The Menu: Do you have a prize-worthy cheese recipe?
Fallon and Artie Clifford, of Blás na hÉireann Irish Food Awards announcing the opening of entries for the 2021 Awards
Food Awards
Though The Menu pined greatly following the absence of one of his most favourite food weekends of the year, the annual Dingle Food Festival, including the announcement of the Blás na hÉireann prizewinners, he lives in hope that there may be some improvements in the restrictions department this year allowing for some sort of return to one of his most beloved parts of the country. Accordingly, he is delighted to announce that entries for the 2021 competition opened on St Patrick’s Day just passed and producers from all over the country are invited to submit their products for consideration with an early bird fee of €65 (ex. VAT) applying until April 7.
The GastroGays, Patrick Hanlon and Russell Alford, amongst many other things, stalwarts of The Menu’s Grub Circus extravaganza at the All Together Now music festival, are on the lookout for Ireland’s most comforting cheese recipes with Ireland’s Blue Book Hotel vouchers worth €2,000 for the lucky winner along with two prizes for the runners-up.
In association with the National Dairy Council and the EU funded Cheese Your Way campaign, they will be seeking out your recipes using Irish and European cheeses to produce delicious cooked dishes and the competition is open to home cooks of all skill levels. Closing date, April 9.
One of the most moving moments of last year for The Menu was the Feed The Heroes campaign which had a two-fold aim, to raise money to pay Irish hospitality outlets to cook food that would then be donated to frontline health and emergency workers, supporting both in their hour of need.
That the initial response from so many of the hospitality outlets was to spurn the money and do it for free was truly inspiring but that couldn’t last forever so The Menu is delighted to report that the fourteen-week campaign raised more than €1.4m which delivered over 200,000 meals nationwide from restaurants, cafes, takeaways and commercial kitchens, to Community Test Sites, Contract Tracing Centres, Emergency Operations, Fire Service, Frontline Charities, Gardai, GP Surgeries, Hospitals, Laboratories, National Ambulance Service, Nursing Homes, Pharmacies and Primary Healthcare Centres.
What’s more, in kind donations of food, services and volunteer hours amounted to a total value of €4,423,800. And research showed that more than just filling bellies, the huge levels of support played an enormous role in buoying spirits of those frontline workers, reducing stress and resulting in greater productivity and job satisfaction. Remaining funds at the end of the project were distributed between four charities; ICHH, the Peter McVerry Trust, Pieta and the Irish Cancer Society. All in all, a quite staggering achievement.
The Menu has been greatly enjoying many of the takeaway boxes or meal kits for home consumption and was especially taken with a return to the fray from one of his most favourite of the new restaurants on the Irish scene, a very fine Bosca na Farraige offering from Chef Aishling Moore’s Goldie restaurant on Oliver Plunkett St, a buffet offering of wonderful seafood snacks which he will be casting his eye over in greater detail in coming weeks elsewhere in this august publication.
An absolute snip at just €30 a box, more than capable of feeding two people most handsomely indeed and is available, Click’n’Collect, on Fridays and Saturdays, a recent offering including: Taramasalata of Cod’s Roe and Squid Ink Crostini; Prawn Cocktail Crisps, Cultured Cream; Salt Fish Brandade, Seaweed Crackers, Goldie House Pickles; Remoulade of Celeriac, Ale Mustard, Pickled Mussels; Apple & Elderflower Pastilles; and Wild Garlic Brioche Buns.
There are just a few more days for members of the public to offer an opinion as part of a public consultation process by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland on proposed changes to food safety legislation, not least on food information available to consumers on labels. The Menu believes the general public should take a strong interest in any area of food legislation as it impacts us all and it is no harm reminding the FSAI that their first duty is to us, the eating citizens of Ireland.
https://www.fsai.ie/uploadedFiles/Legislation/Consultations/consultation-20210211.pdf
In March of many weathers, even though heatwave follows frostbite, The Menu knows well enough that it will never get to the stage where he is stripping down to the speedos and digging out the Hawaiian Tropic which is why there is always a spicy condiment to hand Chez Menu. Meltdown Hot Sauce is the creation of Maeve O’Malley, proprietor of Meltdown cafe, in Dublin, very much on The Menu’s radar as its raison d’etre is the purveyance of toasted cheese sandwiches, which was the sole foodstuff of The Menu’s teenage years — and he will always hold a place close to his heart for a fine cheese toastie.
And as cheese toastie fans well know, you don’t want to overdo it with the heat when creating the perfect toastie so The Menu is please to report this tomato-and-habanero-based sauce is a rather more mellow and fruity affair than some of the other nuclear concoctions in the marketplace, ideally suited for adding a little kick to a toastie without overwhelming it entirely. It is equally handy as a last-minute addition to eggs, soups and savoury casseroles and stews and it also serves well for thrillseekers wishing to gee up a morning fry-up of a morning, most especially when said fry-up is repairing damage inflicted the night before for there is nothing like a chill-triggered endorphin rush to raise the energy levels.
