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A few weeks ago, I received a lovely email from Monique McQuaid who runs The Cookery School at Donnybrook Fair, inviting me to a cookery demonstration with English chef, Fergus Henderson. To be perfectly honest I had never heard of Fergus before, but after a quick search on Wikipedia, I discovered he is the man behind the highly respected St. John's restaurant in London, which is famous for it's use of off cuts and using the whole body of an animal. Fergus was coming to Dublin to demonstrate cooking a pig from nose to tail, which was enough to grab my attention and I confirmed my attendance!

We arrived slightly late and had to clamber over people to find seats at the back of the room, which wasn't all bad, with the tiered seating, we could still see the whole thing. The cookery school is located above the shop, and is a fantastic set up with plasma screens showing everything going on in the beautiful, modern kitchen which is fully equipped with everything you could imagine! Monique, a graduate of the famous Ballymaloe Cookery school, was dressed in chefs whites and although Fergus was doing all the talking, it was quite clear she was the one keeping things ticking over, pulling things out of ovens and prepping things as she went!

To say Fergus is a slightly off-beat individual is an understatement, but I suppose I should have expected it, from a creative genius who is famous for cooking a pig from nose to tail. Throughout the course of his charming 2 hour long demonstration, amongst the amazing dishes he produced, he left us with with some fantastic uncommonly eccentric quotes, which had us chuckling in our seats, such as:
1. "I spent my wedding night talking to my trotter."
2. "Tripe is sexy, tripe is the way forward."
3. "There is a certain Jedi knight quality to cooking."

Fergus worked his way through the different cuts of pig, cooking up goodies like deep fried crispy pig tails which he suggested were perfect for a child's dinner, braised pig head, crispy pig's ear, and thinly sliced pig heart served in a delicious salad with pickled walnuts. I will leave you with Fergus's recipe below and make sure to check out Monique's website which has details of all the upcoming cookery demonstrations.

Fergus Henderson's Pot-Roast Half Pig's Head
I say only half a head, as it is a perfect romantic supper for two. Imagine gazing into the eyes of your loved one over a golden pig's cheek, ear and snout.

Serves 2
A dollop of duck fat
8 Shallots, peeled and left whole
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
1/2 pigs head (your butcher should have no problems supplying this) - remove any hairs with a razor
A glass of brandy
1 bundle of joy- thyme, parsley and a little rosemary
1/2 bottle of white wine
Chicken stock
A healthy spoonful of Dijon mustard
1 bunch of watercress, trimmed, or other greens- a case of Liberty Hall
Sea salt and black pepper

Dollop the duck fat into an oven tray wide and deep enough to accommodate your half pig's head and put it on the heat. Add the shallots and garlic and leave them to do a little sweating to improve the flavour of the dish. Shuffle the tin occasionally to prevent any burning, but you do want some colour.
When happy with these, cover the ear of your demi-head with foil so that it doesn't frazzle, then rest the head in the tin. To welcome it to its new environment, pour the glass of brandy over it, nustle in your bundle of joy, add the wine and then the chicken stock in a not dissimilar fashion to an alligator in a swamp!
Season with salt and pepper, cover the tin with greaseproof paper, offering some protection but not denying the need for the rigours of the hours to come in the oven- which is where you should now put your tin, in a medium oven for 3 hours, until the head is totally giving. Check it after 2-2 1/2 hours; you could remove the greaseproof paper at this point and get a little colour on your cheek.
When ready, remove the head to a warm place. Whisk the Dijon mustard into the pan liquor, in which you should then wilt the bunch of watercress.
Finally, on the head presentation platter, make a pillow of shallots, garlic and wilted watercress, where you then rest your head.
There you have it- dinner for two; open something red and delicious: Moon, June, Spoon.

JP from the Hope Foundation contacted me in January asking me if I would be interested in becoming an ambassador for the charity. The Hope Foundation was set up to help the street children of Calcutta, in India. To be honest I haven’t really done much charity work before, but I have always wanted to, and after reading about the work the charity do with the kids in India, I was really interested in becoming involved. JP suggested that I might visit India in April so we are currently working on plans for that. But for now to kick things off, I'm going to be doing a cookery demonstration in aid of the charity in the Oriel House Hotel next Thursday evening at 7pm. Check out the details below and hope to see you there! :)

Health & Beauty Night with Cookery Demonstration by Donal Skehan
Raising funds for the street children of Calcutta with THE HOPE FOUNDATION

Oriel House Hotel & Spa, Ballincollig, Cork
11th March 2010 @ 7pm

Tickets can be purchased from
Oriel House 420 8400
Mount Mercy College 454 2366
The HOPE Office 429 2990Adults €20 Student €15

Also just got word that the reprint of my book has arrived in, so books will be on sale on the night, and I will be signing them whether you like it or not! :)

If you don't know who Ken Hom is, where have you been hiding! When I was growing up he was the king pin when it came to Chinese cooking, he was the guy you turned to when you needed advice on which wok to buy and how to create that very first stir fry. I was introduced to him via his first cookbook "Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery" which one of my aunts had bought back in 1984, being an avid fan of Chinese cookery I tried so many recipes from this book and have been a fan ever since.

Now although, there have been many Chinese chefs since Ken introduced the cuisine to our TV screens, I still think he is the best and he is regularly regarded as the world's leading authority in Chinese cookery. He was in Dublin launching a new range of Chinese ready meals he has developed with Tesco which includes Crispy Aromatic Duck, Spare Ribs, Duck Spring Rolls, Crispy Chilli Beef, and Chicken Chow Mein all quite reasonably priced. Although people can be cynical about chefs selling out and doing these sort of things, Ken had loads to say on the whole process of recipe development and taking what he described as really bad ready meals to ones which had far more authentic flavours and interesting back notes. I was convinced!

During the demonstration, he spoke about the idea of Chinese cooking and how the aim is too build layers of flavours and textures. He really emphasised the importance of cooking with a really hot wok to seal the in the flavours and how it was so important to marinate any meat you cook with, but generally no more than 20 minutes. I loved the fact that throughout the demonstration, Ken tasted absolutely everything he put in to the wok before it went in, and was really particular in the amounts he used. He also introduced us to a brand new ingredient he had started using called Chee Hou sauce which is made from fermented soy beans with garlic and has a sweet and salt taste, I will be keeping an eye out for it. If you've tried it let me know!

Beef and Black Bean Stir Fry
This is the recipe we were given along with the press release and Ken actually demonstrated the dish for us. I can tell you it is absolutely delicious and you should definitely give it a go. It follows through from what he mentioned about using different ingredients to build layers of flavours and many different notes.

Serves 2
200g of beef, sliced in strips
25ml of rapeseed oil
2 teaspoons of ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Zest of one orange
1 teaspoon of birds eye chillies, chopped
25g of black beans
75g of spring onions, chopped in 1 inch shanks
50g diced onion
75g diced red peppers
75g diced green peppers
45ml oyster sauce
40g of Chee Hou sauce
2 teaspoons of sugar
200ml water
20ml sesame oil
1 teaspoon of cornflour

Heat the wok over a high heat and add oil to coat. Quickly stir fry the meat and when it is cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat the oil in the wok and add the ginger and garlic. Stir fry over a high heat until it becomes golden and toasted.
Add the orange zest and fry until it releases fragrant citrus notes.
Then fry the chilli, black beans and chopped onions for 20 seconds.
Add the spring onions and peppers and fry lightly until tender.
Add the the Chee Hou sauce, oyster sauce, water and sugar and stir through. Then add the meat and toss until it is coated with all the sauce and vegetables.
Finish with the sesame oil and thicken with the cornflour.
Serve with noodles or rice.

This isn't exactly the most amazingly intricate Chinese dish I have made but I chose to write about it because, if you have all the ingredients it is a very simple, tasty, balanced and healthy meal.

The first time I was introduced to real Chinese cuisine (I'm not talking about the deep fried slop from the local take-away which uncontrollably I am partial to now and again) was during a visit to my Aunt's house where a Chinese friend was giving a cooking demonstration to a group of her friends. I was encouraged to try beef, ginger and scallion, a simple dish which seemed to capture the simplicity of this extensive cuisine.

A short while after this encounter I was taken on a trip to the Asian market in Dublin city, it was then and there I fell in love! The bottles full of strange and foreign ingredients, the cling wrapped chicken paws poking out the sides of freezers, the huge bags of various assortments of rice and noodles were all enough to create great excitement at such a young age.

Now having tried hundreds of recipe's and still exploring new ones, Chinese cuisine has become a staple part of my diet.

Chili Chicken Broccoli Asparagus Noodles

1. 2 Large Chicken Breasts
2. 1 Red Chili chopped finely
3. 1 inch of fresh ginger chopped finely
4. 2 Garlic Cloves chopped finely
5. 2 Tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
6. 1 tablespoon fish sauce
7. 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
8. 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
9. 8 Asparagus Sprigs cut in to bite size pieces
10. 1 Broccoli head cut in to bite size pieces
11. 1 Red Onion cut in half moon pieces
12. A handful of Ho Fan Noodles

Chop the chicken breasts into thin strips and place in a bowl with the chili, oyster sauce, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and half the garlic and ginger. Combine the ingredients and place in the fridge to marinate.

Drizzle the prepared broccoli, asparagus and onion with a little oyster sauce and sesame oil. Fry the garlic and ginger in some oil until brown then add the onions and follow with the rest of the veg. When this is cooked through remove from the pan and place on a plate.

Now add the noodles to the boiling water and stir, they should only take about five minutes, keep checking them and make sure not to overcook. Now fry off the chicken, when it's cooked add the veg and by this time your noodles should be cooked. Drain them and mix with the chicken and veg. Serve immediately!

2009 has been a fairly spectacular year indeed, between the band, the book, and lots and lots of cooking I have never been so busy in my life, but it has been totally worth it! Here's my run down of 2009 highlights!

- Started the year flying high as Peter Pan in the Tivoli theatre's panto.
- Putting together plans for a mixed pop group.
- Forming Industry with Lee Hutton, Michele McGrath, and Morgan Deane!
Favourite Recipe: Roast Garlic Potatoes

- Going to Stockholm to record Industry's first single, "My Baby's Waiting".
- Received first draft of Good Mood Food, the book.
- Pancake season!
- Went to Stockholm to support my Swedish superstar buddy sing at the Swedish Eurovision selection.
- A name was finally chosen for Industry, thankfully 4DB was thrown out the window.
- Going to Stockholm again to record very first music video, for "In Your Arms".
- Doing first photoshoot as a band- very glamorous.
Favourite Recipe: Chocolate Chip Oreo Cupcakes

- Was busy working on what I thought were the final drafts of the book.
- Planned my very first attempt at a vegetable garden.
- Planted Dill, Fennel, Pak Choi, Broad Beans, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Cabbage, Cos Lettuce, Rosemary.
- Submitted last photos for the book.
- Made first public outing as Industry on the red carpet at the Meteor Irish Music Awards.
- Went for a walk on the cliffs every morning this month.
- Blog got 10,000 unique visitors in one day, was very excited.
Favourite Recipe: Bacon Avocado and Sundried Tomato Sandwich

- Got my very first blog/book press.
- Back to Stockholm to record more tracks with Industry.
- Flew to Spain to record music video for Industry's "My Baby's Waiting".
- Took a little break in Gothenberg with Sofie.
- Submitted what I thought was the last draft of the book.
- Fell in love with dried Mango... mmmm... mango.
Favourite Recipe: Red Onion and Garlic Focaccia

- Got the BBQ out early for Mays mini heat wave.
- Back to Stockholm again to record more tracks with Industry.
- Shot the final cover for the book with the help of Erica and Sofie.
- Performed with Industry at our press launch at The Sugar Club in Dublin.
- Industry's single got it's very first airplay on 2fm.
- Got a blackberry phone.
- Sang Kate Bush wuthering heights in falsetto on radio, not pleasant but very funny.
- Discovered Flahavans porridge pots which kept me alive and well on the road.
Favourite Recipe: BBQ Cajun Spatchcock Chicken

- Got to finally visit Cork's English Market.
- Went to Ireland's Eye with Morgan and Lee for my birthday.
- Found a brill table to shoot food on.
- My annoying but hilarious fight with the birds and the strawberries.
- Lee buying male Ugg boots.
- Got introduced to Dave Peelo, the toughest fitness trainer you ever did see.
- Industry's first single "My Baby's Waiting" went straight in at number one in the Irish charts.
- Performed at the Ms. Universe competition.
Favourite Recipe: Warm Chorizo, Red Onion and Baby Potato Salad

- Went to LA with James, Morgan and Sofie.
- Got upgraded on the flight over but had to slum it on the way back.
- Saw the massive amount of tributes to Michael Jackson at his house and his Hollywood star.
- Went surfing with my Uncle Niall on Santa Monica beach.
- Did a photo shoot for VIP magazine, blue steel was out in force.
- Went to outdoor yoga in Stephens Green in Dublin.
- Supported the Pussycat Dolls at the Killarney Summerfest.
- Sent off the final final final edits of the book.
- Visited the republics very first Ikea store.
- Recorded music video for Industry's second single "Burn" at the amazing Grouse Lodge studios.
Favourite Recipe: Sticky Mustard Chicken Drumsticks

- Went on a romantic little bank holiday break in a cottage near Carlingford.
- Co-hosted the South East Radio breakfast show with the brill Tony Scott and Industry.
- Became a regular contributor with Irish Tatler.
- Industry's second single "Burn" went to number one.
- Supported Tynchi Stryder in Tralee, as you do.
- Had a brill getaway anniversary weekend in Castle Leslie, massages all round.
Favourite Recipe: Asian Teriyaki Chicken Salad

- Started tweeting 140 character recipes on my twitter.
- Appeared on RTE's Ice with Industry.
- Performed at the Barretstown Charity Bandana launch.
- Went blackberry picking with Maisie the cupcake queen.
- Picked up my copy of Good Mood Food!
- Recorded 3 new tracks with Industry at the amazing Grouse Lodge recording studios.
Favourite Recipe: Oriental Steak Salad

- Picked up my brand new camera, the Canon 5d Mark ii.
- Saw the book in shops for the first time, rearranged the shelves.
- Appeared on the front page of the Irish Examiner.
- Did lots and lots of radio interviews about the book.
- Went mushroom hunting with Aoife.
- Went back to school to do a cupcake demonstration at my old school.
- Interview on Tubridy with Ryan Tubridy about the book.
- Got a text from Michele to tell me she nearly fell over when she saw a giant poster of me in the window of Dubray Books on Grafton Street in Dublin!
- Did the official launch of the book in Dubray Books on Grafton street in Dublin.
- Appeared on RTE's The Cafe with Industry.
- Went to Gothenburg and visited a Swedish bakery.
- Interview with Ian Dempsey on Today FM.
Favourite Recipe: Blackberry Vanilla Cupcakes

- Upgraded my old desk, for a new fancy one from IKEA.
- Wrote my very first food column for the Irish Independent Weekend Magazine.
- Finally made a vision board.
- Became obsessed with one of the kitchens in IKEA.
- Heard that The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten has a copy of Good Mood Food.
- Did a cookery demonstration at an all girls school.
- Assistant food stylist on a Christmas food shoot.
Favourite Recipe: Crispy Hasselback Potatoes

- All the brill Christmas food press.
- Feature in the lovefood magazine with fellow Irish food bloggers, Italian Foodies, Cheap Eats, and Daily Spud.
- Visit to a free range turkey farm.
- Massive Christmas baking session with Erica and Maisie.
- Getting a video of the book launch from Darragh.
- Visit to Sheridans cheese, I am now hooked on cheese.
- Skiing with Sofie in Gothenburg.
- Jul pa Liseberg.
- Christmas in Sweden
Favourite Recipe: Avocado, Parmesan and Rocket Pasta

Thanks so much to all who read this blog for all the support, comments and emails this year, and I hope I'll be keeping you cooking all through 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was honoured this year to be included in the line up chefs demonstrating at two of the Irish summers top foodie events Taste of Dublin and Bord Bia's Bloom in the Park. Shamefully I had never been to either events, so it was fantastic to finally have my eyes opened to massive amount of work that goes in to creating such amazing displays and stands. I have had the experience of demonstrating in front of large crowds before and a brief stint in the musical world has meant that I no longer suffer too badly from nerves, but this was a little different. When you are included on the lineup with well established people who you have watched cooking growing up the pressure is really on! For my demonstration at Bloom I did a selection of dishes based around in season produce and one of them was this mouthwatering Summer Berry Pavlova.

Summer Berry Layered Pavlova
This mix makes a chewy, marshmallow meringue, which goes perfectly with the cream and berries. Layering the meringue discs gives this beautiful summer dish fantastic texture! If you haven't tried making meringues before, don't be scared as this mix is fairly fool proof, just pop the icing sugar and egg whites in a mixer and whisk till you have stiff glossy peaks, add in the cornflour and white wine vinegar, pop in the oven and you're sorted.

Serves 8
250g icing sugar
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
500ml of cream, whipped
250g of mixed berries

Preheat the oven to 150oC/Gas Mark 2
Line two baking trays with baking parchment. Draw a large circle 25cm/10inch on each piece of parchment paper.
Place the icing sugar and egg whites in a standing food mixer and whisk on high for 10 minutes until glossy white peaks form.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the cornflour and the white wine vinegar.
Divide the meringue mixture between the two baking trays and using a tablespoon, form two large meringue discs.
Bake for 45 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
Assemble the pavlova, by spooning half the cream onto the first layer of meringue, adding half the berries and topping with the other meringue layer, remaing berries and cream.

I am coming to you live from my hotel room in the sunny south of Ireland in Ballingcollig, Cork. I was doing a cookery demonstration for the Hope Foundation last night and it went extremely well! It was my first time doing a demo in front of a live adult audience, so I couldn't rely on my usual school demo tricks like asking them what they bring for their lunches, and of course every kid sticks up their hand. No this is a little different, but in a good way, I get to give more tips about the stuff I am cooking and I can choose dishes which are a little more interesting than stuff only kids will eat.

Last night I was demoing some of my favourite dishes from the book, I did 7 dishes altogether, which were my aromatic duck salad (with duck supplied by the lovely folks from Silverhill), hasselback potatoes, tomato chicken thigh supper, garlic mushroom and goats cheese pasta, mushy roast garlic and cherry tomato pasta, and my favourite dessert, Kerstin's bursting berries with white chocolate!

We did a bit of a signing after the demo, so a huge thank you to everyone who came up and bought a book, and big shout the folks at the Hope Foundation who pulled off the whole night with huge success! Mark was our cameraman for the night and popped me the tape of the whole thing, so when I get time I will stick it up here, so you can take a peak!

Today's recipe is going all Irish, as for the next few days, the country will be taken over by a rush of green and lots of celebrations. A few of the towns we drove through today already have their bunting up in the town square! This recipe is from my Cork News column which is out today, and for any foreign readers out there, this dish is quite a traditional Irish dish, so I hope you like it!

Traditional Irish Food: Colcannon
Colcannon is as traditional, as traditional Irish food gets, and for the week that's in it, when the whole world will be going green in our honour, what better thing to do, than serve up some of the finest! I told my grandad I was making this the other day and no sooner was it out of my mouth than he had burst into song. The dish of course, is the inspiration behind the traditional Irish song by the same name, "Oh weren't them the happy days when troubles we knew not and our mother made colcannon in the little skillet pot". This recipe is the one I grew up with, but if you want to experiment, you could also stir in a little bit of wholegrain mustard to add an extra bite to it!

Serves 4 portions
1kg potatoes, peeled and diced
250g savoy cabbage, finely sliced
1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
75ml of milk
A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper

Add the peeled and diced potato to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork.
Place a metal steamer into another pot, add a little water and bring to the boil. Place the cabbage into the steamer and steam cook until it is tender.
When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter and milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. You may want to add a little bit more or less milk and butter, it is up to you!
Add in the spring onion, steamed cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and stir through with a spoon until evenly combined.
Serve the colcannon straight away with a little extra butter and sea salt if you want.
Enjoy and a slightly premature, Happy St. Patricks Day!

Most of life's great decisions come from having absolutely no prior knowledge as to how something is going to turn out. That was most certainly the case over the weekend. You might remember earlier this year I got roped into cooking for 800 hungry Parisians for an event on a small island in the west of the city with Le Fooding magazine sponsored by our very own Bord Bia. Well after the huge success at Chalet Des Illes, the delightful Noreen Lanigan, decided she wanted more abuse from me and decided, being a blogger I would be the right person to demonstrate at the third annual Salon Du Blog Culinaire, an event organized by a cookery school north of Paris in the little town of Soissons, in November. The event is quite unique and very timely with the amount of food blogs continually on the increase. It invites lots of France's finest food bloggers to demonstrate their favorite dishes and kitchen techniques in a fairly manic two day period watched on by fellow bloggers eager for culinary inspiration. During the summer I had the opportunity to meet a group of France's top food bloggers who were on a visit to Ireland to discover the fantastic conditions our lovely animals enjoy before they head off the little farm in the sky and onto our supermarket shelves. To put things in perspective here, unlike our own Irish food blogging community which, while thriving and very rapidly increasing in numbers, this group of French food bloggers were 10 of over a thousand. These guys were the cream of crop and are well and truly established with tens of thousands of visitors a day, numerous cookbooks and iPhone and iPad Apps. Not surprising really from a nation who takes so much pride and passion in their cooking that they would be willing to fall out with each other over a bad Boeuf Bourginon!
After our visit to the farm, I demonstrated some of our traditional Irish dishes, including Irish stew, brown bread and roast lamb, and was gently reminded again that Noreen had plans for me in November…

Clare Clinton who is interning at Bord Bia's Paris office got the ball rolling earlier this month with emails back and forth to decide the best recipes to show off our finest meat and fish products. Despite me dragging my feet, we eventually decided upon 6 dishes to cook and impress the French food bloggers, including mussels in Irish cider, crab claws with chilli, garlic and lemon, roast shoulder of lamb with rosemary and garlic, a good auld Irish stew and to mix things up a little an oriental steak salad and spicy Beef fahitas.

Myself and Maeve Desmond, who I'm sure many of your may have met at Bloom or the Irish Food blogger event in May, flew to Paris on Friday evening just in time for a late dinner in a beautiful restaurant very close to La Bon Marché. The restaurant proudly serves Irish beef alongside some French classics and the quite adventurous dishes I chose including Carpaccio of veal tongue served with a salsa and for mains Pieds et Pacque d'agneau which on the English menu I was reading from was translated as feet and packets of lamb. I'm big believer in always trying something different in another country rather than something familiar but unfortunately sometimes it doesn't always work out the way I had planned. The veal tongue had a very interesting texture and flavor and was complimented quite nicely by the salsa it was served and was definitely worth the chance of trying, however the Lamb feet and packets, left a little to be desired… The packets turned out to be a strange little dumplings of finely minced pork wrapped in what looked very much like tripe and actually tasted quite nice, but the feet had about as much meat on them as my little finger. Maeve and Noreen played it safe and benefited from doing so with Maeve going for an amazing long wooden platter of beautifully sliced ham and of the Irish beef and Noreen choosing a lentil salad to start followed by the most amazing French black pudding which was really rich and velvety, a stark contrast to what we are used to with a fry! Dessert was a financier de poivre, an individual little flat cake with pear and île flottante a big dollop of fluffy egg white and sugar which was served floating in a dish of vanilla cream and topped with a caramel sauce. After all that we rolled our way back to our hotel ahead of the six o'clock start on Saturday morning.

There is one thing I don't do and that is early mornings, sure I can be full of energy first thing but I fade fairly rapidly during the day! Noreen runs a tight ship let me tell you (This woman has a tractor license!), so at 7.06 with toothbrush still in mouth, I answered to phone to a bright and sparky Noreen who wanted to know were I was! Rushing out the door and out onto the streets of Paris, I stumbled on Noreen and Clare (and a sleepy Maeve!) negotiating the boot of the car with Irish posters, recipe booklets and of course the suitcases. We were all bundled into the car and then the real fun started- our departure from Paris was fairly comical not helped of course by the GPS which took us on the wrong road at least twice.

When we finally arrived in Soissons and at the culinary arts school the 3rd Salon Du Blog was well underway. One of the French food bloggers who had been on the visit to Ireland, was the charming Chef Damien who makes a mean Boef A La Guiness and runs the school and a highly successful website, 750g, which attracts a ridiculous amount of visitors on a daily basis!
There was definitely a huge sense of excitement as we were ushered through the halls of the school and passed the many rooms where different food bloggers would be spending their weekend. We arrived at the Bord Bia room which was positioned perfectly smack bang in the middle of all the rooms which guaranteed us constant traffic and visitors and were introduced to our helpers Suella and Virginie. It's always fairly nerve-wracking arriving at a new kitchen so there was some fierce scurrying around to get all the equipment and ingredients before we were due to kick off with our first demonstration at 11am!
We got kick started with a great turnout and the rest of the day was so busy that it became pretty much a blur except for the fantastic Bloggers Picnic that had been organized for lunch, where all the bloggers had brought along a little dish to be a part of the most massive buffet of food I have ever seen!
One thing that should be noted and that is instantly clear in terms of the difference between Irish food bloggers and French food bloggers, they have no problem telling you they would done something differently, where we might be a little bit more shy to go up and taste test if someone is giving a demo. So it was all fairly nerve wracking to make sure things were cooked just the right way! Either way I love their passion!

Saturday finished off with a giant blogger banquet complete with hoards of Irish cheese, Irish salmon, Irish beef, Irish lamb and randomly enough a little bit of good old Irish dancing! We were sitting having a great time but the minute the music started Noreen told us she had to get up to take some photos and we thought no more of it, a few minutes later we looked down at the dance floor and there she was like Jeanne Butler on acid leading the Ceili putting the rest to shame- and THAT'S how you represent the country! I don't know whether it was the dancing or not but Noreen headed back to Paris on Sunday and we were joined by another lovely lady from Bord Bia, the lovely Bernadette, lovely! :)

On the last demo of the day on Sunday I was accompanied by Chef Damien to demonstrate a very simple dish of crab claws with chilli, garlic and lemon. The whole thing was a crazy combination of both of us trying to translate each other language but somehow I think it worked, and I suppose it did help that we were being filmed for the French tv station!
All in all it was an absolutely fantastic event and I think we represented Ireland quite well if I do say so myself. My only wish was that I had got to see a lot more of the other demonstrations, there was a massive variety of food being demoed but I did manage to catch one or two! An absolutely massive thank you to Chef Damien, my two lovely kitchen assistants, the lovely ladies of Bord Bia, and of course all the French bloggers who made me feel so very welcome!

The whole show went fantastically smooth but... disaster- I forgot my camera so no pics from the show unfortunately! But the video should be available on the RTE player tomorrow morning.

I cooked a few of my favourite recipes from the book and the blog, Chicken Thigh Supper, Med Veg with Bulgur Wheat, and one of the tastiest pastas, Sunblushed Tomato, Goats Cheese and Basil, Penne!

The pace on the Afternoon Show is quite relaxed and because you shop for your own ingredients it means you see the demo from start to finish and are a lot more hands on. I suppose, looking back, I was totally overwhelmed by the Market Kitchen experience, having never cooked on TV before and being surrounded by big names in the UK food world, whereas I have been interviewed on The Afternoon Show before when I was in Eurosong, so I knew the set up and I visited last week to watch another chef do their demonstration, which put me at ease!

After some late night cooking last night, I packed up my little car with all the ingredients and headed over to RTE, making a quick pit stop in Superquinn to grab some last minute items, a bottle of red wine, bulgur wheat and 2 aubergines! When I arrived it was just a case of setting up all the ingredients, choosing all the props, plates and bowls I needed from the prop room and just thinking through everything I needed.

We did a quick rehearsal and I met the lovely ladies, Maura and Sheana, who present the show and they were so nice, Sheana spent the afternoon telling me she loved the book and was definitely going to try some of the recipes! Before I knew it we were live and I was grinning like a fool down the lens of the camera and it turned out my old pal, Dustin The Turkey was on the show as well and he was a charming as ever, I gave him a few good turkey recipes before he left!

The funniest part of the whole experience was at the end of the show. I had been pre warned that the crew love getting stuck in to the food that's cooked on the show, but nothing prepared me for the eight people crowded around all the food like vultures digging in with forks! They all loved the food so happy days- empty plates are always the best form of a compliment for a cook!

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit Saba restaurant in Dublin. As you might already know I absolutely love Asian food so jumped at the opportunity to go down and film a quick demonstration from the head chef! I can't believe I had missed this little gem of a restaurant in all my trips to town, the atmosphere is really chilled and the food looks and tastes absolutely amazing. But for me the most exciting part was going into the kitchen which is ran meticulously by head chef Taweesak Trakoolwattana.

The first thing I noticed was the giant wok burners which were blazing hot, perfect for speedy cooking and the amazing aromas of fresh spices and herbs wafting around the kitchen. The second thing was the sheer amount of fresh ingredients expertly prepared and ready for use in the lunchtime dishes. Chef Taw prepared a fantastic stir fried beef curry with fresh peppercorns, which I had never seen before, but if you take a look at the video, they really add something special to the visuals of the dish! After the filming I got the chance to try some of the dishes cooked up, which were all truly delicious and I will definitely be repeating the experience, next time with a few cocktails thrown into the mix!

The winner of the voucher is the lovely @urmomcooks from likemotherlikedaughters.com/

This has to be one of my favorite Turkish street foods. I got the great opportunity to watch how they are made, not out of choice, I might add! We had ordered 2 of the pizza's at this little restaurant right beside the local mosque in Fethiye, and the owner spotted me taking pictures around the place earlier. He quickly dragged me in to the kitchen, full of pride and instructed me to take pictures of the pizza's being made!

Not that I was complaining, the guy who was doing the cooking, gave me a full demonstration and from the speed he was producing the pizza's, it was pretty clear that he had done this before! The small pieces of dough are rolled out into long thin oval shapes and then a mix of meat, egg and herbs is placed on top. The dough is then folded in towards the centre to form a chewy crust. Don't let the idea of pizza throw you, this is nothing like it's Italian cousin. The recipe here is adapted from a Turkish cook book, with the advice of the Fethiye pizza maker, thrown in for good measure!

Turkish Pizza (Pide)

1. 5 Cups of Flour.
2. 4 Tablespoons of Butter.
3. 1 Sachet of Active Dried Yeast.
4. 2 Cups Of Milk.
5. 1 Teaspoon of Salt.
6. 1 Teaspoon of Sugar.
7. 3 Eggs.
8. 250g Minced Lamb.
9. 1 Beef Tomato, finely chopped.
   
10. A Good Handful of Coarsely Chopped Parsley.
11. 1 Medium Onion, finely chopped.
12. A Good Pinch Of Salt and Pepper.

When the dough has risen, seperate into egg sized pieces and flatten them into long oval shapes on a floured surface. Place the meat mix in a long line, on the dough and make sure to leave about 2cm on either side for the crust. Fold the dough in on either side and place in an oven for 10 minutes, at 240oC.

Serve straight away and slice into smaller pieces.