I’ll probably always associate wild garlic with St. Anne’s Park. The park is the first place I ever saw it, or saw it when I knew I was seeing it. I’m the kind of person who can notice a slight garlic aroma on a walk and not really wonder where it’s coming from. Bill, on the other hand, scented it like a herbivore beagle, picked some strappy leaves and proceeded to pesto it. We didn’t notice the garlic until a little late that year, so the following spring Bill watched for the little shoots and waited patiently until it was big enough to eat.
So it’s only fitting that wild garlic brought us to St. Anne’s Park a few weeks with a group from Slow Food Dublin. We were on an urban foraging expedition that would culminate in a lunch celebrating green things plucked from park lanes. We were being hosted by Tom O’Connell of O’Connells who had fed us breakfast and accompanied us on the bus ride to the park. He had already procured loads of wild garlic, but we picked up some nettles and some Alexanders to take back for our lunch. [Note that it is possibly illegal to forage in parks, so like, don't tell nobody.]
Talking about Alexander
Ladybugs are called Ladybirds in Ireland. By any name, they are not afraid of nettles.
Upon return to O’Connells, Chef Udo Wittman demonstrated making several dishes with wild garlic–a potato and wild garlic soup and a beet, wild garlic & goats cheese salad. Chef Udo was great, giving us lots of information and laughs. Two things I found interesting: the tiny nettle leaves can be eaten raw with no treatment (yikes!) and that urban honey is more flavorful because of the variety of flowers.
Chef Udo grates beet for our salad
And then then the best part–lunch!
Our menu:
Wild Garlic Soup
Charcoal Oven Roasted Leg of Lamb with Wild Garlic Champ, Sauteed Nettles and Alexanders Gratin
Irish Country Rubarb Cake with Whipped Cream
Chef Udo's garlic soup was scrumptious, drizzled with some wild garlic and parsley in oil
The lamb was terrific. O'Connells has a charcoal grill that provides a wonderful flavor to the grilled meats.
The sauteed nettles were a revelation--so tasty, and it takes just a minute of cooking to remove the sting.
The Alexanders' celery-like flavor was delicious in the gratin.
A fantastic meal–and we had earned it by strolling through the park and looking so intently at plants!
Several folks shared some harrowing nettles stories from childhood, but I think every one agreed that nettles can indeed be food. And Bill and I learned about Dock leaves that always grow near nettles and are supposed to neutralize the sting. Tom and Chef Udo were such great hosts, our companions were lovely and the sun shown on us. A fantastic outing.
As it turns out, Bill, Dad and I were back in St. Anne’s today picking wild garlic and nettles for our Easter dinner. Bill used the garlic to stuff the lamb, and he’ll hopefully recreate the magic of the sauteed nettles.
On a recent Sunday, Bill and I drove to South County Wicklow to visit our veg guy. That’s right, we don’t have a local–that pub where everybody knows your name–but we do have a veg guy.
His name is Duncan Healy, and he’s at the Red Stables Market in St. Anne’s park every Saturday. I’ve mentioned before that the market is part of our favorite Saturday routine, and after a bunch of Saturdays of chatting over chard or tomatoes, Bill and I started referring to Duncan by name and saying things like, oh, if Duncan has some nice kale today I’ll make a kale and white bean stew. Well, Bill would say those things.
And then one day there were tomatillos.
The way I remember it, I was at work on a Saturday, and I received a single-word text from Bill: Tomatillos! I let out a yelp and raised my phone over my head like large-haired Joan Cusack at the end of Working Girl.
While my recollection may be altered by the mists of time, we did indeed find tomatillos in Ireland and we were stoked! If you’re unfamiliar with the tomatillo, it is like a cross between a tomato and a pepper and is in the gooseberry family. Tomatillos are common in Mexican cuisine, frequently used in salsas and sauces.
My favorite use for tomatillos is to toss a few into a blender along with a clove of garlic, a serrano chile (or jalapeno or bird chile), and an avocado. Blend. Then enjoy a bright, perfect marriage of creamy and tangy. It’s great as a dip, or served with Rick Bayless’ potato and pork tacos. (See right.)
Bill likes to roast tomatillos. For a fresh salsa, throw a few tomatillos, a clove of garlic, and chiles into a roasting pan and roast about ten minutes until blackened. Blend these ingredients to a puree, and then add some diced onions and cilantro. The roasting mellows the flavor of the tomatillo and adds tasty charred bits. You can also freeze the puree of roasted tomatillos, garlic and chiles. This base can be added to browned onions to make a salsa verde, which is excellent with pork (see below) or add onions and cilantro for salsa as above.
We were delighted to be invited to visit the Healy farm. Duncan grew up on the farm, and returned a few years ago to work with his father, Denis. The farm operates as Organic Delights, providing produce to restaurants and through stands at many markets including Temple Bar and Dun Laoghaire. We’re really happy that our local market sells so many veggies grown right down the road in Wicklow. What they can’t grow in Ireland, they will import, so the Organic Delights stall is always bursting with selection.
After feeding us homemade pizza, salad and blueberry crumble, Duncan led us and a contingent of kids and other family members around the farm to visit the pigs and see all the baby veggies growing big and strong. We snacked on plums, apples and raspberries as we explored the greenhouses with onions drying, tomatoes blushing to red, and pea tendrils climbing their trellises. We collected a few veggies to bring home, including two round, green squash that when cut open looked like a cross between the seedy pulp of a crookneck squash and the stringy spaghetti squash, and tasted better than that description indicates. In fact, they were lovely stuffed with quinoa, beef mince, onion, tomato, and a couple tomatillos, and topped with cheese.
Thanks to Duncan and Cindy and family for a great day on the farm.
Petting a pig
A pocket full of watercress
Raspberries (still not used to berries being an Autumn fruit)
Tomatillos!
From the market this morning. Oh what goodness lies in store!
After a bit of a lie in, Bill gets up around 10:00 to watch Saturday Kitchen. I usually wander into the living room by 11:00. Saturday Kitchen is a bit of an institution, which is evident by the number of mentions in the twitterstream during the broadcast. The show features in-studio cooking demonstrations by visiting chefs, as well as dishes prepared by the host James Martin. James is a polarizing force in the world of television hosting, with distinct pro and anti camps. We’re both pro. I think he’s an excellent host, very adept at describing what he’s cooking and chatting up the celebrity guest* at the same time. Saturday Kitchen also includes clips from a variety of other BBC cookery** shows by the likes of Rick Stein, Keith Floyd, the Hairy Bikers and sometimes even our old Fat Lady friends, Clarrissa and Jennifer. The Omlette Challenge which pits guest chefs in a timed egg match is surprisingly entertaining. One benefit of watching Saturday Kitchen is that we’re now familiar with many of the British chefs of the moment.
After watching 90 minutes of food being prepared, Bill makes his way to the kitchen to produce some kind of amazing brunch. Recent creations are pictured below.
French Toast with Orange Zest and Cinnamon.
Baked Eggs with Spinach.
Breakfast Tacos with M&S British, Outdoor-Bred, Dry-Cured, Smoked,
Streaky Bacon. Tastes like real bacon!
Most Saturdays Bill pays a visit to the Red Stables Market*** in St. Anne’s park. I frequently accompany him. The market is one of the reasons we love our proximity to St. Anne’s. It’s a small market, but contains all the major tasty groups: organic meats, cheeses from Sheridan’s, various ethnic foods, tempting breads from Soul bakery, and organic fruit and veg from Duncan at Organic Delights. Sometimes Duncan has amazing surprises like tomatillos or white onions.
Bill comes back from the market inspired to cook wonderful things. For example, the cavolo nero in this photo (above) was featured in pasta along with garlic, pancetta, and cherry tomatoes.
Recently Bill has been keeping an eye on the wild garlic growing by the river.
I guess it makes sense that our Saturdays, like our holidays, revolve around food. Happy Saturday everyone!
Hey, Bill just came back from the Market with Scallops! Yum.
* Guests are of some noteriety in Britain, which means we often have no idea who they are. My favorite guest: Len Goodman. ** They say cookery here. *** If you have four minutes, watch this video I found with scenes of Red Stables market, with a few misspellings, set to a slightly annoying soundtrack.
Well, I’ll start with a wee bit of November. This year we enjoyed our first Thanksgiving meal in Ireland hosted by fellow American Amanda and her Dub husband Hagi. Amanda did most of work, preparing all the classic dishes and her first Turkey! We brought a pan of cornbread dressing. Amanda is from Georgia, so the dressing was much appreciated. We also watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Hadn’t seen it in ages, so awesome! I should keep a copy of the show handy for all the people who ask me what Thanksgiving is all about.
Below, our friend Graham demonstrates the proper way to eat a mince pie, following a night of caroling with our church. I think my personal mince pie tally for the holiday season is around three dozen.
And a few scenes of Dublin in its Christmas finery.
We were let out of work a bit early on Christmas Eve, so I was able to catch the sunset over St. Anne’s. We spend the evening with the Barnes Family. Caragh prepared a lovely ham, and the kids had helped make homemade mince pies. We also sampled Yarg, a regional specialty cheese from Caragh’s homeplace, Cornwall. Yarg is a cow milk cheese based on a 13th-century recipe. It’s typically wrapped in nettle leaves, but this wheel was covered with wild garlic leaves, which infused the semi-hard cheese with lovely garlic aroma. We also enjoyed some 2-year aged Gouda (which people in the know pronounce how-da). Cheese, Grommit!
On Christmas morning, we had a bit of a lie in, followed by the Opening of Presents. Bill then set to work preparing his dishes for the Christmas feast to come.
On Christmas we loved being Kingstons for a day. Hilary, Anna and Bill put together an amazing Christmas dinner of cranberry-stuffed pork, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts with pancetta, savory bread pudding with leeks and gruyere, and ginger-glazed sweet potatoes, followed by a dizzying collection of desserts. Those cranberry cocktails were pretty nice too!
On Stephen’s Day we visited Colin (and his dogs!) in Laytown for dinner. Bill and I worked the three days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Snow started falling on New Year’s Eve. It was the beginning of The Big Freeze.
I went for a walk yesterday on the coast road and in St. Anne’s to take some pictures. It was a lovely day and loads of people were taking advantage of the break in the weather.
Even the inlet behind Bull Island was partially frozen over.
Ducks standing on the frozen duck pond in St. Anne’s Park.
A footbridge over the Naniken River in St. Anne’s.
This hill is perfect for sledding. I heard the screams and laughter from the river and had to check it out. The kids were having a ball.
The only snowmen I saw in the park. The carrot nose and bough toupee are great.
The weekend of April 18 & 19 brought lots of sun to Dublin. The bright days beckoned us to leave the apartment. Saturday we headed into City Centre to S. Great Georges Street. Georges Street is home to many popular restaurants–Havana, Cafe Bar Deli, Brasserie 66, Odessa. We lunched at a pleasant Japanese place called Yamamori. After a sushi fix, we strolled through the shopping arcade and visited an instrument shop to buy a music stand and guitar stand for Bill. [Note: was recently chastised (friendlily, mostly) for saying store instead of shop.] We wound up in the green and lay upon the grass. We then visited the Asian market to stock up on dumplings, and a surprising and happy find–Paprika Pringles (our favorite)!
On Sunday afternoon we took a picnic to our neighborhood park, St. Anne’s. The sun was warm, but the breeze was cool, so we had keep rotating to stay comfortable.
The next Saturday, April 25, started out rainy, but turned nice by late afternoon. We visited the park again for a some duck watching, and also saw a heron.
We so enjoy having St. Anne’s right next door.
On Sunday we attended church at the central location on Gardiner Street. The North and Central congregations met in the main auditorium. It’s not quite finished, but it was exciting to get a glimpse of what is to come when all three congregations combine for the monthly celebration Sundays. Afterwords we brunched at The Mermaid Cafe on Dame Street. I had Eggs Norwegian–Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham. Bill also had poached eggs with fish, smoked haddock. For dessert we had pecan pie, which was unlike the pecan pie we know, but instead a lovely pecan tart served with maple ice cream.
The weather here has been quite atrocious lately. It’s been raining almost incessantly for weeks and many areas have experienced bad flooding.
The last weekend of July, however, was quite pleasant and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon in St. Anne’s Park playing boules and smelling the roses. Our plan was to walk through the park to the rose garden, but we were pleasantly surprised to find our friends Caragh and Jasper also enjoying the afternoon with some other friends of theirs playing boules. They invited us to join them and we happily accepted.
After a couple rousing rounds we took our leave and continued our journey to the rose garden. St. Anne’s has a lovely garden with a huge variety of roses. The park also has some wonderful hidden glades with spectacular trees. Another recent weekend was spent in art appreciation. The National Gallery had an exhibition of impressionist interiors we’d really been wanting to see, so after church we took the DART to city center. A new friend at church, Andrea, wanted to join us, so we met her at the Gallery for lunch before seeing the exhibition. Several paintings by Degas, a favorite artist of mine, were included. We really enjoyed it, though Andrea prefers landscapes. Afterward we parted company with Andrea to do some shopping. Here I am outside Hodges Figgis, a very cool bookstore on Dawson St. near St. Stephen’s Green and the largest bookstore in Ireland. Sharon picked up a few books on the discount cart. Next to the bookstore is Lemon, and we couldn’t resist crepes and lattes. The simplest crepes with fresh lemon juice and caster sugar are the best, and they make some pretty mean lattes, too. Our final destination was our favorite Chinese market on Abbey St. where we bought some frozen dumplings and stir-fried veggies with fish balls. We like to keep an assortment of dumplings around for quick dim-sum dinners, and we enjoyed some that evening with our stir-fry.
