Annie's Roasts best chicken baps in existence

Today in my blog I would like to write about one of the best food products I have had the pleasure of finding at markets over the years. I try not to pick favorites but Annie's roast makes it very difficult for one not to fall in love. Everything about this product, the family that sell it, the family run farms that allow it to exist, the locally sourced product and the passion Annie and Ken have for this really make this stand out.

I remember the first time I met Annie it was at harvest festival in Waterford. It was my birthday and I wanted to eat something different and moreish. I was quiet late picking my food that day so by the time I got to her all she had for me was a boned and rolled chicken left. She also gave me buns to go with it so that i could try them as I was not getting a bap. But her kindness in parting with the buns or her sales pitch were not what kept me interested. Her conversation did. We talked about food certainly but I found out her brother runs the chicken farm, her father runs the beef farm, the baps come from a small bakery down the road from her Cuthberts in midleton the lettuce is sourced from an organic veg farm in her area also Barry's organic farm Inch Killeagh. The sauce is from Ballymaloe and the mayo is home made. How could anyone go wrong with such a product. a product that looks to help local artisans a product, that believes in local a product such as this one can surely only be successful.I really enjoyed Annnies psoitivity and belief in her product but of course it was not till i got home that evening that i discovered the true quality of the product and fell in love with this company. One bite of her roast chicken(even in its boneless state) was enough to remind me how chicken should taste. I remember chicken tasting like this when i was a child and ever since then i just felt disappointed upon eating chicken as it was rubbery and tasteless. Their is nothing rubbery or tasteless about Annies roasts. You can taste the love and attention these chickens get on the free range farm that her brother runs. You can see the hard work and preparation that goes into these roast chickens. It all comes out in the taste. They have recently just won their second Bridgestone award this is a great commendation to receive.I spoke about their chicken for a full year after trying it and when harvest came around again I was delighted to meet them again and bought 4 baps so that my friends could also taste them. I also knew anytime they would come to town and would make sure to order a full chicken so I could roast it for my friends. so that they too could rediscover the long lost taste of chicken.

I cannot recommend a better free range chicken , turkey or goose. However the guys are unfortunately based in cork and seldom do events in Waterford. Currently myself and husband are car-less but for all of you lucky enough to drive I would highly recommend that you try attend one of their markets, either Mahon or douglas add them on facebook to stay up to date with all the events they attend. Ie: plowing championships,lit festival in Ballymaloe house...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Annies-Roasts/189953144368080?fref=ts

Should you want to book a goose or turkey this Christmas that will blow everyone away with its remarkable quality and taste. you can now order them online also.

http://www.eastferryfarm.com/

I know i often get carried away with food guys. but this is absolutely no over exaggeration these guys are just the best in freerange chicken that I have ever tried.

Their passion and drive should get them every success and obviously with these awards they are starting to get the recognition they deserve. you need to try Annies roast at least once in your life. be it buy a whole chicken. Buy a boned and rolled chicken or my favorite a chicken bap. Which for €5 will get you a bap with a very generous hand full of piping hot chicken that comes with Ballymaloe relish, home made mayo and organic lettuce. Trust me when i say it is absolute perfection.every bite more delicious than the last.

what is on offer

 the free range geeces

 more recommendations

 Ken and Annie the faces behind the unbeatable food

 all the little extras that make the difference from stuffing to soup to warm you up.

 the bap to rule all baps

 roast chicken

Hook and Ladder Cookery Classes Part 6 : Shellfish with Michael Quinn

Shellfish seem to scare quiet a few people, I suppose their are many worries will I over cook these??? How will I know if these are fresh???? Will I have to kill it myself???

We cooked 5 different types of shellfish but sadly only had time to make 4 dishes. I have to say this was probably my favorite class this far. I myself had never really known how easy and tasty shellfish could be. My absolute favorite was the mussels so today i will share this supper fast super tasty recipe with you guys. the scallops where also divine. ( spoon licking good sauce)

The crabs and the lobster where obviously still alive so some of the class seemed quiet uncomfortable with this idea. I think the fact that all our food now days is so accessible and we have just forgotten that in order to get it on our table someone does in fact have to take the care to kill it. This obviously seems to make people squeamish about cooking live food i guess. Personally I have no issue with it at all every item of meat we consume comes from a live creature. But I can see how to some this would seem difficult, to me it mostly is delicious.

breaded garlic mussels:

you will need

a bottle of white wine
butter
garlic
an onion
bread crumbs
spinach

to make the garlic butter first. chop up 10 cloves of garlic get them as small as you can mix them in to the soften butter and chop up sweated spinach to give the butter colour. then make a roll out of the butter inside clingfilm. this will allow you to freeze the butter in order to be able to use it as often as you wish.


to cook the mussels you will need to put win into a sauce pan add cut up onion and crushed garlic put this on the hottest setting your hob has add the mussels and they steaming should take no more than 30-40 seconds. once the mussels open remove them from th pot. take off the top shell. cover the mussels in plenty of garlic butter then dip them into the bread crumbs. pop these into the oven for 5 to 6 minutes until bubbling. and you will have the tastiest mussels known to man.

all the shellfish for this class was acquired in billy burkes fish shop to guarantee its freshness. you can order from this shop lobsters once you give a days notice you more than likely will have one. unless the weather is particularly bad.

please find attached the photos of this class. I was enjoying eating far too much in this class.


lobster orange salad with spinach and samphyre

 coquille st jacques sans la coquille  as it is illegal to sell the shells in ireland we improvised with spuds. a very irish alternative.

 the mussels with the mostest :)

 let the steaming begin

 samphyre crunchy sea veg

Shake Shack Great Value With Friendly Faces

The Shake Shack is the only place in town I go regularly for coffee. They stock Badger and Dodo coffee, one of my favorite Irish roast coffees. If you have not yet tried it and you like good coffee you are in for one hell of a treat.

The Shake Shack specialize in specialty milk shakes, these can be had hot or cold. The menu choices end only when your imagination and braveness ends. You can make any variety of combinations the prices are always very fair and you will not be let down by these delicious shakes. For the winter months they have also added luxury hot chocolates.

More recently they have added two yummy pizzas to the mix. Pepperoni and margarita both really tasty and you can have them as a combo with your shake or coffee (€7 if a shake €6 coffee combo).
It is not the most amazing pizza you will ever have but for the price it is absolutely unbeatable and will do nicely as a snack which is what all of us crave often.

The staff I have found to always be super smiley and nice the more you go there the more you get to know them. I used to work around the corner so was in daily and never found any of them to have an off day. Customer service done right with very fair prices and yummy delicious goodies. you cannot go wrong in the Shake Shack.

I recommend this place highly for all your coffee and shake needs. They have recently added a little seated area so you can relax mid shopping spree. This is the perfect spot for the days your in town shopping or just taking a few minutes out of your day.

Today in our visit we shared a pizza I had an Oreo milk shake and my friend had a Milkybar hot chocolate. The hot choc was so good we could have had 3 more and the milkshake is one of my favorites. I recommend trying your favorite milk shake with an added shot of coffee, amazing and the pizza was plenty for an afternoon snack and we needed the heat to warm us up in that baltic weather.

Go try for yourself!

https://www.facebook.com/shakeshackireland?fref=ts

Hook and Ladder cooking classes with Micheal Quinn part 5 - Venison

This week at the Hook and Ladder we did venison, my second favorite meat, my first being ostrich (the perfect cross between duck and steak). But very few people realize how tasty and healthy venison is. There is less fat in a venison steak than in a chicken fillet so it is the perfect meat if you are on a diet. The only question you need to ask yourself is do you want it farmed or wild. Farmed usually works out a little bit cheaper and tastes less gamy and wild is almost guaranteed to be full of natural goodness.

Personally, I buy my venison off of Elda Wild Venison. I have bought off other companies and found the quality and recipes can vary. If you would rather farmed venison, Crough Farm sells theirs weekly at the Butlerstown market every Saturday also. It is very important to get to know your local producers. Jason from Elda has a very healthy approach to his hunting. Every bit of the animal gets used, from jewelry to pelts to knives, all made to use up every bit of the animal. I find this amazing. If one is willing to hunt and kill an animal I think the respect for that animal has to be shown in the manner in which you deal with the remains. I find it best to insure all the animal is used and none is wasted so I really respect Elda for doing just that and their meat is hung in the proper manner allowing the meat to be top quality.

In this class Micheal wanted us to realize the importance of presentation so we all had to make our plates look as appetizing as our food was to be and we were shown easy techniques to do this. I've always been lazy when it comes to presentation. I think the food should talk for itself, however once I was shown easy ways to plate up pretty I kind of liked knowing how to do it. There are a few pictures of the process below should any of you be interested in classying up your plates.

In this class we learned how to get venison steak cooked to perfection alongside with two amazingly tasty dishes red cabbage and parsnip pureé. Both were delicious. In this weeks blog I will tell you how to make the red cabbage.

Red cabbage with cooking apples:

For this you will need

a red cabbage
cooking apples
apple cider vinegar
sultanas
fresh ginger
salt & pepper to season

Cut up the red cabbage into small pieces. Cut the cooking apple into lager chunks the larger the chunks of apple the easier they will get small as the dish cooks. Pop them in a saucepan. Add 3 table spoons of cider vinegar. Grate up the ginger, put it all on the hob at a high temperature and watch  the veg sweat. Add a touch of water if you find that there is not enough liquids in here and add the sultanas and salt and pepper to flavor. Leave this do its thing until all the veg has cooked properly. Then taste to insure you have seasoned enough. Add salt and pepper if needed and you have yummy sweet cabbage.


Here are some handy facebbok links

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elda-Wild-Irish-Venison/314038045356517?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/ButlerstownMarket?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/hookandladder.waterford.7?fref=ts

 Pan frying venison

 Red cabbage

 Milk and water mix with parsnips cooking in it

 Apple ginger red cabbage

 Sultanas

 Fresh ginger

 Pureé and cabbage first put on the plate

Topped off with the venison

Michael Quinn cookery class at the hook and ladder part 4: chicken

Our latest class was supposed to be on chicken however Micheal treated us to guinea fowl just to be a li'll exotic and it was accompanied by puil lentils.As usual it was the best 38 e I spent all week. I learned loads and loads and loads. Making a creamy guinea fowl casserole absolutely moreish.
He showed us how to butcher our chicken our selves a skill that allows you the most out of your food.Why buy chicken pieces pre-cut when you can cut your own??? and insure all the bits are the best???butchering a chicken is surprisingly easy once you have a good knife and a fair idea where to cut. guinea fowl was a very tasty alternative to chicken. chicken can often be very bland unless its irish free range chicken. I often get chicken in Billy Burkes or elss when I can get there i go to Cork and get it off Annies roasts. Annies roast is one of the best family run companies and they have the tastiest free range chickens you can buy. Annies brother is the chicken farmer also Annies father is a beef farmer and  guarantee you will never have a better chicken. If you can make it to Cork I would recommend getting my Xmas turkey from this lady, they are unbelievable quality and taste like they should.

This week I am unsure what recipe to talk about. The lentils are incredibly easy and the guinea fowl was also but time consuming. Perhaps this week I only just show you a few pictures of the night and I make it up to you as I am currently trying to perfect my chicken liver pate in time for Christmas. so I could go through all the different recipes I am trying out? I suppose I can tell you guys how to make yummy chicken stock with the left overs of the chicken/guinea-fowl?

chicken stock:

Cut up an onion roughly cut up a carrot roughly add to a pot pop in a chicken carcass add cold water bring to a boil leave simmer for 40 minutes season and taste as you go. a grey smudge will appear on the top you need to keep removing this in order to have a pure clear stock. the stock will keep for 3 days in your fridge. However if you wish to reduce it down I recommend putting it into ice cube form and freezing it until you want to use it again. no wastage and it is miles healthier than your salt full alternative. Happy eating.

lentil preparation 

straining the juice out to make creamy sauce

cream sauce reduction

butchered half guinea fowl

fresh home made stock

the last of the basil

lemons

carrots

guinea fowl

oyster mushrooms

puil lentils