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Cookes Restaurant,14 South William Street , Dublin, Ireland

A quality restaurant, very tasty and inventive food.

We went out for dinner in Dublin on Thursday evening, to celebrate Sofie getting a job! We hadn't booked anywhere so we ended up going for a bit of a walk to find a place we both liked!

After a walk down South William St, up Georges St, and through Georges St. Arcade we ended up stumbling into Cookes, who were offering a set menu of, starter and main course for €21.95, probably the best priced set menu for it's class we came across that evening.

Unlike my last meal in town, the waiting staff were extremely professional and very attentive. I was asked three times if I was finished my starter but in general they paced the courses quite well, leaving time to digest and have a good chat!

For a starter I had a Caesar salad, and Sofie ordered a Beef Carpaccio with rocket. The Caesar salad was very tasty but lacked croutons and had just that bit too much cheese. Sofie's Carpaccio was excellent, a perfect balance of taste and texture. For me the perfect dish is one that has a variety flavours that combine to become the perfect mouthful!

For mains, in a bit of turning of the tables Sofie went for the Caesar salad, and I chose the Duck Confit with Beans. The salad was standard again with the same criticism, however the duck was very tasty, I felt that the beans could have been stewed a little longer in the sauce as they were still a bit hard and didn't really compliment the texture of the dish.

All in all the meal was really enjoyable and perfect for an early meal out. I would definitely recommend Cookes, it definitely has a feel for food.

Rated 4/5 on Aug 27 2007

Review Tags: dublin, duck, review, salad

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Homemade Paprika Roast Potato Chips
When it comes to snack foods, everyone has their weakness, mine just so happens to be these homemade potato chips.

Makes enough for 4 portions, or one giant selfish one!
5 rooster potatoes cut into chips.
3 tablespoons of olive oil.
2 teaspoons of paprika.
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper.
1 tablespoon of sea salt.

Preheat the oven to 200oC.
Cut the potatoes into chips about 1cm in thickness. Spread the potato chips evenly over two large non stick baking trays. Try and give the chips as much space as possible, this will make them extra crispy. Drizzle the oil over the chips and toss until they are all combined. Sprinkle over the paprika, pepper, salt and toss again. Place in the oven and roast for 40-50 minutes or until crispy and golden.
Serve straightaway as a tasty snack or alongside a main meal.

So much of cooking is born out of necessity, aimed solely to feed a hungry belly, it becomes easy to forget about those slow cooking days where pleasure and comfort can be found in simple tasks like measuring ingredients or rolling homemade pastry. With all these cosy food dreams swirling around my mind I took the time to spend some long overdue quality time in the kitchen this weekend.

I managed to get my hands on large box full of ripe, juicy pears which were begging to be devoured instantly. The benefits of having a food stylist for an aunt means there is always left over food from photo shoots, which she is desperately trying to get rid of before it spoils. I had no objections to taking this box of fruit off her though, they were used, quite nicely, if I do say so myself, in a delicious rustic pear tart for dessert, served with some cold vanilla cream. Sliced thinly the pears were a luscious addition to a large, rocket, parmesan and toasted pinenut salad, which was served in a handmade bowl by a very well known Wexford artist! Mackerel was also on the menu, more out obligation than anything else, as they've been sitting in the freezer since they were caught during a recent fishing trip a few weeks ago. Wrapped in tinfoil, barbequed and served with smoked sea salt, olive oil and a drizzle of lemon provided a light and fresh flavoured main meal.

Spending time on producing some really taste tingling dishes has me even more inspired than before I started on Saturday morning. I'll post the recipes for the dishes above during the week! Stay tuned :)

If you haven't heard of Sally Bee before, and I hadn't up until recently, Sally is a mother of three who at the age of 36, despite a healthy lifestyle, suffered 3 major heart attacks in the space of one week. I'm not even going to go into the amazing story of her recovery, you really just have to read it. "The Secret Ingredient" is a collection of super healthy recipes which don't go over the top and features meals which are perfect for family home cooking.

I recently got the opportunity to meet the lovely Sally Bee, and despite our extremely brief encounter she comes across as an extremely vibrant and fun individual and when I remarked on her incredible story, joked and feigned heart pains! This is one of the fantastic recipes from her book, "The Secret Ingredient" which is out on Thursday 21st of January and can be ordered online via Amazon.

Prawn, Avocado and Pecan Herb Salad

You know, salads don't have to be boring. This dish is full of flavour! You can serve it as a main meal or smaller portions for a healthy starter. If you don't like prawns, you can substitute with chicken; anything goes, really. Be adventurous with your salads and make this a regular, everyday dish. Prawns give great texture and flavour to this recipe, but they do contain cholesterol,so I have allowed only four prawns per serving. If you want to make it more substantial, you can add extra protein: such as tuna, chicken or turkey.

Serves 2
Drizzle of olive oil
2 salad onions or spring onions (scallions),peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove,peeled and crushed
1 tbsp soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
8 uncooked king prawns (jumbo shrimp)
Mixed salad leaves
Watercress
1 ripe avocado
2 tomatoes, sliced
Juice of 1 lemon
Handful of fresh basil, torn
Handful of shelled pecan nuts

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the chopped salad onions, crushed garlic, soy sauce, black pepper and raw prawns.
Sauté until the prawns have turned pink all the way through.
Arrange the salad leaves, watercress, avocado and tomatoes in a big dish, then pour over the prawns and other cooked ingredients.
Squeeze over the lemon juice, sprinkle with torn basil and pecan nuts and serve.

Follow Sally Bee on Twitter over here.

After yesterdays quick dip in aid of pancake day, I'm back with another Chinese recipe today! Were doing a bit of filming this week, so the blog is kind of on auto pilot, but I hope you haven't noticed. Just a quick reminder that the plans for the next twitter dinner are well underway so I would love to hear your suggestions for the menu- leave a comment below with your ideas! :)

Ginger and Garlic Braised Bok Choy
I absolutely love Bok Choy, and although a completely foreign vegetable, it takes extremely well to growing in my vegetable garden! There are so many ways to make the best of this great vegetable, and for me, more often than not, it ends up as a regular ingredient to a quick and tasty stir fry, with lots of other fresh veggies. This braised Bok Choy recipe is a fantastic way to enjoy it, making it a perfect side dish to any main Chinese meal.

Serves 2
4 bok choy, sliced in quarters
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil
1 clove of garlic, sliced thinly
A thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

Heat a wok over a high heat, add the oil to coat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the bok choy and stir fry for 1 minute. Sprinkle over the sugar, and pour in 60ml of water, toss everything to combine.
Bring the wok to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer covered for 3 minutes or until the bok choy is tender.
Finally add the sesame oil and oyster sauce, stir it through until everything is coated and serve straight away.

I have a huge respect for the way people in Sweden view food. There is a major emphasis on eating well from a young age and also making the time to eat. While I worked as a chef in Gothenberg one of things that I was always impressed with was how, when lunch time rolled around, everything stopped and everybody working, from the kitchen porter to the restaurant manager, sat to eat a meal cooked by the head chef. The meals we ate were not just sloppy seconds, they were well thought out, healthy and delicious.

I've seen a similar emphasis on eating well being set in Swedish schools also, with fresh and healthy meals being produced for kids on a daily basis. When I went to school we were constantly served processed food with very few healthy options. I am aware that in Ireland many schemes have been introduced to teach kids about healthy options but it still does not seem to have a deep impact. In a world where we have more knowledge about food and it effects on the body than ever before, from what I can see our younger generations aren't easily provided with healthy wholesome meals as standard. It can't be hard to achieve and with with some simple planning this sort of eating can easily become common place. What do you think? How do schools in other countries approach healthy eating?

Swedish Cabbage Salad
In Sweden it is quite common for restaurants to provide diners with a salad buffet table to accompany any main meals ordered. This tangy salad is quite common and is one of my favourite Swedish side dishes.

Makes about 6-8 portions.
500g of Dutch Cabbage (About half a head of cabbage).
100ml of rapeseed oil.
4 tablespoons of malt vinegar.
1 tablespoon of sea salt.
3 tablespoons of ground black pepper.

Prepare the cabbage by slicing into thin pieces and add to a large mixing bowl. Add the rapeseed oil, vinegar, sea salt and ground pepper. Mix the cabbage until all the ingredients are combined. Taste a piece of cabbage, you may want to add another spoonful of vinegar or perhaps a little more black pepper. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge. It's best to leave the salad for at least an hour or two or even over night. Serve cool as a tasty, healthy side dish.

Ok so I'm kind of playing catch up at the moment and unfortunately when things get busy the blog is what suffers. Here is a piece I wrote for my column in the Cork News on the last day of shooting the photography for the new cookbook last week.

It was been an absolute pleasure to have been able to see the whole process of creating a cookbook from start to finish.
Over the last few months I have been over and back to London for meetings three times but haven’t actually had the chance to experience the London lifestyle or see anything much of interest. However this all changed last weekend, when we immersed ourselves in all the foodie sights and sounds with visits to Brixton Market, Portobello Market, Spitalfield Market, all nicely rounded off by a lunch in both Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen on Saturday and the highly praised River Café on Sunday. Both meals were absolutely delicious, however I felt Jamie’s place was definitely better value, with hearty dishes full of flavour which left you satisfyingly stuffed! I started with a savoury homecured Bresola and Beetroot salad full of earthy flavour and for mains a really rustic dish of Italian Sausage and green lentils. Don’t get me wrong our meal at the River Café was stunning, with a mouth watering menu, and beautiful surroundings with an air of Mediterranean elegance which probably can’t be matched anywhere else in London, I just felt it was a little pricey for the lunchtime trade. I had a delicious main course of summer Lamb and roast seasonal vegetables which was beautifully cooked. It really is one of those places that as someone with an interest in food, I think you just have to visit for the experience, and I am glad I did!

One of the places I had been looking forward to eating at was Rosie’s Café Deli at Brixton market run by Rosie Lovell, after receiving her saucily titled book “Spooning with Rosie” as a birthday present from my pal Aoife N earlier this year. Her writing style is fantastic which makes the book not only full of quirky recipes but also a compelling read. The café is full of home comfort and for a quick Saturday morning breakfast we gobbled down a cheese toastie with real cheese and tomato and these amazing scrambled eggs with Chilli Jam which I have I have officially decided is now the only way to serve scrambled eggs. Click on the link below for my recipe for chilli jam which appeared on the blog a year or two ago!

My Perfect Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam
The perfect scrambled eggs are most definitely down to personal taste, for me they have to be creamy so that they slide smoothly off the back of a wooden spoon. The eggs will continue to cook after you remove them from the heat so I think the key is to err on the side of them being underdone rather than ending up with chunky rubbery scrambled eggs.

Serves 1
2 large free range eggs
Sea salt and ground black pepper
2 slices of ciabatta toast to serve
2 tablespoons of chilli jam to serve

In a small non stick saucepan, whisk the eggs until they are slightly frothy.
Place the pan over a low heat and allow them to warm through. With a wooden spoon keep the mix on the move, making sure not to let it catch on the sides too much.
Cook until you have creamy scrambled eggs.
Serve the eggs on toasted ciabatta with a good dollop of chilli jam and season with a little sea salt and ground black pepper.