The beer/cider vs wine smackdown at Savour Kilkenny? There was some serious argie bargie going on in the lead up to the event, especially from my team of dastardly valiant opponents, Ballymaloe wine lecturer Colm...
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.
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.
“Is it warm spring, now, Mammy?” asked Little Missy this morning as she gazed out the window at sunshine while I scrabbled in last year’s boxes to find her a summer dress. As far...
When I turned up early for my cookery demonstration at the Bulgaden-Martinstown Ladies’ Club in Co Limerick bar/venue/nightclub Bulgaden Castle (a spot I would have been well acquainted with as a teenager), there was already a...
If you’re around West Cork over the August Bank Holiday weekend, you might just want to take yourself along to Liss Ard 2012, a festival of music, literature, drama and (very importantly!) food. I’ll...
Last week I was up in Dublin for the National Crafts & Design Fair in the RDS, doing a couple of demonstrations on the Cooks Academy stage in the Food Emporium. The title of my demo was Baking with...
Update March 2015: These started off life in 2011 as Knockmealdown Porter Brownies but, when it came to putting this recipe in Sláinte: The Complete Guide to Irish Craft Beer and Cider, my co-author...