Ireland

Home might have tasted like this, if only…

Home might have tasted like this, if only…

Posted on by Pat
When I learned that baker Cherie Denham grew up in Northern Ireland watching her grandmothers and great aunts baking, I knew that I had to have a copy of the cookbook, The Irish Bakery. My own grandparents emigrated from County Armagh in Northern Ireland to work in the silk mills in Manchester, Connecticut. My mother had fond memories of her mother, Rebecca, standing at the stove cooking triangular soda bread farls on a cast iron skillet. But that was one of her few home cooking memories. Rebecca died young and was never able to teach her three daughters to cook. Whenever I visited Northern Ireland, I had strict instructions from my mother to bring soda bread farls home in my suitcase so that she and...Read More
Beer with us #4: Stout Gingerbread

Beer with us #4: Stout Gingerbread

Posted on by Pat and David
We're figuring that the gentlemen at the top of this post must have lost a bet. We spotted them in Dublin on one of Ireland's drinking holidays. Perhaps we should have spent St. Patrick's Day this year in a similar vein, but instead we turned some of our extra Guinness into a powerful gingerbread. We got the recipe from David Leibovitz, the Parisian blogger and all-around great pastry chef. In turn, he got it from Claudia Fleming, formerly of Gramercy Tavern in New York. It's also in her classic cookbook, The Last Course. This might be one of the stickiest, most effusive cake batters we've ever worked with. It has a tendency to climb the sides of the pan and collapse in the middle. (Be...Read More
An Irish solution to dark and dank winter days

An Irish solution to dark and dank winter days

Posted on by Pat and David
Not long ago, when travel was a tad more carefree, we spent Boxing Week in Dublin. That's the week between Christmas and New Years. December 26 has been ‶boxing day″ forever, but the merchants of Ireland and the United Kingdom have made what evolved into a one-day sale into a week-long event of inventory-trimming bargains. The mercantile nature of Boxing Week, it turns out, transforms a potentially grim and depressing holiday letdown period into a social occasion that turns out crowds in the streets. It also fills the cafes and pubs with shoppers whose cheeks are ruddy with the cold. Truth be told, it's a lot warmer in Dublin than in Boston. For us, visiting at the turn of the year was actually a respite...Read More
No yeast? Treat yourself to Irish brown soda bread

No yeast? Treat yourself to Irish brown soda bread

Posted on by Pat and David
We confess to scoring a half-cup of instant yeast last week when we were walking past our ‶sales-by-pickup-only″ neighborhood butcher shop, Savenor's. (Yes, the one where Julia Child bought her chicken, ducks, and breast of veal.) That should keep us going until we're out of flour. But a lot of folks aren't so lucky, so we'd thought we'd post one of the all-time great bread recipes that doesn't require yeast. It's for an Irish brown soda bread, as served on the breakfast buffet at the Marker Hotel in the hip Docklands district of Dublin, Ireland. Seeds in brown bread are nothing new, though the classic recipes only call for oat groats to add texture. This version adds the perfect balance of sesame, sunflower, and flax...Read More
Homey cooking for a homebound St. Patrick’s Day

Homey cooking for a homebound St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Pat and David
We've never been fans of corned beef and cabbage or, for that matter of green beer—the two principal food and drink ways Americans mark St. Patrick's Day. Nor will we be in Ireland for the holiday, given the travel restrictions. Even Boston's Drop Kick Murphys will play their annual St. Patrick's Day concert online instead of in person. Here's the link for the live concert on March 17 at 7pm Boston, 4pm Pacific Coast, 11pm London, 12am Berlin, or 10am in Sydney: www.dropkickmurphys.com/2020/03/14/streaming-up-from-boston-free-st-patricks-day-live-stream/ That's all a prelude to telling you about the newest cookbook from Ireland's culinary queen, the redoubtable Darina Allen. She runs the Ballymaloe Cookery school and is Ireland's leading proponent of the Slow Food movement. She might have single-handedly brought Irish cooking...Read More
Serve hearty soup and rustic bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Serve hearty soup and rustic bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Pat and David
No corned beef and cabbage for us this year. As we were contemplating a lighter meal to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we turned to two new cookbooks by great Irish chefs. We've written before about Darina Allen, the cookbook author and co-founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School, which is located on an organic farm in County Cork. Her new book, Simply Delicious: The Classic Collection (2019, Kyle Books, $29.99), gathers some of her favorite recipes from her television cooking show and cookbook series of the same name. The 100 recipes illustrate Allen's love of traditional Irish cooking as well as her enthusiasm for cuisines around the world. They represent her straightforward approach to creating good, flavorful food. We have to admit that we were initially...Read More
Tipperary’s first releases hint of great things to come

Tipperary’s first releases hint of great things to come

Posted on by Pat and David
With clear spirits grabbing most of the attention these days, it's great to see that whiskey, too, is having its moment. Kentucky's big distilling companies are spawning specialty offspring almost daily, it seems. New Scotch whiskies are proliferating at such a rate that we wonder if the turf-cutters can keep up. And now we have an intriguing offering from an Irish boutique distillery that launched in March 2016. Tipperary Boutique Distillery (Newtownadam, Cahir, County Tipperary; tipperarydistillery.ie) is a joint project of three talents. Jennifer Nickerson, who grew up in the Scotch whisky industry, manages the company. Stuart Nickerson, a 35-year veteran of Irish and Scottish distilleries, advises on the technical issues. Liam Ahearn, Jennifer's fiance, grows the barley on his family's Ballindoney Farm outside Clonmel....Read More
Darina Allen takes food from seed to plate

Darina Allen takes food from seed to plate

Posted on by Pat and David
Talk about good timing. When it gets cold and snowy here in New England, we pull out the seed catalogs and start planning our summer garden. Right on cue, GROW COOK NOURISH (Kyle Books, $45) by Darina Allen arrived in the mail. It's the 16th book for the Irish chef and co-founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School (Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland, +353 21 464 6785, cookingisfun.ie). In a bit of understatement, Allen terms the thick volume a “kitchen garden companion.” It's truly a guide to growing, preparing, and sometimes preserving vegetables, fruits, herbs, and edible flowers. She covers pretty much every fruit and vegetable we've ever heard of and many that we haven't. We were so impressed that we arranged to speak with her by...Read More
Jawbox Gin embodies the spirit of Belfast

Jawbox Gin embodies the spirit of Belfast

Posted on by Pat and David
Gerry White has spent his career in the bar trade and has been manager of the John Hewitt (thejohnhewitt.com) for the last 12 years. He has pulled many a pint of Guinness and poured countless shots of Black Bush. “But the only spirit I've ever enjoyed,” he says, “is gin.” He is, in fact, passionate about gin—and about his native city of Belfast. For several years he had been mulling over a project to create his own gin. He even had the taste profile he was seeking in his head. “Two and a half years ago, I told myself I'll kick myself if I didn't try,” he recalls, taking a seat at our table at the John Hewitt to relate the story. “Belfast is a...Read More