Articles

A survey conducted among leading Irish restaurant owners and chefs from around the country has shown that 70% of those surveyed have increased the amount of local ingredients for use in their restaurants in the past 2 years.
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Marilyn Bright talks to Tim Mason of Out of the Blue, Dingle, Co Kerry, a man who saw potential in a derelict shack beside the harbour - and turned it into one of Ireland’s best-known (and most uncompromising) seafood restaurants.
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Lamb may be synonymous with spring but, while tender, the small joints that make it to the Easter table are not a patch on the fuller-flavoured (and better value) meat that comes onto the market later in the season. The size, texture and flavour of lamb varies depending on the breed and how it has been raised. Broadly this divides into the large lowland lamb and mountain lamb....
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We have long admired Westport and were not a bit surprised when it was recently hailed The Irish Times Best Place To Live In Ireland. Not just a pretty town - although it is certainly that – but also an exceptionally satisfying place to visit for a break, and to do business, it is blessed with wonderful scenery, good planning (why have we learned so little from the success of our planned towns?) and a vibrant community who work together to bring people to the area.
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The artisan milk and handmade butter movement is really gathering momentum, it is still minute but boy is it causing a stir. Single estate milk is a new growth area in Irish food. Many top restaurants are now featuring handmade butter proudly on their tables and at last a growing number of dairy farmers are putting milk back into glass bottles and selling organic non-homogenised milk and butter. I sense the same passion as in the artisan brewing movement and as with the brewers there’s a generosity of spirit and room for many more.
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There are some vegetables that you grow yourself and you really wonder whether it's worth the hassle, particularly if there are good commercial alternatives available. But given the fact that most of the tomatoes in our supermarkets are the super-bland, all-year-round Dutch variety and taste of ....well nothing at all, having a good crop of your own tomatoes is really one of the most rewarding things you can do.
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Jenny Young describes dealing with one of the unwelcome (but essential) hidden costs that challenge all farmers. With all this rain readers might find it difficult to believe that Castlefarm has been suffering water shortages. As a household we are part of a local group water scheme and for the past 2 years, due to water shortages in the area, the water has been rationed more and more frequently.
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Turning her attention to the wisdom of ‘letting the hare sit’, Lucy Madden contemplates (among other things) the benefits of masterful inactivity. Our summer, henceforth to be known as the monsoon season, has caused me to remember the words spoken by John Cleese in the film ‘Clockwise’; “it’s not the despair I mind, it’s the hope.”
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Triskel Cheeses are hand-ladled French-style soft goats cheeses and a semi-hard cow’s cheese, made by Breton woman Anna Leveque in a small production unit at her home in Portlaw, Co Waterford, using locally sourced milk. Recently recognised by Euro-Toques in their 2012 EirGrid/Euro-Toques Food Awards, the Triskel cheeses are already popular with discerning chefs and were nominated by Euro-Toques chef Michael Quinn, of Waterford Castle Hotel.
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“Seaweed has always been an important part of life for Ireland’s coastal communities, for use on the land and in the home,” says Sligo GP and Slow Food member Prannie Rhatigan in her book Irish Seaweed Kitchen (www.prannie.com). “Today, the shoreline is mysterious to many of us - but it’s as familiar as the back garden to families living along the coast or on islands, who have grown up with the rhythm of the tides and the briney harvest that is revealed every twelve hours.”
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