Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
While there may not have been very much sunshine lately, it’s always salad weather around at the cottage. I’m talking big platters of roasted vegetables tossed with grains like buckwheat and barley, bowls of...
Food for Friends / Lovely Lunches
by Caroline · Published May 1, 2015 · Last modified December 12, 2019
You know that sinking feeling when you realise you’ve had something in your freezer for, ooh, way too long? We all have them. Large blocks of unidentifiable meat, sitting ominously in the corner. Ours...
You might have realised, over the years, that I’m a fan of cheesy Valentines: 2012 Something cheesy for Valentine’s Day 2008 The easiest Valentine’s Day dinner: Baked Vacherin Mont d’Or 2007 Valentine’s Night – delayed: Simple Irish...
At this time of the year I crave salads – light and fresh, with lots of crunchy textures. The colder it gets, the more I want a serving of something that’s going to fill...
Everybody needs a little sunshine in their lives, especially at the thin end of January, facing into the dreary bleakness that is February. It’s damp and cold and wet outside; I need a little...
Demos / Food for Friends / Lovely Lunches
by Caroline · Published January 7, 2014 · Last modified October 10, 2017
I don’t do detox. I savour my food – hot chocolate on a weary afternoon, luscious cheesy dinners and mood-enhancing spiced morning toast – all too well. But I also love salads, particularly one that you can make and keep in the fridge to eat alongside all the other good things.
Very important to have Lots of Stuffing.
As a result of developing and testing these recipes for my recent Christmas cookery demonstration at Bulgaden, the Husband came home from the brewery on more than a few days to be faced with a dinner of assorted stuffings. You know what I discovered? Pile a plate high with stuffing, add some hearty salad on the side – something like this Crunchy Apple ‘Slaw or Broccoli, Tomato and Avocado Salad would be good – fry an egg in chilli oil, slide it on top and, hey presto!, you’ve got a real meal.
Cook / Demos / Food for Friends / Irish beer & cider
by Caroline · Published November 26, 2013 · Last modified October 10, 2017
Melted cheese. Hot, bubbling, gloriously rich, fabulously molten melted cheese. From fondue, Irish-style, to Diana Henry’s Tartiflette or the simplest Tuna Melt, anything that involves cheese + heat is a wintertime winner at the cottage, especially with the recent cold snap.
Working on recipes for this week’s cookery demonstration at Bulgaden Castle, I decided to feature some Irish cheese. It was a cold day when I was looking at my Cooleeney brie and the oven was already on. I couldn’t resist. It had to be baked, served under a blanket of bitter-sweet caramel and crunchy pecan nuts – and half-eaten before anyone else got near it.
