Win a Professional Chef's Knife!

My good friend Sean Brosnan over at Emerald Trading has kindly given me a
25cm Mondial Professional Chef's Knife for one of you lucky readers to win because the company is celebrating 15 years in business this year!

EMERALD TRADING Co. Donegal Town
Celebrating 15 years supplying Hotels & Restaurants of the North & West of Ireland

Founded by Sean, in 1997, Emerald Trading is a family run independent business, based in Donegal Town and specialising in the distribution of a vast range of high quality cleaning, hygiene & catering supplies and equipment.

"Emerald Trading’s philosophy is to provide all our customers with the best knowledge and care possible. Consistency and reliability is our main priority" says Sean.


Their product range is indeed massive! Here are a few links to some of their wide-ranging catering equipment:

• Janitorial & Cleaning Supplies

• Industrial Paper Roll

• Toilet Paper

• Paper Products

• Dispenser Products

• Refuse Sacks

• Take Away & Packaging Products

• Crockery & Cookware

• Cutlery

• Hotel/Pub Products

• Industrial Work Wear

• Stationery

The company has grown into a large supplier of all cleaning and hygiene needs, establishing an excellent customer base in the North & West of Ireland.

WIN THIS CHEF'S CHOPPING KNIFE!

To WIN this professional Chef's Knife you have to

Like Emerald Trading's Facebook page by clicking this button:

Like the Irish Food Guide Facebook Page by clicking this button:

and leave a comment at the end of this Post with a contact detail. 


Competition runs until the 1st May. Good Luck!
Zack

Irish Whiskey Flavoured Rhubarb with Honey & Oat Crumble

I love Rhubarb and its clean, tart flavour. And it's great to see it making a return to popularity on restaurant dessert menus in various forms and as an accompaniement to duck, venison and other stronger flavoured types of meat.

We've always had rhubarb growing at home and it is very easy to keep if  (like anything else) you look after it. Keep the soil moist but not water-logged, keep it in the sunshine by cutting any over-hanging branches and give it an odd helping of well-matured organic matter of the horse variety and the rhubarb plant will come back year after year.

mmmmm! Freshly pulled rhubarb!

In late Spring, after the frosts finally decide to go away, the first shoots will show. You can put an up-turned bucket over these and this will help to bring forth what is known as "forced rhubarb". This is a great way to get a double crop. Pull the stalks clean from the base- do not cut them. After this first crop,  leave the plant to its own devices and you will get another growth coming into the start of the summer.

Rhubarb is one of those plants that grows well in a big pot in a town or city garden if you follow those guidelines. But don't put the leaves of rhubarb into your compost heap,as they are said to be poisonous and will have a seriously bad effect on your compost!  Rhubarb plants are available to buy in most good garden centres & you can also buy Rhubarb stalks, ready for your cooking pot, in all good Veg shops.

Here is a very simple but super delicious recipe for an old-fashioned Rhubarb Crumble. I always put a splash of whiskey into it (and a little bit into the whipped cream too if you want!) and my mum always added porridge oats to the crumble topping to make it crunchier. 

My Ingredients:
The Rhubarb...
1kg fresh Rhubarb
200g granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tbls honey
1 splash of your favouite Irish Whiskey
50ml water

The Topping...
400g plain flour
200g butter
100g flahavans porridge oats

100g brown sugar


My Method:
Preheat your oven to 180C

Chop the rhubarb chunky

For the rhubarb mix, chop the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces and then put it into into a heavy based pot with the sugar, cloves, honey, and whiskey, over a medium heat and bring it up, just to the boil. Then turn down the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but still chunky.

Don't forget the splash of whiskey!

Meanwhile, rub the butter into the flour as you would when making sweet pastry or bread. Add the oats and sugar and mix well together.

Ahh... Porridge oats mixed through the pastry crumb

Pour the cooked rhubarb into a baking dish, sprinkle the crumble mix on top and pat it gently, with your hand, to tidy up the top. 

Spread the mix over the stewed rhubarb

Pop it in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes, until golden brown on top. 

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream (or all three!) . Simple, tasty and delicious!

Easter Lobster & Lamb from the Oven straight to the Table, with Nicholas Mosse!

My wife, Nuala, is a Potter, an artist and a very patient woman! We have re-building her pottery in one of the sheds at home for the past few years - it's getting there, I promise! One of her favourite Irish pottery designs has always been that made by Nicholas Mosse in Kilkenny.

She has always loved the simple and delicate designs created by his wife Susan on the country-style shapes of the pottery designed by Nicholas.

So when Lisa McGee, from Nicholas Mosse Pottery, asked me to try out some of their new Ovenware range of Pottery, I looked forward to seeing if it was up to the standard of the old-style ovenware that my aunts used to cook their big hearty casseroles in!

I had a wee plan in my head so I went to see my good friend John McIntyre who now leads the team in the Olde Castle Bar & Restaurant, in Donegal Town, where I used to be the head chef. I wanted to see if these lovely pottery dishes could stand up to the pressures of a modern commercial kitchen.

If they can make it there, as they say, they will make it anywhere!

So I put together two simple dishes that use different temperatures. Both were cooked in a large industrial convection oven in a busy commercial kitchen. One is a simple Lobster & Seafood mixed platter that would be great to serve to a table and everyone can share. The other is the classic slow-braised Lamb Shank dish that has become so popular in Ireland over the last few years.

They are both very easy to make if you have family & friends coming for the Easter holidays and you can up the quantities accordingly.


Grilled Lobster Platter to Share

This dish is easily prepared in advance and kept in the fridge until needed. 

My Ingredients:
One cooked Lobster
4 cooked crab claws
A dozen or so fresh Mussels
white wine
8 Asparagus spears
some melted butter or garlic butter
lemon wedges

My Method:

1. You can read how to cook & split the lobster here
2. Peel and cook the asparagus in salted boiling water for 3 minutes
3. Meanwhile steam open the mussels, over the asparagus, in a colander with a lid on it until they open. Discard any that don't open.
4. Arrange the lobster, crab, mussels and asparagus in your serving dish and drizzle a little butter over the fish. Cover with tin foil.
5. When you are ready to serve simple pop the whole lot into a hot oven (190°C) for 3-5 minutes and heat everything up! Yum!

This is an Oval dish with their classic Forget-Me-Not design

Slow Braised Lamb Shanks

My Ingredients:
4 trimmed Lamb Shanks - ask your butcher to trim the bone for you
2 carrots peeled
1 parsnip peeled
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
pinch of thyme
pinch of rosemary
1/2 litre boiling water
large glass red wine
1 teaspoon treacle
1 chicken stock cube
sea salt & black pepper

My Method:
First arrange the lamb shanks in your lovely new ovenware dish!

The juices will reduce down into a wonderfully rich sauce.

1. Chop the carrot, parsnip & onion into even chunky bite-sized pieces and place on top of the lamb. Peel the garlic and toss in with the veg.
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and stir in the treacle (this will sweeten the meat and add a deep bodied colour to your finished sauce). Add the glass of red wine and then pour this over the complete dish. Season with sea salt & black pepper and cover with tin foil.
3. Cook in a medium oven (160°C) for 3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone and the juices have reduced into a lovely rich sauce. Yum again!

This is a 12" rectangle oven dish with their Red Tulip motif - classy

From the Oven straight to the Table!
Now I know that most pottery is fired to about 1300°C for its final glaze firing - but we all still feel a wee bit cautious of putting our lovely new dishes into even an ordinary oven at home. So I was delighted to see how the Nicholas Mosse ovenware coped excellently with the more intense convection ovens of an industrial kitchen environment. 

Their Ovenware is available in 5 different shapes and is the first range from Nicholas Mosse that can truly go from oven to table. The high temperature of the final glazing makes them very easy to clean even if the sauce may have cooked hard onto the dish!

The Ovenware is available in 5 different shapes & designs

John the chef was so impressed with the way the simple Lobster Seafood dish presented, that they are thinking of putting it on their own menu as a "straight from the oven" seafood platter!

The potter himself Nicholas Mosse 

Nicholas Mosse Pottery was established by Nicholas in 1976. Irish spongeware was the traditional pottery of Ireland used in the 18th Century and his wife Susan creates all their colourful designs. Their pottery & shop is based in Bennettsbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

For more information on their new Oven-to-Table Ware and their other wide range of beautiful things, go to http://www.nicholasmosse.com/ 

or visit their blog at http://nicholasmosse.blogspot.com/

Happy Easter everyone!

zack

Munster Regional Winners for the Irish Restaurant Awards 2012

The Munster Regional Final For The Restaurant Awards 2012 sponsored By Santa Rita / Sunday Independent Life Magazine took Place in The Imperial Hotel, Cork City, on Tuesday 3rd April 2012

The List of Winners in each of the following categories were:

Best Customer Service

• CLARE TOWN HALL BISTRO
• WATERFORD ATHENAEUM HOUSE
• TIPPERARY THE FAIRWAYS BAR
• LIMERICK THE MUSTARD SEED
• KERRY JACKS COASTGUARD STATION
• CORK ISAACS RESTAURANT

Best Gastro Pub Sponsored By Faustino

• CLARE THE ROADSIDE TAVERN
• WATERFORD JACK MEADES
• TIPPERARY LARKINS
• LIMERICK THE LOCK BAR 
• KERRY SPILLANES BAR
• CORK THE WOODFORD

Best Casual Dining Sponsored By Joseph Drouhin

• CLARE L'ARCO
• WATERFORD MCLEARY'S
• TIPPERARY CAFE HANS
• LIMERICK LA CUCINA
• KERRY SOL Y SOMBRA
• CORK NASH 19

Wine Experience - Munster- Sponsored By Thomas Barton

• HAYFIELD MANOR, CO. CORK

Kids Size Me – Munster - Sponsored By Heinz

• THE STONE CUTTERS KITCHEN, CO. CLARE

Best Hotel Restaurant

• CLARE THE LONG ROOM at THE LODGE DOONBEG
• CORK LOUGUEVILLE HOUSE
• KERRY CELLAR ONE RESTAURANT at THE ROSS HOTEL
• LIMERICK THE OAKROOM RESTAURANT at ADARE MANOR
• TIPPERARY THE OLD CONVENT
• WATERFORD THE MUNSTER ROOM at WATERFORD CASTLE

Best Chef Sponsored By Tipperary Water

• CLARE WADE MURPHY  - THE LODGE AT DOONBEG
• CORK PAT KIELY  - LES GOURMANDISES
• KERRY NOEL ENRIGHT  - THE CHART HOUSE
• LIMERICK MARK DONOHUE  - ADARE MANOR
• TIPPERARY DERMOT GANNON   - THE OLD CONVENT
• WATERFORD MICHAEL QUINN  - WATERFORD CASTLE

Best Restaurant Sponsored By Santa Rita

• CLARE THE WILD HONEY INN
• CORK LES GOURMANDISES
• KERRY CHAPTER 40 RESTAURANT
• LIMERICK CORNSTORE RESTAURANT
• TIPPERARY BROCKA ON THE WATER
• WATERFORD O'BRIEN CHOP HOUSE

All County winners will now compete for the Regional and All Ireland Title which will be announced at the Irish Restaurant Awards in the Burlington Hotel Dublin on Wednesday 14th May 2012 2. www.irishrestaurantawards.com . 

There are 3 components to phase two  of the process. Each element is independently assessed by KPMG.

1. Mystery Guest Visit (35%) This component of the awards is conducted by Prism Consulting headed by Hugo Arnold, independent food writer and consultant. (http://www.hugoarnold.com). All County Winners receive a mystery guest visit throughout the month of April.

2. National Awards Academy (55%) Our National Awards Academy is made up representatives from each of the regional judging panels and will meet in May to Judge the County Winners.

3. Menu Judging (10%) All County winners and the Dublin Shortlist in each category are asked to submit a copy of their food menu and wine list for judging.

For Further Details Contact:

Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive, www.RAI.ie - 086 8263311.

Lamb Cupcakes? An April Food Recipe Competition

As April Fool's Day was on April 1st, I have offered to help out with the Judging of April's VeryGoodRecipes.com Food Cooking Competition. The theme for this challenge has been selected by 7 food Bloggers.  Each judge is also presenting his or her own recipe of the theme they selected. The judges will select the winners at the end of the challenge (and of course we cannot win!).

In order to participate, you need to enter a recipe on the theme "April Fool". Your dish must appear to be something, but is actually made out of something else entirely! Here are a few examples:

Watermelons made out of Cherry Jelly in a Lime skin by JelloMistress

Sunny side up Fried Eggs made of Apricots & Yogurt by Wayferer

And so, here is my "April Fool" Recipe...


Zack's Lamb Cupcakes with Minted Mash

Lamb Cupcakes with Mashed Potato & Mint Jelly!

Lamb Cupcake Ingredients:

1/2 kg minced Lamb

100g white breadcrumbs

1/2 medium Red onion - chopped

1/2 tsp finely chopped Parsley

1/4 tsp finely chopped Rosemary

1/4 tsp finely chopped Thyme

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/3 tsp Rock salt

1/3 tsp Black pepper

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 medium egg

For the Mash

1 kg potatoes

50g Butter

Salt & white pepper

Mint Jelly

Set the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4.

My Method:

1. Place the minced lamb, breadcrumbs, red onion, herbs, worchestershire sauce, seasoning and mustard in a large bowl. Mix everything together well using your fingers to ensure that it is evenly combined.

2. Add the egg and mix into the rest of the ingredients with a wooden spoon - stirring well.

3. Press this into your Cupcake cases and give them a little indent in the centre with a teaspoon. They will rise a little in the cooking and this will help give them a flat top.

4. Pop them into the pre-heated oven and bake for 35 minutes until cooked.

5. Meanwhile boil the potatoes, strain & mash very smooth with the butter, salt and white pepper. Pipe the mashed potato on top of the 'cup-meat-cake' as you would do with butter-cream for a normal cupcake.

6. Drop a little dollop of the Mint Jelly on top!

The finished Lamb Cupcakes - I guess you could call them a Cupcake Shepherds Pie! 

The competition runs from 1st April until the 30th April 2012 inclusive.

The challenge is open to everyone, whether you have a food blog or not.

In order to participate, you need to enter a recipe on the theme "April Fool" - a dish that appears to be something, but is made out of something else entirely.

• If you have a food blog registered on Very Good Recipes, you just need to publish your recipe on your blog with a link to the challenge page http://verygoodrecipes.com/april-fool-challenge in the text of your recipe. It will then be automatically listed on their competition page.
• If you have a food blog (or a blog with a recipe category or label) but are not yet registered on Very Good Recipes, you can REGISTER HERE in 30 seconds.
• If you do not have a blog, you can participate by sending Stephane your recipe with one or more pictures. He will publish your recipe on Very Good Recipe's Website so that it can be displayed on the challenge page.

The judges for this month's competition are:

• Agnès from Interprétations Culinaires
• Drina from Eaternal Zest
• Francesca from Burro e Zucchero
• Jessie from Jessie CookingMoments
• Lai-Lyn from donnowhat2cook
• Simona from Briciole
• Zack from The Irish Food Guide Blog

They look for foodies to volunteer as judges every month so maybe you can be one too!
For more details see VeryGoodRecipes.com

Best of Luck and Have Fun!

zack

Donegal Restaurant in New York Times Food Section

Read on...





and on...







and on...






He! He! April Fool!
Good Man Enda ( @VillageTav )!

But here's a link to the real Village Tavern just to make up for it!
http://donegalgoodfoodtaverns.com/taverns/the-village-tavern-restaurant-and-bar

zack

Two Irish Food Companies Win Donegal Enterprise Awards 2012

Ireland's most northerly food company, Inishowen Country Kitchen has carried away the prestigious Donegal Business of the Year Award at the 2012 Enterprising Donegal Business Awards, held on Friday evening in the Silver Tassie Hotel, Letterkenny.

Owner Joseph Doherty, who took over the business in 2009, also won the Business Achievement Award category. The company which employs 25 people in Drumcarbit, Malin produces salads, garlic breads, desserts, trifles and prepared vegetables for retailers throughout Ireland including major multiples such as Tesco.

Ian Ireland, CEO of Donegal Creameries, and Seamus Neely, Chairman of Donegal County Enterprise Board, presented the awards during the black-tie dinner event which attracted a huge turnout from the local business community.

Ian Ireland, Donegal Creameries, Joseph Doherty (Winner) and Seamus Neely, Donegal County Enterprise Board, 

"I'm absolutely delighted", said Joseph.  "It has taken a lot of hard work for the past 3 years and growing the business to make it sustainable.  I'd like to thank the staff here in Malin and all of our customers for making this possible.  Word travels fast if you provide a good product and good
service and our customers have been our best sales staff.  I'd also like to thank my family whose own connection to the food industry has helped greatly and finally Michael Tunney, Ursula Donnelly and Danny McEleney of Donegal County Enterprise Board for their great support over the past 3 years."

"The amazing expansion and success of Inishowen Country Kitchen reflects its commitment to providing high quality food and its passion for creativity" said Michael Tunney, CEO of Donegal County Enterprise Board. "Joseph and his staff are a great example for other companies in the
county to show what can be achieved through innovative products and good customer service combined with hard work and determination." See: Here for More

Joseph Doherty has always been hands-on at Inishowen Country Kitchen

This year's Emerging Business Award also went to an Inishowen food company, Claire the Bakers, owned by Claire Doherty and her husband Aaron Gallagher.

  

Opened in Carndonagh in 2010, Claire the Bakers provides healthy lunches, home-baking and hand crafted cakes. The company has grown rapidly and now employs 7 people. See: Here for More

Other winners included Michael and Helen Masterson of Moll Industries Ireland , Donegal Town who won the Business Development Award. This year's Innovation Award went to Stephen McGinley for his FarmFeeder (YouTube Link) system and a special award for Community Enterprise was awarded to the Castlefinn Partnership Initiative (CPI) organisers of the North West Garden Show.

The Enterprising Donegal Business Awards are an annual event to acknowledge the contribution of local entrepreneurs to the economic and social fabric of the county. Sponsored by Donegal County Enterprise Board, each year an overall County award is made to one of the category winners,
and this company goes on to represent Donegal at the National Enterprise Awards in Dublin.  Previous winners of Business of the Year award have included Swilly Group, Gartan Technologies and DS Environmental Services.

zack