In case you were wondering where I have gone to...

This is a link to another blog that I am active on at the moment - it is about our plans to create our new business called Honest2Goodness.

http://honest2goodnessfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/

While I still plan on being active on this blog in the coming months, there is lots going on at my other one, so please check it out!

Exciting moves and market days ahead...

After much thought and deliberation for the last few months, we are on the move to new premises and are planning to include a weekly indoor food market in our new location on Saturdays. The building is in Glasnevin in Dublin, and has about 6000 sq ft of available warehousing, as well as ample office and storage space, a stainless steel kitchen and space for our wine tastings and much more. It'll be full steam ahead in the coming weeks to prepare the space, meet all the Environmental Health requirements and be up and running by mid-summer. This is all part of our decision to join forces with Champagnes Unlimited, and grow our business jointly, with emphasis on good value wines in this time of economic recession, cookery demonstrations on how to use the produce from the market, and to have our own stall at the market. We will be able to have wine tastings and courses on the premises, although we will still be available for incompany tasting evenings.

Current plans are for a mainly fresh food produce market, lots of veggies, meat, fish etc with an emphasis on quality and good value as well. Of course we'll also have some produce for people to be able to treat themselves, but always with a healthy emphasis! So, I'm off to Borough Market in London this weekend to look at it with fresh eyes - not as a consumer of the food there, but to see how they have it set up from an operational perspective. Not much point in not aiming for the best we can be, and they are a good example in this part of the world... Barcelona would be even better, but maybe too ambitious... for now... So, if you would like to explore having a stall at our market, and your food produce is good quality and affordable, then get in touch with us at info@thetastingroom.ie or if you would just like to hear more about our plans...

Horticultural matters

A few months ago, a low-key statement issued announcing the closure of Warrenstown College, which is one of only 4 horticultural colleges in Ireland, and is the only third-level college in the county of Meath.

I can understand some of the economics behind the decision - and we are in such a state in the Irish economy at the moment! - however, it does appear to be a very short-sighted decision. We are at a time when all things horticultural are at a cross-roads in Ireland. We have two possible future directions. One is to follow the road of importing the bulk of our fruits and vegetables, with our own farmers getting fewer and fewer, and those who are still there having to do battle with the big multinational supermarket chains. Hmmm, doesnt sound good for the longterm to me!

The other is to differentiate ourselves into the higher-quality produce, with the bulk of it organic (or at least grown to organic principles), with the food being provided to local outlets, cutting out the multinationals from our food chain. Small retailers, farmers' markets and direct provision to local supermarkets could be the way to go. That way, our collective carbon footprint improves, we eat better quality, in-season vegetables (thus getting more minerals and vitamins from them) and therefore our health is better all round.

If we dont have sufficient places for people to be trained to produce food this way, then the likelihood of this second options being chosen diminishes... and the alternatives being offered by Teagasc are - The Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin and Kinsealy!! Not exactly in areas offering cheap accommodation, or indeed locations likely to seem attractive to people who have been born and reared in the countryside, and who just want to be able to farm better!

Is it too late to reconsider the options? What cost to our economy and to the future generations in this country? Does anybody care??

Ode to a Quail (or two!)

Never having cooked quail before, as they are rarely available round my area, I was delighted to spot them in Cavistons in Glasthule, where I visited this morning. In case you dont know them, Cavistons is a family run business, with some of the best fresh produce that you can get in all of Dublin - great fish and meat, wonderful cheeses and fresh vegetables, and a fine array of artisan foods. However, back to the quail! While not cheap food, you could do them as a starter, thus only serving one per person - that way it would work out at €3.50 each, which isnt an outrageous price by any means. Two for a main course is about a nice generous amount!

I love the way that Ho Sen (Vietnamese restaurant in Temple Bar) do them, so we set out to recreate them along the same lines. Our marinade was created from garlic, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves, lime juice, chillies, schezuan peppers, sesame oil and peanut oil and a little honey. We left that to sit for a while mixed through the partly boned quails (we allowed two per person as a main course). With part-boned quail, it is much easier to cook them, as you have a fairly even surface to cook, rather than trying to roast the whole bird.

I checked with a few online recipes as to how long they need to be cooked properly (I dont know if they fall into the chicken category of 'must be fully cooked' or the duck category of ' anyway you want to cook from rare to well-done'). I still dont know, but concluded that when in doubt, make sure the food is safe to eat, so I erred on the side of caution and went with the option of 5 minutes on each side, rather than one of the options which was a total of 5 minutes!

After leaving the marinade on the quail for about 20 minutes, I cooked them by browning them on each side for about 2 minutes each side, then putting them into a preheated oven for about 5 minutes, then for the last minute, doing them on dual grill and oven setting. They turned out brilliantly! Succulent, yet crispy-skinned, and the flavours from the marinade came through beautifully without overpowering the quail taste. We served them with wok-fried veggies and some brown rice and had them with some really nice Australian Chardonnay - the Stonier Reserve 2004, which is a far cry from the still-lingering image of over-oaked Aussie Chard!

If anyone would like the recipe in full, get in touch with us and I'll send on the details to you! You can send the mail to info@thetastingroom.ie

January mid-week supper inspiration...

Yesterday was a very busy day - the first day back syndrome (yes we do take a long break in Ireland around Christmas/New Year!). I knew I would be at a meeting that could stretch right into the evening, so dinner had to be flexible and quick. So, stir fry beckoned as the right way to go. This recipe can be made with almost any meat, but I did it with turkey breast, as I hadnt had turkey at any time over the festive season! It took a total of 20 minutes from start to finish - and the longest time was for the brown rice to cook.

For each large portion of turkey breast (or chicken, pork, lamb or beef) you need approximately
1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes (less or more according to how hot you want the dish!)
1/2 teaspoon of black beans (dont overdo the black beans as it can overpower the other flavours)
1 clove of garlic and
equal quantities of root ginger, both finely chopped
sesame oil
soya sauce (I use Tamari, rather than traditional makes as it is gluten free)
juice of half lemon
teaspoon of cornflour or other thickening agent (Kuzu is great) dissolved in water

Slice the turkey or other meat into bite-sized portions while the wok is heating
Add some oil (approx a tablespoon) - preferably groundnut or sunflower oil - to the wok
When smoking, add the turkey to the oil and stir fry for approximately 1 minute until the turkey pieces are almost cooked through.
Add the black bean and chilli flakes, then almost immediately add the garlic and ginger.
Cook for about 10 seconds, then add a dash of sesame and soya.
Add the lemon juice and then the cornflour mix. Cook for a minute and its done!

Serve with lots of stir-fried vegetables - keep them crunchy! and brown basmati rice.

Enjoy and remember that pretty much all of the ingredients are health-giving. Ginger, garlic, chillies, black beans, brown rice, - lots of goodness - and even some tryptophan in the turkey to help you sleep after a long day!

I also had a glass of wine with this - for once I went away from white-wines-with-Asian theme and plumped for a Southern Rhone Gigondas, packing a fairly powerful punch, but somehow it all worked together.

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?

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!

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!