Sheridans Food Fair

I'm not long in the door from a trip to Carnaross on the Meath/Cavan border with Mum and Dad.  Sheridans Cheesemongers held a food fair today at their new supply depot and store just by the old Virginia road train station.  They did a fine job!  There was a real buzzy atmosphere with many of Ireland's best food producers selling their wares, and it gave me the opportunity to catch up with some of them.

David Tiernan from Glebe Brethan Farm is as always welcoming and does the north-east proud with consistency of flavour and texture from his gruyere style cows milk cheese.  Fingal and his mum Giana Ferguson from Gubbeen Farm never seem to forget a face and their generosity of advice and interest in food is heartening.  Fingal's fresh chorizo sausage is a very useful ingredient and is a staple in my fridge to fry up and flavour pastas, sauces and casseroles. (Claire loves to push the point that many of my favourite producers are from West Cork.  Not 'Cork'..... West Cork!)  


There were so many wonderful stands to visit but Mum and I were very happy to find Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese as we had both gone mad for their goats cheese pesto when we tasted it at the Crafts Fair in the RDS at Christmas.  It is not easy to come by and I have nearly finished my jar already....on Mum's brown bread of course.  I hadn't seen this goat log by Knockdrinna before. It's worth a try and I think I can make good use of it either crumbled on a salad or grilled onto a little toasted ciabatta bread. 

McDonnells of Belmullet for a Pint

We gathered last weekend for a few late pints in McDonnells in Belmullet.  They provided an oddly good digestive for the insanely large barbeque we laid on for ourselves earlier in the evening.  McDonnells is great little pub, which manages to balance the very traditional style and its regulars with the passing trade of young-wans en route to the club up the road.  We fit somewhere between the two, I like to think!

Anything to distract from the cleaning!

In an effort to distract from the pain of cleaning the house the week before last, I decided to attempt a pavlova for Claire and a couple of her workmates, who were coming over for dinner the following day.  It is not like I have ever made one, and I didn't exactly do a lot of research into the process... I kind of assumed that since I have eaten many of my aunt Mary's pavlovas I would naturally know what to do.  Turns out I was not far off.... although I have since had my methods refined by Tom's Will, and plan further consultation with Mary.

My very basic recipe: beat three egg whites until very firm and peaky with about 150 grams of icing sugar and bake it at 100 degree centigrade for 45 minutes on some greaseproof parchment.  Cornmeal and dash of white wine vinegar I am now told are useful additions to keep the pavlova soft and guey rather than crisp and meringuey.

There are a couple of notes.  Firstly sorry Jenny and Mark that I did not bring you any down but I wasn't sure how much the guys would demolish.  It turns out...most of it!

Secondly, I lathered mine in cream.  That is probably why it tasted so good. 

Rungis Market

As much as the front-of-house, customer facing life engages and energises me, there is a whole world behind the scenes that offers a foodie so much to appreciate and to be in awe of.  Early enough in my fulltime food career I took the opportunity of a week in France to detour one morning to Rungis Market on the outskirts of Paris.  Rungis is one of the central hubs for food distribution in Europe and  is really more of a town than a market.  When we arrived at 6.30 a.m. for a tour of the cheese sheds,  the lanes...highways... were jammed with artic lorries driving like maniacs from lott to lott collecting pallets of produce.

Goat's cheese set and ready to leave the country!

You really need your wits about you as most of the workers have been up since very early morning.  This became all the more obvious when we went to the Cafe in the centre of the 'town'.  I dared to ask for a cappuccino.....and nearly got laughed out of the place.  A quick scan of the bar explained why.... brandy and espresso was the drink of the moment...not a nice milky coffee.  Sure what else would you be doing at 7 in the morning?  Graciously however the barman did mock up a couple of frothy cappuccinos.

Provencal Sweetness; Understanding Regionality

It was on a trip to Provence that I started to really appreciate regionality of food and drink on the continent.  This is a topic which I think I will be coming back to time and again.  For example, Provence has its Chateau-neuf, Gingondas and Bandol wines with distinctive features influenced by the infamous mistral winds and gravelly soils.  What particularly caught my eye (no surprise) however, was the proliferation of sweet and chocolate shops.  On a visit to Aix-en-Provence we found not just amazing olives but also chocolate olives.  No no, don't worry, there was no olive in the chocolate.  The prolific La Cure Gourmande provide some of the best examples and their merchandising is very impressive.  Neighbouring shops sold Calisson by the truckload - little oblong sweets based on almond and candied fruit pastes.  You will find these sweets elsewhere in France, but their origin and traditions are very much focussed in Provence. 

Baskets of olives!

Dolceacqua for Pizza, '07

We discovered it more by accident than anything. Driving from Menton on the french side of the France-Italy border we wound our way over the mountainous border to the quirky town of Dolceacqua.  Apart from its quirky shape and architecture, there is a wonderful pizzeria Il Borgo's, which claims to be 200 years old.  With prime seats by the hatch to the kitchen we had full view of the pizza-making and the open oven they are cooked in.  The pizzas matched our expectations.  We arrived at the restaurant starving and easily demolished everything put in front of us.

This was Claire's - bresaola, parmigiano and rocket.

Burgundy 2007, a great vintage!

This is one of my favourite pictures in my collection. I had the opportunity to continue my love affair with France and its food in early '07 with a trip to visit my good friend Donal.  He chose to do an MBA for a year and we chose to join him for the best part of one of the weeks. We ate and drank our way through southern Ile-de-france and northern Burgundy - much fun!

The town of Chablis ended up as the target for one of our day trips.  Fortunately we got side tracked by a much smaller pretty town just over the hill.  Chablis may always remain famed for its wine, but town of great beauty and interest it is not!  However, can I remember the name of that little town over the hill? Not a chance but when I find it, I'll post it.

The little old lady at the very back of the above picture hosted an impromptu wine tasting of her product.  The whites - all Aligote - were just perfect for the heat of our late April tour.  The 6 or 7 bottles we bought did not last very long.

Tips

- The reds we tried from the area.......were not recommendable.

- Although not from Chablis proper, the wines matched anything I have tried since from the area.

This is the church in 'the-little-town-over-the-hill'