Latest news with #IrishCuisine
Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Feel the heat: Ten great restaurants that cook over fire
allta 1 Three Locks Square, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2; allta: Cromane oyster, sudachi and bergamot. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Always evolving, Niall Davidson's allta is returning to a tasting menu format for both lunchtime and dinner which is designed to showcase the restaurant's journey over the years from Library Place, Setanta Street and now the Dublin docklands. With an unwavering commitment to Irish produce in both the main restaurant and the buzzy allta bar, the punchy wood-fired cooking is well worth the trip. Joanne Cronin Coppinger 1 Coppinger Row, Dublin 2; 01-6729884, Conor and Marc Bereen, the brothers behind Coppinger. Photograph: Alan Betson Ever since reopening, Coppinger has captured the buzzy and fun vibes of the original venue. Listen to the cocktails shaking while you browse the Mediterranean-inspired menu which uses the best of Irish ingredients over a barbecue grill. Everything is delicious, especially when it's the incredible value 'menú del día,' available Wednesday-Friday, which offers two courses for €15 or three for €20. Where else would you get it? JC Daróg Wine Bar 56 Dominick Street Lower, Galway; 091-565813, Daróg Wine Bar: Line caught mackerel, fennel emulsion, crispy parsnip. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy Small plates, bigger tables, better chairs – Daróg in Galway has sharpened up without losing its edge. The cooking leans into smoke and charcoal, from grilled white asparagus with lovage hollandaise to dry-aged lamb with confit leek and swede. There's a five-course tasting menu at €55, or you can build your own from the blackboard, where more than 40 wines by the glass change weekly. Run by Zsolt Lukács and Edel McMahon, with Attila Galambos on fire in the kitchen. Corinna Hardgrave READ MORE Elbow Lane 4 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork; 021-2390479, Ronan Sharpe runs Elbow Lane Brew and Smoke House, Cork There are two main features to the diningroom at Elbow Lane, the open charcoal grill right in the middle, and the stainless steel microbrewery tanks to the rear. Put simply, it's all about the grilling and the beer here, although the cocktails are pretty damn good also. Start with the intensely flavoured pork belly with fish sauce caramel, followed by the signature slow-smoked baby back ribs or wood-grilled steaks. JC Lottie's 7-9 Rathgar Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6; 01-5585969, Lottie's, Rathmines Flame-finished mains hold their own at this neighbourhood spot. Andarl Farm pork belly, crisped and tender, pairs with radicchio and hazelnuts, while monkfish is perfectly charred. For €29, the prix fixe (5–6pm Wed–Fri) offers a snack, main, and glass of wine – perfect pre-cinema. Otherwise, settle in for grilled lamb or free-range chicken, all cooked over live fire. CH Mister S 32 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2; 01-6835555, Mister S, Camden Street, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill At Mister S, they proudly state that all mains are cooked over charcoal and wood. But, to be honest, every piece of produce that enters the kitchen is in danger of finding itself over the glowing embers. The smell of smoke permeates the entire room and everything is delicious, from charred leeks with romesco and smoked mozzarella, to piri piri chicken, or their incredible beef sourced from Co Donegal. Everything gets a turn on the embers. JC Neighbourhood 1 North Main Street, Naas, Co Kildare; 045-954466, Neighbourhood, Naas, Co Kildare Cooked over live fire on an Ox grill – tomahawk steaks, Black Angus chateaubriand, and porterhouse steaks are the stars, with pizzas from a full pizza oven and flatbreads to round it out. The recently renovated 'secret garden' provides a relaxed outdoor setting. Set menus (€34.50 for two courses, €39.50 for three) make it easy to dive into fire-cooked flavours, while a revamped cocktail bar adds a finishing touch. CH The Fern Grill at Knockranny House Hotel Knockranny House Hotel, Knockranny, Westport, Co Mayo; 098-28600, Knockranny House Hotel and Spa, Co Mayo The tomahawk for two (€79) is the headline at The Fern Grill – a slab of Hereford beef, carved at the table and kissed hard by the Basque Josper grill. Seamus Commons fires Black Angus, lamb and daily fish with the same precision, but nothing matches the depth and smoke of the beef. CH The Glass Curtain Unit A, Thompson House, MacCurtain Street, Cork; 021-4518659, Flavour is at the heart of everything that chef patron Brian Murray does. Under Darren Kennedy, the kitchen turns out smoke-kissed plates built for sharing, using local seasonal ingredients. The signature milk buns with cultured butter are mandatory, then try grilled cuttlefish with leeks and smoked aioli, or lamb saddle and belly with smoked carrots. A second live-fire restaurant, Birdsong, is coming soon to the Coal Quay. JC Vaughan's on the Prom The Promenade, Lahinch, Co Clare; 065-7081846, Vaughan's on the Prom in Lahinch, Co Clare. Photograph: Paul Sherwood Denis Vaughan runs this newly refurbished spot on the prom, firing meat and shellfish over a Spanish Josper to exacting effect. The menu is tight and fire-driven: barbecued Aran Island monkfish with a hazelnut crust, roasted chicken supreme with satay crust and fregola, and aged Irish Black Angus steaks with bone marrow butter, beef jus and dripping chips. It's about proper fire cooking, heavy plates and the freshest fish he can lay his hands on. CH
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
From Famine to feast: the Irish seaweed revival
My 10-year-old niece, born and raised in Shanghai, snacks on grilled seaweed rolls the way I munched on Sam Spudz smoky bacon crisps when I was her age. My Chinese sister-in-law was raised on the marine vegetable, consuming it daily in soups, sushi and as a light bite between meals. But my brother, despite living in Shanghai for almost 25 years and embracing traditional dishes from hot pot to dim sum, still views seaweed as particularly Asian fare. In Ireland we have struggled to equate the dark, leathery-looking straps of seaweed on our local shorelines with a mineral-rich superfood. And for good reason. It was a Famine food, harvested and hauled from rock pools by starving peasants to boil or dry, then eat. Seaweeds replaced soil vegetables at one of the most catastrophic points in Ireland's history, and that association with desperation and deprivation has been difficult to shake. Prannie Rhatigan, a GP and the author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, who has been giving seaweed walks, talks and workshops in Sligo for the past 26 years, agrees. She vividly remembers as a child the side eyes and sympathetic looks her father received while harvesting the edible seaweed sleabhac (similar to Japanese Nori) for his family from the local shoreline. Dr Prannie Rhatigan 'People would say to my father: 'I saw you on the shore yesterday ... Times must be tough.' They thought if you were looking for seaweed you couldn't afford to buy a white sliced pan, that you were making do. But at the back of it, they'd be dying for a bit themselves to simmer and eat with onions and potatoes. They wouldn't want to be seen on the beach looking for it, though. My father thought this was hilarious.' READ MORE Rhatigan says Asian people consider seaweed the most nutritious form of vegetation on the planet. 'That's a big reputation for seaweed to live up to, but in my opinion it does.' She eats seaweed every day – sea lettuce, nori, sea spaghetti, dillisk and truffle seaweed – and says she couldn't live without it. [ Seaweed burgers: a new product aims to reduce the meat in burgers while improving their taste Opens in new window ] 'It's like a magic wand in the kitchen. I mix it with some olive oil and a touch of garlic and have it for my 11 o'clock snack, or I pile it on to a rice cracker. I'm making cakes for my daughter's birthday this weekend: chocolate cake and nori is a magic pairing. But I've met plenty of people with packets of seaweed in their larders and great intentions, but they don't know what to do with it; I tell them to snip it into stews.' Despite being a 'powerhouse of nutrients', we're still some way off viewing seaweed as a store-cupboard ingredient, yet mindsets are changing, and harvesting seaweed for culinary and cosmetic use is a burgeoning business in Ireland. Anne O'Hagan founded her seaweed pestos and sprinkles company Ebb & Flow four years ago, and has noticed an enormous spike in interest since. 'Seaweed has gone from a novelty product to mainstream,' she says, adding that this is, in part, thanks to TikTok. 'Young people are hugely interested in seaweed, especially sea moss, since it started trending online.' Ebb & Flow seaweed pesto To date the #seamoss hashtag has more than a billion views on the social media platform, as celebrities and wellness influencers eulogise it as a cure-all for everything from gut health and acne to high cholesterol and lethargy. Rhatigan says that although research into the benefits of seaweed 'isn't really at the races', seaweed is medically proven to be antiviral and to shift phlegm from the chest. Ten years ago, O'Hagan was suffering from serious kidney problems and high blood pressure. She was told to cut out salt entirely from her diet and that's when she became involved in 'the wonderful world of seaweed'. Today she describes herself as a healthy, energetic, curious 60-year-old and her goal is to 'introduce people to this extraordinary superfood'. O'Hagan, who is based in the coastal suburb of Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, buys bags of dried seaweed hand-harvested from the Quilty shoreline in Co Clare, where the waters are deeper and colder than on the south Co Dublin coastline, then rehydrates it to make her sprinkles, hummus and dairy-free pestos, which have won two Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food. Ebb & Flow is stocked in several local fine-food outlets in Dublin such as Cavistons in Glasthule and Robbie's in Goatstown, but O'Hagan still sets up at farmer's markets in Dún Laoghaire and Killruddery House in Co Wicklow because 'there's nothing better than having your customer right in front of you ... When they taste the product, their reaction is extraordinary.' [ Irish seaweed explodes with that undefinable savoury flavour the cool kids call umami Opens in new window ] O'Hagan feels there's a strong enough market here for a more diverse range of seaweed products, and she travelled to Japan in January to investigate how she might broaden her range. 'Seaweed crisps are huge over there, and I'd love to get into the snack market, but I'm not sure the Irish palate is ready for that yet.' Maybe not. Bantry-based Claire O'Sullivan, founder of Wasi, swapped seaweed pesto for seaweed skincare because she felt food was a harder sell. 'I started off making seaweed pesto, but it's more difficult to get it on shelves. People are much happier using seaweed on their skin and hair.' Sligo brand Voya, based in Strandhill, has had enormous success in the wellness arena with its seaweed baths and skincare products; last year it collaborated with luxury airline Emirates on a bespoke fragrance for the airline's first and business class passengers. Claire O'Sullivan and her mother, Margaret O'Sullivan. Photograph: Andy Gibson O'Sullivan grew up harvesting seaweed with her mother and grandmother for their own domestic use as a cough medicine, fertiliser and horse feed. She attributes her lineage of centenarians – her great-grandmother lived to be 103, her grandmother 100, and her mother is healthy and strong and still helps out with the harvesting – in part to their simple diet, which included spring water and seaweed. She trained as a holistic therapist in her 20s, working in spas and on cruise ships all over the world, performing seaweed treatments while making her own body oils. She later qualified as an architect, but coming from a farming background, she found the office 9-5 anathema to her personality. 'I just needed to be outdoors.' Now, instead of fighting traffic, the 45-year-old works in tandem with the tides, harvesting from September to April and taking her cues from the fullness of the moon. 'When there's a full moon or a new moon, the tide goes out a very long way,' she says. 'Sometimes you're up at the crack of dawn and out on the water while everybody else is still asleep. It's a beautiful way to live; it feels so natural.' At a time when storytelling has never been so important to a brand's ability to capture the imagination of consumers, this narrative of saltwater, sea air and moonlit forages is seductive and evocative, which O'Sullivan says is resonating with customers. 'People love the heritage of it all, especially Americans. Many of them remember their own parents talking about Irish seaweed and how great it was.' Wasi began as a cottage industry at the kitchen table, but now O'Sullivan has a dedicated workshop to keep up with demand. She infuses seaweed into barrels of sweet almond oil and jojoba oil, where it absorbs all of the vitamins, minerals and trace elements seaweed is rich in. Wasi sells online and is stocked in Avoca and Meadows & Byrne, and there is interest from Germany, the UK (from the prestigious Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew) and the United States. But O'Sullivan says interest is growing among Irish consumers, too. 'They're specifically looking for Irish seaweed because it's considered a premium product.' Claire O'Sullivan in Bantry. Photograph: Andy Gibson Evan Talty, founder of Wild Irish Seaweeds – one of the country's biggest seaweed success stories, exporting its food, skincare and wholesale products all over the world – agrees. 'There's a demand right now for high-grade seaweed and Ireland is seen as having clean, green, pristine waters,' says the fourth-generation Co Clare harvester. 'The Atlantic is nutrient-dense with untapped waters that are naturally better quality, plus not every country producing seaweed is governed by the same standards and regulations as we are. Our seaweed is seen a bit like our exports of beef and dairy.' Talty believes the demographic of people who love to cook and eat seaweed is still quite niche, so the company is transitioning from food into food ingredients and nutraceuticals such as electrolyte drinks and nutritious gummies. 'We're moving away from selling packets of seaweed and saying to people, 'See what you can do', to creating an everyday product that everybody uses.' Sea moss capsules and seaweed smoothie blends are already available on the website. The company is expanding its facilities too – the difficulty it faces is not demand but labour. 'Hand-harvesting is hard work and our average worker is mid-40s to early-50s. West Clare isn't a hotspot for attracting young talent and we're competing against local industry and tourism.' To encourage the next generation of harvesters and entrepreneurs, Rhatigan says education is key. She also believes seaweed should be among the gifts given to foreign dignitaries along with the Aran jumper and pint of Guinness. 'We're an island, for goodness sake. We should be promoting the amazing biodiversity of rich seaweeds and their fabulous-tasting profiles,' she says. We may not be there yet, but seaweed has become the beating heart of businesses up and down the country and at a time when quality, authenticity, sustainability and traceability are culinary and cosmetic buzzwords. The future looks bright for Irish seaweed, despite its dark past.
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Moroccan chicken with spiced couscous from Clodagh McKenna
This impressive-looking dish from Irish chef, columnist and TV presenter Clodagh McKenna is surprisingly easy to pull together, making it perfect for an indulgent midweek meal or stress-free Sunday dinner. The Tesco Finest free-range chicken – full of flavour having been raised on a diet rich in corn – is doused in a smoked paprika marinade before cooking. Then it's served simply with spiced couscous made using stock from the chicken. Everything is finished off with harissa and a deliciously cooling mint dressing made with creamy Tesco Finest Greek yoghurt. Prep and cook 4 hrServes 4 For the chicken1 x 1.65kg Tesco Finest British cornfed free-range whole chicken 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground coriander ½ tsp smoked paprika 1 lemon, zest and juice 2 tbsp Tesco Finest Sicilian extra virgin olive oil For the chicken stock from the carcass 1 chicken carcass 1 carrot, peeled and sliced 1 stick of celery, sliced 2 Tesco Finest echalion shallots, chopped Any fresh herbs For the couscous400g couscous ½ tsp cumin ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp coriander 1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1 lemon, zest and juice 600ml hot chicken stock, made from the carcassHandful flat-leaf parsley, chopped For the mint yoghurt100ml Tesco Finest Greek yoghurt 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped To serve Harissa paste Start by making the chicken marinade. Place all the spices in a small bowl along with the lemon juice, zest and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and whisk together. Rub the marinade all over the chicken and leave to marinate for 1 hour in a fridge. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 and roast the marinated chicken for 1½ hours. Once it's cooked, remove all the meat from the carcass, tear into pieces and place to one side. To make the stock, put the carcass, the chopped vegetables and herbs in a large saucepan. Add enough cold water to cover everything, and season with black pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, put on a lid and allow to simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve. Pour the couscous grains into a bowl and stir in the spices, lemon juice and zest, and then add 600ml of hot chicken stock. Cover the bowl and leave for 15 minutes. Separate the grains using a fork and stir in the chickpeas and parsley. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. In a separate bowl mix together the yoghurt and fresh mint. To serve, pile the couscous on to a large plate, top with the torn chicken and finish with generous dollops of mint yoghurt and harissa. Shop the ingredients for this recipe on and discover how Tesco Finest can make your everyday taste better
