Bibliocook - All About Food

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

Tagged: irish

Time for baking, but not for writing 0

Do

Time for baking, but not for writing

With the onset of cooler weather, the amount of cooking and baking in my house has increased, if not the recent writing about it. It’s no longer torturously hot in our tiny kitchen if the oven is on and, as a result, I’ve gotten back into baking old reliables like Brown Soda Bread and our favourite Chocolate Flapjacks as well as trying out new recipes for Bill Granger‘s Coconut Loaf (especially good toasted), Peanut Butter Cookies (very moreish) from current favourite cookbook, Comfort by Michele Cranston and a zesty Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf that I decided to make in homage to the tasty muffins that I usually get in Dún Laoghaire from the California Market Bakery.

Field mushroom hunting: Mushrooms in Milk 4

Cook / Grow

Field mushroom hunting: Mushrooms in Milk

Last weekend saw the Boyfriend and myself travel down to my parents’ place in North Cork. As a result of the warm, damp weather over the past few weeks, I have received constant reports from my mother about the abundance of mushrooms so, with a Beef and Guinness casserole bubbling away in the oven, we off headed for a pre-dinner ramble down the fields with our eyes firmly fixed on the ground.

2

Do / Return to Ireland

The Late Late food debate

The Late Late Show I’m not a fan of RTÉ’s Late Late Show but there was a debate about Irish food on last week’s programme which you can watch from this page. An aggressive and rambling Richard Corrigan doesn’t come off very well but Derek Davis manages to defuse the situation, while still managing to get his points about Irish food – and they’re not complimentary – across.

0

Do / Return to Ireland

Rachel’s return

Rachel Allen - back on RTÉ with a new series For all those Rachel Allen fans out there – and I know that there are lots of you! – she returns to RTÉ One next week with a new television series called Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home. A hardback cookbook to accompany the series is published by HarperCollins and it’s difficult to walk into any Irish bookshop at the moment without tripping over a stack of them!

4

Do / Return to Ireland

Ireland – the Food Island?

Brooklodge I was in the heart of County Wicklow yesterday, listening as the Irish branch of Euro-toques, a European-wide community of cooks and chefs, debated the idea of Ireland as a culinary destination. Held at the lovely Brooklodge Hotel in Macreddin Village, this was Euro-toques Ireland’s fifth National Food Forum. Chaired by Peter Ward of Country Choice delicatessen in Nenagh, the panel consisted of Colman Andrews, former editor-in-chief of US food magazine, Saveur; John McKenna, the man behind the Bridgestone Guides; artisan butcher, market trader and sausage-maker extraordinaire Ed Hicks; editor of The Dubliner, Trevor White; and John Mulcahy of Failte Ireland, who provide training and development services for the tourism and hospitality industry.

Bibliocook.com - Dukkah 4

Food for Friends

Dukkah by post

Homemade Dukkah For the last round of European Blogging by Post, I decided to make some Dukkah to include in my parcel for Petula in Italy. An Egyptian blend of coarsely ground nuts, spices and salt that you eat with pieces of crusty bread dipped in olive oil, I had never come across Dukkah before going to live in New Zealand last year. There it is often available at the many weekend markets dotted around the South Island and many food producers – Wild Country, elgani, Attitude Foods – make their own particular variation.

US blogger nominated for Quill Book Awards 0

Read

US blogger nominated for Quill Book Awards

Congratulations to New York-based blogger Julie Powell whose book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, has just been nominated for two Quill Book Awards. The book – based on...

3

Return to Ireland

Good things from Cork

thequaycoop.jpg Life – in the form of friends’ weddings, new babies and house buying – has gotten in the way of updates here in the last while but, even though I haven’t been cooking or baking very much recently, it hasn’t stopped me from either eating or investigating interesting new food products. While the Boyfriend and I were down at home in County Cork last weekend, I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to my beloved English Market and Quay Co-op in Cork city and these are a few of the things that I’m trying at the moment: