Fancy a slice of Tony O’Reilly’s beef herd?

Beef from the distinctive Belted Galloway breed of cattle will be on the menu at FX Buckley restaurants in Dublin next week, for a limited time.

Fillet, rump, sirloin and rib-eye steaks will be on the specials boards (from €30), and burgers will be made from the chuck, brisket and heel. The legs are being salted and air-dried in the style of bresaola.

Two cattle from Oinri Jackson's Brittas House herd in Nobber, Co Meath, that originally came from Tony O'Reilly's Castlemartin estate, were chosen for the restaurants. They are currently undergoing a 28-day dry ageing process at the FX Buckley HQ in Rathcoole, where they will be prepared by the company's master butcher, Eamon Dyer.

According to Stephen Buckley, “the Belted Galloway traditional breed is a sweeter meat due to the fact that the animals are kept outside all year round, and for a longer timeframe, usually two summers”.

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The FX Buckley restaurants in Monkstown, Pembroke Street and Crow Street, as well as Bull and Castle in Christchurch and the steakhouse at Ryan’s on Parkgate Street, will have the steaks from Thursday, May 10th, while stocks last (expected to be three to four days). The burgers will be on the bar food menus at Bull and Castle and Ryan’s.

Planting a seed

Recipes for pulled pork sandwich, Philly cheese steak and meatball sub, are not what you'd expect from the Happy Pear twins, David and Stephen Flynn. Yet with judicious use of single quote marks, they make it into Recipes for Happiness, their third book. They, along with a Chick 'n' Nuggets recipe they made 10 versions of before they were happy, appear in a chapter entitled I Can't Believe It's Not ...

The committed plant-food and yoga at dawn duo have sold more than 150,000 copies of their books and have a YouTube channel broadcasting videos of their recipes.

They say this is their most user-friendly book yet, and most of the family-friendly recipes can be on the table within 15 minutes. Recipes for Happiness is published this week by Penguin Ireland, €22.

Riddle me this ...

A five-course dinner with matching wines, for €55 per person, sounds like good value indeed. The Riddler restaurant in Christchurch, Dublin 8 is pairing wines from Spain, Italy and Australia with crab, hake, rump of beef and white chocolate at its wine tasting dinner on Wednesday, May 9th.

The wines being poured are Prosecco, Pinot Grigio, Albarino, Cabernet Sauvignon and a sticky for dessert. Bookings are being taken by the restaurant on 01-9073266.

It’s black, and white

The Brotherhood of the Knights of the Black Pudding have given it their stamp of approval, it has been served to Queen Elizabeth, and now you can pick it up at 130 Aldi stores in Ireland.

The black and white pudding from McCarthy's Butchers of Kanturk is justly famous and now widely available (€1.99/250g). It is made by Jack McCarthy and his son Tim, who is the fifth generation of the family to run the shop.

That’s a wrap

Reusable sandwich wrappers are an eco-friendly alternative to plastic wrap and foil, and these Bee's Wrap versions (€11.95) are now available in 13 branches of Meadows & Byrne nationwide and online at meadowsandbyrne.com.

They are made of organic cotton, beeswax, jojoba oil and tree resin, and can be washed and reused. Packs of three wraps, suitable for covering bowls, or enclosing food, are also available (€19.95).

Bee's Wrap was set up in Vermont in 2012 Sarah Kaeck, a mother of three, who wanted to find an alternative to plastic.