Articles

Once the summer begins to kick in the annual drift towards the seaside starts too, so fish and seafood soon take pride of place on menus and home dinner tables alike. There are great goings-on in the world of seafood at the moment and, although the underlying reasons for a lot of the activity may be alarming – global warming, over fishing, depleted stocks of many species – it is heartening to see attention focused on finding solutions.
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What is Irish cuisine – or is there any such a thing at all? There’s been a lot of talk about it in recent years and the idea has often been scornfully dismissed, as too has the concept of associating Ireland with good food at all - until recently at least.
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Artisan producers are the unsung heroes of the food industry in Ireland, but need support from the commercial sector to ensure their survival. This was the view of Myrtle Allen, one of the pioneers of the movement to promote locally produced Irish food, who addressed guests at the Irish Food Writer’s Guild Food annual awards last month (March 2012).
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Home baking has settled so comfortably back into our collective psyche that it’s hard to believe it ever went away - and also back, by popular demand, is our vintage cookbook, The Best of Irish Breads & Baking (Epicure Press paperback, €15) which has just been reprinted and is available once again, from bookshops and directly from us online.
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The countdown to Easter begins on 21st February, which is Shrove Tuesday or, in the cooks’ lexicon, Pancake Day. As it’s the day before the first day of Lent (Ash Wednesday), it was traditionally a day for using up the foods that weren’t allowed during the fasting period of Lent, notably eggs.
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The festive season is in full swing and Christmas offers an escape from the everyday state of doom and gloom, so many establishments and companies have suggested ideas to help us make the most of it and enjoy every minute. Some hotels have come up with ingenious offerings...
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The short days of November and December are brightened by festivals, and also the abundance of wonderful seasonal produce that we have at our disposal – fruit, vegetables and foraged foods, also game to add to our usual range of meats.
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If you enjoy the traditional Christmas preparations and haven’t got started yet, it’s time to think about the puddings and cakes – although the long maturing time favoured by our grandmothers isn’t strictly necessary, anything with dried fruit in it benefits from a month or two in a cool dark place before the big day.
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Handsome is as handsome does, and there is no doubting that the TASTE Council lived up to its name (and then some) at the first National Food Symposium - or Summer School - on ‘the current and future contribution of the artisan and speciality food sector to the Irish economy’.
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Full on kitchen gardening has been a new experience for thousands of allotment virgins this last couple of years, and it’s a fair bet that a good few are wondering what on earth to do with all this sudden abundance of food. There are quite a few things you can do with excess fruit and vegetables, and some of them could make you money.
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