Compiled by Marie-Claire Digby
Kilcock pies are all the rage
The savoury organic pies made in Kilcock, Co Kildare, by family business Morrin-O'Rourke Farm Foods, are as good as home-made; in fact they are home-made, to recipes devised by Mary Morrin who has been selling the all-butter-crust pies at Naas country market for more than 20 years.
Now, with input from her interior-designer husband, Austin O'Rourke, her son, Harry Morrin O'Rourke, who finished a degree in business and politics at Trinity College in June, and his girlfriend, science graduate Rebecca Rolfe, Mary's pies are on sale at some of the best delis and food stores in the country. The family's 28-acre organic farm provides lamb for the lamb and cumin pies and the beef for the beef and cider variety, while the ingredients for the chicken and ham and vegetable pies are sourced locally.
Interestingly, each of the certified organic pies has a lightly different shape or decorative finish, so there's no chance of mixing them up in the oven. And they're really delicious, especially the individual ones, which have just the right filling-to-crust ratio.
Harry and Rebecca had planned to spend a year in Rome after graduating, but the reaction to the pies has been so positive that their getaway plan has been shelved in favour of developing the family business. An intriguing sounding soup - roasted red pepper, carrot and blossom (powdered dried flowers) - has just gone into production, and an open tart of caramelised red onion, pear and goats' cheese is in development. For stockists see www.morrinorourkefarmfoods.com.
WATCH OUT FOR . . .
Daylesford Organic, the uber-trendy, ultra-green organic food-producer beloved of London's yummy mummies, is now available in Ireland. A range of Daylesford products including biscuits, jams, chocolates, chutneys, jellies, vinegars and dressings, has just gone on sale in three branches of Avoca, at Kilmacanogue, Rathcoole and Suffolk St, Dublin.
There is a selection of Daylesford Organic wine, olive oil and gifts, in Mitchell & Son, IFSC and Glasthule, too.
If there's one book you read . . .
One of the first things I did when I finished reading Bottomfeeder: How the Fish on Our Plates is Killing Our Planet, was to dig out all the prawns in my freezer - the giant ones from an oriental grocery that had seemed such good value, and the tub of tiger prawns from the supermarket - and throw them in the bin.
It wasn't a tough decision, having read the following: "The simple fact is, if you are eating cheap shrimp today, it almost certainly comes from a turbid, pesticide-and-antibiotic-filled, virus-ridden pond in the tropical climes of one of the world's poorest countries."
Did you know that late last year a 10-mile square flotilla of mauve stingers, a type of jellyfish more commonly found in Mediterranean waters, wiped out a salmon farm off the coast of Northern Ireland, suffocating all 100,000 fish and causing £1-million of damage? Or that bottom-trawling for monkfish typically results in a bycatch of 22 per cent of other species, which are then returned, dead or dying, to the water? Or that "black cod" isn't a dish created by a famous Japanese restaurant, but instead refers to cod caught by boats fishing illegally in the Barents Sea, frozen at sea, transported to China for filleting, and shipped back to Europe, where it is sold in unlabelled boxes. Or that a fluorescent green algae, Caulerpa taxifolia, is turning swathes of the Med into barren sea-prairies? I didn't.
If you read just one food-related book this year, make it this one. Grescoe's meticulously researched account of his year-long round-the-world trip, during which he "eats his way from the bottom of the food chain to the top" makes for entertaining, and rather scary reading.
Bottomfeeder - How the Fish on Our Plates is Killing Our Planet, by Taras Grescoe, is published by Macmillan (£12.99).
Food for our eyes
It's widely acknowledged that we eat first with our eyes, so the bowls and plates we use can really contribute to making or breaking of that special meal.
Mairead McAnallen and Tony Barry will have cooks clamouring for the unique pots, plates and bowls, made by some of Europe's most successful potters, in their shop, Gourmet Pots.
"The special pleasures of cooking and eating are intensified when you use beautiful pots, dishes and utensils," says McAnallen.
Josie Walter's oven-to-table flounder fish dish (€75), is a good example. Gourmet Pots, Main Street, Schull, Co Cork, 028-27845