Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
Bake / Demos / Irish beer & cider / Work
by Caroline · Published December 9, 2011 · Last modified December 1, 2020
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...
Bake / Demos / Irish beer & cider / Work
by Caroline · Published December 6, 2011 · Last modified December 1, 2020
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...
The Totally Tipperary Food Festival, a weekend packed with food from the Tipperary Food Producers, cookery demos and workshops will be taking place in the grounds of Cloughjordan House at the end of June....
Cookery demonstrations + cakes + ovens + me = narrow escapes! On Wednesday night I was demonstrating some recipes in the community centre at Knockcarron, a really lovely renovated primary school in Co Limerick, when oven issues arose once again.
My cookery demonstration career continues this week on Wednesday 2 December in the Knockcarron, Co Limerick (map here). Knockcarron/Knocklong ICA have invited me along and I’ll be giving a demonstration called Spice Up Your Life in the Community Centre at 8pm. I’ll be making my favourite Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup, a lovely rich Beef and Prune Tagine, finishing with Banana and Cardamom Cake.This time round – although it may ruin the evening’s suspense! – I’m looking forward to using an oven that works consistently. That, and me not accidentally turning it off half ways through the demo…
When I lived in New Zealand, cooking was my way of getting to know the (then Boyfriend, now) Husband’s family and friends. Three of his sisters lived nearby in Christchurch and they, together with a boyfriend and various cousins, were regular visitors to our house. When I look back on the recipes that I gathered in those days, they rarely were for dining à deux; instead I cooked roasting tins full of Chicken with Garlic and Lemon, made overflowing pans of Beef and Chorizo Pie and baked large dishes of Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding.
Cook / Demos / Food Events
by Caroline · Published November 9, 2009 · Last modified October 27, 2020
This is the soup that I cooked at the Glenroe Ladies’ Club demonstration – it is something that I make regularly as it has a great flavour, doesn’t take long and is really good for freezing. The smoked paprika is fabulous with it, giving a real depth to the soup. Perfect for warming your hands while you sip it out of a large mug.
The suspense was growing. There is an element of hope in cooking an upsidedown cake at the best of time but cooking one for a demonstration in front of 35 members of the Glenroe Ladies’ Club was, perhaps, asking for trouble. Throw in anirregularly used gas oven – I live in a world of electricity, rarely cooking on gas – and a demonstrator who, while distracted, managed to turn the oven off instead of up (ahem) and you’re adding a whole new layer of problems to the mix!
