S u m m e r / A u t u m n 2 0 1 3

V o l u m e 2

W e l c o m e

Shaved summer salad page 44

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In this volume of FEAST: A Dinner Journal,

we see summer slip away but we celebrate the

last of the season’s finest produce. Summer for

me is when food truly comes alive, long light-

filled evenings spent outdoors with friends and

family celebrating life with memorable meals,

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

of-summer feast we scoured the Irish countryside

for the best seasonal ingredients and producers to

include in our menu. The journey began with Anna

Lévêque, her daughter Lucie and the small herd of

goats who produce milk for one the Ireland’s finest

cheeses, Triskel Goats Cheese. In that same vein

we continued across the country meeting artisan

producers, whose passion and dedication help

create the very best quality ingredients. A few bee

stings were worth the trouble to extract some of the

sweetest Irish honey from Aisling Kennedy and her

bees for our sweet summer cocktail and for drizzling

over Kate Packwood’s epic griddled stone fruit cake.

Some of summer’s finest herbs were gathered

from Denise Dunne to make and garnish a simple

sorrel soup by the great Irish food writer Theodora

Fitzgibbon. Dervla James and Marion Kilcoyne, the

bright and bubbly duo from Dublin’s Pepperpot

Café, created mini loaves to serve at our table.

We also made a visit to a group of Irish farmers

who’ve come together to promote quality Irish free

range chicken. The result was the ideal main course

ingredient for dining outdoors, spatchcocked chicken

with roast tomatoes. We served this with griddled pea

pods, a shaved summer salad and herbed couscous

with edible flowers.

Alongside a cake from The Wild Flour Bakery we

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

summer menu with a visit to Irish ice cream makers

Bernie and John Burke. They provided us with an

intriguing list of flavour combinations like raspberry

and panacotta and strawberry with clotted cream.

Addictive stuff!

With our stellar line up of food producers and an

exciting menu, a visit to Jennifer Slattery’s design

studio provided us with her unique Irish linens for

our table. The grounds of Howth’s historic castle

and cookery school was the scene for our summer

feast and we served it up outside the castle walls

under the shade of ancient oak trees.

While the darker days approach join with us and

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

our second issue of FEAST.

Donal Skehan

2 0 1 3

a f e a s t o f s u m m e r

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c o n t r i b u to r s

EditorRoss has been eating for Ireland as

restaurant critic for The Sunday Business

Post since 2001 and the editor of

FOOD&WINE Magazine from 2008 to

2013. He was elected to membership of

the Irish Food Writers’ Guild in 2006 and

as the author of the ebook How to Write

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

meal in front of him along with some fresh

copy and a big red pen.

dEsignErHaving previously designed some of

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.

Food stylistSharon’s job has taken her around the world

working with iconic names like Ina Garten,

Lorraine Pascale and Jamie Oliver. We’re head

over heels in love with her styling, she makes

everything look as good as it tastes. Alongside

her fabulous assistants Ajda Mehmet and

Sarah Watchorn she cooked through our

FEAST recipes making each and every one

look particularly stylish.

www.blueberrypie.ie

ProP stylistCathy Pearson owns Little Piggy Vintage

Hire and she enjoys nothing more than

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

PhotograPhErDonal is a food writer and photographer

with three cookbooks under his belt and

presents TV show, Kitchen Hero, on

RTÉ One in Ireland. Donal shot all the

features for FEAST and enjoyed every

minute. FEAST was a dream he has had

since he first started writing about food

and his guiding principle was to celebrate

the stories of the people

behind the food.

Production Assistant Sofie Larsson

Text copyright © 2013 Ross Golden-Bannon

& Donal Skehan

Photography copyright © 2013 Donal Skehan

Cover copyright © 2013 Ross Golden-Bannon

& Donal Skehan.

All rights reserved.

Published by Donal Skehan

trading as HomeCooked Productions Ltd.,

and Ross Golden-Bannontrading as

RGB Consulting.

x x x x

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t H e m e n u

s u m m e r / a u t u m n 2 0 1 3

CoCktailGinger and strawberry fizz with Apitherapy Honey

6

BrEadMini white yeast loaves from the Pepper Pot

14

souPTheodora Fitzgibbon’s fresh sorrel soup with The Herb Garden

22

startErPan 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

dEssErtGriddled stone fruit cake with honey from the Wild Flour Bakery

46

ChEEsETriskell goats cheese with rhubarb compote

54

trEatsWaffle ice cream cones and raspberry puree with Burke’s Farm Ice Cream

62

sEtting thE taBlEJennifer Slattery’s table linens

70

Final FEastKitchen in the Castle at Howth Castle

76

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Long before everyone started dining al fresco, we just went on picnics

with our friends.

t H e m e n u

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

W o o d S t o c km A l h e n e y, S k e r r i e S

c o . d u b l i n

a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

aisling 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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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

Honey bees, like all pollinators, need a diverse countryside with plenty

of wild flowers.

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

200ml ginger syrup

4 tablespoon Grand

Marnier

4 tablespoons honey

450ml soda

750ml sparkling wine,

preferably dry

Large handful of

strawberries

Serves 8

FOR THE

GInGER SyRuP

200g caster sugar

250ml water

100g fresh ginger, peeled

and finely chopped

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

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

champagne flutes with a few strawberries in each glass.

FOR THE GInGER SyRuP

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

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

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

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

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

gingEr and strawBErry Fizz

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a p i t H e r a p y p u r e i r i s H H o n e y

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t H e H e r b G a r D e n

F o r d e - d e - F y n et h e n A u l , c o d u b l i n

t H e H e r b G a r D e n

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t H e H e r b G a r D e n

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t H e H e r b G a r D e n

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t H e H e r b G a r D e n

Denise 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 self-

sufficient 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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t r i s k e l l G oat s c H e e s e

k i l l o W e n o r c h A r d

p o r t l A W,c o . W At e r F o r d

t r i s k e l l G oat s c H e e s e

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t r i s k e l l G oat s c H e e s e

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t r i s k e l l G oat s c H e e s e

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t r i s k e l l G oat s c H e e s e

the Breton and Irish cultures share a long history, from our na-

tive 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 mak-

ing 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 complet-

ed 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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f i n a l f e a s t

h o W t hc o . d u b l i n

k i tc H e n at t H e ca s t l e

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f i n a l f e a s t

Stone fruit cake, page 52

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f i n a l f e a s t

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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Ice cream might well be the answer to everything, it quite often tastes like the

ultimate cure-all.

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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.

our 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 an-

yone 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

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