Artificial Meat

Today the first artificial meat was eaten by humans. The project was paid for by Sergei Brin of Google fame. The idea is to find an alternative to 'naturally' produced meat that avoids the cruelty of factory farming. This seems like a long distance and expense to go when greater strides can be made by reducing the amount of meat that most people consume. This video I think is right on the money. Find ways for most people to eat less meat. This involves teaching people how to cook better vegetarian food - leaving the meat off a plate of meat, veg and starch does not do the job. I also think it is a lot easier to ask people to have a few meat free days per week rather than convince a few to give up meat altogether. Ideology aside the goal should be to reduce the total amount of meat produced and consumed in the world. Doing that by culturing stem cells from a cow seems to way overshoot into the realms of technology rather than plain old home economics.
I have been trying to eat less meat over the last few years and it has gone pretty well. As you can see from these blog entries though I do still eat meat. Quite a bit of it, but a lot less than most Irish people. I think I will stick with this path for now rather than try to 'go veg' completely.

Butler's Coffee in the Swords Pavillion Shopping Centre

Its just a cup of coffee and a chocolate, but considering how many coffee shops mess this up its worth pointing out someone who is getting it right. The walnut ganache chocolate - which is one of the ones that you can pick with your coffee is delicious. Creamy and sweet with plenty of walnut flavour. It is also a big sweet. Plenty for elevenses with a nice cup of coffee. Butlers have been doing this for years and they just keep getting better. Managed to resist putting an outlet on every corner during the boom and are still here - for the long run we hope.

A Burger at GBK in Temple Bar, Dublin

GBK has been in Dublin for a few years now. When they opened first the food was very good. When the economy collapsed people's appetite for pricey burgers, albeit very nice ones, dropped. GBK responded by dropping their prices, but the quality seemed to suffer. Now thankfully they seem to have found a compromise. The burgers were excellent. Big tall constructions that had to be squashed by hand to get them into your mouth. That only cost about a tenner each.

We both had the same thing - cheese and bacon burger in the traditional size - large. Didn't bother with chips and just had tap water. 10 quid each can't be beaten and we will be back soon.

Avoca at Malahide Castle, Dublin

This is not open long, but we had heard good things. I had the idea that this would be shoehorned into a corner of the castle, but its a new build in the grounds. A beautiful building that seems to be getting a lot of use. We had eaten at Avoca Rathcoole a lot before - we used to live out in that direction and it was always excellent. Malahide is no different in that respect. There is a nice shop with plenty of pretty things for the ladies who lunch to buy - not my thing really, but a nice way to get to the restaurant. Like Rathcoole it is a self service style restaurant. There are plenty of staff, so the queues move quickly. The boards with the menus displayed are large and clearly printed on the wall behind the serving area. It's child friendly, so even with a buggy and a three year old in tow we were able to pick up our food and pay in a few minutes. No problem finding a table either even though this was probably one of their busier times - lunch time during the summer holidays.

I had ham and spinach quiche with 3 salads. I rarely deviate from this as it is always so good. The quiche was not overcooked - which would be very easy to do sitting under lights. It is served with a small ramekin of chutney which is really delicious. I had to go back to ask for this as they forgot to give it to me, but that is just me looking for something negative to say. The salads were broccoli and feta with hazelnuts, potato salad with mint and bulgar wheat salad. They were all delicious. 

My wife had salmon en croute with cream cheese and spinach. It was gorgeous too and again not overcooked. 

Our 3 year old had spaghetti bolognese, a child's smoothie and some ice create to finish. 

The bill for the whole lot came to 35 euro. Great value for such high quality food. We are looking forward to going back again.

Beetroot Risotto

The beetroot in the garden is coming along great at the moment. The current batch are about the size of a bunched fist. They cook in about 25 minutes in the pressure cooker and make a great accompaniment to lots of different foods.

I found this list of beetroot recipes on the Guardian website the other day and decided to give the Beetroot Risotto a go. I was not really sure what to expect, but it was superb. 

Here is a photo of my effort. I also fried up the leaves of the beetroot (trimmed of stems) and some chard leaves. The whole lot was served with smoked mackerel. 

Usually I just roast beetroot, but this makes a nice alternative.

Beetroot and Corned Beef hash

I am a big fan of corned beef hash and have made Delia Smith's recipe a few times. I read about adding beetroot and a few other things from The Cooking Thesaurus and so decided to make this.

Ingredients:

Once large beetroot cooked and peeled (I used a pressure cooker, only took 25 minutes) and cubed
A handful of cooked potatoes peeled and roughly chopped
A good bunch of shallots trimmed and chopped finely
1 egg
A couple of gherkins sliced up
Some pickled cabbage
About 200g of chopped corned beef - the tinned stuff is best as it has plenty of fat

Method:

Heat some oil in a large pan. Fry the shallots until they take some colour. Add the potatoes, beetroot and corned beef and fry for a few minutes. Don't mix it more than you have to as it can go a bit mushy.
In another pan fry the egg the way you like it.
Dish the hash into a big bowl and lay the fried egg on top. Place the rest of the ingredients around the plate.

Drying Bananas in the Car

On the Tray

We are enjoying the hottest summer in years in Ireland at the moment and so we get to make some interesting stuff that would not have been possible before. Like drying fruit in your car.
Take a ripe banana and use an egg slicer to slice it thinly and evenly. Lay the slices on a sheet of grease proof paper and put this on a baking tray.
Place the whole lot of the back shelf or dashboard of your car in the sun.
After about 4 hours in hot sun I peeled the bananas off the sheet and turned them over. I left them until the middle of the next day until they had the consistency I wanted. Nice and chewey.

In the Car Drying