Feast: A Dinner Journal | Summer/Autumn Preview

Summer / Autumn 2013

Volume 2

Welcome

Shaved summer salad page 44

a

feast

of

summer

2013

I

n this volume of FEAST: A Dinner Journal,

We also made a visit to a group of Irish farmers

we see summer slip away but we celebrate the

who’ve come together to promote quality Irish free

last of the season’s finest produce. Summer for

range chicken. The result was the ideal main course

me is when food truly comes alive, long light-

ingredient for dining outdoors, spatchcocked chicken

filled evenings spent outdoors with friends and

with roast tomatoes. We served this with griddled pea

family celebrating life with memorable meals,

pods, a shaved summer salad and herbed couscous

it’s the best way to savour the season. For our end-

with edible flowers.

of-summer feast we scoured the Irish countryside for the best seasonal ingredients and producers to

Alongside a cake from The Wild Flour Bakery we

include in our menu. The journey began with Anna

couldn’t resist adding ice cream to our end-of-

Lévêque, her daughter Lucie and the small herd of

summer menu with a visit to Irish ice cream makers

goats who produce milk for one the Ireland’s finest

Bernie and John Burke. They provided us with an

cheeses, Triskel Goats Cheese. In that same vein

intriguing list of flavour combinations like raspberry

we continued across the country meeting artisan

and panacotta and strawberry with clotted cream.

producers, whose passion and dedication help

Addictive stuff!

create the very best quality ingredients. A few bee stings were worth the trouble to extract some of the

With our stellar line up of food producers and an

sweetest Irish honey from Aisling Kennedy and her

exciting menu, a visit to Jennifer Slattery’s design

bees for our sweet summer cocktail and for drizzling

studio provided us with her unique Irish linens for

over Kate Packwood’s epic griddled stone fruit cake.

our table. The grounds of Howth’s historic castle and cookery school was the scene for our summer

Some of summer’s finest herbs were gathered

feast and we served it up outside the castle walls

from Denise Dunne to make and garnish a simple

under the shade of ancient oak trees.

sorrel soup by the great Irish food writer Theodora Fitzgibbon. Dervla James and Marion Kilcoyne, the

While the darker days approach join with us and

bright and bubbly duo from Dublin’s Pepperpot

celebrate the last of the season’s offerings with this,

Café, created mini loaves to serve at our table.

our second issue of FEAST.

Donal Skehan

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Contributors

Editor

photographer

Food Stylist

Ross has been eating for Ireland as

Donal is a food writer and photographer

Sharon’s job has taken her around the world

restaurant critic for The Sunday Business

with three cookbooks under his belt and

working with iconic names like Ina Garten,

Post since 2001 and the editor of

presents TV show, Kitchen Hero, on

Lorraine Pascale and Jamie Oliver. We’re head

FOOD&WINE Magazine from 2008 to

RTÉ One in Ireland. Donal shot all the

over heels in love with her styling, she makes

2013. He was elected to membership of

features for FEAST and enjoyed every

everything look as good as it tastes. Alongside

the Irish Food Writers’ Guild in 2006 and

minute. FEAST was a dream he has had

her fabulous assistants Ajda Mehmet and

as the author of the ebook How to Write

since he first started writing about food

Sarah Watchorn she cooked through our

About Food he’s happiest when he’s a good

and his guiding principle was to celebrate

FEAST recipes making each and every one

meal in front of him along with some fresh

the stories of the people

look particularly stylish.

copy and a big red pen.

behind the food.

www.blueberrypie.ie

Production Assistant Sofie Larsson Text copyright © 2013 Ross Golden-Bannon & Donal Skehan Photography copyright © 2013 Donal Skehan

Designer Having previously designed some of

Cover copyright © 2013 Ross Golden-Bannon & Donal Skehan.

All rights reserved.

Ireland’s leading magazines we knew that Jane’s elegant work would help make sense of the wild idea of FEAST. She has chosen some of the best images from a pile of thousands and tied them down with sweet and simple designs.

Prop stylist Cathy Pearson owns Little Piggy Vintage Hire and she enjoys nothing more than

Published by Donal Skehan trading as HomeCooked Productions Ltd., and Ross Golden-Bannon trading as RGB Consulting.

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trawling though antique shops and auctions looking for the perfect look and feel for her client’s next event or special occasion.

Which is why her propping expertise was so welcome in this issue of FEAST www.littlepiggy.ie

xxxx

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T H E MENU

SUMMER / a u t u m n

2013

Cocktail Ginger and strawberry fizz with Apitherapy Honey 6

Bread Mini white yeast loaves from the Pepper Pot 14

Soup Theodora Fitzgibbon’s fresh sorrel soup with The Herb Garden 22

Starter Pan fried trout from Goatsbridge Trout Farm with beetroot and fennel salad 30

Main course Herb roasted spatchcock chicken from Farmers to Market Free Range Chicken with griddled pea pods and a shaved summer vegetable salad 38

Dessert Griddled stone fruit cake with honey from the Wild Flour Bakery 46

Cheese Triskell goats cheese with rhubarb compote 54

Treats Waffle ice cream cones and raspberry puree with Burke’s Farm Ice Cream 62

Setting the table Jennifer Slattery’s table linens 70

FINAL FEAST Kitchen in the Castle at Howth Castle 76

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T H E MENU

Long before everyone started dining al fresco, we just went on picnics with our friends.

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

Apitherapy

Pure

Irish

Honey

Woodstock Ma l h e n e y , S k e r r i e s Co. Dublin

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

A

isling Kennedy has been making honey since 2011 though her love of bees and their terroir goes back much further. She grew up beside Lambe’s Orchard in Donabate and watched the changing seasons amongst the fruit trees and blackberry bushes. She saw her first beehive there and marvelled at the location where the bees could feed on the richly diverse

blossoms. Aisling is a member of the Federation of Irish Beekeepers and also has a bit of a royal past, in 2011 she was appointed the Irish Honey Queen by the Federation, representing the interests of the Federation across the country.

She is passionate about the honey she produces extolling its many benefits, from the ancient sweetness to the many healing and therapeutic qualities connected to the golden liquid. The bees at Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey collect nectar from a variety of blossoms and the honey is then extracted from the hive and filtered. The process is a gentler one than mainstream honey production as it’s not pasteurized and the lower heating helps retain the minerals and vitamins. The process also ensures a more complex floral flavour which lasts and lasts on the palate. We loved it so much we used it in our cocktail as well as our stone fruit cake on page 46.

Apitherapy, Woodstock, Malheney, Skerries, Co. Dublin , + 353 (0)87 221 9562. www.apitherapy.ie

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Honey is liquid at 35ºC which is usually the temperature of the hive, though in summer it can rise to 40ºC; pure, natural honey has a tendency to crystallise, a natural process that does not effect the taste or quality; Aisling Kennedy proudly holding her golden harvest; each year these European Honey Bees collect on avergae 66lbs of honey per hive.

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

Honey bees, like all pollinators, need a diverse countryside with plenty of wild flowers.

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

Ginger and strawberry fizz 200ml ginger syrup

Combine ginger syrup, Grand Marnier and honey in a large pitcher,

4 tablespoon Grand

slowly add the soda and sparkling wine and mix well. Serve in

Marnier

champagne flutes with a few strawberries in each glass.

4 tablespoons honey

For the ginger syrup 450ml soda

In a saucepan, slowly bring the sugar, 250ml water and ginger to the

750ml sparkling wine,

boil stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. Reduce the heat

preferably dry

and simmer for 5 minutes until the liquid becomes a syrup. Strain the

Large handful of

syrup through a sieve into a large pitcher or jug and discard the ginger

strawberries

pieces. Allow to cool completely before adding to the cocktail.

Serves 8

FOR THE ginger syrup

200g caster sugar 250ml water 100g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

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Apitherapy Pure Irish Honey

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Th e H e r b G a r d e n

the

herb

garden

Forde-de-Fyne T h e Na u l , C o D u b l i n

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Th e h e r b G a r d e n

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Th e H e r b G a r d e n

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the herb garden

D

enise Dunne grew up in suburban Dublin in Santry in the 1960s but unlike the urban gardens of other homes her parents filled their’s with every imaginable edible plant and some animals too, creating a home-grown paradise in a quiet cul-de-sac. Good food was important to her family and they were practically selfsufficient long before it was fashionable. This meant Denise’s

childhood was utterly immersed in the world of herbs and plants. Today she runs The Herb Garden, a certified organic herb nursery, where you’ll also find organic salad leaves, flowers and native Irish wildflower seeds. Denise’s knowledge is encyclopedic and runs beyond the more obvious use of herbs in cooking to safe medicinal remedies as well as cosmetic uses and even general household work.

After a few minutes chatting to Denise we realised she’s the go-to person for all things herby – from recreating a medieval garden to a sensory space, you’ll hear the story of every herb as she chats and offers you a nibble of the leaves. An ideal person to supply us with sorrel for our soup recipe.

The Herb Garden, Forde-de-Fyne, Naul, County Dublin, + 353 (01) 841 3907. www.theherbgarden.ie

clockwise from top leFt: Denise Dunne in her paradise polytunnel; we were happy to be led up this herb filled garden path to Denise’s cut-stone cottage; globe artichokes always stand proud in The Herb Garden; ginger mint, one of the many flavoured treats waiting to inspire us.

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triskell Goats cheese

triskelL goats cheese

Killowen Orchard P o r t l aw , C o . Wat e r f o r d

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triskell Goats cheese

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triskell Goats cheese

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triskell Goats cheese

T

he Breton and Irish cultures share a long history, from our native Celtic languages, songs and poetry to our dairy traditions. The cheese maker Anna Lévêque knows all about these happy links across the water and has now united the two great cheese making terroirs. She spent part of her childhood on her grandparents’ dairy farm in Brittany before studying agriculture in France which

included a placement with Teagasc here in Ireland. Once her studies were completed she returned to Ireland and Brittany’s loss was Ireland’s gain. Having worked with Irish cheese makers and goat farmers she fulfilled a long-held hope to set up her own cheese making enterprise and Triskel Goats Cheese was born. In keeping with her dairy heritage Anna created a soft, French-style goats cheese drawn from a tribe of local goats. She produces three cheese varieties, the Pyramid, Crottin and Bouche, all created in keeping with the ancient cheese making tradition of hand-ladling the curds into the cheese moulds. The cheeses have a delicate, subtle flavour, yet they are unique amongst Irish cheeses for all their lightness. They are fast becoming a favourite on the cheeseboards of many of Ireland’s fine-dining restaurants as well as an ingredient in their kitchens. We’ve served it at our FEAST with some fruity rhubarb compote, though we suggest you taste it on its own first.

Anna Lévêque, Triskel Goats Cheese, Killowen Orchard, Portlaw, Co Waterford,

tel: + 353 (0) 86 074 4534.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Anna’s tribe of goats include Anglo-Nubian, Saanen, Alpine and Toggenburg; Anna Lévêque, Lucie Lévêque Little and Philip Little; Lucie in the hay is still a bit of a diamond; Bramley cooking apples, when juice is made the goats love the apple pulp.

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final Feast

kitchen at the ca stle

Howth Co. Dublin

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final Feast

Stone fruit cake, page 52

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final Feast

A beautiful cake is a temporary piece of art but it is thrice loved, first by the eyes, then by the mouth and then by the memory.

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final Feast

Ice cream might well be the answer to everything, it quite often tastes like the ultimate cure-all.

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final Feast

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final Feast

O

ur final FEAST took place by the walls of Howth Castle under the dappled shade of an oak tree and just a stone’s throw from The Kitchen in the Castle cookery school. The school is set in the impeccably restored Georgian kitchen where Edwina St Lawrence is keen to show people that anyone can be a cook, and a creative one at that. The aim of

the school is to get people to reconnect with food by teaching people core skills and feeding their confidence. It would be hard not to be inspired to cook here as the castle and land sits on one of Ireland’s prettiest peninsula’s with views across Dublin and out to sea. Everyone is welcome here, whether you’re a transition year student looking for cooking experience, a newbie to throwing dinner parties or an enthusiast seeking to fill some knowledge gaps, few locations can match an ancient castle as a school room. www.thekitcheninthecastle.com CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The restored Georgian garden gives up its bounty; Howth Castle’s history stretches back to the medieval period; Edwina St Lawrence heads up the Kitchen in the Castle; secret gardens and ancient tales are stock in trade here.

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final Feast

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