The Clatter of Forks and Spoons...

I asked for and got a copy of Richard Corrigan's latest cookbook 'The Clatter of Forks and Spoons' for Christmas. I had bought it for someone else as a pressie, and then realised that I wanted my own copy! Apart from the great recipes that I want to try out, I've been reading the autobiographical bits that intersperse each of the chapters. In a weird way, his upbringing and mine have many things in common. His mother was brought up in Conamara in West Galway, and she moved to Co Meath as part of the experiment with transplanting families from the West to parts of Meath which took place in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting in some strange juxtapositions of cultures.

My grandparents on my mother's side of the family also moved during the early days and settled probably only about 5 or 6 miles away from Richard's family. My parents (and we children of course!) moved to the nearby town of Trim via a 9 month stay with the grandparents in 1970. We used to visit The Kirwan Arms in Athboy for a Sunday lunch treat for a number of years - it isnt clear from Richard's book if he was in the kitchens there during the early to mid 70s, but my father could never resist the brown windsor soup (I couldnt see the attraction of a consomme myself - still cant for that matter!).

His book is full of stories of how life was in his part of Meath in those days, and many of the stories resonate with my visits to my grandparents for holidays, as they were also smallholders. I think that Richard fared better on the food front though - I cant remember any spectacularly interesting meals being served up to me in those days. I do remember the quality of the water fetched from the local well, which was used for drinking and cooking (the house well water not being the most potable!); it was fantastic water! And I remember the lambing season when we would end up minding the occasional orphan lamb indoors at the range for a few weeks - great excitement all round for that.

Of course, we also visited the relations in Conamara - mainly on my father's side of the family - again during the 60s and 70s, during the long summer holidays (my parents being teachers fared well on the holiday front!). I still remember learning to milk a cow, feed chickens and watch with horror when my aunt killed a chicken in honour of our visit! Richard mentions the rosary being said each night in his home - I remember the same ritual in my aunt's house - I can still feel the hard surface of the ground where we knelt, while my aunt would lead the rosary for everyone in the house - adults and children and any visitor who was in the house come 10 o'clock! And all in Irish of course - no English spoken there unless some of the overseas cousins from the UK were over for their summer visits!

In those days, there was a weekly van which was the main grocery shop for the village, and a butchers called once a week, and fish could be bought straight from the boot of the fisherman's car. Everyone grew their own veg and had their own eggs from the 'sicini' (chickens), so the carrots were pulled from the garden and an hour later we were eating them for our dinner - no al dente cooking in those days!

Fuerteventura holiday & rabbit recipes...

Sunsets were pretty spectacular, as can be seen...

Just back from the Canaries - was lucky enough to get 10 days there with family, but unlucky enough that the weather was very variable - we only had a couple of really sunny days and it remained windy until the last day there, which of course was the nicest day weather-wise! As per last year, we stayed in El Caleton, outside El Cotillo on the north-west coast of Fuerteventura - right on the edge of the sea.

There are 11 apartments, which are basic enough in terms of facilities, but make up for any lack by way of the views, and the proximity to the beach. This is the view from the garden.

Food-wise, the general fare is typically Canarian - generally fine, but nothing to write home about - but we found one real gem during our stay. It is a relatively new restaurant called La Higuera in the tiny village of El Roque, and the food is really excellent, alongside a quite interesting wine list. The style of cooking is quite eclectic - definitely in the fusion zone - a great starter we had was cuttlefish (similar to squid or octopus), stir fried with Asian spices, lemongrass, chilli and garlic - served with some mixed leaves and finely sliced stir-fried vegetables. I will definitely be trying that one out in the near future. Main courses were also very varied, and included a great recipe for Rabbit - browned with a little flour in olive oil, then cooked with leeks, garlic, olives, lots of white wine and some thyme and rosemary. The chef told me that he cooked it for about an hour, but if the rabbit was wild, he would double that time. It was quite delicious, and another one to add to the list for experimentation, as I probably left out a few key ingredients due to having imbibed too much wine during the evening! We were made most welcome by the restaurant, and we made a return visit just to confirm our initial impressions!
Photos taken by my husband!

More market trouble...

I arrived into Temple Bar Market on Saturday and immediately sensed an air of negativity around the place. I wasnt very awake as it was early, so was a bit slow on the uptake. I chatted to Brendan at the Olive stall and then went to Jenny's stall for my usual range of salads and veggies. I overheard her conversation with another regular customer, and picked up that the other mainstay vegetable supplier - Dennis Healy - had been suspended from the market. I had spotted the gap in the stalls, but had assumed that they were just late in getting things set up. While stall-holders have been suspended before, there seemed to be more going on that just that. There was. As it turned out, all the stallholders had been informed over the New Year break period that their rents were going up - in many cases, they were being doubled!! I was astonished, to put it mildly. Given that we are in the midst of the biggest economic downturn in many years in this country, it seems totally unfair to put up rents to that extent. The various local authorities around the country were told in no uncertain terms by business and national politicians to limit their rates increases to marginal increases of below 5%, and here we have a public agency increasing the equivalent of rates by over 100% in most cases! Talk about not having a level playing field. Once more, there is inequity being fostered between big business who can command air-time and influence, and small business, who are too scattered to be able to hope to position themselves in equivalent positions of power.

Back to the problem that led to Denis Healy's stall being conspicuous by its absence... I spotted Denis himself before I left the market, and asked him what the story was. Apparently, his staff had left some empty boxes behind on the last day before Christmas, as one of their vans had broken down and they couldnt pack everything. As a punishment for this, he was being fined almost €1000, and was being suspended until the fine was paid! What an attitude this displays. You need to sell some amount of veggies and fruit to make a profit of €1000. Denis was visibly upset by the whole thing and had come into the market to attempt to meet with the market supervisor directly, as nobody had returned his phone calls earlier in the week.

Maybe the stall-holders should take matters into their own hands and find another location to set up their stalls - if I am anything by way of being a typical regular shopper there - I dont go to savour the early morning smells of Temple Bar en route to the market itself (stale alcohol and worse), but to buy the excellent produce that is available from the stall-holders...

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.

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?