Parsnip Appreciation Society
A fine cut, grilled low and slow over smoking embers, tastes equally divine in darkest winter, but these past few splendid summer weeks have seen The Menu near-wedded to his BBQ, most especially, now he has adjourned to his summer estate deep in the heart of his beloved West Cork, leading shooting parties through the drawing room, sourcing missing progeny on various beachheads and all the while dining on the finest of local produce.
And he’s not the only one: Senior Sous Chef at Jamie Oliver’s London Barbecoa Restaurant, John Relihan, will be cooking up a storm in his native Duagh, Co Kerry, this weekend (Aug 9/10) in a benefit for the local parish development association, featuring a posse of 45 chefs doing wonderful things to a wide range of good meats in BBQ smokers, a turf spit roaster, a traditional Maori Hangi underground earth oven and a unique 8ft brick BBQ, built onsite for cooking a hog.
The bould John is then off to Dublin to join a most exclusive garden party at the Big Grill Festival (Aug 15-17) in Herbert Park, for some superb meat-cooking, fine vegetarian fare, excellent Irish craft beers, 3FE coffee and top sounds. John will be giving demos at the ‘Grillster Academy’ and aspiring chefs can enter the BBQ competition (www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-big-grill-bbq-craft-beer-festival). Ballinspittle hosts its annual street BBQ contest (Aug 24) with a prize of a pig from butcher Donal Lordan alongside the Diva Boutique Bakery’s annual pie baking contest on the same day and The Menu shall be donning his spandex judging pants for a day of judicial noshing in the lovely West Cork village with more details to follow next week. Facebook: Diva Boutique Bakery & www.divaboutiquebakery.com
If ever the continued whiff of campfire from his dinner jacket and perpetually blackened greasy fingers threaten to dull The Menu’s more refined sensibilities, then he has the perfect remedy, a ‘culinary treatment’ at the very lovely Longueville House where the August Musical Evening featuring Anna Mitchell and John Blek (Aug 13) promises a most harmonious blend of music and mastication. www.longuevillehouse.ie Meanwhile, splendid chef Sean Smith is dispensing with heat of any sort whatsoever to deliver a selection of entirely raw summer specials at The Cliff Townhouse, Dublin, including an old school Steak Tartare along with a Tuna Ceviche and a Monkfish Carpaccio. (www.theclifftownhouse.ie)
A fully paid-up member of the Parsnip Appreciation Society, The Menu was delighted to encounter Waterford-based Aurelia Foods’ Lemon & Parsnip Cordial. With the earthbound sugars of the Tremendous Tuber engaged in sublime dalliance with a citric lemon sparkle, it has proven an admirable thirst-quencher when added to a drop of sparkling water but The Menu reckons there is further alchemy afoot from his continued experimentation with this consummate concoction and is, at this very moment, digging out his cocktail shaker and some fine gin to conjure up a suitably splendid sundowner to be consumed on the verandah at sunset.
www.aureliafoods.ie
