Darina Allen

Saturday, 19 April 2014

LitFest 2014... just around the corner. WIN TICKETS!

Oops, it's been a busy couple of months... and can you believe it, it's almost that time of year again!

The KerryGold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine is just around the corner. This year it's on the weekend of May 16th-17th-18th. We'd love to see you there... WE'RE OFFERING PAIRS OF TICKETS TO TWO EVENTS, so be sure to read on for more.

Once again we will be welcoming some of the world's biggest names in food and wine to Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School, to share their knowledge and passion with you. This year's line up is even more incredible than last year's... though it hardly seems possible! (See below for our speakers!)

Simon Hopkinson, Alys Fowler, Sally and John McKenna, Donal Skeehan, Catherine Fulvio, Rachel Allen, Tom Dorley, John Wilson, Thomasina Miers, Paul Flynn, Maggie Beer, Mary Dowey, Jill Norman... some of the giants of food and wine literature.

We have discussions, readings, writing workshops, a food trail and walking tour as well as cookery demonstrations galore.

Tickets to Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's demonstration and pop-up dinner sold within minutes of going on sale. As did the foraging walks with Rene Redzepi of Noma.... but you can still (at time of writing) catch him in conversation with John McKenna on Saturday morning in the Grainstore... but tickets are selling fast.

If you were longing to learn about Middle Eastern flavours then Ariana Bundy's cookery demonstration with Rory O'Connell is not to be missed. She will be sharing recipes from her delectable book, Pomegranates and Roses.

Another couple of cookery demonstrations which are selling fast are grande dame of Mexican cuisine Diana Kennedy who "did for Mexican cooking what Julie Child did for French cuisine and Marcella Hazan did for Italian." And don't miss our home grown heroes, Ross Lewis and Rachel Allen, who will be doing a demo together.

If you're a writer or aspiring writer then our Food and Wine Blogging discussion will be right up your street. Or perhaps the all day Food Writing workshop run by the staff of UCC’s MA in Creative Writing... which just has a couple of places remaining... and is a steal at just €10!

And whilst we love to talk books, we also relish debate on the hot topics of our time: Forgotten Skills Making a Comeback and Good Fats vs Bad Fats- The Big Debate are just two of the many discussions for the discerning foodie.

And that's just the beginning. With over fifty speakers from home and abroad touching on all aspects of food and wine, as well as our Big Shed Fringe event, it promises to be a weekend to savour.

For a full listing of events, and to book, check out the Litfest.ie website.

We can't wait to welcome you!

TICKET GIVEAWAY!
To be in with a chance to win a pair of tickets to EITHER the Food and Wine Blogging OR Good Fats Vs Bad Fats event, just tell us in the comments section below which event you'd like to attend... and which food hero you'd most like to meet in real life!

Please ensure that 1) You are free to attend the LitFest event and 2) That you check back here on 30th April to see if you've won. Winners will be announced that day and must make contact with us within 48 hours to secure their tickets.

CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER

Sunday, 16 February 2014

Hurray An Award!

We were absolutely thrilled to win Cookery School of the Year, at the glamorous Good Food Ireland Award ceremony at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Tuesday last.

It was a lovely surprise and a very welcome boost in this challenging economic climate - made all the more special when I got a congratulatory hug from our Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.

During the week the Restaurant Association of Ireland highlighted the fact that there is a crisis in the industry because of the shortage of trained chefs. So this is terrific news for all our students looking for exciting jobs after the course. The January 12 Week Certificate Course is booking really well, fortunately it's now looked on as an investment, because people know they'll learn the skills they need to earn their living in the food industry.

Image credit: Denis Minihane for the Irish Examiner.

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Ahilya Fort - India

It must be something to do with getting older – for virtually the first time in my life I'm actually spending a week in the same place. A holiday for me usually means darting from one place to another, spending no more than three nights in any one place. This time we’re in rural India having returned for the second time to a small heritage hotel overlooking the Narmada River called Ahilya Fort. Its owner, Prince Richard Holkar, is a direct descendant of Queen Ahilya Bai Holkar and divides his time between India, Paris and California.

The hotel is perched on top of the fort on a hilltop about 200 ft above the river. There's endless activity on the ghats below, it starts at dawn and goes on well into the night with all sorts of excitement, both men and women come to bathe, say their prayers and make offerings to their mother river.

All day long, women in brightly coloured saris wash their clothes on the water’s edge, they bash them with a timber bat and then lather them up with lots of suds all of which goes into the river. Despite all that, it is virtually un-polluted. They swim in their saris and then hold them up to dry in the warm breeze. Pilgrims bathe in the river to wash their sins away and children splash and dive to their hearts content. Holy men with long beards and saffron robes wander up and down paying homage at the many shrines on the ghats and at the temple.

There are lots of little gaily painted boats taking people backwards and forwards across the river to villages on the other side where they grow cotton and make handmade bricks from clay and cow dung, much of the cooking is still done on open fires over wood and dried cow pats.

Ahilya Fort only has 14 rooms, e

very one quite different, and many have little verandas overlooking the Narmada River, the temple or the garden.

There's a constant stream of interesting people coming and going so each meal is an adventure, particularly as there is no dining room as such, so the location of each meal is a surprise, and could be on the terrace, by the pool, in the inner courtyard, or in a little open thatched house in the organic vegetable gardens.

There’s a rich bird life, a paradise for twitchers. There's a fantastic variety of birds, apparently there are over 3,000 species in India as opposed to around 250 in the geographical area of the British Isles. Little chipmunks chirp and dart along narrow ledges.

Goats and cows amble idly around as they do along the main street of Maheshwar and through the market which I always check out when I am on holidays.

The town itself is throbbing with lots of shops selling the richly coloured silk Maheshwari saris, hand-woven strand by strand in the local workshops.

In the early morning while it is still cool we sometimes take a boat and float down the river to watch the sun rise. And then in evening when the temperature drops again, people go out in gaily painted boats to watch the sun set behind the Maheshwar temple. As soon as darkness falls, hundreds of deyas are floated down the river, little leaf or paper bowls with a candle flickering inside, drifting downstream carrying a wish or the memory of a loved one. It is a breathtakingly beautiful and memorable place.

Monday, 16 December 2013

A Passage to India

It's so lovely to be back in India, the characteristic smell when you arrive into the airport, women in beautiful saris, and other types of traditional dress. All the officials still in khaki uniforms, there seem to be millions of them, our tickets are checked five times on the way to our transfer plane...

Out of Indore airport into the crazy traffic of an Indian city. We are headed to Maheshwar, which is well off the beaten track, and two and half hours away from the airport. We drive past the slum of corrugated tin shacks and tiny mobile shops. There are people everywhere, yellow and green tuc-tucs and scooters weaving around them and the constant noise of horns.

The lorries are painted in intricate patterns with BLOW HORN emblazoned in large letters on the back. They carry huge loads, sometimes covered in hessian which billows out over the top of the truck. There are a million motorbikes often with the entire family on board, the women sit side saddle in their saris and the youngest member on the handlebars. I've just seen a long bamboo ladder being carried between two bicycles, the two cyclists pedalling in unison like a stretch tandem. Flat carts on gaily painted wheels, piled high with sticks of sugarcane stacked for juice, coconuts, pomegranates…

There is pottery drying in the sun by the roadside, men making bricks, little stalls selling a variety of nuts. Everyone is on a mission trying to earn a living in a trillion innovative ways.

There are more traditional forms of transport too. Cattle carts and water buffalo. Some cows with their horns painted. Closer to Maheshwar we see a herd of haughty camels walking along the roadside with their turbaned herder. In the countryside and villages the women are all wearing saris, and some older men are still wearing the dhoti. But in the cities many are opting for western clothes.

Indians are very devout and worship a million gods, so there are a myriad of temples along the road, some just tiny grottos, others huge and elaborately decorated and garlanded. These also create opportunities for others to sell marigold garlands, incense and other offerings. Everywhere is a riot of color.

There's a wide diversity of crops, every scrap of land is used for cotton, sugarcane, papayas, and mangoes which are at their juicy best during the monsoon season. The cherimoya season has just finished but there are lots of dates and chestnuts which they roast until charred black then split.

The sheer regional diversity of the food in India makes it intriguing and deliciously rewarding but difficult to define. From the rich meaty dishes of the Moguls in the North to the superb variety of vegetarian and fish dishes, the rice, breads, the dahls, fruits, pickles and relishes.

Religion plays a major part in people’s diets and is considered to be as critical to the mind as the body. India’s Sikh, Parsi and Christian communities have little or no restrictions on what they eat. Hindus do not eat beef as the cow is sacred and revered. Traditionally they avoid foods that are thought to inhibit spiritual or physical development: some devout Hindus also avoid onions and garlic as do the Jains who believe they heat the blood and inflame sexual desire. The Jains are also strict vegetarians and there are rigid restrictions to avoid injury even to insects so they don’t eat any vegetable that comes from below the ground for fear of potential damage during cultivation and harvesting. Buddhists are mostly vegetarian and pork is strictly taboo for Muslims many of who also avoid alcohol. Many Indians also fast once and sometimes twice a week or longer to gain spiritual rewards and also to better understand the suffering of the poor. Ayurveda, the ancient science of health and longevity also influences food customs. The whole mix makes for a fascinating and diverse food culture which I always relish the opportunity to explore and learn more about on our travels.