The Menu: taking the hunt out of the Easter-egg rush

Joe McNamee casts his eye over some seasonal Spring delights

Sat, 25 Mar, 2023 - 02:00

Joe McNamee

Get cracking on Easter treats

In another example of The Menu’s legendary consideration and compassion for his readers, he arrives earlier than usual with tidings of chocolate-related gifts for Easter as he knows too well from bitter past experience how the seasonal rush in the final days can leave the shelves bleak and barren, most especially when it comes to finest Irish chocolate gifts.

The ever-innovative Keane sisters, Natalie and Karen, of Bean & Goose, supply a touch of sublime aestheticism to their Easter chocolate range which reflects a springtime theme. The Irish Salted Caramel-filled Goose Egg has always been very popular and pairs well with the Bean Goose, which along with their renowned and very handsome Irish Chocolate Hare is a gorgeously sculpted creation available in both milk and dark chocolate, not to mention the usual and quite ginormous sharing slabs of milk or dark chocolate, with carmelised hazelnut, almond, pistachio, blueberry and orange, the perfect Easter Sunday dessert.

www.beanandgoose.ie

Ornate and delicious chocolate eggs from Gra Chocolate.

Edible art

One of the reasons for his immense enjoyment of the very splendid inaugural Me Auld Flower food festival, in Dublin’s Smithfield Market, last weekend, was down in no small part to The Menu’s chance of snaffling some of Gráinne Mullins’ very delicious Grá chocolates.

The greatest difficulty of all in putting away one of her gloriously pretty hand-painted creations is they look almost too good to eat but, The Menu, being of stout heart, forced himself to nonetheless do so and looks forward to doing so once more on Easter Sunday when pride of place will be given to several from the gorgeous Grá Easter range, including the Lil’ Bit Chewy, Nuts About You, and the Egg-Straw-Dinary luxury egg.

www.grachocolates.com

Stuff of legends

The renowned Paula Stakelum, pastry chef at Ashford Castle, and Gráinne Mullins’ original “chocolate mentor” has created an handpainted Easter egg inspired by the native red squirrel and made with Ashford Castle’s signature ‘Legend’ 55% milk chocolate, created in partnership with Valrhona Chocolate.

In addition, Ashford Castle’s Chocolate Box of delicious edible and drinkable goodies (all produced on the estate) includes Valrhona hot chocolate, Cornflake milk chocolate shards, milk chocolate Crunchies, salted dark chocolate fudge and Legend chocolate whiskey truffles.

www.ashfordcastle.com

Weighing in at nearly two stone the hand-made chocolate easter egg delight from Master French Chocolatier Benoit Lorge. Picture: Don MacMonagle

Don’t do things by halves

For a real showstopper of an Easter egg, check out Benoit Lorge’s thundering great creation, an enormous 5kg that would be another cracking addition to a large family Easter gathering, and likely to send youthful eyes popping right out of their heads. And, as ever, no Easter chocolate frenzy for The Menu is ever complete without a visit in to The Chocolate Shop, in Cork’s English Market for all manner of wonderful chocolate treasures.

Prepare your Easter spread

Along with the chocolate, of course, is another great edible Easter itch always begging to be scratched and that is the traditional Easter Sunday dinner of spring lamb.

The Menu naturally turns to O’Mahony’s of the English Market or any other independent craft butcher when sourcing premium-quality meat but should that not be available in your locality, then he highly recommends Calvey’s of Achill who have a special Easter offer of their award-winning and quite superb Salt Marsh Lamb, a hamper (€120, free delivery) with a leg of lamb, six centre loin chops, rack of lamb, shoulder roast (boned and rolled on request), diced lamb, breast of lamb and offal, in portions big enough to make eight meals for three to
four people.

www.achilllamb.ie

Food awards

A heads-up on the return for the first time since pre-covid of the Good Food Ireland Awards, taking place at the K Club (April 17), in Co Kildare, with 300 guests from across the world of food.

Categories include Producer of the Year; Sustainability Award; Hotel of the Year; Restaurant of the Year; Food Truck of the Year; Shop of the Year; Pub of the Year; Culinary Haven of the Year; Cafe of the Year; and Excellence in Food Tourism Award. Recognition will also be given to Outstanding Contribution to Food Production; and Outstanding Contribution to Food and Drink Internationally.

Key note speaker is special adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Anita Mendiratta, and full details on tickets etc can be found online.

www.goodfoodireland.ie

TODAY’S SPECIAL

Regulars in this neck of the woods well know this section is used to highlight premium Irish produce, but this week The Menu is urging readers — for once— not leave the creation of finest Irish food products to others, but instead put in a little effort of their own with Exploding Tree’s splendid DIY chocolate Easter egg-making kit.

Exploding Tree supremo Allison Roberts has put together a wonderful little package including a reusable mould — which should be good for years to come — and a choice of chocolate which she has already made from scratch in her Clonakilty micro-factory, including oat milk, cow’s milk, dark chocolate or goat’s milk and quantities available are good for anything from two eggs up to eight. The chocolate itself is Fair Trade chocolate made by Allison from raw organic cacao beans and using organic sugar.

In addition, creative types can pimp up their eggs by adding fruit, nuts, flavourings, and any other suitable additions that come to mind. And for all the sweet toothed slackers out there, Allison also offers her usual range of chocolates, eggs and Easter bunnies for sale through her online shop.

In an age where foods have become so accessible and so often mindlessly purchased to ridiculous excess, The Menu reckons this DIY kit is not only a really fun little Easter gift for all ages but also a great way to instil a sense of the real value of a commodity that too often arrives on our retail shelves leaving us with no inkling of the hardship and exploitation of its primary producers, the farmers who grow the cacao beans near the equator.