Gunternation

I recently heard a definition of authentic that I like: if something is authentic, it has a story.

It helps with a little debate about authentic cuisine that’s been bouncing around in my head for many years, after once being questioned about whether any post-new-world cuisine could be considered authentic. My response seemed unscientific, like, um, it’s about what people eat? And left me wondering, how long until a new thing becomes a traditional thing?  Bill and I like to create traditions. For us, repeating an event three times brings it into tradition territory.  But of course, societies work on a grander scale, so how long in terms of cuisine? A hundred years? Hundreds of years?

This question applies to the current debate on Irish cuisine, part of which I witnessed at Savour Kikenny. At the end of Food Camp, six food passionistas engaged in a rousing and entertaining debate, otherwise known as Food Fight! Regina Sexton, the UCC food historian, spoke last and made the statement above about authenticity (among many other statements) that gave me a little ribbon to tie together my foodie day.

Regina wasn’t the only person talking about story. The whole day was about story, starting with the open attitude of Food Camp. Any attendee is invited to present a session, on any food-related topic. In other words, tell us a story!

From Colin Jephson of Ardkeen in Waterford and John McCarthy of Kilkenny Eurospar, I learned the key to selling artisan products in a retail establishment is putting the producer in front of the customer. The customer loves that connection and responds to the story behind the product. In turn the customer becomes part of the story.

Real Bread from Bretzel Bakery

William Despard of Bretzel Bakery described how simple ingredients create the bakery’s various breads, and demonstrated his opinion of industrially produced sliced pan by knocking a few pieces into the wall with a hurling stick. [That has to be the most indelible image from the weekend, or is it Regina’s amazing halo of hair?] For William, the story of bread, its reputation, needs to be reclaimed and people educated about real bread.

Freelance wine consultant Susan Boyle spoke about Ireland’s wine heritage, including the Irish Wine Geese–the Irish families that emigrated to France and founded influential wineries (such as Château Lynch-Bages). A daughter of several generations of publicans, Susan is curious about how Ireland’s wine DNA could be more fully expressed in Irish wine culture.

Journalist Suzanne Campbell is co-creator of the documentary What’s Ireland Eating? and her stories are cautionary tales of a vertically integrated food industry where a few corporations own the ranches, processing and distribution, and therefore hold sway over retail. (All of her scary stories are about a large country to the West, from which we happen to hail.)  Ireland still has many family farms, which many believe are being preserved by the EU farm subsidy. If we want the subsidies to end, then Ireland needs structure in place to protect the food production system. And consumers have to shop accordingly, and consider the hidden cost of cheap meat.

When the food bloggers convened to discuss the first year of the Irish Food Bloggers Association (IFBA),  it was clear that the members feel the strength of the IFBA is not speaking as one voice, but in encouraging the multitude of voices. The IFBA is a brilliant forum to share information, and foster connections. What I heard in the session was an enthusiasm to actively support the founders Kristin and Caroline and allow the IFBA to do more to encourage food blogging in Ireland, including a possible food blogger conference. I vote Yes!

In the greatly anticipated Food Fight, the six appointed foodies discussed the topic Traditional Irish Cuisine – an embarrassment of riches or just an embarrassment? All parties agreed that Ireland is bursting with natural food resources. The question is how well has Ireland used these resources to create a cuisine.  The room was full of folks who have chosen to create, sell, promote or write about food in Ireland, so we cheered the pro camp represented by Seamus Sheridan, Birgitta Curtin, and Catherine Cleary, but the comments from Suzanne Campbell, Regina Sexton and Colman Andrews were not so much an indictment, but a call to excellence. Irish cuisine is a story still being written, and we are certainly in the exciting chapters. Seamus’ memory of his grandmother rolling pie pastry with a deft hand.  Catherine’s collection of new food memories, including black pudding and rhubarb at L.Mulligans and dining on Irish abalone.  Colman’s offerings of historical recipes from the finest Irish kitchens of the 19th Century.  Suzanne’s account of a food culture that has lost its way, stumbling from the austerity of the church,  to the convenience food of the 80s, to the image-consciousness of the Celtic Tiger. Birgitta’s enthusiasm for Irish food, and her desire to bring the world to Ireland and feed them. Regina’s admonition to end comparisons with other cultures, and to embrace an independent food identity.  Wherever Ireland is on its food journey–looking back to old traditions, looking forward to new ones–all these voices are forming the story of Ireland’s authentic cuisine. (Although Regina says we shouldn’t use the French word cuisine!)

As I roamed the food market the next day, I thought to myself, the story continues.

Ireland's food identity develops a little further at Savour Kilkenny Food Market

Producers like Prue of Prue and Simon are celebrating Ireland's pudding traditions

Highbank Orchard Syrup: totally Irish and totally new

Many thanks to Keith Bohanna and Mag Kirwan, all the speakers and many others who made the day possible and brought tasty things for lunch.

Three great words: Dingle. Food. Festival.

And three more: We. Were. There.

Fabulous time meeting producers, eating wonderful food, and hanging out with food bloggers at the Dingle Food and Wine Festival from 30 September to 2 October. Here are some highlights from the markets, Dingle Producer Showcase and Taste Trail:

Cloudberry Bakery won Best New Emerging Food Producer from Kerry at the Blas na hEireann National Irish Food Awards. Sam from Cloudberry is delightful, and not just because she gave us a sample box which contained red velvet cake, among other delights. I claimed the red velvet cake as my birthday cake. Cloudberry puts raspberry coulis in their red velvet. I probably wouldn’t have guessed that, but I would have thought it was a luxuriously flavored cake. In addition to being delicious, many of Cloudberry’s cakes are sparkly.

Marie Charland makes Dingle Fudge and a line of chutneys and pickles called Pickled in Dingle. She uses home grown produce in her pickled products, except for fruits that don’t grow in Ireland, like citrus. Marie is French, and passionate, and fun. And we were on TV* together! You can contact Marie at mhcharland at hotmail dot com.

Marie says something hilarious!

We laugh! And simultaneously love Dingle-produced food!

We chatted with Orla Gowen of Bácús Bhréanainn about the attention she gives to the finishing on her bread, which is evident in these gorgeous loaves. When asked, she said her favorite is the seeded loaf located in the center of the pic. It was German-inspired I believe, and very tasty.

We came home with cupcakes from Little Miss Cupcake: a Ginger and Lime and a Black Forest Gateau. The Black Forest cupcake was lusciously delish, and I loved the combo of gingerbread and lime. Sharon from Little Miss Cupcake blogs at Foodie Fancies.

Dingle Brewing Company, a new brewery, launched their Crean’s lager last summer. It’s refreshing, not too hoppy. Goes great with fish, which is good news in Dingle.

On Saturday and Sunday, over 60 business hosted stops on the Taste Trail. These oysters at Lord Bakers were one of my favorite nibbles (or slurps I should say). The Taste Trail integrates the festival with Dingle town, giving the festival a unique personality.

The Taste Trail stop at Goat Street Cafe. A fun stop because they served a pairing of tart with dessert wine. I liked this sweet Jurançon from Chateau de Navailles. And that we got to sit down.

I had read about the traditional Dingle pie served in mutton broth in The Examiner, so I kept my eye out for a taste. Reminded us of chicken and dumplings. Definitely would take the chill off in winter.

The Dingle Food Festival was a fantastic opportunity to chat with producers, like Veronica from Crossogue Preserves, and her fellow Tipperarian and stall neighbor, Cate from The Cookie Jar. We came home with jam and cookies, needless to say! Enjoyed Cate’s American-style oatmeal and peanut butter cookies, and am looking forward to cracking open a jar of Crossogue. Start with the Quince Chilly, or the Apricot, Pear & Grand Marnier? Decisions!

We loved Eva’s marshmallows and teacakes made with carrageen moss instead of gelatin. Using the carageen moss creates a great Irish connection, and these confections truly melt in your mouth, with none of the chalkiness of industrially made marshmallows. And they’re vegetarian. You can contact Eva at thelifesweet at gmail dot com.

We knew the food festival was truly magical when we found a Texas BBQ serving brisket. A Texan and her Irish husband own The Courthouse Bar, and they were serving brisket. Smoked brisket. This is a day I’ve long dreamed of in Ireland. Actually, I know of two other pit BBQers in Ireland. I follow them on twitter: @The_BBQ_Team and @pitmastermick. An exciting time for meat lovers.

*I’d say you’ve arrived when you appear on RTE’s Nationwide. Oh, and don’t be mad about the screen grabs RTE.

Last weekend we were in County Kerry for the Dingle Food and Wine Festival. (So much about that sentence makes me happy.) On Sunday morning we were invited to join some fellow foodies on a fishing trip, so six of us found ourselves gathered in the marina on a foggy morning. We were uncertain. We were wearing layers. Can you fish in the fog, we wondered, such landlubbers were we. This is brilliant weather for fishing, our skipper assured us, sounding nothing like a pirate. (Bill and I had hoped he’d sound a little like a pirate.)

Heading out to sea

We boarded the Sarah Ellie and headed off across the glassy water. We could see the mouth of the bay in the mist, but in a few minutes we were lost in the fog. Our skipper, Paul, killed the engine and gave us a two minute lesson on sea fishing–Let her out, keep your thumb on the spool, then reel her back in a little. Out. In. Keeping her moving.

From the moment the first lure hit the water, our day turned magical. Within seconds Ollie had reeled in a 6kg pollock. It was a stunner of a fish. We were all amazed. Even Paul was amazed. The fish went into the blue fish bucket, and we all set ourselves to fishing, hoping to match Ollie’s catch. In. Out. Keep her moving. A few more pollock came on board. I caught one that weighed few kilograms. We caught lots of mackerel. They all went into the fish bucket, gasping a bit, but shining silver, the mackerel’s backs covered in green and black tiger stripes.

Ollie's prize winning catch

Paul moved the boat to a new location. We all hit twitter with our fish tales. Fishing is fun! Then we fished some more. We threw back tiny mackerel. We sang sea shanties. (Not really, but we should have.) We caught a load of fish.

Bill reels in few mackerel

Gathered around our bucket of fish, we snapped pics of our catch like they were celebrities. That’s deadly, Niall said. Irish slang for great. It was deadly, the deadliest catch! All thanks to our excellent skipper, and some mad, foodie fishing skills. Great job Bill, Ollie, Niall, Aoife, and Ross!

Our catch

We both have fishing in our genes

Back at the marina Paul filleted the fish. Slice in behind the gill, down along the bone. On the mackerel, flip over and repeat, to create a butterfly. On the larger pollocks he cut separate fillets on each side. Ollie’s fish was almost too large for the knife. You can feed ten people off that fish, Paul said. He bagged the fish for us and send us over to the Marina Inn and told us to ask for Darcy.

Paul fillets a mackerel

Fillets of fish

Darcy is the chef at Marina Inn and she prepared some of our fish for lunch. We washed the scales from our hands, and restored ourselves with post-voyage pints of Guinness and Crean’s lager (from Dingle Brewing Company). We shared a starter of tasty mussels in cream sauce. Darcy played a blinder* and served us three fish dishes–fried, beer-battered pollock; pollock with Parmesan cheese crumb; and mackerel with chorizo, potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. Everything about the fish was great–the texture, the flavor. Eating fish that had been swimming in the ocean not more than 90 minutes before is incredible. I think the mackerel was a favorite–it has a bit more flavor that the pollock. A lunch to remember.

Freshest fish I'll ever eat

Many thanks to Aoife for organizing, and to Paul of Dingle Bay Charters and Darcy at the Marina Inn.

*I’m using Irish slang! It means, performed excellently.

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!

Hanging out with foodies is a good thing. You get to bask in a camaraderie of cuisine and take pictures of your plate with impunity. And sometimes you get free cake.

On our recent foodie field trip to Eastern Seaboard we met Caryna of Caryna’s Cakes. In the chitchat over our calamari and pig’s cheek, we learned that Caryna is a full-time baker who sells baked goods at various markets and supplies some small cafes and coffee shops as well as special orders. As a matter of fact she had been working at a market that very day and had driven straight to meet up with us all in Drogheda. She still had all her market gear in her car. She also mentioned that she had made a pumpkin apricot cake for the market that day, and that she had a few remaining slices in her car. She said she thought it was the kind of cake that would be even better the next day.

Pumpkin. We love pumpkin. Canned pumpkin is one of the items we accept in exchange for room and board in our apartment. When my aunt and uncle came to visit us they moved the cans of pumpkin into a carry-on to reduce weight on a checked bag, forgetting that canned pumpkin is, by Transportation Safety Authority definition, a gel. When questioned about this can of gel my uncle explained very passionately, Oh, I have to take that to my niece. She has to make pumpkin pie! Oh pumpkin pie, the agent said, well, of course. And the pumpkin boarded the plane. Pumpkin pie trumps terrorism risk. As well it should!

So, throughout our wonderful meal a little part of my mind kept thinking about the pumpkin cake in Caryna’s car. While eating the black pudding ballotine and sweet potato fries I kept thinking about pumpkin cake. As we left that evening I inquired as to whether I could purchase a slice. Dear reader, she gave us all her leftover pumpkin cake! She even sent it home on the pretty china plate, saying we could return it the next time we meet.

So I rode home from Drogheda with that cake on my lap (see photo at right), and that evening we read about that exact cake on Caryna’s blog. I marveled at the power of foodie fate that led that cake from a stranger’s kitchen into my home on that magical day.

Bill and I each took a slice to work on Monday. The cake was terrific. Full of those warm spices with perfect cream cheese frosting. We had no shortage of baked goods, having returned from Brown Hound Bakery with a gift box and a lemon cake. The pumpkin apricot cake was not overwhelmed by those treats at all.

Caryna has a great story about the provenance of the pumpkin apricot cake (plus the recipe) on her blog. She also has a recipe inspired by our visit to the Brown Hound Bakery and more information about her baking business.

Did I mention she delivers cakes on a vespa?