I love chicken. Not the poor unfortunate, antibiotic laden, water pumped scrawn that make their way to Ireland’s shores from the far side of the globe. Rather, the excellent quality, low density, real free range chicken available in some better butchers here in Ireland. I
If you are planning a ‘quick dinner’, this is not the one for you. If you are thinking of buying a vineyard and making a quick killing, then look elsewhere. If you are buying beef shin and expecting it to be tender in anything under a working day, you are in the wrong place. However, if you are after an unbelievably tasty, flavour packed meal to please a crowd on a winter’s evening, read on my friend, read on. I’ll even tell you a bit about two of Bordeaux’s next generation of winemakers, from Kazakhstan, of all places.
There are lots of things in this life that appear to be interesting but remain untried. It’s not that I have led a particularly sheltered life. I’ve waterskied barefoot across lakes in County Sligo. I’ve ridden my bike to the top of Mount Ventoux in French Provence, I’ve drunk more than two gallons of beer at a sitting (not recently and not while on my bike) and I’ve managed to stay married to the one woman for the past thirty years or so. All of these (except the beer) seemed like good things to try. Yet, there are lots of other things that peak my interest but remain untried. Until last Sunday, Salt Baked Leg of Lamb was in this category.
I was in a butcher’s in France recently. Anybody from Ireland or Brexit will agree that the French have a very strange way of butchering their meat. It’s very different to our approach. One cut that we agree on is called the bavette. It comes
A good few months ago, I cooked a meaty chunk of halibut sous vide. I did it at 55°C for 30 minutes. It was super wonderful. When in the fishmonger’s recently, I saw a perfectly excellent piece of large halibut steak, carved from a giant