The Menu: the art of comfort food from the Crawford Gallery café
Beef and red wine stew with mashed potato, from the Crawford Gallery Cafe, Cork. Photo Joleen Cronin
In such fraught times, comforting fare is proving to be one of the finest medications around. The Menu would be hard-pressed to think of anything more comforting than a fine bowl of stew — in particular a Beef & Red Wine stew (with a pâté maison starter and apple crumble for dessert). This is part of the Crawford Gallery Café three-course menu available on Fridays and Saturdays as part of their click-and-collect offering.
And doesn't their Roast Chicken dinner with onion and thyme stuffing for four with apple crumble and custard for dessert sound like the recipe for a Sunday dinner crafted in heaven? crawfordgallerycafe.com
If you’re in the market for premium seafood dishes served up in the comfort of your own dining room, you’ll have to work extremely hard to top the Seafood Suppers@Home offering from seafood supremo, Niall Sabongi (Sustainable Seafood Ireland and Klaw restaurants and The Salty Buoy food truck), and double Michelin-starred chef, Mickael Viljanen (Dublin’s Greenhouse restaurant).
Their new collaboration had The Menu salivating up an ocean at the sight of the pics alone before he ever read about the changing weekly menus, including a classic Bouillabaisse Marseillaise with braised fennel, saffron potatoes, rouille, croutes and gruyère;or a Deluxe Fish Pie, with truffled lobster, turbot and sole, with vin jaune potato. All ingredients are prepped and ready to use with simple instructions for cooking and plating. The midweek offering is €35 and weekend is €69, feeding two to four people — and dessert is included, while sides and other options are also available. Sabongi also offers fresh fish and seafood delivered nationwide as part of the Sustainable Seafood offering.
sustainableseafood.ie/seafood-suppers-at-home/
Anam Coffee, in the Burren, Co Clare are very fine Irish coffee roasters at the best of times and The Menu has always enjoyed brewing up some of their splendid beans but he is especially delighted to mention their latest blend: a Christmas special combining beans from two small co-ops, one in Honduras, the other in El Salvador, as Anam Coffee will be donating a very generous €1 from each sale to two local Co Clare charities, Clare Haven and ADAPT. These charities both support victims of domestic abuse, and providing shelter, legal services, support and much more. The coffee is available for delivery anywhere in Ireland, Britain, the EU and US and also in selected retail outlets. anamcoffee.ie
And while on matters concerning the Banner County, a Clare Brunch Box sounds like precisely the type of edible medication The Menu is prescribing to get a body through the rigours of the next few weeks of lockdown. It features cheeses, bread, preserves, salmon and other goodies, including a carrageen moss pudding — all from some of Clare’s finest producers including St Tola, Burren Smokehouse and Wilde’s Irish Chocolate. Available nationwide
st-tola.ie
Coffeewerk + Press, the very tasty little Galway Art & Design emporium-cum-coffee shop has launched an exclusive coffee collection featuring imagery from local artists.
The first in the series sees sustainably sourced beans from Copenhagen’s April Coffee Roasters, sporting a livery from artist Enda Burke, entitled 'Homebound With My Parents'. The Homebound Collection is one espresso and two filter coffees in 250g bags.
coffeewerkandpress.com
The Menu is delighted to welcome yet another Neighbourfood market — this one just opened at The Yard, in Aghafore, in Timoleague, in West Cork. I will most definitely be returning for a more in-depth look in the coming months as this is a repurposed farmyard, formerly home to Richard Fleming’s Hopeful Dairy Herd. It has now been transformed into a multi-purpose space by his son, John, who plans to add various events, hosting food and craft markets, community groups and food trucks. Meanwhile, the offering available online includes some of the finest local West Cork producers, including Timoleague Vegetables, Dunworley Cottage Fruit & Veg, Lettercollum Kitchen Project, and Red Strand Coffee.
Boxes collected every Saturday. facebook.com/TheYardAghafore
Another day, another baker as The Menu recently encountered for the first time some very wonderful breads from Cork-based Wildflour Bakery. Baker/proprietor, Chris Fahy, uses a woodfired oven to turn out a most tidy little range of sourdough breads and a couple of very excellent pastries, including an addictive little hand-laminated cinnamon bun and espresso cacao twists. Chris supplies a number of cafes around the city, including Bean Brownie, Nectar, Cafe Torino and Pink Moon and Stone Valley in Clonakilty. He also bakes for ABC, in the English Market, currently featuring his autumnal special: Cork Chilli Company jalapenos, pickled by Chris, Bandon Vale Cheddar, Smoked Paprika and Roast Garlic — all making for a sumptuous and most savoury loaf. The Menu also sampled a fine beetroot bread, a sourdough with earthy sweet beetroot chunks flecked throughout. But it was the Country Loaf (blending French traditional T65 and wholemeal from the Little Mill, in Kells) that truly stole The Menu’s heart — a superb rendition of a simple, straightforward loaf, nutty, chewy crust, fine airy crumb with a delicious savoury tart finish. Chris is currently based in Coachford though long-term plans are very much focussed on a move into the city centre. But, for the moment, he is offering deliveries in the city on Wednesdays and Saturdays for any canny readers who fancy stocking up their freezers for the Christmas turkey sandwiches, as nothing freezes so well as a sourdough loaf — and when revived in the oven it is as fresh as the day it was baked. wildflourcork.com
