Bibliocook - All About Food

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

Author: Caroline

8

Food for Friends

Summer days at the lighthouse: Lighthouse Ling

Galley Head Lighthouse

Driving to Galley Head Lighthouse is a bit like a magical mystery tour. Although easy to see from a variety of locations along the West Cork coast, the lighthouse – like an ever-receeding mirage – seems to disappear from sight the closer you get. Eventually, however, after driving constantly south of Clonakilty, past numerous private property signs and along a low-lying road, protected on either side by stone walls, you get to where you can drive no further. The lighthouse stands at the tip of a peninsula, surrounded by the sea, and the lighthouse keeper’s house that we were staying in is part of a two-sided structure that shelters the parking area at the front from the northern and western winds.

West Cork eating 1

Do

West Cork eating

Things will be quiet about here next week as the Husband, Little Missy and myself are heading down to West Cork for a few nights. We’re staying in one of the Irish Landmark Trust’s restored properties on Galley Head, just south of Clonakilty, and I’m hoping to do lots of eating!I’d love to make it to Durrus to eat at Carmel’s Good Things Café, check out the Friday market in Bantry, visit Baltimore for lunch in the Glebe Gardens (and to see what Jean has done with the garden since we were there in February) and eat some more Ardagh Castle goat’s cheese.Any suggestions for food-orientated things to do in the area?

3

Life / Travel

Little Missy in London

London A-Z with Little Missy's spatula

Tablefuls of tapas, full English breakfasts, bags of cherries, good coffee aplenty, savoury bacon baps and decadent brownies – just a few of the things that Little Missy enjoyed, albeit second hand, while in London at the weekend. After a hissy fit at Cork Airport – yes, we were that couple carrying a screaming baby through the plane as the other passengers turned their heads, hoping that we wouldn’t sit near them – she settled into enjoying her first trip abroad.

2

Grow

Ravishing radishes

Freshly picked radishes

We were slow off the mark this year with our planting but now – finally – we have some produce from our garden. The salad seedlings that the Husband set in large pots (they are easy targets for the slugs and whitefly if planted out in the garden) are taking off so we now get to have more than just the one leaf per meal.

1

Do / Life

Cork Coffee Roasters

John Gowan of Cork Coffee Roasters

Ever since Louise Sowan of Sowan’s Organics put me on to Cork Coffee Roasters I’ve been a fan. Their full bodied Rebel City Espresso is a fixture in my kitchen and I rarely manage to go past their stall at the Mahon Point Farmer’s Market or events like the Mallow Food Festival without getting my hands on a caffeine fix. The Sister is even worse. She is luck enough to live around the corner from the Cork Coffee Roasters café. As a result, weekend phone calls between us are punctuated by her frequent stops at CCR to order yet another cappuccino. Meanwhile – especially since Urru Mallow closed down – I’m stuck in the sticks with nothing to comfort me except my stove top espresso maker.

4

Food for Friends

Barbecue days: Marjoram and Lemon Chicken

Marjoram

A quick marinade to make, with herbs from the garden, while someone else is lighting the barbecue. Avoid chicken breasts – overpriced and tasteless pieces of cotton wool that they are – and grab yourself some cheap and tasty chicken thighs instead.

6

Food Books / Read

The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky

The Food of a Younger Land

Great research is the key to Mark Kurlansky’s The Food of a Younger Land. The subtitle – A Portrait of American Food–Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation’s Food Was Seasonal – explains the what of the latest book on food from the author of Salt, Cod and The Big Oyster.

2

Bake / Life

Your daily bread: Fennel-Aniseed-Caraway Loaf

Fennel-Aniseed-Caraway Loaf

Since Little Missy arrived on the scene, the breadmaker has been working at full tilt. The loaves aren’t the most beautiful but, then again, looks aren’t everything and the convenience and flavour more than make up for it. A few mornings a week, before the Husband heads out the door to work, he loads it up with the ingredients for a Fennel-Aniseed-Caraway Loaf and, as Little Missy and I snooze away, it kneads, proves, knocks back and bakes a loaf of warm, sweet-smelling bread. At least, that has been the routine.