Inishfood

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The Best of Inishowen, and Ireland

So what started out as a few bloggers going to visit Harry's restaurant, became about 60 foodies, producers, farmers and chefs descending on the Inishowen Peninsula. It was a packed 2 days (it would have been 3 had the weather not failed us!) Filled with demos, tastings, lunches, dinners, coffees, drinks and the tasting of fresh blood!

The man that no one will argue was the driving force behind the weekend was Donal Doherty of Harry's restaurant. He made everyone equally welcome and seemed justifiably excited in the shared enthusiasm of everyone there for this ethos and ideas of how we should eat.

The atmosphere and tone of the weekend was unbridled enthusiasm and positivity,  which in recent times is like a refreshing jump in the cold Atlantic - yeouch! The occasion made you feel like you would look back at this weekend in the years to come and say - yes I was there! The simple and very straight forward fact is that we have such a rich and fantastic island here - we should eat as much that comes from it's soils for a multitude of reasons. Supporting our farmers, keeping money on our shores, keeping carbon emissions down, freshness, this list could go on and on. Donal used the term locavorism, a term he really takes seriously in the running of his restaurant, using meat and produce from his closest neighbors.

On a more personal level, recently I have become slightly disillusioned with the blog. A point that arrives in each bloggers life where you think "Do you know what I don't think anyone reads this?" A little down at heel I got myself all the way up to Donegal. Now re-inspired by a wealth of local producers and farmers, who all seemed keen and interested in the bloggers and the work that we do. Donal during his introduction to the walled garden community project, he said that bloggers were responsible for spreading the word. The weekend told me no don't give up, what you do is important to people outside the blogging community.

Now to do a quick pictorial run through of the weekend - get ready to drool!

Darren Bradley - very generously invited us all into his back yard where he has built his own pizza oven. With the help of his neighbor they fired out the pizza for several hours, while we all enjoyed a beer. My favorite slice was of goats cheese, carmelised onions, rosemary and truffle oil pizza.

Men of the moment - Donal of Harry's and Darren Bradley - self named Pizza Guy

After a quick welcome speech from the lovely Kirsten and Caroline of the Irish Food Bloggers Association and the blogs Dinner Du Jour and Bibliocook. It was the turn of Colin & Seanin from L. Mulligans Grocer in Stoneybatter. He introduced 3 Irish brewed and produced beers. Dungarvan Brewery's Helwick Gold, a lovely crisp beer ideal for serving with fish and chicken. A second beer that escapes me now. Thirdly was Dark Arts from Trouble Brewing Company, a truly beautiful porter, it maybe in the running for my new favourite beer.

Colin from L Mulligans Grocer loves his beer

Then it was away down a candle lit drive to Linsfort Castle B&B for storytelling and songs. A great range of stories told from Inishowen natives. The highlight of which had to be Bertie (88?) a true performer and he made me cry.

In the room next door a stew was bubbling on the stove, of venison and Dexter beef, prepared by Raymond Moran the head Chef at Harry's. It was truly tasty. In the following room a table was groaning under a weigh of cakes and a wheel of the creamy goodness that is Durrus cheese and Glebe Brethan cheese too.

Off to bed, breakfast the next morning was prepared by the welcoming Mary at Westbrook B&B.

The day at Harry's was kicked off by the lovely Juan of Coffee Angel, he was using Bailies Coffee Beans in a multitude of different ways to produce a range of coffees. 

Harrys' own butcher butchers one quarter of beef every week, so when it's gone it's off the menu! They have their own hanging room where they hang all their meat. Surprisingly little waste as seen here in this bin!

Then it was over the the enigmatic Ed Hick to demonstrate Pork Curing. We all got stuck in and I have alovely piece curing away in my fridge. I also got talking to the pigs producer of Wishing Well Farm, who told me this was his first pig. I'll be reporting back on my piece when it's ready to go.

Fluffy Blood

Pudding Ingredients

Ed Hick gets down to business

Jack Mc Carthy - you can't hide behind that pudding!

Theatrical Shots of the Puddings

McCarthy of Kanturk Award Winning Pudding

The Happy Butchers!

Lunch was slow cooked the brisket, rib, pot roast & shoulder from Marshall farms very first dexter  5mins from Harry's

After lunch we were treated to  raw milk latte, which was Divine. Then it was onto butter making with Imen from I married an Irish farmer. Great demo and so easy to do - you just need some good elbow grease. I think I've learnt the secret to Imens great photos - it's all her  pretty accessories! 

                                                

Then a tour of the walled garden that Donal along with the help of are setting up as a community garden. 

Pretty Lichen is bad for the fruit trees

A Man with a Vision!

Whippet on the Wall

Curious Horsie

Then home for a quick change of clothes and onto what I can pretty safely call the best meal of my life. Not only because of the quality of the food, cooking and ingredients, but the build up started that morning at Harry's when we got to talk to and meet the producers and farmers, that passion really came through in the food that night.

Selection of pates and toasted brioche

Butter we made earlier

Breaded Langoustine, Salt Cod and Greencastle Scampi

Pollack with Thai Spices, seaweed crisp and
sweet pepper sauce

Beef Shin Ravioli with horseradish Sauce on wild garlic

Venison Carpaccio, Mc Carthys pistahio, mint and chocolate black
pudding &  Venison Confit with Hazelnut Crust

Football Special Panna Cotta, Buttermilk Ice-cream
& deconstructed cheesecake with Yeats Country
Cream Cheese  

The only thing left to do is thank everyone from my fellow bloggers to the farmers and producers who all gave so generously of their time. Thanks to the lovely Joanna of Smorgasblog for the lift. To Catherine at the Runcible Spoon and the hilarious Aoife of I Can Has Cook for their good company. A big thank you to Caroline and Kirstin of the IFBA. An finally the man who I've mentioned about 20 times in the post - Donal Doherty for sharing his passion and showing us how things can be done when you really believe in the quality of our amazing local produce! 

Cooks Academy Week 3

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Monday

Have I got your attention yet - mmm I'm yummy!

Up bright and early an continuing on with the Italian theme again mostly. Pea Risotto, Chorizo and Chickpea and Apple Tarte Normande, ok so that makes it more European Day then I guess. My lack of partner today saw me tackle the whole menu alone.

Practising my mise en place. You know on TV cookery shows when the chef says 'I'll just add some finely diced onion' and promptly tips a small glass bowl full of perfectly diced onion into his pan. I always thought this was just for TV shows. Apparently not. This is what you do if you're a super organised chef - like myself of course. Yup, even two cloves are lovingly placed in their own little tiny receptacle - cute.

Now this is super helpful - if you have a little assistant/elf/kitchen hobbit. Lacking any of these and even a human cooking partner; I set about establishing a veritable colony of little bowls filled with all my ingredients.

The words 'must try harder' were invented for this photo

Now I can cook. The morning passed in a super efficient manner, until I got to making my risotto. Glancing over my shoulder I noticed that nobody else was even cooking anymore - whoops. Oh well and I wasn't even the only one cooking solo today. Ah well nothing to do but keep going. So one I went stirring and stirring risotto, stir stir stir all alone whhhhhhy - oww my arm.

The big mistake I made with the risotto was to add stock a little too early before all the liquid had been absorbed. The end result wasn't too pretty but what risotto is. It was delicious, and there is some fresh mint in there too - a nice subtle amount with the peas and Parmesan - nice.

Chorizo Soup

The tarte Normande was amazing, anything involving pastry and apples is a winner in my book. Alan was the first to reply to my free cake tweet. So the lucky guy had some cake delivered to his place of work in Temple Bar.

Chorizo soup was nice I might leave the lid off for a little longer next time to thicken up a bit more, I was otherwise preoccupied with the other dishes to pay it too much attention - many apologies pot of soup!

Tuesday

I'm typing up Tuesday antics on Wednesday morning with the last slice of Apple Normande for breakfast  - it's grand it has apples in it! I also awoke to find that all my nice white chef smocks have been turned pink by a rouge sock - I'll never get work in a Michelin star restaurant in these.

Lamb Madras

Yesterday was Indian Day, which saw us produce an array of delicious and authentic (with some deviation towards the Middle East) We prepared Lamb Masala and lamb koftas. Along with these we also made naan breads spiked with onion seeds.

Koftas

Yumbo dessert

For dessert we prepared cardamon cream pots.  A lovely subtle and light (ish) dessert ideal served with fruit. It was a chance to use some gelatin for the first time - very easy a good trick to have up your sleeve allowing you to turn many delicious liquids into impressive and tasty desserts.

The lamb koftas were spicy and full of flavour, and ideal starter, for the barbeque or smaller for canapes.

The afternoon demo was jam packed. Our pastry expert showed use some sugar boiling techniques and then produced an amazing and sparkling array of spun sugar cages, nests and spirals. To be tried at home with extreme caution due to very high temperatures of the sugar/caramel mix and the fact that you need to kind of throw it around the place. Utensils to be well oiled before starting!

A whole salmon was poached and prepared, with eyes and scales recreated from various other food items. It looked  bit creepy, but I can imagine on the centre of a  large buffet it would look pretty impressive.

We had a demo on how best to prepare and cook scallops - quickly and at a high heat. They were made into a tasty linguine with pancetta, spinach and rosemary butter mmmmmmm.

Finally an large bowl of hummus was prepared, illustrating my need for a food processor once again (hint hint Internet philanthropists!) One of the best recipes I've tasted, nice and spicy a good amount of lemon and lots of tahini. About to be late now for Wednesdays sushi workshop, so 'd better run off in my pink smocks.

byee

Wednesday

Looking at today on the timetable made me feel a bit quesy. Sushi workshop, then cheese tasting, followed by canape making and a wine tasting evening. That's a lot of food to be putting in one stomach - oh and wine.

Sushi to start. The rice seems to be a  key part in how your sushi will work or not. Japanese sushi chefs can train for up to 16 years. The wash must be washed many times, until the water runs clear (or near to clear) Then the rice must be put in cold water before being brought to the boil, then boiled for 15 mins, then sits for 15 minutes. Then covered in rice vinegar and sugar solution, spread on a tray and fanned! la de dah miss sushi rice!

Skills!

Now a careful and colourful assembly of fillings was prepared - after a quick demo on riling techniques we were a bit pushed for time. I still managed to make a few nori rolls, sashimi and sushi balls. It's a shame that the morning was a bit rushed, but that's the nature of the game. I will def be making sushi again, lots of fun and above all delicious.

Lunch

Cheese Montage

The morning demo was then from Kevin Sheridan from Sheridans cheese. He explained the broad cheese making processes and main types of cheese. How various factors influence the finished cheese, such as cultures, temperature, milk type, cutting, turning, storing, heat, size, the list goes on and on!

He brought in a nice range  of cheeses for us to taste,  some Irish traditional like Gubeen, Cashel Blue and a few more recent additions to the Irish cheese circuit (agh I've forgotten their names - will look at my notes) a lovely young, soft goats cheese, and a smaller more mature goats cheese as well as an amazing cheese very like Comte. Comte is the biggest selling cheese in France! There was also the most divine French Camembert.

He made the case for artisan farmers and producers clear in a succinct statement. Artisan suppliers foremost priority is taste, supermarkets foremost priority is profit. Nothing new there but I just thought it summed it up well. The manner in which supermarkets sell and display cheese is harmful to the taste, cheese is essentially very ugly really. Supermarkets attempt to make this product more attractive and in the process homogenise the taste appearance and personality of the cheese. This is a whole other argument - so this is only a small mention of a huge overall point!

After lunch it was full steam into canape preparation for the evening. I think I might have been tasted out as I was finding it very hard to get excited about our canapes - or make some taste decisions. Maybe my palette was a little overwhelmed.

Mini Lemon Tarts

With Our Sushi Combined

The evenings wine tasting was great, everyone in the class invited along a friend. We tasted a variety of red and white wines and had our canapes to accompany various wines. Ok I know I should write more about his but I'm tired - it was fun! There were lots of different canapes but my camera ran out of batteries - damn!

Thursday

Quick Chorizo Pasta

Ok so we're all a little tired after yesterdays hectic schedule and possibly also the many wines! Luckily the timetable for this morning was made up with this in mind. Nothing too taxing.

First we made up mayonnaise - add the oil slowly slowly - from the tip of a fork and you'll be alright - seems to be the major factor in success. I'm feel like I'm stuck in second gear so no chance I'll be rushing. One of the really interesting things about looking at every ones finished products is how different they are. We all followed the same recipe, used the same ingredients and equipment. The finished mayos were greatly varying in consistency. It was a point that our tutor made the day before that even the most highly trained chefs will make the same dish differently. We're like little chef snowflakes - perfectly unique (poetic!)

Also prepared was a delicious salad of Cashel blue cheese with honeyed pecans, watercress and pear - loved it. Linguine with chorizo, rocket and Parmesan - didn't sound the best on paper, but was light and fresh despite the heavy ingredients. Other dishes made included Spaghetti Carbonara (my all time favourite pasta dish) Chestnut and Carrot cannelloni (amazing) Monkfish putanesca, spicy aubergine parpadelle and a range of salads, including Ceasar, chicken  and roasted veg pesto and an spicy horseradish coleslaw. A good feed for all.

Very yummy salad

The afternoon saw our tutor making beef Wellington, moule marinere, potatoes with thyme and tallegio, creme brulle and chicken Ballentine. A delicious and impressive demonstration of multi-tasking and blowtorches, that'll stop you falling asleep!

Muelle Marinere

Afternoon Demo Foods

That's it I'm hiding away form the crazy weather in my apartment practising my wine tasting skills for the night.

Friday 

There was cooking alright - look at the pretty pictures!

Romantic Themed Raspberry Creme Brullee

Salmon Yakatori - very very nice dish

Cerviche

Paella

Chicken Balentine Tastes better than this photo