'Celebrating Irish Salmon' by Máirín Uí Chomáin

Celebrating Irish Salmon is a new and very beautiful book from food writer Máirín Uí Chomáin. This Connemara native is a former chair of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild, an active member of the Slow Food movement, and holds an honorary MA from NUI Galway in recognition of her commitment to home economics.

The salmon has been part of Ireland’s natural heritage for over 10,000 years. From time immemorial, the ‘prince of fish’ has been caught and eaten here, bartered and traded, celebrated in lore and legend, almost as much a symbol of Ireland as the harp or the shamrock. 'Celebrating Irish Salmon' presents over 100 recipes by acclaimed chef Máirín, with contributions from other cutting-edge chefs, smokehouses and fisheries and including all of Ireland’s Michelin-starred restaurants. Ken Whelan, our foremost fisheries scientist, provides contextual notes on the history of salmon in Ireland, and Walter Pfeiffer’s vibrant, contemporary photographs bring the dishes to life.

This book is the definitive book of salmon from lifecycle and history, covering cooking terms and equipment, starters and canapés, brunches and lunches with extensive beverage matching as a bonus. The thing that appeals about Máirín's food is its freshness and flavour, equal parts comfort food and lighter, more exotic tastes. 'Celebrating Irish Salmon' is Máirín’s fifth cookbook and is my favorite (so far) and one of the best books of the year. This is a book for everyone and more especially a taste of Connemara and the West of Ireland. She has penned a gem guaranteed to whet the appetite of seafood lovers. It seems there are as many ways to cook salmon as there are stars in the sky and here captured between the covers of this handsome tome are some of the very best. The book's second launch at Lough Inagh Lodge in Recess, Connemara, on Sunday, December 1st was attended by what must surley have been record numbers for an event of this kind. Testament to the high regard in which Máirín is held.

As I have been writing my little column for the Galway Advertiser for 2 years now and have met many people who work with food, from producers, farmers, chefs to writers and photographers. I am lucky now to count many of them as friends. But few people I have come across have made as much of an impression as Máirín. A unique woman and a beautiful soul with a large dollop of 'devilment' running through it all. She has the warmest of smiles and wears her heart on her sleeve. Her emotions are never far from the surface and is just as quick to be moved to tears as reduced to peels of laughter. When it comes to the list of 'who's who' and evaluating the very best of modern Irish cuisine, it will be impossible not to have some link to the pioneering spirit of this ghillie's daughter from Connemara, who I am proud to consider as a friend.

Máirín Uí Chomáin {pic by Mona Wise}

Celebrating Irish Salmon is published by Artisan House Editions in Letterfrack, Co Galway and is on sale in all good bookstores, priced at €20. It is also available at www.artisanhouse.ie with a special launch offer of two books for €30 plus p&p.

Published in The Galway Advertiser, 5/12/2013

Festive Foodie Gift Challenge

This is my first time hosting a guest post and it's a good one. I met a lot of lovely people on my Page to Plate course back in May and one of them was the lovely Karon Grieves. She is a Scottish homecrafter with a particular interest in the concept of the larder, something fast dying out from refrigeration and our marvelous invention 'the utility room'. She is also a freelance author, the resident expert on BBC Radio Scotland for all things homely and has published a few books for you to peruse. I love her blog and her photography is just wonderful. But most of all she is funny, fiesty and a good friend... and she boils a perfect 6 minute egg. Do join in the challenge if you can, her book is a little treasure as is she. She also has very big feet #justsayin'. Over to you Karon!

Hi I’m Karon from Larder Love and I’m thrilled to be visiting here with Amee and to be able to share one of my recipes and a bit of fun news with you. To celebrate the launch of my new Bookette, Gourmet Gifts For Christmas (available from my web site www.karongrieve.com) and the Ebook version which is available now on Amazon Kindle I am hosting a Bloggers Challenge on my web site during the month of November.

Festive Foodie Gift Challenge

It is all about 'Foodie Gifts' and I’d like everyone to share their favorite foodie gift idea (from homemade drinks to cookies, jams, pickles, jellies and preserves, anything you can eat or drink in the gifty department) with a recipe (must have photo on your post and only one entry each please),  the challenge ends on Monday 18^th November I’ll get a guest blogger to choose their favorite and the winner will receive a paperback copy of my Gourmet Gifts For Christmas. All the entrants will then have their photos and links to their blogs and recipes listed on my blog Larder Love during the build up to Christmas.

Everyone loves receiving something homemade, it shows how much you care for the recipient that you took the time and trouble to make something especially for them. A gift of food is even more special, something that can be enjoyed and shared, savoured and remembered long after the festive season is over.

Here is a simple recipe for Raspberry & Thyme Vinegar (from Gourmet Gifts For Christmas) which is so pretty and makes a wonderful gift. Look out for vintage bottles for packaging, I used an old vanity bottle. Just make sure bottles are sterilised and have vinegar proof lids.

Raspberry & Thyme Vinegar

100g/3 1/2oz fresh raspberries

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 teaspoon caster sugar

200ml/3 1/2fl oz white wine vinegar

Bring everything to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to infuse overnight and allow to cool completely. Strain and bottle. Use on salads and add a dash to soda for a great drink.

Huge thanks to Amee for inviting me on to her blog and letting me share all this with you.

Merry Christmas when it comes!

Karon x

chewy chocolate chip cookies

These big chewy cookies come originally from The River Cottage Family Cookbook. I use a bag of chocolate chips instead of chopping up a bar to cut down the workload even more, making them perfect for after school cooking with the kids. They are easy-peasy, taking no more than 10 minutes to make, and 10 to bake. They are also an excellent ice-cream sandwich cookie, simply fill with chocolate or vanilla ice-cream when they are completely cooled and return to the freezer to firm up a little before passing out to the troops.

Ingredients

125g salted butter
100g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
100g milk chocolate chips

Method
Gently melt the butter in a small saucepan. Put both sugars into a mixing bowl, pour in the melted butter and beat well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir them in, then add the chocolate. You should have a pretty sloppy sort of mixture.

Dot heaped dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on to 2 baking sheets lined with baking parchment, leaving a good 4cm in between each one as they really spread out. Place in an oven preheated to 190C and bake for 8–10 minutes, until the cookies are turning pale golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes to firm up. Then carefully lift the baking parchment on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Inevitably they will be eaten as soon as they are cool enough not to burn fingers. Makes  about 16 very large cookies.

P.S. These are Holly Stephens favorite cookie, so I hope you make them up to standard, mammy Sinead. No pressure, like!

Cava Bodega

This inconspicuous premises on Middle Street has certainly had a chequered past in the last 20 odd years. It once housed The European Table, if anyone remembers, with a large and very bizarre water feature. Their solution to having their main dining room in a windowless basement was to paint some windows on the walls. Usually I can remember everything I ate in every restaurant I have ever visited, but strangely for me I can't remember anything I ever ate there. I'm sure it must have been deep fried brie and seared duck breast sort of a place. Sometime after that it was the popular (re-located) Scotty's, with long queues on the stairs for a seat in the best burger joint in town. It spent a short while as Mustard. I never did go in there as I was always next door slurping noodles in DaTang. It then lay vacant for quite some time until just a few weeks ago when it took on a new persona.

Now it is a comfortable home to Cava Bodega, a reincarnation of the hugely popular Cava of Dominick Street. That premises having closed in January following a rental dispute. I could find many clichés to use here, 'every cloud has a silver lining', or 'when one door closes another one opens' but it will suffice to say that the rental dispute just might be the best thing that ever happened to Chef Patron, JP McMahon. The opportunity to do something different, but do it the same, is a rare thing. There has been a much needed cull of the menu, they have gained a better room for their style, the very definition of up-cycle, re-use and re-purpose. Disused barrels as lampshades, raw wood, brick and concrete, old wine boxes brought to life again as a bar. As before, the kitchen and floor staff are second to none.

Last year I seem to have spent a lot of time eating pork belly. This year the theme was flowers. Sometimes a welcome addition to a plate, sometimes so heavily strewn on the ubiquitous slate so as to make a dish look like a Catholic primary school's tribute to Our Lady. Not anything you would wish to dig your cutlery into, unless perhaps you had had the foresight to bring your gardening folk along. Cava Bodega quite sensibly took this opportunity to jettison most of the micro salads, the pea shoots and the flower arrangements, and while the plates are still pretty the food is allowed to speak for itself. I went along to Cava Bodega for their opening where they served a selection of their delicious pinchos (Spanish canapé) and glasses of cava (naturally!). There was a 'block party' feel to the evening as the local tight-knit hostelries and restaurants joined together to welcome this former 'Westender' and to make them feel at home.

JP McMahon, Galway's answer to Fergus Henderson, always walks about with a pigs head under his arm or a fine jambon over his shoulder, if we are to believe the publicity shots for his three restaurants. The day I went for supper in his newest restaurant, he had no meat about his person that I could discern. It was of course possible that he had some charcuterie in his chefs whites but it would have been rude of me to inquire as to the contents of his pockets. In Cava Bodega he serves my kind of food, the edible magic that results when pig meets spice and curing time and magnificent cheeses, piled on bread with piquillos and a drizzle of olive oil. The slow cooked cheeks, hearts and extremities that I love, and that were simply not available in Galway when Cava closed.

Their cellar carries a wide variety of very good Spanish wines and sherries. The wine menu is divided into a number of categories based on the character of the wine, for ease of ordering depending on preference. There are some beers, ciders and of course cava. The menu, though suffering from a bit of origami, is equally easy to navigate, divided into vegetable, fish and meat sections, nibbles and desserts. Tables are provided with excellent bread, oil and vinegar and, as is the case with a tapas menu, the scaled down portions means expanded choice. We ordered four tapa to start off with and an elegant slate of goats cheese and fig cake arrived first. Pigs cheeks followed quickly and were tender, but not falling apart in a sweet, aromatic soup of apple, sultana and tomato. Earthy chicken hearts in cider with chorizo were devoured, using the bread for mopping up the thin juices, greedily like candy. Pigs head fritter with beetroot and hazelnuts was next with not a scrap left on the plate. I realize this is starting to sound like Hannibal Lecter's last supper but deciding we still had a little bit of room we ordered a lamb heart dish stuffed with chorizo and cooked in beer, this required a refill of the bread basket for even more mopping up. A little dessert of blackberry ice-cream, leaning nicely towards a sorbet rather than gelato, with perfectly ripe fresh figs, and just two edible blooms, completed our meal. The bill came to €38.25 for two - excellent value for the quality and variety we enjoyed.

If you want 100% authentic Spanish tapas we are lucky enough to have the excellent Lunares on Woodquay for that sort of thing. Cava manages not to fall into the trap of trying to be too authentic, a danger especially in a tapas bar with no Spaniard in the kitchen. It is its own invention, with the best of Irish and Spanish produce it is neither truly and completely one nor the other, but balanced between the two food cultures, a see-saw, back and forth. They pick and choose the parts that work best and melt them into one or the other, meandering pleasantly between both accents.

I could look for something to criticize, the menu layout is clumsy requiring constant twisting to find the right way up to read it, the signage is not properly centered over the door, but hey, I'm just clutching at straws here. Of the three Restaurants owned and operated by husband and wife team JP McMahon and Drigín Gaffey in the EatGalway Group, it is Cava Bodega, even more so than Michelin starred Aniar, that has earned a place in peoples' hearts and certainly in my own. I will always pick Kai over Eat, if I have managed to walk that far down the West, I may as well keep going, a personal preference. Aniar is a food concept, intellectual eating, a different experience entirely. But Cava Bodega, for me, is just right. Welcome home.

Cava Bodega, 1 Middle Street Mews, Middle Street, Galway. Open from 5pm to late, 7 days a week. Telephone: (+353) 91 539 884. Bookings: bookings@cavarestaurant.ie

Written for and published in The Galway Advertiser, 10 October 2013.

watch your step and enjoy your trip...

Aniar is the third best restaurant in Galway. If we are to believe the TripAdvisor rankings, that is. Yes, the only Michelin starred restaurant in the whole of Galway currently takes the bronze behind the "consistently good” Gourmet Tart Company and the "excellent little gem" that is Oscar's Seafood Bistro. With The Galleon and Kirwan's Lane restaurant completing the top five, you may or may not agree with this analysis of the current state of dining in Galway.

But a quick look at the reviews for the newly-starred Aniar will show that there is something not quite right with the system. While the contributors are in general fair and honest, now and again an isolated bad experience skews the numbers often leaving fine dining restaurants like The West in Barna out-ranked by cute, popular, little cafes like Cupán Tae on Spanish Arch. Like is not compared with like.

There are a few 'inarticulate rants' wherein restaurant owners are painted as dishonest crooks trying to separate the general public from their cash instead of decent people working their way through a recession in an industry with notoriously tight margins. Of course, and I of all people should know, restaurant criticism requires no qualifications. If you can afford your lunch, you are perfectly entitled to write about it. Bloggers, bon viveurs and the army of virtual food critics do so every day.

While most reported to be "blown away" by Aniar with the food being "absolutely amazing and excellently presented", a small but vocal minority had their “worst meal in years” and found it to be “pretensious (sic) & waste of money”

I have never eaten there myself, early criticism from friends had persuaded me to give them more time to find their feet before venturing in and I also find it difficult to pass by Cava next door, where I know I will get a quality meal at a good price. Alas, now I will just have to join the very long queue forming for a table.

The reviews for Aniar clearly show what kind of establishment it is and what sort of cuisine is on offer, as much can be gleaned from the negative comments as the positive. One person's 'cramped dining room' is another persons 'cosy, intimate setting'.  Are you an adventurous eater? Is fine dining your thing? No? Then keep on walking. There are 190 other places to choose from and one of them will suit you. Common sense can tell you that if you are the sort of person who puts salt on your food before tasting it, likes portions that will require an elasticated waistband and absolutely must have chips - you might not be happy with your experience there.

In general, I believe that these types of restaurant recommendations sites and their advice is informative and useful in avoiding a mediocre meal that will not be to your taste. But overall you would be well advised to take TripAdvisor and their ilk with a large pinch of Maldon.

Dela Restaurant

It's good to share...

As Cava rises phoenix-like from the flames on Middle Street in the city centre, its old lodgings have been given a makeover into a Scandi-style eatery known as Dela. On walking in the door, it's impossible for any regular of the previous occupant not to compare one to the other. The layout is pretty much the same, there's a lunch-time deal of soup and a sandwich with coffee for €10 just like the old days and they have Patatas Bravas on the menu, but then again, who doesn't these days? And there ends the similarities, as they are as different as the proverbial chalk and a sharing plate of Sheridan's cheese.

Dela is owned and run by local couple Joe and Margaret Bohan. So, what inspires a couple to open a restaurant in a space previously occupied by one of Galway's best loved restaurants? Would you have to be certifiable or just confident to open in an area of the city that is home to many of the cities best eateries? Take 'Kai' for a start, just this weekend was announced the best restaurant in all of Connacht with Jess Murphy being highly commended as best chef to boot. There's the very popular 'Oscars Seafood Bistro' and the amazing value in 'Rouge'. If you are going to be the meat in the sandwich between barbecue kings 'Creole' on one side and the Michelin-starred 'Aniar' on the other, then you had better have something special to bring to the table. Luckily for them, they do. 

The dining room at Dela is lovely and bright with clean, simple lines and wooden tables dressed with pretty pots of herbs. The weekend brunch has all the favorites along with some more unusual items, Sourdough Toast with Cheddar and Marmalade; Bellinis; Bloody Marys and Affogatos. Even their fry is made extra special with eggs from their own hens. The newly started lunch menu has Beef Ragu served with potato gratin; or Spanish Omelette with roast peppers and saffron aioli to choose from along with the aforementioned Sandwich & Soup combo, keenly priced with all items €10.00 and under.

The Bohans are very hands on in Dela. Margaret, graciousness personified, greets the guests herself at front of house and it was she who seated me when I popped in for dinner last week. She is also green fingered and grows lots of the herbs, salad leaves and gorgeous edible flowers used in the kitchen, but not the tomatoes. She doesn't want to talk about the tomatoes. The tables are provided with complimentary breads and compound butters, not that common anymore and a nice surprise. We had a sundried tomato butter and a pesto one which were lovely, particularly with the freshly baked focaccia and brown bread.

The evening menu reads well at the beginning and end, with some difficult territory to navigate in between. First are the Sharing Plates – charcuterie, cheese or seafood in sizes small and large and using the best of Irish ingredients and local suppliers. The menu also includes traditional main meals – Steak, Pork Belly or Sea Bass with vegetables and potatoes for an additional €3.95 for each. 

Then there are Tasting Plates – which are starters by another name; a selection of Salads/Plates and lastly 'Small Plates' which one might take to mean tapas, but are not. Matched with a very good wine list with some classic reds and whites, divided into new and old world for ease of choice and the best of Irish Craft Brews such as Trouble, Dungarvan, Kinsale, Tom Crean, O'Haras and Stonewell.

We started with one of the Sharing Plates, a classic combination of seared Rossaveal scallops with black pudding. It looked a picture and came with a river of lemon cream and a buttery bright green, pea purée. This was a glorious plate of food that I will no doubt daydream about for years to come.

A main of Monkfish for my companion came with a cream sauce studded with vanilla seeds on a buttery hill of mash, a side of ratoutille included. We also had the Patatas Bravas and the Sautéed King Prawns in garlic and chilli from the Small Plates. While the potatoes were as expected, the prawns lacked a little in both chilli and garlic and sat uncomfortably with a salad full of walnuts and parsnip crisps. It's inclusion in the small plates was questionable as it was a sizable plate of food.

Dessert choices of the day included Bread and Butter Pudding and an Eton mess. We had a nice, chewy Chocolate and Hazelnut Brownie, and a Lemon Tart with berries which suffered from a bit of a soggy bottom. The desserts were just a little on the 'rustic' side - perfectly alright for the day menu with a coffee, but lacking in elegance for an evening menu, more of a plating issue than a tasting one.

For a four month old, Dela is already a solid performer with a growing club of regulars. The brunch and lunch menu offer real value for money for such good quality food. There's a little fine tuning and tinkering required for the evening menu as one or two menu items are conspicuous by seeming immoderately high in comparison to the rest, but Dela is certainly more than good, getting better and has all of the potential to be exceptional. All-in-all Dela is a great addition to the West-End's dining district and another great reason to make that river crossing.

Dela Restaurant, 51 Lower Dominick Street, Galway. Tel: (091) 449252. Currently open every day from 12 until late.

The g Counter

The g Counter club

This new cafe and deli based in Wellpark Retail Park caused quite a lot of excitement when it opened four months ago and now has just about found its groove. Next to the back door of the G Hotel and directly across from the EYE Cinema, it instantly scores brownie points with some of the only free parking in the city and no booking required. 

If you thought The g Counter was in anyway associated with the G Hotel, then you have made the same mistake as I have. Nothing to do with it at all, the only thing they share is a dividing wall and a letter of the alphabet. It is, in fact, the opposite of the G Hotel. No plush neon chairs, afternoon teas or twinkly mirror balls. If you prefer your morning repast to be accompanied by starched linen, heavy cutlery and smartly dressed service, go next door. The g Counter is pared back, open plan, industrial cool, reminiscent of New York's trendy 'Meat Packing District'. This is a Big Apple dining experience without the airfare.

Breakfast Salad

The room has a lively and informal buzz. The breakfast menu caters for those after something light, maybe buttermilk pancakes with fruit salad or a bramble topped porridge. Diners who need something filling and hot before lunch are offered poached egg on pastrami hash with spiced butter and spinach or a 'Full Irish' with duck fat roasties. There’s a comprehensive selection of eggs - poached, scrambled and fried, Benedict-ed and Florentine-d.

We popped in for brunch on a busy Saturday. Unusually for a menu, everything seemed to present itself as a contender. Difficult choices had to be made, but immediately, the unusual addition of a goat cheese toastie to the vegetarian breakfast caught my eye, which also listed fried eggs, roast tomato, potato hash and garlic mushrooms. The goats cheese toasted on a very nutty walnut bread was lovely. It also came with a serving of beans, which used to be homemade but now alas are the regular canned kind. I would like to see a return to the house ones as it would have made that breakfast pretty perfect. The 'Oh, so wrong and yet, so right' breakfast salad was also pretty special, with quality breakfast ingredients piled on top of organic greens with a poached egg on top. Fresh watermelon, pear, grapes and pineapple lightly drizzled with yogurt came with the buttermilk pancake rolls and both maple and blueberry syrups for the girls. It's a great spot to bring kids with a well priced kids menu between €2.95 for pasta and tomato sauce or homemade fish fingers and chips at €4.95

Vegetarian Breakfast

The rest of the menu is a variety of oversized 'Deli Sandwiches' salads, soups, rotisserie chicken and hot signature dishes. We liked it so much that I went back two days later for a couple of their 'Deli Creations', for to call these mere sandwiches would be doing them a disservice. The G Counter club sandwich was perfect on a soft pillowy brioche bun. Mexican chorizo, melted Moneterey Jack cheese and roasted red peppers on a delicious sourdough, fresh with a chewy crust and pilled high with herbed rotesseire chicken also came served on a wooden board lined with pretty greaseproof paper. The homemade slaw and pickle were the icing on the cake.

They also boast a great hotdog with good bun-to-sausage ratio, filled to bursting with sauté onions and sauerkraut. A squidgy bun dwarfed by a whopping NY-style sausage with a delicately smokey taste, is probably the best pre-cinema snack in town.

The coffee is good and Peroni beer is available on tap by the glass for €2.95 and there is a small but perfectly formed selection of wines by the carafe. Lot's of smoothies and soft drinks too, including my current obsession, the elusive blood orange San Pelligrino.

Sandwich platter

As well as the theatre of the open hot deli counter, they have an on-site bakery staffed by head pastry chef, Eva Quaid, who keeps the Counter filled with a variety of treats. Cheesecakes, roulades and tarts are piled high on the table in front of her glass fronted stage where you can watch these or a commissioned cake being made.

Cake Counter

Even though the G Counter has got the food spot on, it is still very new and has a couple of rough edges. The seats beside the chill counter are just that, chilled, and the availability of certain menu items could be better communicated. Provenance should also be listed here as they use a lot of local suppliers, a small thing but important to the foodie types who will be attracted here for the deli delights. There is an awful lot going on in this ambitious space, from table sevice, takeaway, bakery and retail, so it is very much a work in progress. Owner/manager, the charming Gerry Kelly, tells me their takeaway deli counter is commissioned and will be installed soon for even more takeaway options. You may well find the service muddled and a little fraught on occasion as they work out the new kinks, but I’d still return here even just for a browse of the exquisitely stocked shelves, for the cute singer sewing machine tables which sit outside under a sunshine yellow awning, instantly turning grey days brighter. This deli/cafe is already a Galway favorite and well worth visiting. Certainly one to keep your eye on.

Shelves full of 'foodie' treats.

The g Counter, Wellpark Retail, Dublin Road, Galway. Tel: (091) 770 891

Open: Mon - Sat from 8am - 6.30pm & Sun from 11am -6.30pm

This article was written for and published in The Galway Advertiser 22/08/2013