Hillsborough Oyster Festival

Am so excited to share the below regarding the 2016 Oyster Festival in Hillsborough, will you go and try the oysters?

Oyster Festival snaps up double-accolade success

 

The Hillsborough International Oyster Festival has two reasons to celebrate; it’s been named as one of the Top 10 food festivals in the world to visit in 2016 by WorldGuide and as one of the best Irish seafood festivals in 2016 by Coast Monkey.

Now in its 24th year the Festival is a popular fixture in the Northern Ireland food calendar and its placement from WorldGuide, an online travel and lifestyle resource, has helped put this local event and Northern Ireland firmly on the world platform. It ranks alongside the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in Australia, World Gourmet Summit in Singapore, Salon du Chocolat in Paris, Taste of Chicago in Illinois and Lona Coffee Cultural Festival in Hawaii.

Claudia Hellmann, Travel & Food Editor at WorldGuide commented, “It was not easy to decide which food events to pick as our top recommendations for 2016 because there are so many exciting festivals in all parts of the world. But picking the Hillsborough Oyster Festival was easy. I have always loved it for its unique mix of the finest locally-sourced produce, laid-back atmosphere and exciting events such as the World Oyster Eating Championship and it has such a varied programme that it's one of the most entertaining food events I know.”

The Festival received its listing as one of the best Irish seafood festivals in 2016 from Coast Monkey, an online resource that shares news and information about the Irish Coast.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been named as one of the world’s top food festivals and one of the best Irish seafood festivals in 2016 and especially in NI Year of Food and Drink,” said Don Spence, chairman of the Hillsborough International Oyster Festival organising committee. “Every year we strive to host a bigger and better event that attracts visitors to the village and showcases the very best of local produce and seafood.”

This year the Hillsborough International Oyster Festival takes place from Tuesday 30th August to Sunday 4th September. For further information visit www.hillsboroughoysterfestival.com

McCombs Grub Crawl

Today a group of intrepid food lovers were whisked away on #MccombsGrubCrawl. This was organised by @officialmccombs and @duffyrafferty. Our departure was at 10.15 from Glengall Street on a luxury minibus. 

  

First stop was @AbernethyButter where we met Will and Allison Abernethy. Their wee enterprise supplies fresh, home made butter (salted, unsalted, smoked and dulce) to the likes of Fortnum & Mason, Heston Blumenthal and Ox to name but a few. 

Allison made some fresh soda bread and Will made some fresh butter and we got to sample the soda and butter with jam and tea and home made fudge. It tasted great. It's so good and endearing to see that our local endeavours have spread to all corners of the U.K. and reached all echelons of society.

  

  

  

  

After here we were on our way to @KilmeganCider to meet Andrew and see his local County Down cider enterprise. Andrew himself should consider a career in show biz as he was a great character and truly engaged all of us and had a real way with words. He told us the history of cider in County Down and let us all sample the apple juice!!

   

 

We were all feeling peckish by this stage so onwards to @PoachersLisbane for a grandiose feast. We had a sharing platter consisting of white bait, pate, griddles bread, goats cheese and crab cakes. This was followed by either fish and chips or chicken and rosti or cheese leek and potato pie. All the meals were tasty and portion sizes were great and well filling. For dessert there was a selection of cheese and biscuits with chutneys followed by tea/coffee. 

  

  

The Grub Crawl tour is being offered by McCombs and will cost £65. For a full day including meals, drinks and tour guide this is actually a very goo deal. So who wants to try it?

Supervalu Ambassador chef

I attended this super event last night at Tedfords Kitchen. This was the unveiling of the partnership between Supervalu (Musgrave NI @musgravemktpl ) and chef Noel McMeel (Lough Erne Resort Head Chef  @LoughErneResort ).

I must admit I was looking forwards to visiting  @TedfordsKitchen  after the huge investment, but was slightly disappointed at the decour! This did not detract from an otherwise fantastic evening. 

 

 @Supervalu has a presence of 35 stores in NI and this will increase. Noel cooked a tasting menu using locally sourced produce. These ingredients can all be bought from Supervalu stores. Before the meal and during there were drinks available from local producers @ShortcrossGin , @PokerTreeBrew (locally brewed ales) and @RubyBlueVodka .

  

 After the drinks reception we went into the dining room and were treated to a superb tasting menu. To start there was the steak (which I didn't have but was told was amazing!!) beignets which were fully and devine, followed by gammon fritters and fresh butter again superb. Next was fillet of pork and chicken terrine which tasted exceptional. Minced beef meatballs in tomato followed (didn't try) with bread. Red and white wine was also served.

  

To finish there was cheese, biscuits, chutneys,grapes, tea or coffee and rhubarb cranachan. At the end of the evening we were given a goodie bag also. 

  

This was truly a fantastic way to dine and more restaurants should offer this. Thank you Supervalu and MCE for the invite.

Rosemary potatoes

Hi all with Easter still in mind I would like to share this wee side dish, the classic Rosemary Potato. I cleaned 5 spuds,left skins on and then diced. Then I parboiled these cubes in boiling water for 10 minutes. 

Whilst this was happening I added  3 cloves of fineley diced garlic, one medium white diced onion to a tablespoon of oil and butter, until they coloured. Meanwhile I stripped fresh rosemary off their twigs and diced. I then added to the onions.

When the spuds were done I drained and added to the onion/Rosemary mix and gently mixed. Seasoned with fresh Himalayan salt and black pepper and ready to eat......njoy!!!!

Turkey Venison burgers

Mince turkey and minced venison, what to do with them?! I thought right lets do spiced up burgers. I used 800 g turkey and 400g venison, salt, paprika, Garam masala, spring onion, garlic, ginger,  an egg and flour to bind and dust.

I put all into a bowl and got my hands dirty, mixed it for 10 mins and refrigerated. When chilled I dusted a tray with flour and moulded 20 burgers. I shallow fried for 2-3 minutes per side to colour and then put into a preheated (180C) for 20 minutes. 

Had to try one so I did and so did my two girls-they and I loved it!!!! Will let them cool and then freeze.....burgers anyone?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter folks!! I received a lovely gift from TESCO- an Easter Hamper. It contained fresh chicken soup, fresh vegetable broth, wheaten, bottle red wine, 1.2 kg lamb leg with bone (£14), rosemary, mint jelly, garlic, spuds, carrots, parsnips, cabbage and trifle!!

I'm not a huge fan of roast lamb so I decided to remove all the meat from the bone (800g) and diced this and marinaded overnight in my tandoori masala. The bones I'm going to use to make an on the bone lamb masala. 

I cooked the lamb tikka in a preheated oven (200C) for 30 minutes. Whilst this was cooking I heated 2 tablespoons of oil, added 2 diced red onions and browned. Meanwhile I made my wet masala using garlic,ginger,onion, dry spices(turmeric, Garam masala, salt, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves). This I added to the onions and browned. I then puréed fresh spinach and coriander and added to pot, then a small carton of tomato pasata and simmered. Once the lamb was cooked I added meat and sauce to pan and voila Lamb Tikka Saag.

As you can see in the pictures a great hamper, the lamb was succulent and juicy, very little fat and the 4 colours of the sauces gradually darkened to give that rich dark brown colour. Guess what......it tastes fabulous!!!

NI Year of Food and Drink Tradition and Heritage

I attended a cookery demonstration by Head Chef of James St. South, David  Gillmore, at the James St. South Cookery School today. This was to celebrate NI Year of Food and Drink Heritage and Tradition month.

  

The wonderful MC Michelle introduced Will Abernethy of Abernethy Butter. Will gave us a demon and history of the butter production. It's all made by hand using local cream from Dreynes farm and salt (there is a smoked and dulce butter) and churned, before salt added,then shaped and packed into 125g rolls. It takes approximately 350ml cream to make 125g of butter to which roughly 1.5g salt added. 

  

The butter is sold to the likes of The Fat Duck (Heston Blumenthal), The Berkeley (Marcus Wareing) and The Salty Dog here in Bangor. Also it is sold in Fortnum & Mason. Will and Allison really have a great young Northern Irish brand.

Lindsay Skinner from Punjana Tea then gave us a run down of how Robert Thompson started The Thompson Teas in 1896. It is now run by third generation Thompsons (Ross and David). The Punjana brand was born in 1956 (tea bags first started in 1955) and the rest is history. 

The teas used are from Kenya and Assam in India and drank all round the UK. In 2014 their teas won 20 Gold Stars at the Great Taste Awards. Lindsay was telling us how they are bringing in new flavours and they looked and smelled amazing.

  

Next up was Jason from Carnebrooke Meats, who started company with Ben in 2011. Jason has a background in farming and butchery and has worked in Australia and Argentina. Their USP is excellent customer care and a unique Antrim Salt wall which allows them to salt cure their beef. All their meat (beef,lamb,pork, chicken,duck and deer) is Irish and they supply the Michelin Starred restaurants Ox and Deanes group in Belfast.

Head Chef David then made stout wheaten served warm with smoked or salted Abernethy butter and seafood Fricasse. It was real quick and easy to make and delicious (I had the smoked butter). The wheaten was light and fluffy- something to do with the Whitewater stout!!!

  

Our last presentation was from Bernard Sloan of Whitewater Brewery in Kilkeel. Bernard is a 3rd generation potato farmer who started off as an engineer, then cheese maker in Somerset before turning his hand at brewing in Manchester and Nigeria, before coming home to start micro brewing. Now Whitewater supplies 10 brews to small, medium and large customers and have to move to a larger premises in Castlewellan later this year. 

  

These few enterprises young and old, small and big are great Ambassadors for NI food and drink. Their awards and accolades won is a testament to their passion and vision and I have no doubt they will fly the flag high do Northern Ireland. As a parting gift we received a goodie bag containing sirloin steak, Abernethy fudge, a bottle of Maggies Leap beer and Punjana tea.