31 December 2012

Coffee time

On a spilt shift today so had some daylight to play with - rare in the midwinter working calendar. First decision was to have coffee.....second was to take a few shots of the process and the key ingredient. Honestly, that was the order.

The Mocha

Decided to go with the Mocha coffee maker today. It has been good to me over the mayhem of the past few weeks - speedy, strong and quintessentially (cough cough) Italian!

The Bean

The Bean & the Grind

My grinder has blades - highly controversial I know but it is what it is. It does the trick for what I need....for the moment.

The Mocha

28 December 2012

Upgrades!

So I have upgraded the camera to a Nikon 5100. I added a lens. The Nikkor 105mm Micro (or Macro...take your pick). The plan is to put all this new technology to good use in 2013. Here are some trial run shots from Christmas Day. I am pretty happy with them!


Red Cabbage being prepped!


Mum's beetroot cured salmon

Fresh fig on our cheeseboard.

Apple and Mont D'Or

Mincepie

28 November 2012

Meatball night

Meatballs were on the menu tonight - a complete nightmare to photograph, particularly on the winters night.  But they were good!  Here's a snapshot. 

My meatballs - beef and lamb.
I am slowly but surely trialling different meats, mixes of meats, herbs, frying vs oven vs combination, breadcrumbs vs no breadcrumbs, small vs medium vs massive, .....the methods are endless. 

These were good. Ovened, on a rack, beef and lamb, rosemary and parsley, tomato sauce prepped separately, red wine to finish the sauce. 

19 November 2012

Just a little cheese!

Crottin.... (french goat's cheese).  I just like the picture. And love the cheese.


13 November 2012

Beery Brownbread with smoked salmon

I have a been a bit lax (d'ya get it?) with my posts. So I made some brownbread last night, continuing my experiments with different beer based recipes.  Thus far I am happiest with the Smithwicks Pale Ale version.  The Budweiser and Carlsberg attempts were fine but unexceptional.  The Guinness recipe I did as scones rather than as a loaf - they were good but not exactly Guinness-y. The Pale Ale version actually smells and tastes.....beery. 


Nolan's Smoked Salmon on Smithwicks Pale Ale Brownbread

The idea stemmed from a lack of buttermilk in both the fridge and the local shops one evening. A quick google noted that beer was a sufficient replacement. I have used my Mum's brownbread recipe as the base for the experiments.

My Brownbread 

Ingredients:
- 2 Mugs of Wholemeal Stoneground Flour
- 1 Mug Plain Flour
- 1 Heaped tsp. salt
- 1 Heaped tsp. baking soda
- 2 Heaped tblsp. sugar
(Nice additions - pinhead oatmeal or pumpkin seeds.  The pinhead requires more liquid).

- 1 Bottle Smithwicks Pale Ale

Mix all the dry goods together. It's recommended to sieve the baking soda so there are no lumps in the mix. I am not so.....attention focussed and just rub it in.  Add in the ale in decent glugs but not all in one go. Give it a good stir until you have a good sticky wet mixture but not loose and flowing. You may not need to use the whole bottle.

Grease a loaf baking tin with butter.  Pour in the mixture. Throw it in the oven at around 190/200 degrees C.  An hour normally works.  The wetter the mix, the longer the loaf will need.  

Allow to cool (or not) and serve with smoked salmon (Nolan's  from Ballina in this case) - or with honey or.... blackcurrant jam or..... some robiola tre latte or .... tomatoes or.... cucumber.... or ..... you get the point! 

Tip: If you cut the mix into scone sizes, these will cook in 25/30 minutes. The buttermilk version was a stalwart on our Sunday breakfast table when we were kids. 


Pale Ale and Brownbread

08 July 2012

Calories on Menus

This is not an issue of health standards or industry downfall. This is about the customer and their right to make indulgent decisions.

There are potential reasons for putting calorie listing on menus. For example, it might reduce obesity.  It might get some people thinking about what they order.  It might help reduce Dept. of Health bill in about 50 years.  According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), 96% of consumer respondents to a recent survey believe that calories should be displayed in "all or some food outlets".  The report also emphasises that nearly 75% of food service businesses are also in support of this idea in, yet again, "all or some food outlets".  The statement is so fantastically vague and undefined, it is hard not to agree. 

The other side of the argument suggests that calorie listing will be the downfall of the industry; a costly and indulgent project with little benefit for the consumer or the producer.  Indeed, this extends to a conspiracy theory that this act of Governance (big G) by the Dept. of Health (DOH) is simply another money making racket for friends of the FSAI. There is also a more worrying concern that calorie listing on menus will limit the Irish chef community to boring repetitive menus, with no room for flare, imagination, eccentricities and skill.

I am non-plussed with any of these positions. The FSAI Press Release, and the recommendations included, are based on a flawed and spun analysis of what people actually think.  The report stands only to support the DOH in their policy direction.  However, if the Minister insists on pushing the agenda, it will not result in the downfall of the industry. We are country of capable foodies and business people with a growing recognition of the quality of Irish food produce and recognition of new ethnic food influences.  The industry will survive, perhaps at some cost in the short run, but it will survive.

My concern is for the customer experience.  More accurately, my concern is for me 'the purveyor' but also me 'the customer, the eater, the consumer', the person who pays to experience the offering of a venue, whether restaurant, bar, cafe, or pub.  When I pay a bill -  consciously or not - I analyse the value of what I have been charged for.  Did I enjoy the food?  Was I impressed by the service, welcome and goodbye?  Did I feel comfortable in the chair I was sitting in and did it fit with the rest of the decor?  Did the atmosphere live up to my expectations? This is 'industry-me', an unavoidable by-product of my career choice but one which I love.

More than anything else however, me 'the customer' simply wants to walk out the door with a smile on my face, feeling better from my indulgent experience.  This is the key....it is an indulgence.  The act of dining-out, no matter how small, is one of escapism, a treat, a method of spoiling myself to distract from the humdrum of normal surrounds.  Whether buying a coffee in the morning, meeting colleagues for lunch or gathering friends for dinner, these are all things can be done more cheaply in the office or at home. 



The active decision to move these opportunities to a coffee house or restaurant is one of individual choice.  It is an act of pure indulgence.  It does not matter if the order is a decaf americano (x calories) or a cappuccino with full-fat milk and a scone with full fat butter and jam (x+y+z calories).  As soon as the customer enters a food outlet, everything they purchase is an indulgence of their own choice.  The calorie content of their purchase should be of no concern to the food seller.  'Food outlets' should be left to focus on their warmth, their welcome, their service, their hygiene and their quality of produce.  They should not be used as a mouth-piece for the DOH.  Such efforts will detract from the customer experience, which we value so highly. 

Insistence by the DOH on the addition of calorie counts to menus is a puritanical act.  It smacks of nanny statism.  The DOH should be asking bigger questions of obesity problems in this country.  Why are the cereal companies allowed sell their wares in big bright coloured boxes with big bright coloured advertisements that catch the eye of my young nephew?  Why, in a country in which it rains so much, are we not energising the development of local amenities to encourage fitness and activity throughout the year and not just in summer? Why is there no real infrastructure in support of the Bike-To-Work scheme, like bike lanes and secure bike-parks?  Why are leading chefs not brought into schools, colleges and universities to teach healthy cooking and eating to students? 

Health at its basic level is about fitness, self-awareness and self-management - individual choices. 



Create a bike path from my door to my place of work and I will ride a bike not the bus. Leave my indulgences alone.



12 June 2012

Sri Lanka - food

Here is a much belated selection of shots from Sri Lanka......the other Green Isle & haven of food. We ate everything from egg hoppers with coconut sambal to fresh platters of amazing local fruits. It also gave me the chance to understand the origin of spices and curries that generally arrive dried and packeted to Ireland. 

An Egg Hopper - basically a crepe cooked in a small hot wok-like dish. Often served
with an egg cooked in it. 

Nutmeg fruit with the nutmeg seed centre and the mace covering it. 
It is amazing to drive through a countryside where the markets, streets, fields, everywhere is just lined with the freshest of fruit....literally everywhere. Coconut groves, banana trees, stalls of avocado & papaya fresh from the local market..........

Papaya
Bananas! Absolute (-ly amazing) bananas
.........and then of course there are the tea plantations.....and the tea that tastes like.........tea! It's tastes flavourful, rounded and so drinkable. I am not a tea drinker on any normal day of the week but having seen the production of the real deal tea, smelt the oils being released when the leaves are rolled and then tasted it freshly poured from the pot, I am a convert. 

Tea Plantations outside Kandy

Rolling the tea ......not cigars :)

01 March 2012

Picking Olives in Emilia Romagna

A spilt but very much alive and very old olive tree
When it comes to training and education there is little that beats hands-on experience. Possibly (massive pinch of food obsessed salt) this statement is most true in understanding the food chain and how it can result in perfection, or in contrast be fouled.  Therefore the invite before Christmas to join the UK Carluccio's team on a trip to meet one of our expert olive producers in Emilia-Romagna was an opportunity not to be missed. Not a herd of wild horses, as they say was going to stop me joining them....and what a fantastic experience it was!  

A big bowl of olives
Tom Mueller's 'Extravirginity' (my bedside reading at the mo.) gives an interesting but negative perspective into the Italian olive oil business. However, it sells a very different reality to that of the passion, care and effort which I encountered with the Lo Conte family, who produce Carluccio's Olio Novello (new season E.V.O.O.) every year.


An olive picking rake lying on the olive net
The family go to great effort to ensure the quality of their E.V.O.O. by taking more than just a few simple steps to ensure extravirginity..... the basics of which are...carefully picked and netted olives, all (and only) from their own groves, pressed within 24 hours, under temperature controlled conditions (27 degrees ideally). 


The Lo Conte olive groves



09 January 2012

Biggin' up the little guy - Terra Madre

I am labelling Terra Madre a 'must-go' restaurant for 2012. 

Taste of Emilia was my eye catcher for 2010, with the best fare from Emilia-Romagna in a wonderfully informal setting. I will happily while away an evening with friends over a platter of meats and bottle of Lambrusco.  In contrast, Eastern Seaboard Bar and Grill and its wonderful baking neighbour the Brownhound, stand out from all the rest of my Irish-oriented food trips (Sorry Cafe Paradiso - you came close) in 2011. I need to refresh my memory with a second trip very soon.  

Terra Madre has already made its mark on me as perhaps the best local restaurant on the northside, if not greater Dublin.  It is definitely the best Italian restaurant (in the purest sense) on the northside, with Plan B having burnt some serious bridges with price hikes no-longer justifiable for a bowl of meatballs and a decline in level of service. Peppe's the "ITALIAN RESTAURANT" in Stoneybatter is a quirky but reputable little venue, but has caved somewhat to the Irish palette...the obsession and need for cream added where it should not - it is by no means a stalwart of Italian cooking ingredients. 

And so to the point - Terra Madre. I booked a table last minute on Saturday night for myself and four good friends - indeed my best-men included.  I had fortunately, or unfortunately, just missed a call from James in Rigby's Deli who had a cancellation but fate drove us to the basement of No. 13 Batchelor's Walk.  When we arrived, we were warmly greeted and I offered up my name for the booking......."Sorry, when did you book?". "Um, two hours ago!?".....as I scanned the twenty of so covers available, none looked like a free table for five. This was not to be a problem. I did not have to beat Ciaran Cuffe out of his seat in one corner, or the table of Italians, who were clearly in some way related by friendship, bed or blood to Marco and the crew who run this little spot. 

But still I ramble. What of the food?  The menu is compact. Two bruschetta, three anti-pasti, three pasta, & one meat.  Either bruschetta would have kept me happy - one with caper sprouts ...a revelation....warmed slightly and dressed with olive oil and the other with Lardo di Colonnata... thinly sliced cured pork fat, again warmed onto the bruschetta.  Both were excellent.  Two of us opted for the anti-pasti - mine a 'carpaccio of porchetta' and the other a 'vitello tonnato'.  I have always been quite thrown by the idea of vitello tonnato - thinly sliced veal served with a tuna mayonnaise.  It sounds like never the twain should 'meat' but oddly it's a great dish and Terra Madre's version would hold its own in any Italian deli I have eaten it in.

I say three pasta but in truth it was one gnocchi and two pasta.  We all opted for pasta - perfectly portioned bowls of fettucine with a rabbit sauce or tonnarello with a pheasant ragout.  You can go wrong with neither but I did prefer the pheasant.  The pasta is a fresh one, which is imported in from Italy, by a supplier who shall remain nameless, because they would not tell me.... but I could take a stab at it. It did raise the question - which is better - fresh or dried pasta?  The answer is - it depends on the dish!

All of this was supported brilliantly by a big Primitivo di Manduria red.  Puglian wines have been a revelation to me in the last couple of years, along with Umbrian.  I will hands-down order either ahead of Chianti's, Barolo's or indeed any other Italian wines. At €20 a bottle for any of the three reds (not listed on the menu), it's a wonderfully simple, uncomplicated way to manage your wine-list.

And this is at its core what I loved about the meal in Terra Madre on Saturday night - it represented the simplicity and straight-forwardness that I love about Italian food culture.  It's not fussy, pretentious or confusing and does not strive to be something else.  Terra Madre is what it is, a room to enjoy good food with good people, just as they do it all over Italy. 

Put Terra Madre on your list of 'go-to' restaurants in 2012. I cannot wait to go back. 

Bill was €180 for five of us, including three bottles of wine. We all had desserts!

Tips - 
- Have an espresso, at very least to taste the chocolate-ness of it....that dry unsweetened flavour you get from 90% dark chocolate.  And then add sugar, for the 70% sweetened version. 
- Have a slice of the fig jam tart - the winner by a margin of four to one. 
- Do book. Phone: 01/8735300
- If you smell pizza being cooked out the back at the end of the night.....do compliment the smells and you might be lucky like us and get to taste it when it's ready.