while foie is used not just for foie gras, but for all liver dishes`- this is before you get to gras-double which is tripe... You have been warned! We ended up ordering rognons de veau, and nois de Riz de veau – not realising what they were. One of us even ordered foie gras and the nois de Riz at the same lunch, and the foie gras was really lightly cooked, so a lot of slimy looking and tasting food was presented to us! Then you can end up thinking that things are more complicated than they actually are – ciboulette is chives, faux-filet is sirloin and steac-hache is minced meat...

After some experimentation with different style restaurants, our strong preference was for the simpler style of French cooking found in inexpensive bistro type places - a lot of the 'gastronomique' food was very complicated, and over-accessorised! As someone said to us at one of the visits to a chateau - they dont give you enough of what you order and insist on giving you tid-bits of things that you havent ordered - that says it all really! We really enjoyed our local creperie in Vertheuil - they saved our hungry tummies more than once with great crepes - check them out at http://www.le-v-en-vertheuil.com/ as they also do Chambres d'Hotes (ask for Patrick or Bernard). Ther was also a great seafood restaurant in Granville called La Citadelle - a photo of their fruits de mer will be published shortly - worth a trip to France for this alone! Again, though, bring the guide-book for names of both fish and shell-fish - otherwise it is a total lottery as to what you get (pardon the pun - Lot was one of those fish we had trouble identifying!)

French wine trip - part 1 - Tuesday 22nd July 2008

This is being written sitting outside in the garden of the small house – La Maison Bleu – that we have rented for the week. It is in a very small French village in the Medoc – part of the Bordeaux wine region – where the sound of cock-a-doodle doos ring out through the countryside from about 5am – frequently accompanied by the sounds of the local church bells, and more infrequently by the sound of dogs barking. At this time of the day – about 5.30pm, the sounds have been replaced by the many wasps and bees busily forraging in the climbing plants around the garden.

We arrived here on Saturday evening, somewhat later than originally planned – take it from me, the ferry from Royan across to the north-end of the Medoc, is not for the impatient or the faint-hearted! Be warned – you could face a three hour delay with the queue for the ferry wending its way backwards through Royan, with almost nowhere to even buy some water. We took an early decision and retraced our steps back to Bordeaux and around by the estuary – somewhat reminiscent of arriving at Tarbert for the ferry across to Killimor only to discover that the ferry would be delayed by a couple of hours and then having to detour into Limerick – at rush hour on a Friday on a bank-holiday weekend.

The early part of our trip wasnt without incident of the boating variety either. We arrived at Rosslare in good time to board the Oscar Wilde for our 17 hour trip from Wexford to Cherbourg. We were due to arrive in France early in the day to give us loads of time to explore the wine shops around the port, buy a few wines to try out during our trip, and then return on the way home to purchase a few more bottles of the ones we had liked most. However, while as a plan this had great merit, the ferry had developed ‘technical problems’ which took some time to resolve (several hours in fact) and then we had lost our berthing spot in Cherbourg, so that we didnt arrive onshore until 8.30pm the following evening. We were onboard for over 27 hours – not a great start...

Fair dues to my travelling companions – my brave sister agreed to do the driving to our initial stop-off point – Alencon, where we arrived at about midnight. We had gathered provisions for a midnight feast in the Auchon in Cherbourg (a really impressive supermarket, open until 10pm), and let ourselves into our hotel. The Hotel des Ducs was almost like a self-service hotel – they gave us a number to key into the key-pad at the door of the hotel, our room keys awaited us and we took it from there! The rooms were very large and comfortable and the showers were great! We did see people the next morning – well, we saw two painters who were doing up the main stairwell, and eventually a pleasant woman who checked us out and took our money. Alencon is a nice little town, with pedestrianised town centre, some impressive old buildings and a great food market. I was really sorry that we werent staying somewhere where we had a kitchen to try out some of the local produce.

Our next two nights were spent in Chinon, in the Loire Valley, in a very small hotel, which was adequate but not impressive – a typical old-fashioned hotel where we had to climb three floors of stairs to reach small but adequate rooms – but I cant say the same for the shower facilities! However we were now getting down to the serious business of wine tasting, so accommodation etc became a secondary issue. En route to Chinon, we visited Domain Huet that afternoon, in the village of Vouvray, and their wines are superb. They use bio-dynamic methods and while it may be seen as an extreme measure to grow produce by the moon phases, the proof of the pudding is in the quality of the outcomes – and in most cases – the results are great. The following day we went to Chateau Bernard Baudry, within the Chinon area and were given over two hours by Mathieu Baudry, who runs the vinyard with his father Bernard. Again, the vines are grown by bio-dynamic methods and organic farming principles, and the quality of the wines was really great – Cabernet Franc grape at its best. Before leaving Chinon behind, we have to mention the 5* omelets we got at the Hotel Le Lion d’Or (another small 2* hotel in the town), where we were made extremely welcome by the proprietor and where we would certainly stay if we were back in that area again (they can be contacted at id3709@inter-hotel.com tres agreable!

As a result of too much hospitality in the bar at the Le Lion d’Or (armagnac and calvados on top of wine isnt to be recommended!) we were a bit behind schedule heading for Bordeaux, so with the ferry-delay etc, we didnt arrive to our little village at Veurtheuil until much later than anticipated. We were made very welcome by our host Alain, and soon headed over to the local creperie for a much needed bite of dinner. One of the best crepes you’ll ever eat, made with proper Breton buckwheat flour, and did it taste good after so many hours on the road along with what felt like hundreds of thousands of drivers all determined to make far-off destinations in as short a timeframe as possible, or die in the attempt. We think that a few of them might indeed had the latter outcome, as there was a serious accident en route which also delayed us. A sobering thought all round, but one which didnt deter many of the drivers to continue to drive recklessly...

By Sunday, we had been existing on food that was either bought already cooked, or that we ate at restaurants for several days, so some home cooking was definitely in order! A bout of shopping at a not very impressive supermarket did yield up some goodies – great fresh salad ingredients (why oh why can we not get tomatoes that taste of something anywhere in Ireland??), some freshly cooked prawns to go with the salad for lunch and then the makings of home-cooked chicken for that evening... all washed down with some of the wines we had brought with us from Chinon... a few nice cheeses rounded off the evening. France has so much great produce, it is a pity that many of its restaurants insist on putting so much on top of it by way of complicated dishes and tastes...

Tuesday saw the first of our Medoc wine visits – we spent a great morning at the Lynch-Bages Estate, being looked after by Charles – and followed this with a light but delicious lunch in the nearby Cafe Lavinal which is in the place at Bages – seemed almost like a film setting - it was so perfect! And in fairness to them, the food they served us was absolutely great – really fresh goats cheese/roasted tomatoes on the best rocket salad was the best of three lovely starters, and is definitely one to recreate at home – if I can find equally good ingredients.

Roll on Chateau Margaux tomorrow!

Trouble at the market

As is probably evident from previous blog entries, I go to the Temple Bar Farmers' Market most Saturdays to pick up food for the week-end and the early part of the following week. I have been going there for some years now, and know many of the stall-holders at this stage. They are generally a very helpful crew, offering advice on how to use their produce, how it was grown or produced, and answering any other questions that arise. I have picked up many a good tip from them over the years. I have also picked up on the difficulties faced by people selling goods at markets, from lack of facilities to a lot of regulation and red tape to weather uncertainty etc, and know that it isnt the easiest way to make money!

I was there last Saturday, and immediately realised that something was amiss. Two of the stallholders normally occupying prime spots at the market were missing. Intrigued and somewhat taken-aback, I started asking what the story was. Apparently- I was dismayed to learn - some stallholders were suspended due to late trading the previous Saturday. While there are always two sides to each story, it seems to me that to suspend traders - and essentially depriving them of their weekly income - due to selling produce a couple of minutes after 4.30 is an outrageous reaction to a minor transgression. I was talking to a few of the traders about it, and in chatting to Ed Hicks, I reminded him that he hadnt sent me on his thoughts on the rights etc of the stallholders - the subject of a previous conversation a while back. He sent it to me that afternoon, and some of his thoughts are highly relevant to the suspension of the two stallholders. Essentially Ed links the rights of stallholders to the equivalent in Michael Davitts Land League days, and I quote...

I mentioned Michael Davitt and the Land League along with the 3 F’s today to highlight what can go wrong, as has been the case to date with all, bar one, of Dublin’s “Markets”.

1) Fair Rent: Fundamentally the exercise of running “ markets” in Dublin has become one of rent rolling for the organisers. These rents are generally unfair, representing as they do a multiple of between three and four times the rents per M sq off the Grafton St area in Dublin 2. This is way out of line with Competition Authority recommendations to LA’s regarding rental of pitches*.

2) Fixity of Tenure: Most market traders have no specific rights, and are almost beholden to the organisers. There is little or no opportunity for redress in most cases. There have been numerous cases of summary dismissal, particularly in “ Private Markets”. Many of these “markets” have exclusivity arrangements whereby certain traders are given guarantees of no competition. This is most definitely a bad thing! They are neither open nor accessible, a fact well disguised from consumers…

3) Freedom to Sell: As above, traders have no rights when it comes to selling their business should they choose to do so. They do not have any title or rights to their presence at a market. This is patently unfair, as anybody who has developed a business, should be entitled to sell it. But more important than selling your pitch would be the sense of ownership and empowerment it would give to small people.

While obviously Ed is presenting the case from a market traders point of view, he makes a lot of sense in what he is saying. The various Agricultural and Food interests, alongside political leaders, are making great play of our developing farmers markets around the country as being a real alternative for people to get good healthy, locally grown produce. In order for that to be successful, then flexibility on the part of market organisers is key to the success. Equally important is to give market traders a level of certainty over how they bring their goods to market and develop their business - otherwise it'll all remain a niche market into the future (sorry!).

I'm sure that the actions of Temple Bar market organisers were not intended to be draconian (indeed they may well have had legitimate reasons for their actions from their perspective, which they declined to explain to me from my email enquiry to them); also I'm sure that other market organisers have various ways of forcing compliance among the traders at their markets... but nonetheless they are an example of how not to do business.

The Tasting Room heads to France

We are heading to France this week for lots of wine tasting - planning to spend about two weeks away in total. The Loire Valley and Bordeaux are the primary places we'll be visiting with lots of vineyard visits planned. So, watch this space for regular updates and photos - mostly post-event as we'll be too busy sampling and learning while there to try and track down too many Internet cafes.

Cookbook recommendations

Excellent cookbooks from the last few years include:

Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook - great for seasonal recipes and more
Rick Stein's Fruits of the Sea - around quite a while, but a great reference and recipe book
Jamie at home - Jamie Olivers accompaniment to the TV Series - some really straightforward recipes which are easy to follow and work well
simpleIndian - Atul Kochhar - only discovered this by accident - Atul is London based and was on the Great British Menu a couple of years ago - if you want a fantastic introduction to Indian cooking - look no further - all the recipes work and they are so simple as well!

Have you cookbooks that you would recommend to others? If so, let us know and we'll add them to the list.

I'm also thinking of putting a list together of cookbooks that arent worth their price - watch this space!There are some great fruit recipes in Sarah Raven's book - cant wait for these blackberries to ripen so that I can try out her Baked Blackberries and Mascarpone dessert.

Growing edible plants - the good, the bad and the ugly

Some interesting herbs for experimentation in new recipes, including borage (the ugly one!) and some bronze fennel...

I've now been growing some fruit and herbs in the garden for a few years, and this year was to be the extension of that into a lot more vegetables and salad ingredients. Some of these growing adventures have been very successful - others less so. For example, green beans have been a disaster (see photo - yes those stalks were originally nice plants), as the snails obviously considered the growing shoots to be a feast for them - and because I'm not into putting chemicals into the soil to kill anything, I've no defence mechanisms that work for the poor plants. Beer in a container is meant to attract the snails and slugs and then they drown - well I did try that some years ago, to no avail, but maybe I'll have to give it another go. If anyone knows of anything sensible and non-chemical to try, please let me know! Otherwise, my success levels have been mixed.

Most of the herbs are quite happy, and I'm extending the types of herbs way beyond previous years, so they will give me great experimentation opportunities for new recipes. The tomato plants are growing very nicely, with lots of flowers on them which bodes well for a good crop. I've planted a kiwi plant to match up with the pre-existing apple and blackberry specimen - not sure if we'll get any kiwi fruit, but its worth giving it a go anyway.

The garden is now totally full, with no space for anything that needs its own room, so it'll be a struggle in the Autumn to cull some of the existing plants - although a particularly invasive rose bush is a likely candidate and that should free up lots of space for winter greens and the like - although the snails are likely to be attracted to those as well... must ask Jenny at the Farmers Market what she does to stave off those hungry creatures!

Gruner Veltliner

At one of our wine tasting evenings recently, we introduced the group to the Gruner Veltliner grape, which surprisingly enough, nobody had heard of before and none of them had tasted it either. It went down extremely well with them all - in fact it was their favourite wine of the evening. The one that we tasted was by Huber, their Alte Setzen 2006, from Traisental in Northern Austria. This then led to a discussion about visiting Austria, where one of my favourite places is the Wachau, where they also grow a lot of Gruner. I promised one of the group to let her know some more about when to visit and what the travel options are like. My friend in Austria gave me the following as a general guide... I also asked her to tell me about when the best time is to visit the Heurigen - which are small wine bars selling their own produced wine and other products such as home cured hams and sausages, and they are great fun to visit...


The best time to visit the Wachau .......... you have to remember that this is a very popular and well known stretch, in particular as there is a cycle path which goes from germany to Klosterneuburg and goes right along the Wachau. So in summer there are masses of cyclists. On the other hand, summer is weatherwise really good. Late spring and early autumn are the times I personally would prefer as chances are that weatherwise it is good . There is no problem getting there by train. Am attaching a link to the wachau train which is a local train which stops all along the various towns/villages. Although it is in German it does show fotos as well as routes etc which might be of use. If they really do decide to go there and have any questions just let me know. This is the link http://www.wachauerbahn.at/index Accommodation is not a problem as they are geared towards cyclists stopping for a night. If they were interested, they could also rent bikes and cycle through the wachau which is also wonderful (or so I have been told by german tourists !). As regards the Heurigen ..... they are open all year round but of course the nicest time is when you can sit outside so again, late spring to early autumn are best. As they all open for stretches of time dependent on the amount of wine they have there is always someone open.

So, maybe somewhere different for a wine trip sometime in the future??!

Sunny day in Dublin

Since the gazebo was finished a couple of months ago, it is amazing how quickly the various plants have established themselves! The downside is that it means even more places to maintain - and my family and friends are planning even more parties to be held out there!

These photographs of the back of my house were taken by a friend of a friend - Barbara Corsico - recently, on a break between showers of rain - summer in Dublin! I love her photos... and she really liked the strawberry shortbread that she and Jacqui ate with a cup of coffee - recipe came from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. The shortbread base has both orange rind and semolina flour in it, which makes a very light and yet really tasty base. Instead of the double cream in Sarah Raven's recipe however, I used Greek Yoghurt, and then topped that with lots of strawberries - everyone agreed that the yoghurt was a better option, as it added a nice bit of tartness to the whole dish and took away the really guilty and heaviness of the cream option!

Pergola Party report...

Well, the week-end party to launch the pergola went really well - a great time was had by all! As a dry run for my sister's party in August it was mightily successful - even though it was anything but dry, as copious amounts of wine was consumed (nice Spanish Rueda (white) - Basa, and a Chilian Carmenere (red), along side some Macon Uzichy Chardonnay and some Chiant Classico). Things kicked off around 3pm, with most people getting here between then and 4.30. Last guests to leave the house toddled off around midnight - except for two who ended up spending the night with us and left around 5pm the next day!

On the food front, well - it was simple rather than complicated, with lots of antipasti and salads, roasted veg and tztaziki, with some great focaccia brought by my friend Dave and some lovely desserts brought by Mary and Reg - a magnificent meringue roulade and an equally lovely elderberry champagne fresh fruit jelly. My mother had also made some of her famous brown bread and she had brought flowers - as did a few others!

The impact of the pergola - or it really should be more accurately called a gazebo! - was all that it should have been. It added another dimension to the whole event, with it being used all evening until about 1pm, when we regrouped inside in the house. Tealights were lit around 9pm, and people sat outside telling stories and planning more evenings there - the next one, I was informed by one of my sisters and a really good friend of mine will be a musical evening - they are really into music with my friend having been part of a really good band at one stage called Tanglewood, and my sister taking part in various light opera and musicals in recent years...

As a rule of thumb, the one-bottle-of-wine per head worked well, and averaged out almost exactly right. I had lots of sparkling water, and also had some fresh fruit juices which when mixed with some sparkling water was a welcome option for people later on.

Charity Art Auction prize

A few weeks ago when I was at the Temple Bar Farmer's Market, I was talking to one of the lads JohnJo, who was telling me about a charity Art Auction that he was helping to run; I ended up buying a ticket, more for the charity cause (the Umbrella Foundation in Sudan - www.umbrellanepal.org) than with any sense that I might win a prize, as I never win prizes in draws. Anyway, the other evening, I got a call which turned out to be from JohnJo, and lo and behold, I had won first prize! It was a sculpture in bronze by Elizabeth Le Jeune, and the following evening I went off down to the house to collect my winnings. When I saw the piece that she had donated to the auction as a prize, it was lovely but I was struggling to see where I could put it in my house. She then told me that she would be prepared to either do me a special piece or for me to choose from her existing collection. I eventually chose a bronze bust of a young man, which I totally fell for, and which will get pride of place in the garden - a perfect solution! A picture of said sculpture will get posted soon, when I finally place it in its long-term home in the garden! Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get the collective wisdom of a crowd on where it should be placed when I have my garden party tomorrow... and the weather forecast is a bit dodgy!

BBQ Cooking Workshops

One of the services that The Tasting Room offers is a summer cooking workshop, with the BBQ as the centrepiece. They are the best fun to do, as everyone is immediately put into good humour at the prospect, and that translates into a bubble of enthusiasm on the day!

One of them that I ran recently, one of the invited attendees had decided that she wouldnt attend, as she had an exam coming up that she needed to do some work to prepare for it. Her daughter, in whose house the workshop was being held (that's the way we run them - in people's homes) and the other participants were about 15 minutes into the 4 hour workshop when she stopped me in my tracks and said that she had to ring her Mom and persuade her to come along for the rest of the day.

I paused while she rang her to say that she would always regret it if she didnt drop everything and come over, as everything that I had said we would be doing were all things that her mother would love! Her mother said back to her (I could hear the conversation!) - 'but you know that I dont really like BBQd food' - to which her daughter said - 'but you'll absolutely love this food'.

So, the Mom came over and we restarted the session. And the daughter was right - her Mom loved everything! She explained to me that she isnt a big red meat eater and the usual BBQ stuff was too meat-oriented. What I teach at my workshops is more about the marinades using fresh herbs and citrus flavours, lots of interested salads to accompany the other meats, ways to do potato dishes that really work with BBQs - well, we Irish love our spuds! - and of course how to time everything so that you have a nice series of dishes that complement each other!

I ended up spending 5 hours with the small group, at the end of which they had rung some of their friends inviting them over to help eat the food, beer and wine were brought in, and I left them to it! They were really delighted with the whole day, and so was I!

Gardening for the kitchen...

I know I said that my next article would be on creating a kitchen garden, but the weather has been so lousy that I couldnt think about taking some photos about progress to date, and I have been very busy with other stuff in the meantime. Including a visit this afternoon to Dublin's Bloom Festival (not to be confused with Bloom's Day in June celebrating James Joyce!). The Bloom Festival is Ireland's answer to the Chelsea Flower Show, and is in its second year. Last year, I attended on the only sunny day - this year it looks like the weather will hold up to be fine (in direct contrast to the rain and wind we've had all week).

The Festival has been extended this year to cover a bigger area and the gardens have expanded to match. There were some great examples of both ornamental and vegetable/herb gardens from which to take inspiration - along with some newcomers (to me anyway!) from both arts and crafts and artisan food suppliers. The range of garden plants that could be purchased also seemed to be more adventurous than last year, and I ended up buying a lovely fern for my pergola - I am assured that the plant I bought (a dryopteris) will do wonderfully under the shade. There were lots of gardens where herbs and/or vegetables were the main theme, and also gardens where herbs in particular were sneaking in all over the place in amongst the other planting. Definitely, edible planting is a major fashion right now - hopefully it'll take root for the future (sorry for the pun...). Obviously my own inclinations towards this style of planting isnt an isolated whim, but rather part of a societal shift - interesting that in the UK, the sales of vegetable seeds has outstripped ornamental flower seeds for the first time since World War II - even if this is partly due to the availability of flowering plants even in small corner shops. When we see vegetables and herbs being sold like the ubiquitous marigold or trailing lobelia, then we'll know that growing your own veg isnt just a whim...

Bottle of wine joke...

This joke has been doing the rounds. I liked it!




THE BOTTLE OF WINE

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:
Mary was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.
Resuming the journey, Mary tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail,until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Mary.
"What in bag?" asked the old woman.
Mary looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."
The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.
Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:
"Good trade....."

The Tasting Room logo

This is the current version of our logo-in-development. Our designer is working on making the olives a bit more recognisable, but otherwise we really like it. Any suggestions?

The building of the pergola in time for the party

One of the essential elements in the party planning is space maximisation, so the long-fingered plan to build a pergola in the back garden came to the forefront in January 2008. The plan was to construct something with a roof so that people could shelter there if the day of the party turned out to be wet. The son of a friend - a really talented cabinetmaker called Paul O'Mahony - agreed to work with us on designing and building a wooden structure in the back garden. I had some ideas, Paul shaped them into an actual design, and he and a few friends built it over the following number of weeks - this was in the middle of the wettest months in Dublin. Finally, we painted it a pale green and it is now settling in. As the garden is a typical inner city courtyard and little else, the pergola is now a significant proportion of the entire space, and even if I say so myself, it is a real addition! Now that the weather has actually improved, we are all spending quite a lot of time sitting in it. Of course, the rest of the garden is also getting a bit of attention as well - my plans to turn the usable soil space into a mostly edible productive area is now taking shape. Subject of my next blog!

50th Birthday party planning

Last August, I foolishly volunteered to host my sister's 50th birthday party in my house, and to do the catering for it. As she lives in London, her options were limited as to where she could have the party without it ending up costing a fortune, and even those places she had checked out werent really what she had in mind. So I (no doubt fuelled by several glasses of wine!), found myself offering my house as the party venue. My rationale was that not only would I be doing her a favour, it would also mean that all the various jobs that I had planned to have done to 'do up' the house would have a focus and a deadline. And that is exactly what is now happening!

First, a bit about my sister. Most of her career has had a focus on organising events of one kind or another, so she knows how early you have to start the PLAN. Her attention to detail is phenomonal - she actually likes making sure the details are right! This is in direct contrast to myself, where I apply the 80-20 rule to most of my endeavours, and have to force myself to pay attention to the rest of the programme. However, the sister does trust me on the food front, she trusts Colm on the wine front, and she plans on managing the rest by remote control.

So, what needs to be done?

Guest-list - the most important element - a very eclectic guest list is being planned - people are travelling from far-flung regions of the world to attend.

Venue - the house is a typical late Victorian terraced house, which has had a conservatory added on in recent years to give much needed light into the back of the house. However, it is still a modest house, and the challenge posed by having about 70-80 people in the house is an interesting one. Given that the party is being held in August, there is a good likelihood that using the garden will be an option. On the other hand, given that we are talking Dublin, Ireland, and the recent wet weather we've had in Augusts, fall-back strategies will definitely be required. Plus, as the entertainment planned involves having a piano located somewhere in the middle of things, that adds another complication into the mix (more of that later!).

Food - menu planning for 70-80 in a domestic kitchen is definitely a major challenge to get right. An important occasion requires interesting food, and when food is your business, then it has to be right.

Wine - well, that also has to be right - The Tasting Room's reputation is at stake on that front (as it is on the food front as well!) - so no pressure.

Entertainment - the sister is handling that side of things - a pianist/entertainer friend is coming over from London for the party, so all I have to do is to provide the space for the piano. The sister is organising for it to be moved from its present location in Meath, and for it to be tuned etc on its arrival. Precise location in my house as yet undecided.

And talking of the house, many a minor decorating (and not so minor) job now have to be faced into, along with clearing the house of a substantial amount of furniture and other unnecessary accoutrements which have accumulated over the years.

Project Planning

Hmmm, not sure whose responsibility this is, which is a sure-fire way for lots of things to fall between the cracks - what happened to all the rigorous project planning skills that I honed over the years? Why do they not seem to apply to this situation. Must discuss with the sister, along the lines of:

Preplanning - Over the coming fast-dwindling number of months - what do we need to do ahead of time, working backwards along critical paths as to when the latest certain things need to be done, and in what order

For the day planning - what do we want to happen when and how (needless to say the chances of them actually working out according to plan is fairly slim, but at least we'll feel in control)

Organisation of food, wine, guests, venue, entertainment etc

Clean-up afterwards and post party entertainment for the hung-over the next day

Plan for a few days away to recover from it all

Portuguese wines - how they turned out

The visit to the Algarve turned out great - the weather was lovely, and we all really enjoyed it.
Best place to buy wines in the supermarket turned out to be Appolonia, in the town of Almancil, with a great range of different wines to chose from. As supermarkets go, it is at the higher end of the spectrum for both food and wine, so it probably isnt the cheapest option, although I checked equivalent prices in other places and they compared quite well. As I was only there for a few days, I didnt get the chance to explore the breadth of wines available, but most of what I did try were of pretty good quality.

Definite recommendations include:

White - inexpensive - Giro Sol (Vinho Verde DOC) from Projecto de Dirk Niepoort, made from the Loureiro grape - this was perfect summer wine, very fresh grassy & citrusy flavours
White - mid-price - Alvarinho grape (Sub-region of Mancao - Branco) - I tried a couple of these, and they were a bit variable, but overall well worth a go - same grape as Albarino, which is one of my favourits
White - mid to expensive - Chardonnay - had a couple of these in restaurants and they compare very well with the french equivalent, not too oaked

On the red front (as I was with mostly red wine drinkers, I tried a few more of these!), although didnt get the chance to delve into the cheap end of things - maybe next time!

Red - mid-price Casa de Saima Bairrada 2001 - 95% Baga grape, which turned out to be very smooth tasting, like a rich pinot noir

Red - mid-price - Esparao Allentejo DOC Reserva 2000 - mix of Trincadeira, Aragones and Cabarnet Sauvignon, tasted of ripe fruit and softened down tannins

Red - mid to expensive - Quinto do Carmo Vinho Regional Alentejano 2002 with Aragones, Alicante Bouchet, Trincadero and Castelao - this was a really lovely wine, and more than one bottle of this one was consumed. Local grape varieties made this a really interesting wine.

Red - expensive - Quinta da Bacalhoa 2005 Vinho Regional Terras do Sad0, which was a Cabernet Merlot mix. Great wine, could compare well with its Bordeaux equivalent.

All of these were really good wines to drink, and many of them also feature on restaurant wine lists.

Portugal revisited

I am heading to Faro in the morning for a few days. My last visit to Portugal was many moons ago when its tourism industry was in its infancy and I was midway through my computer science degree course in Trinity College Dublin. While I have tracked the changes in ICT fairly consistently in the interim, it'll be interesting to see how Portugal has changed - given that my only visits since then were to a conference in Lisbon (when I hardly made it outside the hotel conference centre) and to Madeira, which given its distance from the Iberian Peninsula proper, hardly counts at all! Colm, my wine expert brother, has given me a list of wines to try when I'm there, so I'm really looking forward to trying them out. As his handwriting is fairly illegible, I will be struggling to identify some of the grapes/regions, but then I think I might struggle anyway, as my knowledge of Portugese wines is so limited that I'll be lucky to make any sense at all of the whole wine scene there.

Hmmm, he mentions Loueiro and Trajadura grapes. Then he moves onto the Moncao region, and talks about Alvarinho - and that this is the same grape as one of my favourites - Albarinho, so I'll be happy with that. I am told to try wines from Bairrada, which should be similar to Riesling style wines (that looks very interesting).

On the red front (my friends in Portugal are mainly red wine drinkers, so I better pay attention!), - Douro DOC - made from Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz (same as Tempranillo I believe) they sound good. Bairrada DOC - Pinot Noir type wines we think, worth giving a go - the local grap is Baga. Alentejo is another option... among lots of others on his list. I think I'll try them all and report back in due course. Portugese wines have benefitted from a serious injection of EU investment funds over the past number of years, and they should be very different from the wines I would have tasted all those years ago. I'll report back - maybe I'll also be able to report on restaurants to visit around the Algarve, shoe shops to visit (sorry boys!), and any other areas of interest...