Bibliocook - All About Food

Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.

Author: Caroline

4

Bake / Do

Baker’s Edge in Ireland

The Baker's Edge - not photographed by me! One of the many interesting things about food blogging is tracing the movement of ideas and recipes around the widespread world of bloggers. Since the first time I read about Mark Bittman’s No Knead Bread – currently on my (very long!) list of recipes to try – in the New York Times it has travelled far and wide. You’ll also find Peabody’s Cranberry Orange Cookies a-wandering around other people’s blogs, as is Donna Hay‘s Self Frosting Cupcake recipe, which first surfaced on Niki’s Baking Sheet and then moved out into the wider world.

3

Do

A Taste of Yellow: Round-Up

LIVESTRONG Day If you’re in the mood for yellow food, Barbara over at NZ food blog Winos and Foodies has managed to wade her ever-gracious way through a total of 143 – that’s no typo, I did say 143! – entries for her A Taste Of Yellow foodie event.When I first started blogging, while living in New Zealand in 2005, it wasn’t long before I discovered Winos and Foodies, one of – as far as I know – the first NZ food blogs and I’ve been a fan ever since, admiring Barbara’s ever-inspiring zest for life, food, Donna Hay, baking and blogging, despite her ongoing battle against cancer.

2

Read

Edmonds Cookery Book

Edmonds Cookery Book 1914It being Anzac Day this week – and no, I still haven’t got around to making Anzac Biscuits, due to the local shops all selling out of desiccated coconut on the day in question – I was delighted to hear from Slow Food in Christchurch that the 1914 edition of the essential Kiwi cookbook, the Edmonds Cookery Book, is now available online.

Lavender Spelt Shortbread 6

Bake

Lavender Spelt Shortbread

Inspired by my perusal of Heidi Swanson‘s superb cookbook Super Natural Cooking, I’ve been motivated to start baking with more esoteric – to me, at least – grains and foods. I’m all stocked up on my favourite quinoa to try out some of her recipes (you’ll find plenty more online at 101 Cookbooks), millet, amaranth, linseed and – in the move – rediscovered some Letheringsett Watermill Organic Spelt Flour from our trip to Norfolk. Subtitled “Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into your Cooking”, it’s a perfect read if you’re interested in cooking with whole foods and wanting to learn more about what is available and what can be done with it. And, unlike the educational but boring-looking Fresh and Wild Cookbook, it looks amazing.

0

Do

Peter Gordon Webchat

Peter Gordon The first time I heard of Peter Gordon – the New Zealand-born, London-based chef of the Providores and Tapa Room – was when the whole Antipodean fusion cookery style was being written about in English newspapers like The Sunday Times during the early 1990s (my newspaper of choice through college although, after discovering Nigel Slater‘s food section in The Observer, I’ve never looked back!). While I lived in New Zealand in 2005, he opened a restaurant in Auckland – dine by Peter Gordon – and as a result was all over the NZ newspapers and food magazines. That’s how I came across his fantastic and much-made (it’s especially good as a Christmas pressie) Tomato and Chilli Jam recipe.

0

Do

Slow Food Ireland: The Future of Irish Food

The Future of Irish Food If you’re interested in sustainable food production, all three Dublin Slow Food Convivia are hosting a film screening and debate at the Sugar Club in Dublin on Tuesday 8 May. The films that will be shown are: Fowl, an Irish documentary by Andrew Legge, which examines modern day chicken farming and western people’s relationship with food; and The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, a film about how a country can successfully traverse the reduction and loss of finite fossil fuel resources.

Bake

Chocolate Sesame Flapjacks

Chocolate Sesame Flapjacks Being a big fan of porridge – especially good with Muscovado sugar and natural yoghurt on a cold morning in the cottage – I always have a bag of oats in the house and they often find their way into my baking. I regularly make batches of Anzac Biscuits and Oaty Apricot Biscuits to keep the tins filled. I’ve also been known to make my own Granola, using Tessa Kiros’ recipe in Apples for Jam as a starting point, throw a few handfuls into Brown Soda Bread, and have been experimenting with variations of Bill Granger‘s Muesli Bars. But, of all the oaty dishes that I make, this one for Chocolate Flapjacks is a true favourite. It originally came from Green and Black‘s decadent book of chocolate recipes but has gone through a few changes since with the addition of coconut, dates and seeds. Although there’s lots of butter in it (not to mention the golden syrup and sugar!), it’s still a slightly healthy snack and has been known to get me though many an evening’s post-work yoga class.