Food file: New cookery courses and a Valentine’s date

EASTERN DELIGHTS

Abraham Phelan, who runs Silk Road Cafe at the Chester Beatty Library, has set up a cookery school – Silk Road Kitchen.

Earlier this week he taught a class that explored the pancake in Middle Eastern cookery – making sweet pancakes stuffed with cheese and nuts as well as crisp versions packed with cauliflower, onion and herbs.

Next Thursday Phelan, who has been a chef for 40 years, is doing “All Things Kofta”, while on Tuesday, March 15th, there is a Middle Eastern vegan and vegetarian class. The two-hour hands-on sessions cost €65 and the school is at Unit 12, KCR Industrial Estate, Kimmage, Dublin 12. silkroadkitchen.ie

COOKING UP A STORM IN THE COTTAGES

It’s not River Cottage, but Croan Cottages will be the next best thing to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s rural idyll for three days in April, when two key members of his team will be on hand for a three-day residential cookery course at the holiday cottages and smallholding in Dunnamaggan, Co Kilkenny, on April 15th-17th.

Chefs Gill Meller and Steven Lamb, who both feature in the River Cottage TV shows and cookbooks, will be teaching hands-on classes, leading discussions and enjoying cooking and eating some of the southeast’s best produce. “We will cover topics which visitors to River Cottage HQ in Dorset love best,” Lamb says, “but the students will also get to prepare and cook with our guidance. Each day we’ll get to enjoy what we produce in good company and have a laugh. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Meller, who is Fearnley-Whittingstall’s head chef, will join Lamb in conducting workshops and classes on topics including pig-in-a-day, bread and pizza making (including how to build a wood-fired oven), smoking and curing, nose-to-tail, and savoury pastry and pies. Croan Cottages proprietor Francis Nesbitt will introduce participants to the smallholding, which includes beehives, and will also be brewing some nettle beer.

The three-day, three-night course costs €690, full board and drinks with dinner. Some non-residential places (€540) are available. See croancottages.com

VALENTINE’S DINNER MOVIE

Brooks Hotel’s Valentine’s weekend dinner and a movie – in the Drury Street hotel’s private cinema – sold out in record time last year. This year’s movies to be featured are Love Actually (Friday, February 12th), Dirty Dancing (Saturday, February 13th) and When Harry Met Sally (Sunday, February 14th).

Dinner, Prosecco, popcorn and a movie ticket costs €54.50.

Booking inquiries to reservations@brookshotel.ie