An Irish weekend away: Terryglass, Co Tipperary
After making Nic‘s Buttermilk Pancakes twice in the last ten days, I just have to sing their praises here. They take minutes to put together, don’t involve getting out the weighing scales (just use the cup measurements), are easy to cook, and – if you’re on a weekend away – the dry ingredients sit happily together in a zip-locked baggie until you choose to combine them with the buttermilk, butter and egg. Most importantly, they turn out delectable, light, fluffy, American-style thick pancakes without having to resort to a mix. We ate them this morning with oodles of fragrant organic maple syrup from Nenagh’s wonderful Country Choice deli, grilled rashers of bacon and, in my case, a little extra butter to further add to the sweet/savoury combination combination.
After measuring the flour and leavening agents into a bag on Friday (I was home sick, that’s my excuse for being half-way organised!), I cooked these pancakes for the final meal of a wonderful weekend with the Schoolfriend and her husband at the comfortable Tir na Fiuise just outside Terryglass in North Tipperary, which we found through the Responsible Travel website. After several recommendations, we initially had hoped to eat at Brocka on the Water in nearby Kilgarvan Quay on Saturday night but, even with a week’s notice, they were booked solid. We stayed a little closer to home, at Terryglass’ own Derg Inn, and were not disappointed with a lovely meal in relaxed surroundings and a friendly barman who even dropped the Boyfriend and Schoolfriend’s husband home a few pints after we had departed for the night.
There’s plenty of good eating in this area. Lunch – a loaf of still-warm brown soda bread, another of tomato and fennel, a sizable chunk of mature Irish cheddar, sliced ham and turkey breast, sunblush tomatoes and The Old School House Food Company‘s sweet cucumber and red pepper relish – came, via the Schoolfriend and her husband, from the aforementioned Country Choice, a shop where I could spend quite a lot of browsing time. All that, and we hardly got a chance to check out the places mentioned in Georgina Campbell or the Bridgestone Guides. It’s the perfect area for a chilled out weekend with friends and I had the extra bonus of being close enough to home to cheer the Little Sister on to victory at the All-Ireland Junior A Camogie Final (St Mary’s, Charleville vs Portumna Community College) in Dolla. Congratulations to the St Mary’s girls, clear winners on a muddy pitch with a score of 1-11 to 0-05!
