Book Reviews

This month’s books have both been written in celebration of great Irish institutions.

Firstly, Michelle Horgan’s Recipes From The English Market (Atrium Press, hardback €25) is another handsome food book from a division of Cork University Press. There is nowhere like The English Market in Cork city, Ireland’s oldest covered market, and it’s no wonder that this delightful place is where the most charming image of the Queen was captured on her 2012 visit - and yes, it quite rightly features on the cover.

Renowned for the quality and diversity of its produce, the English Market supplies the city’s leading restaurants and is a favourite shopping destination for both local residents and visitors. Today the mixture of stalls may be becoming much more cosmopolitan (full details of current stallholders are given on their excellent website), but many of the older ones are thriving and have been in the same family for generations - and this is the best place in Ireland to source many of the traditional foods and cuts of meat that have gradually disappeared elsewhere.

Stall by stall, Michelle Horgan gives the history of each one, with photographs of the market characters and some of their favourite recipes - many of them for old-fashioned favourites which are now rarely seen outside Cork city. The range of foods sold covers everything from local meats, fish, poultry and vegetables - all of which are sold in several competing stalls run by different families - to cheeses, baked goods and the ‘exotics’ that have become part of Cork life, including olives and Hadji Bey Turkish Delight (inspiration for an unusual ice cream, which has a recipe given in the book).

This was a book waiting to be written and, although foodies may sometimes wish for a little more detail (on the now almost forgotten cuts of meat for example), it is sure to be very popular with visitors to Ireland as well as regular shoppers at this wonderful market.

The recipes include some great comfort food, reminiscent of an older Ireland - see this month’s main Cookery Feature.

In the North-West, and in celebration of tens years at the popular Lyons Café in Sligo Town, talented chef-proprietor Gary Stafford has published the book that his customers of this charming café have been asking for - Lyons Café, The Recipes (paperback, with original imagery by Sligo photographer Darek Smetana; €16 from the café and local bookshops).

It’s not just any old cookbook, though, as it is a celebration of its surroundings and the workings of the busy kitchen as well as the food itself. Henry Lyons Department store in Sligo town was founded in 1835 and this gloriously old-fashioned shop is an absolute gem, becoming more precious with each passing year as other stores take the modernisation route.

The first floor Lyons Café is operated independently and it fell into good hands when the keen and well-travelled young chef, Gary Stafford, took the helm in 2002 – and, reflecting the character of the lovely old café itself, this very welcome cookbook is a delight.

A charming mixture of history, great traditional baking and colourful, fresh-flavoured dishes inspired by his travels, this is a book that will be treasured by loyal customers – and will surely inspire many others to visit this Sligo gem for themselves.

Although privately published, it’s a very professional production - well edited, appealingly designed and printed (in Ireland) on quality paper - and deserves wider distribution and/or online sales.

SAMPLE RECIPE: In this month’s In Season there is an unusual and useful Lemon Chutney from Lyons Café .