Articles

The countdown to Easter begins on 21st February, which is Shrove Tuesday or, in the cooks’ lexicon, Pancake Day. As it’s the day before the first day of Lent (Ash Wednesday), it was traditionally a day for using up the foods that weren’t allowed during the fasting period of Lent, notably eggs.
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Slow Food has taken me to many remote places around the globe in search of ancient cultures and indigenous foods. On one memorable occasion I found myself in Sápmi (Samiland) in northern Sweden – the land of the midnight sun; it was bright almost all night.
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The other evening I was going through some notes from a course on soil fertility I attended a few years back with Jim Cronin on his smallholding in Bridgetown, Co Clare. Jim is a rare breed – a wise sage who wears his considerable wisdom lightly. The two greatest materials for returning fertility to soil, he says, are seaweed and homemade compost.
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Since I was a child carrots have appeared on my dinner plate several times a week. My mum used to tell us that they helped us see better in the dark – and she wasn’t too far from the truth. Carrots are energising and are a great antiseptic, as well as having anti oxidant qualities. Did you know that a single carrot will supply all your vitamin A needs for the whole day. My children often snack on raw carrots, and I use them not just as a veggie but also in baking, muffins and delicious carrot cake.
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A lot of things about Natasha Czopor’s ‘Natasha's Living Food’ are out of the ordinary, beginning with Natasha herself, who is representative of Ireland’s energetic and enterprising young cosmopolitan population - and she makes her products by hand in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, which is near the Phoenix Park and not generally known as a manufacturing area of the city.
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Jenny Young and the team at Castlefarm are busy preparing for spring – and watching TV in bed...The arrival of February sees the birth of lots of calves (approx 70) at Castlefarm. All our cows are indoors full time. The herd is split into two, the milkers and the calvers.
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Not a lot of people could claim an MBE for services to the hospitality industry on their CVs, but Allegra McEvedy is one who can – and the best-selling food writer, chef, broadcaster and culinary explorer’s unusual book BOUGHT, BORROWED & STOLEN, Recipes & Knives from a Travelling Chef (Octopus, hardback £25) illustrates perfectly what makes her stand out from the crowd.
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Sprouting broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables and it’s a great crop to grow yourself because, strangely, it’s very rarely to be seen in the shops in Ireland. A brassica (member of the cabbage family), it is grown for its clusters of flower heads, which are harvested before the flowers open and used as a vegetable in a similar way to asparagus.
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The Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition has been a highlight of Ireland’s pre-Christmas culinary season for 21 years, and attending the finalists’ lunch and announcement of the winner is always a treat. No less so this time around, when a beautiful meal was cooked by the finalists and served...
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January is a pretty hectic month for me, lots of wedding and catering enquiries along with room reservation for what looks like a busy year ahead. So a good healthy start to the year for me is imperative. Did you know that a simple thing such as eating and enjoying the right food will improve your mood and self esteem? Very important in this over stressed world, wouldn’t you agree.
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