The Narrows "Unconventional Cookery School" plays host to a one day demo, on Saturday 31st January from 10am-4.30pm, price £45. The subject of the demo is Learn Sourdough Bread with Chef and Breadmaker Hendrik Dennemeyer. For more information contact Celia Spouncer celia@spouncer.com. Accommodation available in the Narrows if you would like to make a weekend of it.
We got this "recipe" from Jarkko Laine in Finland, who runs Insanelyinterested.com - web stuff, all devoted to bread, and worth subscribing to. It goes like this:
A sense of identity, a sense of place, a sense of culinary brotherhood, is slowly moving across the north coast of Northern Ireland. From 'Derry through to Coleraine, from Portstewart onto Portrush, then from Bushmills to Ballycastle, the region is claiming a just uniqueness.
Paolo Sabatini knows both the Italian art of cooking, and the Italian art of eating.
He knows that to cook well, you must first source your foods with precise care, so his menus celebrate the West Coast champions – Gannet fish; Achill mountain lamb; Friendly Farmer poultry; Brady's beef; Green Earth organics. And with these peerless foods at his fingertips, he then waves that culinary magic that ushers in the “gift of making art out of life”, as Marcella and Victor Hazan describe this marvellous alchemy.
Restaurant of the Year - Harrys Shack
Harry's Shack got hammered twice in 2014, Firstly, by its customers who – literally – ate every piece of food the restaurant had until there was none left to serve. Harry's had to issue a warning for people to stay away.
Secondly, the big waves of December 10th, 2014 hammered this beautiful beach shack. Harry's had to issue another warning for people to stay away.
Book of the Year - Slainte by Caroline Hennessy & Kristin Jensen
Slainte is an important book, in a year of many exceptional books from Irish cooks and writers, because it digs beer out of the ghetto, and outs it as a cultural and culinary artefact that is essential to good living, good cooking, good eating and good drinking. Caroline and Kirsten have performed the most valuable work of cultural exploration and explication, in a book that is a joy to read.
Wine person of the Year Alain Kerloc'h
Alain Kerloc'h makes the business of sourcing and serving great wines seem as simple as breathing. When you eat in Ox, you simply place yourself in his hands, and the wine experience he delivers is spectacular. Best of all, he is calm and quiet with his expertise, and devoid of the pretension that mars so much of the world of wine.
Plate of the Year - Wild Salmon at the Brook Lodge Inn
The menu explained: “From our wood smoker, wild Irish salmon out of the River Nore, with wild sea beet laverbreads and a wild cod's roe spread.”
So there we all were, sitting cross legged in a tent in a field, and a bare-foot Kevin Thornton was smashing sorghum grain in a gourd from Ethiopia, sharing food "because we all love each other" with us all, and adding leaves from the Moringa tree to flavour the mix, until we all tried Injera bread, and felt the richer for it. This was Theatre of Food at Electric Picnic, an event MC'd by travel writer Pól O Conghaile and Kevin was giving a demo of food from the Lalibela in North Ethiopia, where he travels and works each year. It was wild, and special.
Festival of the year - Connemara Mussel Festival
Tullycross became the epicentre of the West Coast in early May, as the small and splendiferous Connemara Festival took over the village and delighted everyone with great food, great demos and great dancing, from the Curley School of Dancing. You can reckon you've been to every festival and seen it all, and then something as small, community-focused and simple as this great weekend simply takes your breath away. Only brilliant.
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