Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY
SQ Bangers
There’s 33 per cent off Superquinn sausages until July 9th to celebrate the secret-recipe bangers’ 33rd birthday
Good Food at the Curragh
If you’re planning on entering the highly competitive “Car Park Picnic Stakes” at next weekend’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, you could get ahead of the field and save yourself a lot of bother by throwing an empty picnic basket in the car and filling it at the racecourse, where Good Food Ireland will be showcasing its forthcoming online shop, to be launched in September. Produce from it will be available to purchase in the Good Food Ireland Village, open each day of the festival, which runs from next Friday to Sunday, June 29th-July 1st.
Battle of the chefs - land versus sea
It’s probably not a good idea to open Surf ’n’ Turf, the new book from restaurateurs Paul Flynn and Martin Shanahan (pictured, with Flynn on the left) if you’re even remotely peckish. Glorious food photography by Simon Wheeler, who has worked with Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, makes the recipes jump off the pages, and you’ll be pulling the fridge door open within minutes of delving into these pages.
The chefs go head-to-head in their new TV show, with Shanahan championing the bounties of the sea, while Flynn makes his pitch for the land. There’s an interesting take on Caesar salad with chunks of deep fried lemon sole; brill with hazelnut butter; and skate with cockles, mussels and Guinness cream from the fish kitchen. Over in the land-based kitchen with Paul Flynn, you’ll find roast guinea fowl with cider butter, sage and Brussels sprouts; duck breast in caramel with champ sauce and slow-roasted pork shoulder with soft pears. The book is published next Thursday (Quadrille, £17.99), and the TV series begins on on July 4th on RTÉ.
The buzz
Kevin Arundel @the_chophouse: Here we go dinner with Jillian and Antony Bourdain at the chophouse 8 bells ooh should I be nervous
Ottavia Bourdain @OttaviaBourdain: @Bourdain make sure to wear a Italy T-shirt at Dublin airport tomorrow
Per-Anders Jorgensen @pa_jorgensen: Thanks @oswaldenzz for teaching us that you need to freeze the squid to make it tender, just made the best ever meal with them
Chilly treat
Mums often know best, and so when friends Clare Holman and Joanna Lovegrove, who between them have five children aged from one to six years, decided to develop a more healthy alternative to commercially made ice-cream, they had a head start. Chilly Moo frozen yoghurt is made in Ireland from fruit puree, whole milk and yoghurt, with no added sugar. It comes in three flavours: strawberry, mixed berry and banana and strawberry. It's available from lots of independent stores, and there's a full list of stockists at chillymoo.ie.
BBC baker comes home
Heir Island in Roaringwater Bay off the coast of west Cork, is to be the home of Ireland’s first cookery school dedicated to the art of breadmaking. Patrick Ryan (left), the Irish co-star of BBC2’s Big Bread Experiment and co-author of Bread Revolution, is returning to his roots to set up The Firehouse Bakery Bread School with his girlfriend Laura Moore, whose family have lived on the island for the past 10 years. Ryan graduated in corporate law before turning to cooking – training at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and with Kevin Thornton. For the past four years has been head baker at The Thoughtful Bread Company in Bath. The breadmaking classes will run every Saturday from next weekend, June 30th, and will cost €100 for return ferry crossing, a full day’s hands-on teaching, lunch with wine and a goodie bag to take home.
Heir Island is also home to Island Cottage, John Desmond and Ellmary Fenton's restaurant and cookery school, making it a real hub of culinary creativity. See thefirehouse.ieand islandcottage.com
