Win some Keogh's Farm Shamrock-Flavoured Potato Crisps!

Keogh’s Farm create the World's 1st Shamrock Flavoured Potato Crisps

Keogh’s, the entrepreneurial Irish farmers who have been growing potatoes in north county Dublin for over 200 years, have launched the world’s first-ever commercial shamrock flavoured food delight. Keogh’s have just launched their hand cooked Shamrock and Sour Cream Irish potato crisps to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. 

We Have some Shamrock Crisps, T-shirts & more to Win
here at the bottom of this Blog Post!

The crisps have a slight Lemon/Peppery taste almost like freshly picked watercress which is expected as Shamrocks are related to that plant family. This simple idea may turn out to be a bigger internationally-selling product than the family realised! Demand from abroad is high, ahead of St Patrick’s Day, due to the unique Irish nature of the Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour Cream potato crisps.

The crew love checking the quality at Keogh's Crisp factory!

They have been specially created on the Farm for St Patrick’s Day & available for a limited time only. The limited edition Shamrock flavoured potato crisps will be available to buy in Superquinn stores and select independent retailers nationwide from March 1st 2012 and online at www.facebook.com/keoghsfarm

The Keogh family have developed many commercial lines from their original potato farming

“We are the only potato growers in the world who offer fresh potatoes and potato crisps from the same farm side by side in the same store and we sleep, eat, breathe potato crisps and potatoes. The idea for a Shamrock crisp came from our absolute pride in being Irish farmers and a constant need to be innovative in our offering, we are very excited about them and already have interest from abroad” commented Tom Keogh, Keogh’s Farm.

Ireland's patron saint, St Patrick, depicted holding the Shamrock

According to Irish legend, the druids in Ireland looked at the shamrock as a sacred plant because its leaves formed a triad. Three was a mystical number in the Celtic religion. Then St Patrick, who was thought to be born in Wales, used the shamrock in the 5th century to teach people about Christianity as he travelled around Ireland. He told people that each of the three leaves illustrated the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity.

The Shamrock & Sour Cream Crisps have been specially launched for St Patrick's Day!

The Shamrock come from Living Shamrock in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry. This area in Ireland has been producing fresh shamrock for the American President since 1952!

The Shamrock has been recognised as a symbol of Ireland for many centuries

Keogh’s are the only “on-farm” producers of hand cooked potato crisps in Ireland, having recently set up a small ‘crisping house’ on their farm, hand cooking crisps in small batches and turning them from “crop to crisp” on the same day. Keogh’s have been growing potatoes in north county Dublin for many generations and these Irish farmers really know how to grow a spud with love. Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour Cream flavour potato crisp is available in a large sharing bag for €2.49.

COMPETITION TIME!

We have a Keogh's Farm St Patrick's Day Foodie Bag for one lucky reader - which will include an I Love Spuds T-Shirt, an Easy Spud pod and some bags Keogh’s Shamrock and Sour Cream crisps! 


To win this unique prize simply leave a comment here at the bottom of this post. The competition will run until Wednesday 14th March. 


You can also leave a comment on our Facebook Page to Enter at https://www.facebook.com/www.IrishFoodGuide.ie
You must leave an email contact to enter the competition so we can contact you if you win! 
Good Luck!

To find out more about Keogh's hand cooked crisps visit: www.keoghs.ie or see their Facebook page at  www.facebook.com/keoghsfarm 


There is a Full List of Shops that Stock Keogh's Farm Crisp Here


UPDATE:
Thank you for all the entries via the Blog, Facebook & Twitter. The winner is  Bill King @BilllKing

And Bill just sent us this lovely pic from Wales!

zack

Grilled Lobster & Monkfish with Brucheen Potatoes

Lobster is one of the Kings of the Sea. Traditionally it has been seen as a top-priced item on menus, but as tastes and trends in Ireland change, lobster is becoming more affordable for customers. Many places are now offering tasty lobster dishes for under €20.



Lobster - King of the Sea!

This is a very simple dish that marries the pink lobster meat with one of my favourite meaty fishes – Monkfish.

Monkfish - A big ugly head that is waste, but the tastiest meat in in tail!

Brucheen potatoes are an old south Donegal classic dish that was once made with duck eggs!

serves 4 people

My Ingredients:

2 Lobsters (500g / 1 lb each)

1 Monkfish tail off the bone ( approx 300g / 1/2 lb fish meat )

1 lemon

25g / 1 oz butter

25g / 1 oz finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic

2 tlspn Jameson Whiskey

120ml / 1/4 cup cream (save 20ml for the champ!)

freshly chopped parsley

ground black pepper

Brucheen Potatoes -

500g / 1 lb peeled potatoes

25g / 1oz butter

the 20ml cream (from above)

25g / 1oz finely chopped spring onions (scallions)

1 whole egg (chicken or duck)

white pepper

sea salt

My Method:

 1. In a large pot bring 8 pints water to the boil with a lid on. Drop in the two Lobsters. Bring back to the boil and Cook for about 14 minutes. Take them out and plunge them into a sink of iced-cold water. This stops them from over-cooking in their own heat or the meat will get tough.

2. Boil the peeled potatoes with a little salt. When boiled, drain well and add the butter, 20ml cream, chopped scallions and white pepper. Cover with a tea-towel and leave them aside un-mashed until you are ready to serve.

3. Heat a frying pan to medium hot and cut the monkfish into 1/2 chunks. Using half of the butter toss the monkfish pieces in the pan to seal it, drop the heat to low and cook the fish for another 3-4 minutes. Lift out of the pan and leave aside.

4. Cut the Lobsters from the mid-spine joint to the head with a large knife. Turn them around and cut cleanly from the middle to the tail. Throw away the brain and lungs pieces (the mushy green bits towards the head of the lobster). Pull out the tail meat and the meat from the centre of the body. Cut all the lobster meat into bite size pieces.

5. Put rest of the butter, the onions and chopped garlic into the fish pan and cook at medium until soft. Add the whiskey and flame to burn off the alcohol. This keeps the flavour of the fish, onions and whiskey without the bitterness of the alcohol. Add a little ground black pepper, the cream, parsley and cook for another 2-3 minutes until the cream has thickened itself a little.



Brucheen Potatoes was one of my Mum's favourites!

6. Service Time!

a) Add the raw egg to the hot potatoes and mash well until soft and fluffy. Season with a little salt if needed. Ready!

b) Add the Lobster and Monkfish to the same pan and toss them all together in the sauce. Spoon the mixed fish evenly back into the four half-lobster shells. Ready to Go - Enjoy!

Don't forget to Feed the Fish at the bottom of this post!

zack

Making a Piping Bag with Greaseproof Paper

Making and baking and decorating and filling! In common these jobs all use, at some stage, 

a Piping Bag!

These useful catering bags come in all shapes and sizes and are made from a variety of materials. There is a massive selection of nozzels available to buy depending on the type of job you're doing. They are used for cake decorating, making choux eclairs or swans etc, piping potato dishes, making biscuits and hundreds of other uses.

There are times when a small pointed piping bag is required for a simple wee job like writing a name on a birthday cake or such and you are only going to use a little bit of cream or icing.

That is when you need to be able to fold together a quick little Greaseproof-Paper Piping Bag.

Well... here is how you do just that!

Fold a sheet of greaseproof paper corner to corner. It doesn't matter if it's a square or rectangle piece to start with as long as you fold it corner to corner, giving you a long fold in the centre

Keep the fold smooth and straight as you cut it with a sharp knife

The general stating position is to point the right-angled corner to your elbow, letting the smallest corner drop

Catch this bottom corner and fold it around your hand

Do not let go of the inside corner and complete the wrap around to look like this

Moving your two hands, slide the two corners gently up and down to tighten and sharpen the point of the cone  

Don't worry if it doesn't seem to be working, first time, as this part will take a little practice!

When you have a sharp point on the piping bag pinch the two top ends of the paper cone together and hold them tight - nearly there!

Fold the ends of the cone back on themselves, to tie the ends of the bag together and stop it from falling apart

It is now ready for use. It's a good idea to make a few of these in advance - they will sit inside each other for storage and you can keep them ready in a little plastic tub for easy access. Like many things in life....practice makes perfect on this one!

Fill the piping bag with your cream or icing and snip off the point to the desired piping size. Use a new bag if you need to. Don't try to re-fill the first one,  it doesn't work!

You can also go to the website http://www.irishfoodguide.ie/

and check out the Best Irish Food Guides, our Blog, IFG Daily News or chat on Twitter

all from the one place!

Don't forget to Feed the Fish at the end of this post!
zack