The Menu: Dingle bound and tips for cooking in a time of crisis

The Menu is on the road again next weekend for the return of the Dingle Food Festival

The Dingle Food Festival and Blás na hÉireann Irish Food Awards return after two years of lockdown

Dingle bound for foodie fest

The Menu may be spotted dabbing a perfumed kerchief in the vague direction of his eyes for he fancies he could be emotional as he rides back into Dingle town next weekend for the return of the Dingle Food Festival (Sept 30-Oct 2) — an annual event most dear to his heart that usually signals the closing of another year’s eating on the road around Ireland and the commencement of winter hibernation. 

The festival, of course, has been up on the blocks like so many others over the last two years, another victim of Covid cancellation, and it also signals a return for an in-the-flesh Blás na hÉireann Irish Food Awards which always take place over the same weekend, the largest food awards on the island acknowledging producers and food makers from all 32 counties and attracting buyers from Ireland and abroad. Now located across from Dick Mack’s pub, Blás will showcase finalists and winners from all four provinces in four separate pagodas as hosting regular Meet the Maker events, open to all.

The food festival side of things, includes a large programme of cookery demos, workshops, and street entertainment throughout town, including an Elegant Food demo from Adare 1826 supremo Wade Murphy; Mark Murphy of The Little Cheese Shop pairs up with Wild Wines from Galway, Fionnuala Harkin of Wines Direct and Wineshed West Cork, for two excellent wine and cheese pairings.

The real star of the weekend however is Dingle town and its edible “necklace”, the food trail weaving through town, featuring over 70 stalls and stopping off points to sample splendid fare.

• www.dinglefood.comtarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> and www.irishfoodawards.com

Paint the Pigtown red

The ongoing Pigtown food festival in Limerick has a host of fine eating opportunities on offer

The ongoing Pigtown food festival in Limerick includes a selection of one-off Pigtown dinners, including Tuscany Bistro (Sept 27), Sash Restaurant @ No. 1 Pery Square Hotel & Spa (Sept 28); and The Mustard Seed (Sept 29), all featuring special menus with welcome cocktails. The Mustard Seed will also be offering a smashing special overnight rate of €69pps including breakfast ( www.mustardseed.ie). Pigtown daily specials crop up on multiple menus, including Wade Murphy’s 1826 Adare; The Treehouse at Fitzgerald’s Woodlands Hotel; The French Table, at Steamboat Quay; and Sodalicious. Meet the Maker continues at the Treaty City Brewery (Sept 29) when chef Keith Pigott cooks up some beer-centric dishes.

• www.treatycitybrewery.ie

The perfect pair

The Menu will be returning to the subject of the Irish Food & Drinks Festival taking place throughout October: A bar and beverages-driven celebration of all that is best about Irish food and beverages, pairing same with hospitality venues throughout the land invited to create a signature Irish food and drink pairing which will be voted on by the general public. Venues are currently being invited to sign up for the initiative with applications accepted until the end of the month.

• www.greatirishbeverages.com/irish-food-drink-month

Tips for cooking in a time of crisis

Eat more vegetarian food. The Menu was a vegetarian for almost two decades and he rarely, if ever, missed meat. In fact, he learned more about cooking creatively once meat was out of the extremely reductionist equation that is meat-and-two-veg equals… well, very often a mindless and unimaginative approach to serving up a meal. 

He of course is a committed carnivore once more, however, he is eating premium meat less often and ideally sourced directly from the farmer/producer. The rest of the time, it is all fish, vegetarian, or vegan, and wonderful pulses are a key ingredient, in many of The Menu’s meals — meat or meat-free — and ideally reconstituting dried beans. 

This week he soaked €3 worth of chickpeas for 24 hours and then fed them to the family for the next three days with nary a single complaint about “sameness”. Raw soaked chickpeas were blended in the food processor with garlic, herbs, and spices and then deep fried to make delicious falafels, served in warm pitta breads with salad and spiced yoghurt. 

Some cooked chickpeas became a delicious hummus for school lunches and random snacks. More of them were fried with chorizo, courgette, and chilli, served with fried potatoes for a lightning-fast supper and the remainder went into a chickpea curry. Store cooked chickpeas in a sealed container in the fridge for up to seven days.

TODAY’S SPECIAL

Deirdre Hynds, founder of Unwind has created a range of evening snack bars, designed to satisfy late-night cravings and, furthermore, induce relaxation and calm before bedtime. The bars are made with a mix of grains and seeds topped with a modicum of Belgian chocolate and no artificial sweeteners and further enhanced by the addition of ingredients such as Montmorency cherry, L-theanine, and chamomile which all contain calming and relaxing nutritional properties.

Unwind Evening Snack Bars are The Menu’s food pick this week

So, The Menu set about sampling the three introductory flavours. All share similar textures — crisp, chewy, and yet wearing a general lightness of being that satisfies without overwhelming. R

oasted Nut and Chocolate has hazelnuts and almonds, a very pleasing combo, while Dark Chocolate and Orange adds that wonderful combination of sweet citrus and smokey dark cocoa notes to the chewy textures. 

Surprisingly, however, for the aforementioned ingredients are right up The Menu’s street, but it is the Malted Milk and Chocolate that most floats his boat as a nighttime snack, perhaps triggered by the pronounced and soothing malty flavours he associates with so many milky malted childhood libations administered by parental hands, designed to send him off to the Land of Nod. It proved a very pleasing eating experience indeed, especially with a cup of good cocoa and, if not quite the Sandman’s Sledgehammer The Menu still sometimes requires to hasten him off and into the arms of Morpheus, when he did eventually descend into the Great Slumber, it was of a deep and very satisfying nature indeed.

• www.unwind.ie