Bibliocook - All About Food

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

Tagged: cookery

11

Bake / Food Events

Hay Hay, It's Donna Day #2: Chocolate Almond Macaroons

Can you see the cow-pat similarity? Having missed the first Winos and Foodies Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day – and you all know about my love of Donna Hay! – I had every intention of making a real effort for the second episode in what looks like becoming a long-running series of worldwide bake-ins. Glutton Rabbit at Pearl of the Orient chose Macaroons for Hay Hay It’s Donna Day #2 but I’m not a huge macaroon fan. Besides, I was down home and my little sister took one look at the recipe that I’d printed off from Pearl of the Orient and went “ugh! There’s coconut in it.” I have memories of making coconut macaroons when I was a child and they were never a great success – unlike anything involving chocolate. Then I remembered a recipe for Chocolate Almond Macaroons that I had come across in Taste: Baking with Flavour by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. Although the book is back in New Zealand, there’s still the internet and the Cuisine website came up trumps with just the recipe that I had noted in the cookbook.

11

Bake / Food Events

Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day #2: Chocolate Almond Macaroons

Can you see the cow-pat similarity? Having missed the first Winos and Foodies Hay Hay, It’s Donna Day – and you all know about my love of Donna Hay! – I had every intention of making a real effort for the second episode in what looks like becoming a long-running series of worldwide bake-ins. Glutton Rabbit at Pearl of the Orient chose Macaroons for Hay Hay It’s Donna Day #2 but I’m not a huge macaroon fan. Besides, I was down home and my little sister took one look at the recipe that I’d printed off from Pearl of the Orient and went “ugh! There’s coconut in it.” I have memories of making coconut macaroons when I was a child and they were never a great success – unlike anything involving chocolate. Then I remembered a recipe for Chocolate Almond Macaroons that I had come across in Taste: Baking with Flavour by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. Although the book is back in New Zealand, there’s still the internet and the Cuisine website came up trumps with just the recipe that I had noted in the cookbook.

Cafés in Ireland via Peter Gordon 2

Return to Ireland

Cafés in Ireland via Peter Gordon

In the wake of leaving New Zealand and my living-out-of-a-bag-ness in Ireland during November and December, it’s only now that I’ve gotten round to checking out Chris Bell’s Five minutes with Peter Gordon at NZBC. That’s the New Zealand Blogging Corporation, rather than the New Zealand Black Caps, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation or even the New Zealand Building Code. After I blogged about Peter Gordon’s sublime Tomato and Chilli Jam, Chris contacted to tell me with this link to his Gordon interview.

4

Cookery Books / Read

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry ****

Evocative and personalDerry woman and Sunday Telegraph food writer Diana Henry has again come up trumps with her latest book, Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Her first cookbook, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, focused on the tastes and enchantments of the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa. With praise from Claudia Roden and its appearance twice on the Glenfiddich award shortlist, it became an instant classic.

2005 Food Blog Awards 2

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2005 Food Blog Awards

For anybody with more than a passing interest in food and/or blogs, check out the 2005 Food Blog Awards at the Accidental Hedonist‘s own blog. As Kate points out, the list of nominees is one of the best ways of discovering blogs that you might not have come across otherwise, such as the five-times nominated The Travellers Lunchbox and Gluten-free Girl. There’s also tried-and-true names such as the inimitable Chocolate & Zucchini, 101 Cookbooks and the new, improved Too Many Chefs. Voting is open now and continues until 18 January so, if you’d like to have your say or even if you’re just interested in discovering new food blogs, click over to Accidental Hedonist.

1

Do

The Boyfriend’s bagels

The Boyfriend's lovely bagels - ready to eat! Before we took off for our year in New Zealand, the Boyfriend was really getting involved in bread-making. There was an ongoing, sporadically successful, sourdough project but where he really hit his stride was in making bagels. A birthday present of Bread by Ursula Ferrigno and Eric Treuille (never let it be said that I didn’t encourage him!) inspired him to try their recipe. Do you know how they get the holes into their bagels? You take a small ball of dough, stick your finger through the centre of it and then work your finger in a circle to stretch and widen the hole. It’s rather like doing the hula hoop, but with your finger instead of your waist! We were in fits laughing that first morning that he tried the recipe as our fingers hula hooped their way through eight bagels.

1

Do

The Boyfriend's bagels

The Boyfriend's lovely bagels - ready to eat! Before we took off for our year in New Zealand, the Boyfriend was really getting involved in bread-making. There was an ongoing, sporadically successful, sourdough project but where he really hit his stride was in making bagels. A birthday present of Bread by Ursula Ferrigno and Eric Treuille (never let it be said that I didn’t encourage him!) inspired him to try their recipe. Do you know how they get the holes into their bagels? You take a small ball of dough, stick your finger through the centre of it and then work your finger in a circle to stretch and widen the hole. It’s rather like doing the hula hoop, but with your finger instead of your waist! We were in fits laughing that first morning that he tried the recipe as our fingers hula hooped their way through eight bagels.