The Menu: Burren Smoked Salmon
Food photographer Sean Monaghan’s shots of some of the finest Irish food producers in the land are already well on their way to iconic status and The Menu reckons it won’t be long before Monaghan is spoken of in similar glowing terms. He has put together a book/portfolio album of same (available as a digital download or printed soft or hardback www.atasteof-ireland.com) and is donating all proceeds to the Twist Soup Kitchens (www.facebook.com/twistsoupkitchen), as worthy a stocking filler as you’ll find all year.
For those looking to give the gift of grub this Christmas there’s further hamper options from The Menu’s much-admired patron of fine local produce, Nash19 restaurant, whose offering includes Tom Durcan’s spiced beef, Burren Smoked Salmon and the Nash19 2lb Christmas Pudding (www.nash19.com) while mighty Dublin food emporium Fallon & Byrne have myriad options from which to choose (www.fallonandbyrne.com). Far from the usual bill of fare to be found in The Menu’s column is the Just Like Home hamper targetted at emigrant Irish, but he has experienced an emigrant’s Christmas abroad and, anyway, nostalgia has a most forgiving palate. Furthermore, the inclusion of his beloved Barry’s Tea and Tayto Crisps is adequate atonement for infinitely more heinous crimes. (www.justlikehome.ie)
The Menu will countenance nothing other than one of Tom Clancy’s wonderful Ballycotton Free Range Bronze Turkeys on his table of a Christmas, but should any dear reader be struggling to find themselves a fine Irish free range bronze and are unable to procure one of Mr Clancy’s, do call into the very lovely Daphne and Gwyn in O’Sullivan’s, by the fountain in Cork’s English Market to place your order for a genuine Irish free range bird!.
Rather like carols, mince pies are a Christmas tradition that have lost their lustre for The Menu, though he still indulges in both each yuletide if only in passing and with just half a heart. Truth be told, the pinnacle of his carol-singing days was a stunning rendition of ‘O Tannenbaum’ at the Cór Fhéile, in Cork City Hall, way back when he was not only a soprano but also a boy, around the same time he last tasted a decent mince pie. That all changed following a recent encounter with Siobhan O’Regan’s Beechwood Farm Handmade Mince Pies with Cranberries and Frangipane, quite possibly the finest e’er to pass his lips. Twenty minutes or more reheating in a low to medium oven (no further baking required) provides the class of deep warming that begins carmelising sublimely spiced and precisely sweetened homemade fruit ‘mince’ and has the frangipane melting into buttery shortcrust pastry like toffee. And with that first taste, the years rolled away, The Menu’s now-tortuous tenor reverting once more to his former crystalline soprano as he opened his mouth to sing: ‘O Beechwood Pies, O Beechwood Pies, Du kannst mir sehr gefallen (You please me very much)!’ www.beechwoodfarm.ie
