Afternoon Tea at Monart

Afternoon tea is one of the formalities of a bygone era, but at Monart Destination Spa in Enniscorthy, Co.Wexford, this ritual lives on. 

In a world where there is a chain coffee house in almost every town, there is something deliciously indulgent about spending time to languish over a cup of tea. Let’s face it; most of us are more likely to be found drinking our tea and coffee on the go from cardboard cups rather than from our grandmothers’ finest bone china.

On arrival at Monart, we were led into the drawing room where we were told afternoon tea would be served. The room was large but not cavernous and the huge open fire made it all feel very homely. The seating consisted of comfy sofas and armchairs set around low tables which gave the occasion a more relaxed feel, as opposed to formal dining.

We found that our voices dropped a few decibels as soon as we sat down which I’m sure was not accidental. The music was inoffensive and was soft and relaxing. The table was beautifully set and the best silver was out for the day. At this point I would have been happy if they had rolled out the Barry’s tea and digestive biscuits. But more sophistication awaited us.

There was a set menu for afternoon tea, and the only decision that has to be made was regarding the tea. There was an impressive list of six teas to choose from, which read like a who’s who of the Orient: Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Assam, Lapsang, Oolong and plain old Irish Afternoon tea. My mum chose the Assam and my sister and I chose the Darjeeling. Coffee was also available.

The tea was brought to the table after about ten minutes. Both the Assam and Darjeeling were impeccable. More tea was available on request and extra hot water was provided to water down the tea if it got too strong.

The sandwiches were brought to the table a short while later. Rather than being served on a communal plate, we were each given a plate of four small sandwiches; corned beef and whole grain mustard on white bread, poached organic chicken with tomato tapenade on brown bread, smoked mackerel rillette on white soda bread and Wexford cheddar and farmhouse pickle on toasted brioche. All were top quality but I felt that they could have been more generous with the chutney and tapenade.

The sweet treats were brought to us next on a tiered stand. We were served plain, fruit and cinnamon scones, which were still warm, with small bowls of Chantilly cream and butter, and strawberry and gooseberry preserves. On the top tier were a blueberry polenta cake, a blackcurrant pannacotta, a piece of carrot cake, a piece of pan fried brack cake with an apple and rosemary compote (but I couldn’t taste the rosemary), and an individual lemon pavlova in a tiny glass. They were all delicious but the pannacotta must be given a special mention. It was wonderfully tangy and I could really taste the blackcurrant.

We found the staff pleasant and friendly throughout the afternoon. They were helpful, but at the same time the level of service did not feel intrusive and we were largely left to enjoy the afternoon without interruption by over attentive staff. We had booked afternoon tea to celebrate my mum’s birthday and on hearing this, the staff brought out some chocolate and lime truffles and peanut brittle sticks on a plate which was a nice touch.

Making an occasion of afternoon tea may seem a little dated and like something from a Jane Austen novel, but there is an old world charm to it at Monart. Unfortunately, Mr.Darcy failed to arrive on this occasion.

In the words of the writer Henry James, “there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as Afternoon Tea”.

Monart Destination Spa, The Still, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.                                                              

Phone: 053 9238999                                                                                                                            

Website: www.monart.ie      

Afternoon tea is available to non-residents of the spa. Booking must be made in advance and it costs 20 euro per person.

Cinnamon

I had a meeting with one of my foes recently - a sandwich served on the dreaded wooden board. Innovation and creativity are key on TV shows like Masterchef and The Great British Menu and the wooden board has found its home as chefs try to ever please the judges with yet another new, unique way to present their food. This need to impress has found its way down to your local cafe.

Now innovation is great and food presentation is very important but I have a serious issue with these wooden boards. They are too small and they look like chopping boards. I don't get the rustic charm and well they are just plain old messy to eat from!

So when I visited Cinnamon on Ranelagh's main street, I was dismayed to see my beautiful sandwich presented on one of these slabs of wood. Try eating a mayonnaisy, open sandwich piled high with salad leaves and nuts and you will get my point. Not pretty.

Cinnamon is open for breakfast, lunch and into the evening. It is a tricky preposition for any restaurant to try to get the ambience right to suit this sort of all day dining. I’m not sure if it has been an entire success. While the entrance and front of the building is bright the back is not and the dark furnishings probably don’t help this. At the middle of the day I found it to be a bit gloomy to be honest, but the place probably looks wonderfully chic at night.

There is a good selection of sandwiches on the lunch menu. I was delighted to see coronation chicken there. The last time I had this was in a café in Brighton and I’ve never seen it on a menu in Ireland before so well done to them for having this option. As I was ordering the waiter informed me that this was his favourite sandwich off the menu so I knew I had struck gold. And when it arrived it didn't disappoint; chicken in creamy, curried mayonnaise with mango and piled high on good quality bread. Only for the aforementioned wooden board it would have been perfect. Trying to cut the bread carefully so that the whole thing didn’t topple over and off the board was difficult. It was just so hard to manoeuvre and the board ends up a mayonnaisy mess! It may look great on Masterchef or The Great British Menu but I would have been happier with just a plain old plate!

The tea was served in a china cup and each teapot is different which is cool and quirky. They were very generous with the tea; the teapot was massive for one person!

Pasta, sauces and other gourmet food stuffs are sold here along with some very enticing looking pastries, tarts and other sweets. Lunch is competively priced but I didn’t entirely enjoy my visit here and felt a little robbed as I had been really looking forward to lunch here. It was a case of could do better and be a little less pretentious with the way the food was presented. The surroundings are a bit dark for breakfast and lunchtime but probably make more sense at night but I doubt I will return to find out since there are plenty more good restaurants and cafes in this area. A shame really.

But it may suit your tastes. The food I had at least was delicious and I found the staff very friendly and helpful. On good food alone, this place deserves to survive.

Cinnamon, 83-87 Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

An edible history of the chocolate kind

I’ve just finished reading Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury, which was a Christmas gift from my sister. She took the hint regarding my love of books and my love of food and must be commended for her excellent choice! This book is an exquisite piece of food history and had me dipping in the chocolate tin for more of that velvety goodness and feel good factor that only chocolate can bring.

By this point, you have probably made the connection between the title of the book and the author; Deborah Cadbury is related to the famous Cadbury chocolate making dynasty.

Now to the book. The author gives an account of the Cadbury family and their confectionery business; the founding of the company; the keeping of Quaker traditions in the business (the Cadburys were a Quaker family); the clash between Quaker values and the corporate money making machine (even in the sweet world of chocolate); and the contribution the Cadburys made to the well-being of their workers. There are references in the text to other Quaker chocolate making dynasties, Rowntree and Fry, which makes the book a lot more robust.  Nestle, the giant of confectionery,  is also given a fair amount of air time in the book. We catch up on the story across the pond with the Hershey chocolate empire in America; Cadbury's book is more than just a myopic view of the history of chocolate from solely the Cadbury angle.

The backbone to the story is of course the people behind the chocolate. The chivalry of the early pioneers of chocolate making and their resonance and loyalty to their Quaker values come through clearly from Cadbury's book.

Readers will delight at the mention of perennial favourites like Dairy Milk, Curly Wurlys, Wispa (a top seller when it came onto the market according to the book) and Milk Tray.

The book is like any box of Milk Tray; it's a sheer delight.

Chef Factor

Chef Factor is a great competition run by the guys behind the Cully and Sully range (check them out at http://www.cullyandsully.com/). It is very simple to enter and all you have to do is take a picture of yourself with a dish you have cooked and make sure that the words 'Cully & Sully' are somewhere in the picture. The best thing about this competition is that it is open to EVERYONE regardless of talent which I love. Of course you have to like food and cooking because the prize is a place on the cookery course in Ballymaloe Cookery School in Co.Cork!

I have entered this year because, well you might have guessed, I feel pretty much at home in the kitchen and I would love to win this competition to give me a bit of skill!

I have entered my chilli con carne as my dish for this competition. It might not be very sophisticated and just a bit retro but it's one of my favourites.

So please vote for me at http://www.cheffactor.ie/content/competition-entries/carolines-fiery-you-it-chilli-con-carne to make my dream come true!

A Soup for Halloween

I imagine it is no surprise that pumpkins mature at Halloween and that they are synonymous with this festival.

I tried my hand at growing squash plants this year. Squashes are a close relative of the pumpkin. I found that they soon took over the vegetable plot with their long trailing vines. They finally matured this week and I made some squash soup to celebrate.

The soup is a perfect Autumn staple. It is relatively thick and filling. The beautiful, vibrant, orange of the soup is a feast for the eyes.

But like every vegetable, squash is not to everyone's taste. It is a sweet vegetable and this sweetness needs to be balanced carefully. I added carrot to my soup which I don't think is really necessary. It added to the sweetness of the soup which to be honest I am not entirely a fan of. More tweaking is necessary for my taste.

On that note, I think next time I will experiment with some different flavours. Maybe some chilli or a little cumin might be nice?

Ingredients:

1 carrot
1 potato
1 squash
1 onion
600ml chicken stock
50g butter

Method:
Chop the onion and sweat in the butter on a low heat for about 15 minutes.
Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for two minutes.
Add the stock and simmer for 20 minutes.
When the vegetables are tender liquidise the soup to give it a silky finish. Taste and season as necessary.

Dublin On A Plate

Last night, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and http://www.writing.ie/ hosted an evening of food and food writing in Fallon and Byrne on Dublin's Exchequer Street. We were treated to a buffet style meal of bacon and mustard croquet and buttered cabbage, slow cooked shin of beef with puff pastry crumble, blackened Connemara Salmon with pickled vegetables and creamed goat’s cheese with marinated beetroot. It was delicious!

Catherine Cleary, restaurant critic for the Irish Times, chaired a discussion on food and food writing after the meal. Catherine Fulvio, Georgina Campbell and Ross Golden Bannon all contributed with some food related anecdotes and they all spoke a little about their food philosophy.

A question from the floor prompted a discussion on Irish cuisine. Bacon and cabbage and "a bowl of big floury potatoes" featured heavily.

I don't have such a great relationship with Irish cuisine. I despise Irish stew. Bacon and cabbage is my idea of hell. But it was interesting because I really enjoyed the bacon and mustard croquette with cabbage. This was essentially bacon, cabbage and potatoes dressed up in a goumet guise! How fickle I am!

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here. If we take the basic characteristic ingredients of Irish cuisine and give them a modern twist, maybe we can breathe new life into our food so that it can stand up to the "sexy" Italian cuisine and other ethnic foods!

Plum and Brandy Jam

I love this time of year. The hedgerows are bursting with fruit, and the fruit trees in the garden are beginning to surrender their bounty. The apples may not be quite ready to eat yet but the plums are ripening up nicely.

As plums are a soft fruit it is vital to act fast as soon as they begin to ripen to avoid the fruit being spoiled. With this in mind I set about making some plum and brandy jam last week. The plum tree was absolutely alive with wasps who relish the soft, sweetness of a ripe plum so very carefully indeed I picked about 500g of plums for my jam.

The jam itself has a beautiful pink-red colour that is hugely inviting. A few larger pieces of plum are left in the jam at the end of the cooking process but the skins are largely broken down. This jam is absolutely delicious on some fresh soda bread!

Ingredients
500g plums
400g granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
125ml water

Method
1. Halve the plums and remove the stones. Add plums to a large heavy based saucepan with 125ml water and simmer for about 30 minutes.

2. Heat the sugar in an oven at 140 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes. Add to the fruit mixture and stir until dissolved.

3. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 5-10 minutes until the jam reaches the setting point.

4. Remove pan from the heat whilst checking for a set.

Note: To test for a set, place some saucers in the fridge to chill. Spoon a little of the jam onto the saucer and push it with your finger. If it crinkles the jam has set.

5. Add the brandy and stir well.

6. Fill two sterilised jars with the jam and place a waxed disc on top before sealing jars.

The jam should store for 9 months.

A few words in praise of the Mars Bar biscuit

Sometimes food can be so wonderful that it inspires me to take out the laptop and type up a few words. Today I’m doing just that and I am writing in praise of the Mars Bar biscuit and all its gooey loveliness.

Mars Bar biscuits truly are a delicious treat. I was inspired today to make my own batch and set to it this afternoon. I found some rice crispies, chocolate, butter and of course the obligatory Mars Bars lurking in the depths of my baking cupboard and without further ado started to whip up my favourite treat. In less than an hour I had the biscuits placed in the fridge to set.

In late afternoon I settled down with a nice cup of tea to test the fruits of my labour. I was not disappointed. With all that chocolate and butter these biscuits are truly sinful but utterly delicious. As a child I gorged on many a rice crispy bun but they just don’t quite cut it anymore in light of the perfect gooiness (not sure if that's a proper word!) of the Mars Bar biscuit. That thick chocolate layer on top is made all the better by the more luxurious the chocolate used, but I find Nestle Galaxy chocolate does the trick.

I swear whoever came up with the combination of Mars Bars and rice crispies was a genius and I salute you!

It's been a while

Oh dear. Judging from the date of my last post, I have been away from my blog for quite a long time.

I hope you will forgive me but I'm back now and I have a few musings about tea for today's post.
The theme for this post came to me quite simply while sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea in the sunshine on my patio.

I am a huge tea fan. Tea to me is more than just a drink. It's a way of life, a social occasion and something to drink with friends and family.

I found this quote from William Gladstone on the inside of my Twining's tea box. I think this is an excellent quote from the Victorian statesman.

"If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you."

The relevance of tea in the 21st century is the same as that in the 19th century. The healing powers of tea may be all in the mind, but despite this, a cup of tea is a comfort to many.
Nowadays, the tea aisle in the supermarket will bedazzle you with the sheer number of teas that are available - fruity fusions, herbal teas, pu-erh and green tea, Earl Grey, English Breakfast tea amongst many others. There is a tea for everyone and a tea to suit every mood.

There is something vaguely exotic about Earl Grey tea. It is a strong, robust tea flavoured with bergamot, and its aroma is enough to evoke images of the Orient and makes you feel that you may be somewhere a little more exotic than your own backyard. Truly special indeed.

New Recipe Alert

I want to share with you a new recipe I have come up with. It is very simple and involves just a few cheap ingredients. My inspiration for the recipe came one evening when I came home late from work and I tried to make a meal from whatever ingredients I had in the cupboard. You could use any combination of vegetables and beans in this recipe and it is fun to be creative! I used rigatoni for the pasta but you could use any shape.


Ingredients


1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
Can of sweetcorn
Can of chickpeas
Can of chopped tomatoes
Handful of basil
150g pasta


Fry the onion, garlic and peppers on a medium heat until just soft. Stir in the canned tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes.


Meanwhile cook the pasta.


Once the pasta is cooked, add to the tomatoes, peppers and onion and add the chickpeas, sweetcorn and basil.


Remove from the heat and serve with lots of parmesan!

Dandelions

It is early summer and the dandelions are in bloom. Carefully manicured lawns become littered with dandelions to the dismay of gardeners everywhere. Depending on what side of the fence you sit on, the yellow invaders are a pretty sight or just a plain old nuisance.

Now this is a food blog so rather than ranting about the unpleasantness of waking up in the morning to see that the dandelions have landed, I want to write about their potential in the kitchen. If there are so many of them at this time of year then why not do something useful with them?

When I got the idea for this blog post, I was wondering which parts of the dandelion can be eaten – a quick Google search showed that ALL parts are edible. The stems can be boiled, the flowers make a colourful addition to a salad and the roots can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. On that note be warned because pulling dandelions with the root attached is not easy. The roots can be about an inch in diameter and about 10 inches long. I have tried dandelion coffee but unfortunately it doesn’t really compare to the proper coffee bean variety. Maybe it is an acquired taste.

Last year I watched the series River Cottage Every Day on Channel  4 and in one episode Pam Corbin made dandelion jelly.  I have included her recipe below.

At the same time as having culinary uses, dandelions, like a lot of plants, have medicinal properties too. Dandelions have a well known diuretic effect and they aid liver function. So when you tuck into your dandelion jelly or salad garnished with dandelion flowers, you can commend yourself on the fact that you are eating something nutritional also.

Just remember to ensure that the dandelions are insect-free!

Pam Corbin’s Dandelion Jelly

Ingredients:
500g apple cores and peel or chopped windfall apples
500g citrus fruit peel (unwaxed lemon, orange or grapefruit) roughly chopped
100g dandelion petals
450g granulated sugar for every 600ml of juice

Method:
1.  Put the apple cores, citrus peel and half of the dandelion petals into a large saucepan.  Add sufficient water to cover the contents of the saucepan (about 1.5 litres).  Bring to a simmer and cook slowly for 45-60 minutes.

2.  Pour the contents into a jelly bag and leave overnight to drip.

3.  Measure the strained liquid. For every 600ml of juice, measure out 450g of sugar.  Return the juice to the pan, bring to the boil and add the sugar.  Stir until dissolved then boil rapidly without stirring until setting point is achieved which will be about 10 minutes. 

4. Stir in the remaining dandelion petals.

5.  Remove from the heat and stir until any surface bubbles or scum have disappeared and the petals are well distributed.  Pour into clean jam jars and seal immediately.

6.  If the dandelion petals rise to the surface wait until the jelly has cooled a little and is beginning to set and then swivel the jar quickly to redistribute the petals.

Sales of garlic and chilli on the rise

It seems here in Ireland we are gaining an appetite for cooking with garlic and chillies or so figures released by a market research company indicate. Sales of garlic were up 27 per cent and sales of chillies grew by 24 per cent in the first three months of this year according to figures released by Nielsen Ireland.

By contrast frozen food sales are down. Is the frozen pizza on its way out? I doubt it but perhaps the consumer is coming to the conclusion that frozen foods are convenient but not always the cheapest option.