Food Trucks

Food trucks are popping up everywhere to liven up our lives. The past year has seen an explosion of them here in Ireland, as restaurants and cafes were forced to close due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions and we all had to get used to eating al fresco in all weathers. I want to share just a few of my favourites here...

The Ballymaloe Cookery School Field Café has reopened for the summer season. Serving delicious savoury and sweet treats, a killer affogato with our own homemade ice-cream and coffee from The Golden Bean Roastery. Open Monday to Saturday from 10am – 4.30pm with lots of outdoor space to sit and enjoy.

How wonderful to find so many delicious hidden surprises at Niamh's Larder, a 15 minute walk along Ballybrannigan Strand...a stunning beach off the beaten track here in East Cork, not too far from Whitegate. 

Niamh did the 5 week cookery course here at the Cookery School and is the founder of Midleton Neighbourfood, which connected local people to local food producers during the pandemic when markets were closed. Find her on Instagram @niamhs_larder

Niamh's is one of six food trucks featured on the RTE series Battle of the Food Trucks available to watch on the RTE player online.

Here in Shanagarry we also have Trawler Boyz down at Ardnahinch Strand and Fry Guys outside the Goal Post serving up fresh local fish, seafood and chips.

There's also Fred's Food Truck outside the Jameson Distillery in Midleton. I haven’t eaten there yet but apparently their BLT with smoked Irish bacon in a Jameson glaze is worth a try as well as many other tempting bites. Check out @freds_foodtruck on Instagram

If you’re in the sunny South East, check out The Tin Roof Food Stand in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. They have a green area and picnic tables and have a food truck serving toasted sandwiches, sausage rolls and great coffee. They also have new season’s Wexford strawberries and new potatoes on sale. Every Saturday from 9am – 2pm on the Fair Green.

Camus Farm is a 30-acre organic farm with 3 large stone-built dating from 1850 and supporting rare breed cattle, native tree/hedge species and traditional grassland meadows. Camus is in rural West Cork close to Inchydoney and the town of Clonakilty. Look out for their pop-up diner in their outdoor Field Kitchen Restaurant – delicious no-choice menu cooked from produce grown on the farm and local area.

A Sweet Treat

This was another post that I didn't get around to sharing at the time... I'm sure we're all in need of a little "sweet treat" now.

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At a glitzy event at Palais Brongniart in Paris in February 2019, Ballymaloe House won Trolley of the Year Award at the inaugural World Restaurant Awards for its iconic ‘Sweet Trolley’ as it’s affectionately known. 

Over 100 chefs from 37 countries made up the panel of judges for 8 different categories of the restaurant experience... Ballymaloe House had first been long-listed, then short-listed, the tension was nail-biting and then at last the announcement. The iconic dessert trolley that Myrtle Allen had introduced at Ballymaloe House, when she opened her own dining room as a restaurant in 1965, had won the top award... super exciting... 

The original timber trolley was made by the late Ballymaloe farm carpenter, Danny Power who was well known for his ‘tasty woodwork’.

Every evening, Myrtle piled it high with an ever changing selection of her favourite seasonal desserts. Always a homemade ice-cream made from the rich Jersey cream of the farm’s pedigree herd. This was, as it still is, served in a bowl of ice that Myrtle created to keep the ice cream chilled throughout the evening. A meringue gateau of some kind, a compote of fresh seasonal fruit from the walled garden. Rhubarb perhaps, or green gooseberry and elderflower followed by currants and berries in Summer and Autumn. Perhaps an orange or silky chocolate mousse, creme brûlée or her favourite carrageen moss pudding with soft brown sugar and cream or Irish Coffee sauce.

Fast forward to now. JR Ryle, the young pastry chef who came to work with Myrtle in 2004 accepted the prestigious award on behalf of Ballymaloe. He continues to work his magic with his equally passionate team in the Ballymaloe pastry kitchens but now he’s also in demand to do Sweet Trolley Pop Ups....

He’s just been to New York to do the first US Ballymaloe Sweet Trolley ‘Pop Up’. King on King Street in Manhattan was the venue; it was a roaring success, totally oversubscribed…

I spoke to co-owner of King, Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni, Claire De Boer who with her friend Jess Shadbolt opened King on King St in September 2016.

“Something magical happened, it felt like a house party, everyone was chatting to the next table and having fun”

The pastry chef at King also trained at the Ballymaloe Cookery School and the River Café. Brian McGin of Netflix flew in from Australia on his way to L.A and Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes came from London, Food Journalist, Christine Muhlke of Bon Appetit, a big fan of King came to the rescue when JR was having difficulty sourcing a trolley in New York.

David Tanis was there from the New York Times, four people from the prestigious Prior Travel Club. Clare De Boer told me that full capacity for Sunday lunch is 40 guests but due to the overwhelming demand they decided to do two sittings and stopped the bookings at 80 plus.

Special Silverwood tartlet tins had been flown out to New York two weeks earlier. Jerpoint glass in Kilkenny was commissioned to make the hand blown glass bowls for the compote and pannacotta... they arrived just two days before the event... nail biting stuff... Stable, that shop in Westbury Mall in Dublin provided the beautiful linen for the trolley but sadly the hand thrown Fermoyle Pottery didn’t arrive from Ballinskelligs until after the event – next time!

Watch this space for news of future Ballymaloe Sweet Trolley Pop Ups.

Forage to Feast

At the end of each twelve week course, our students at Ballymaloe Cookery School put on a pop up dinner as a fundraiser to support the East Cork Slow Food Education Project.

The theme for this one was Forage to Feast: an evening of wild eating to celebrate the vast array of local and wild foods we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep here in East Cork, even in early March.

The evening is a collaboration of the student's talents - cooking, presentation, serving...and even illustrating.

The cafe was set up with evergreens and candles...

The double sided menu was created by @sievesandspoons

And the fun began... guests were greeted with drinks and live music...

The evening started with homemade creamy labneh cheese, served with foraged wild garlic, almonds and honey, fermented crackers and beetroot puree. And a mushroom and fiddlehead fern quiche.

As well as a whole host of ferments and pickles...

This was followed by a rock pool broth of fresh, local hake and shellfish, with sea spinach.

The main course was a locally reared loin of lamb with wild garlic, accompanied by stuffed butternut squash, kale puree, carrots and a rich potato gratin.

Dessert was a fresh, pink rhubarb tart with a vibrant lemon and ginger ice cream. And for petit fours we had these magical little woodland meringues, sweet geranium shortbread with crystalised primroses and a rich beetroot and chocolate bake.

If this has whetted your appetite for foraged foods, why not join me at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Saturday 25th April 2020.

Locally foraged foods have been an important part of the menu at Ballymaloe House for over 40 years, and we continue the tradition at the Cookery School. 

This one day course can literally be life changing as it teaches you how to identify and enjoy nature’s treasures: free ingredients that are fresher, tastier and much more nutritious than virtually anything you will ever find in the shops. This course is suitable for professional chefs, home cooks, keen foragers or anyone wanting to learn about sourcing and cooking with wild food for sheer pleasure.

• How to identify dozens of edible wild plants, flowers, seaweeds and shellfish in season, foraged from hedgerows, fields and the nearest beach. A walk in the countryside will never be the same again. Where you previously saw weeds, you’ll now see something to eat.
• How to prepare and cook the wild food that’s been gathered, while maintaining the benefits of the vitamins, minerals and trace elements that are lacking in so many processed foods. Depending on the season, this could include delicious soups and tasty salads featuring nettles, seaweed, samphire, strand cabbage, wild garlic and purslane...

• Take a walk with me, an enthusiastic and experienced forager, to search for wild food in the countryside. Before even leaving the front steps of the Cookery School, your eyes will be opened see five edible wild plants, reinforcing how much natural abundance is available to those who know what to look for 
• Two demonstration sessions, showing how to cook the food you’ve foraged, with overhead mirrors and two monitors showing close-up handiwork. Teachers share a wealth of knowledge through their expert tips and techniques. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

It's become a bit of a tradition at the Ballymaloe Cookery School for the students to do a fundraiser during the term to support the East Cork Slow Food Education Project and the Darina Allen India Fund. We've had all kinds of events including a sponsored foraging walk over the cliffs at Ballycotton, and a pub quiz in the Blackbird. In recent times, a Pop Up dinner in the Garden Cafe at the Cookery School has been the most popular choice.

The students on this summer's 12 week course also chose to do a Pop Up dinner. Their theme was A Midsummer Night's Feast and they soon drew up exciting and elaborate plans, dividing the work between them.

For the past few weeks they have been researching, planning and testing with youthful enthusiasm and terrific gusto. They read Shakespeare's classic play, A Midsummer Night's Dream several times over - and Prateek from Mumbai read passages from the play at intervals during the meal in his charmingly dramatic way.

They planned the menu - incorporating as many fresh local foods as they could and seasonal produce from the farm, gardens and greenhouse. The succulent lamb for the main course came from Frank Murphy. They even picked the organic rose petals from the water garden and dried them for the spectacular dessert.

On Saturday and all of Sunday they worked with military precision. The teams were cooking all day having loads of fun. The bread makers, John P, Carolin & Laura started at 5.30 am on Sunday and made four lovely breads.

Which were served with Jersey butter freshly made in our dairy by Sinead.

The design team of Jack, Diana, Clemmy, Alice, Olivia, Molly, Denise, Ashley, Lesley and Grainne chose to transform the dining room in to a midsummer forest scene and went off foraging round the gardens to find all sorts of summer foliage and blossoms.

They hung beech leaves and wild clematis from the rafters and Diana did a paper installation that looked like fluttering birds over the doorway. 

Three long tables were laid with starched white linen table cloths. They had banana leaves down the centre as a runner topped with mossy logs wound round with the creamy white fragrant blossoms of philadelphus - mock orange - which scented the air so beautifully. 

Sarah Simpson & Lisa McClure planned cocktails - a Strawberry and Mint Cocktail and a Passion Fruit and Mango Non-Alcoholic Cocktail. They made a beautiful ice bowl full of roses to hold the ice. 

A little drinks station was set up in the conservatory to welcome the guests who started to arrive just after 6pm. Candles and twinkling night lights were lit and Shawnie played the piano and serenaded the glamorous guests as they arrived. Anna from Sweden, where midsummer night is a traditional celebration, had shown some other students how to make little herb and flower wreaths for the waitress's hair.

The delicious canapes created by Alison, Susie, Grainne, Ashley and Aru set the scene: Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese and Cucumber; Indian Spiced Potato Cakes with Mint and Yoghurt Raita and Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Tamari Dipping Sauce  got an overwhelmingly positive response...

There were gasps of admiration as the guests saw the transformation of the Cafe. Once everyone was seated we welcomed the guests and told them about the East Cork Slow Food project, and then Prateek read the first beautiful passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Then the meal began. 

The beautiful summer starter created by Aoife and Florence incorporated beetroot in three ways: Chilled Beetroot Soup, Beetroot Carpaccio and Beetroot Jelly and Sour Cream.

The main course was the culmination of much thought and experimentation by David, Justin, Paul Mahon & Vicky. Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb with Carrot Puree, Mashed Potato and an Apple and Mint Gel. It was much enjoyed, I've rarely seen so many plates with not a morsel left behind...

The dessert course was created by Poppy & Carly: Feta and Honey Cheesecake, Raspberry Spuma, Chocolate Soil and Meringue Shards... it drew appreciative gasps of admiration from every table.

All the students had been invited to enter a competition for the best midsummer night dream confection - it had to have some kind of flower connection - meringue lollipops, chocolate bark, rose petal cake and cupcakes there was scarcely a rose left in the garden after the event!

Pam and I had the challenge of trying to judge, we just couldn't do it - so we gave a prize to each of the seven entrants.

The whole event was masterminded by Eva Melican who did a terrific job with great tenacity and admirable good humour. Also part of the ace team and supporting cast were Pam, Rod and Tom.

Many thanks to two of our senior tutors, Pam and Tracy, who supported the students for this event. Pam was Maitre d' and Tracy oversaw the kitchen - but they were both anxious to emphasise that the students had lead the planning and cooking themselves.

Some of these students had done a little cooking before they came to the school, a few having worked in professional kitchens. But many had scarcely made toast before they joined us 10 weeks ago - so we were bursting with pride at what they had achieved, a view shared by the guests. They created a truly magical and memorable evening, a huge thank you to all involved.

My Hot New York Tables

I was in New York again last week. First as a guest speaker at the 2015 Meet the Culinary Entrepreneurs program at ICE in New York (Institute of Culinary Education). Then two days later at the Glucksman Ireland House, speaking about the role of Ballymaloe in the Irish food renaissance.

It was a great opportunity to see the ICE and meet the students there and see Glucksman Ireland House and the wonderful work the Foundation are doing.

For the Glucksman talk two and a half times the amount they were expecting showed up so they had to move to bigger room. People were delighted to hear that the image of Ireland as the land of corned beef and cabbage, colcannon and champ - delicious as they are - in no way reflects the Irish food scene as it is now.

This trip gave me the opportunity to check out what's happening on the New York food scene, and even though it was only a couple of weeks since my last visit, I made some great new discoveries.

El Rey Coffee Bar and Luncheonette in Stanton Street in Nolita is doing really interesting contemporary American food using superb ingredients. Head Chef Gerardo Gonzalez is really one to watch - friendly, talented and still refreshingly ego-less at this time. 

Image: El Rey website

He does lots of small plates where vegetables take centre stage. The chargrilled radicchio with housemade ricotta, hazelnut, lemon and aleppo honey that I had was truly delicious. As was the flat bread with avocado, pickled onion and chimichurri. Put this on your New York list... but you'll need to get there fast, because New York magazine has just written a super positive piece about him. They also do great pop up curry nights on the weekend - so be sure to check them out.

The hot new opening whilst I was over was the Dominique Ansel Kitchen on 7th Avenue South. Ansel is a hugely talented pastry chef with very little ego, which is rather rare in New York. He shot to fame a couple of years ago when he created the cronut (see my post on it here) in his tiny premises in Spring Street (where they're still queuing round the corner). 

I went along on the day he opened his long anticipated new place and joined his many fans, plus several television crews that were documenting his first day. I was number thirty two in line so I gave up, despite the tempting oohs and ahs from the others sitting around me enjoying his creations like this sticky toffee pudding served like a Christmas cracker!

I also checked out Russ and Daughters - a fifth generation Jewish deli which now has their own cafe serving lox and bagels, pickled herrings, chopped liver, potato latkes, caviar...

I tried a couple of fermented drinks - the beetroot and plum one was thirst quenching and delicious, as well as the halvah ice cream with a salted caramel sauce for which they are famous. 

I met Josh, the fifth generation owner, who told me he's longing to come to Ireland - we're hoping he'll come to LitFest next year.

Another great place is Mission Chinese Food (171 E Broadway). If you haven't already discovered it, then this is definitely another hot spot to add to your list. As long as you don't mind queuing. It opens at 5.30. Like many other restaurants now they don't take bookings - so just resign yourself to standing in line and enjoy the experience - I guarantee it'll be worth it!

And then there's Ristorante Rafele (7th Ave S near Christopher Street), a little Italian gem that Madhur Jaffrey and her husband Sanford introduced me to.

I would never have found it on my own, it's the sort of restaurant you would walk by without a second glance. But it's my very best new discovery - thanks Madhur!

The other place I went to amazingly for the first time is an amazing ingredient shop, Kalustyans on Lexington Avenue, which has floor to ceiling shelves packed with ethnic ingredients from around the world. I bought barberries, Ceylon cinnamon, piment d'esplette and the best Telicherri peppercorns. 

Established since 1944, there were three generations working the shop floor that day - here I am with two! 

Another find was Breads Bakery. They had superb coffee, delicious little sandwiches and gorgeous breads, pastries and chewy, chunky breadsticks with gouda and green olives. I loved the cheese straw split in half filled with cream cheese, cherry tomato, coriander and avocado. 

Don't miss their speciality - chocolate babka - a Polish sweet bread swirled with chocolate and hazelnut that is truly irresistible. They're located just off Union Square and are well worth a visit.