Blackberry Syrup

Made this last night with my last pick of blackberries and it is fab. This weekend is probably your last chance to pick and you may have to search. In Marley park last sunday there were still lots of red ones about. This recipe (minus the lemon) is adapted from Larrousse Gastronomique.

Put 1 kilo of picked-over de-stalked blackberries in a shallow bowl with a glass of water (about 8fl oz) and leave over night (or for three days like I did). Pour the lot into a food processor or blender and whizz to extract as much juice as possible. Push the pulp through a sieve, scraping to get as much flesh as you can. Add 400g/12oz of caster sugar and stir until the sugar disolves. I heated it slightly to aid the process but be very careful as heat will destroy some of the flavour (and vitamin c). I then added the juice of half a lemon as I felt the taste needed it. Bottle filling to within a inch or two of the top. I filed 2 old grolsch bottles but I am sure plastic coke bottles will work just as well.

I will pour this on ice-cream and apple tarts and crumbles, make kir and other cocktails with it and I also reckon I could add a glass of it to double cream and make into ice-cream as my blackberry ice cream recipe is almost identical.

Note: adding the lemon adds pectin so it will thicken or even solidify a little - but I feel this is not a bad thing.

Pregnant women and drink

Interesting news story on Decanter website this morning on pregnant women and drinking -

"UK health experts now say it is safe for women to drink during the early months of pregnancy – advice which flies in the face of government guidelines.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), an independent organisation, has said it is safe for women to have 'less than one drink' – or 1.5 units - of alcohol a day after the first trimester of pregnancy.
A 125ml of wine at 12.5% alcohol by volume is over just over 1.5 units. Binge drinking is defined as 'more than five standard drinks', and may be particularly harmful during pregnancy.
http://www.decanter.com/news/150192.html

at last some sense on this subject. has anyone out there ever met someone with foetal alcohol syndrome and if they have was that caused by their mother having a glass or two of wine with dinner every evening or was it because their mother drank 1-2 bottles of gin every day.

During my wife's pregnancy and subsequent visits to the rotunda I spoke about this with every consultant we met and the general consensus was that the hysterical attitude on this issue is not generally coming from European studies (with a few exceptions in the UK) but from US ones. The Purtian ethic is alive and well in the US heartland and filters into this debate just as it does into everything from nudity to swearing (cf. janet jackson).

I strongly doubt there is a mother or pregnant woman in Ireland that did not have a few drinks sometime early in their pregnancy (before she knew she was pregnant). And again I ask where are all the foetal alcohol affected babies?

we are even starting this bullying in Ireland with new labels on wine bottles coming any day now....http://www.independent.ie/national-news/alcohol-labels-to-have-baby-warning-1197809.html

Given that water was often unsafe to drink for most of the last 1000 years we resorted to drinks containing alcohol - beer, wine, cider etc. (the chinese boiled their water to purify it and put leaves in to add flavour - hence tea), surely a substantial portion of the population of Europe (and those in america of european ancestry) would have had a long history of foetal alcohol syndrome in their families or at very least a long history of babies affected by smaller birth weight and all the rest.

All this is just more bullying of women in my view and causes endless worry about what they did before they knew they were pregnant. I guarantee that worry and stress like this causes more problems than a glass or two of wine.

Of course excessive drinking doesnt do anyone any good (adult, child or foetus), but lets get some perspective on this.

To show I am not alone in this view let me quote Jancis Robinson, (a mother and gifted wine writer)...

“in this, our male dominated society, men feel entitled to lecture pregnant women on how they should best discharge their responsibilities to their unborn children.”

Jancis has written extensively and lucidly on the subject but I found that quote via google on this article - http://www.beekmanwine.com/prevtopak.htm which supports my view.

More of the same in her book - The Demon Drink or her more recent biog Confessions of a Wine Lover or check out her site http://www.jancisrobinson.com/

Alexis Dun Laoghaire

Alexis Bar and Grill
17/18 Patricks Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin Tel: (01) 280 8872
Tu-Fri: 12.30 - 2.30, 5.30 - 10.00. Sat: 5.30 - 10.00. Sun: 12.30 - 3.00pm, 5.30 - 9.00

Alexis Bar and Grill in Dun Laoghaire is named after famous 19th century French chef Alexis Benoit Soyer who ran canteens for the poor in London and in Dublin during the famine, providing nutritious food at knockdown prices.

Well we are no longer poor but we still need good quality nutritious food at knockdown prices – and this is exactly what Alexis does very well.

The room is bright, modern and open plan and on Saturday evening last there were families, couples and small and large groups of friends of all ages all happily tucking in.

We arrived as evening service was beginning and with only a handful of the 90 tables filled. There is only one bad table in the restaurant as far as I could tell and of course that is where we were placed – right beside the busy staff cloakroom on the edge of a banquette. We asked if we could be moved, particularly as we had promised to be gone by around 7pm, and were told no. Just no. With a bit of forcefulness however we got our way.

The rather curt attitude of staff continued during the meal but this was really only a minor irritation and was relatively easily ignored.

The menu is short and to the point with many dishes doubling as starters and main courses. Encouragingly suppliers are listed on the menu, as is a declaration of intent to “source where we can organic free range produce.”

Among the dishes we could have ordered included bistro classics such as confit of duck terrine, smoked haddock tartlet, roast duck with plum sauce, mushroom risotto and slow roasted belly of pork with apple compote.

We started with a half portion of Spinach and Ricotta & Fresh Ham Ravioli with Parmesan, Tomato Pesto and Petit Salad for €8.50 plus a Potted Local Shrimp & Crab with Alexis’ Homemade Brown Bread & Summer Salad at €9.50.

The flavours in the ravioli starter were quite fine with enough complexity and subtlety to make this a successful dish but it was marred by the fact the ham in the ravioli was still cold and the pasta itself a little stodgy. Having said that the solid flavours and the excellent salad leaves meant that I ate it all and might even order it again on my next visit (yes, I will be back).

The brown bread with the potted shrimp (potted with butter in a ramekin) was solid fare with decent fresh brown bread and again quality well-dressed leaves.

For mains I ordered Harry Buckley’s Free Range Grilled Rib Eye of Beef, Gratin Potatoes, Café de Paris Butter €22.50. The steak was almost an inch thick, rare as requested, with good flavour and virtually perfect Gratin potatoes – crispy top and thin creamy slices of potato. The café de paris butter appeared to be flavoured with tangerine (or more likely Satsuma) rind and was not to my taste but was easy enough to push aside.

The bargain of the meal was the very generous portion of Baked Shoulder of Lamb “Nicoise” cooked with olives, tomatoes and herbs at a mere €15.50. The lamb was melt in the mouth tender, and the combination of braising flavours were complementary, without in any way overwhelming the delicate flavours of the lamb. The accompanying mash was declared by my charming wife to be: “as good as it gets – and better than yours by the way!” A perfect dish.

A separate mention must go to our side order of home made chips which were thin, crispy and perfectly seasoned, and at a mere €3 deserve to be ordered with every course including dessert.

Desserts are a mere €5.50 so we ordered three… Warm Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream was exactly as you would wish – rich, sticky, moist hot brownie with cool flavourful ice cream. Fresh Poached Peach Melba with Vanilla Ice Cream was also classic (if understandably served without the ice-sculpture swan) with good quality peach and tangy raspberry sauce. Fresh Fruit Tart, Crème Anglaise could have been better as the pastry was a little spongy and the crème pâtissière a little bland and light on vanilla, but it was still pretty damn good.

The wine list is another bargain point with a short but carefully chosen selection of wines beginning under €20 and with most under €30. How many wine lists, even those that run to 30 pages, include Argentinian Viognier, Torrontes and Sangiovese, Minervois, Dao, Ribero, Priorat, Bierzo, and Brouilly - not to mention two quality rosé’s and an Austrian Gruner Veltliner? Our bottle of Dao Quinta de Cabriz at €23 was ripe and soft and a perfect match for the lamb and steak. The glass of Soave was a little light but still a good foil for the shrimp.

Final bill was just €109 - one of the cheapest meals of this quality I have had in Dublin.

Saturday's Haul

Found this lot of Shaggy Ink Caps and Shaggy Parasols on Saturday morning in a quick 20 minute cycle around my usual spots. This lovely mild weather is perfect for mushrooms - and for these mushrooms in particular so expect more until we get a cold snap. I read recently that a small number of people are mildly allergic (skin rashes, slight nausea) to the shaggy parasol but I have never experienced anything untoward. I find more of these mushrooms in Ireland than almost any other. You lose a lot of water from these types so I like to bake them in the oven with some olive oil, lemon and herbs before adding them to risottos, omelettes, pasta or just spread on toasted crusty bread.

Locks
1 Windsor Terrace, Portobello, Dublin 8. Tel: 01 4543391 http://www.locksrestaurant.ie/
12-3 and 6-11 Monday-Saturday

A couple of years ago when L’Gueleton opened Dublin suddenly realised what we had been missing – quality French bistro food at inexpensive prices and an informal atmosphere. Their enormous success led to many more French style bistros opening and many are serving excellent food, but for the best bistro food in the city there is only one place to go – Locks. And who is running Locks? Yes, the man who ran l’Gueleton Troy Maguire...

Put simply, based on the night I was there, this is some of the finest tasting food in the country.

Forgive the extended metaphors, but you occasionally hear of a chef “shooting from the hip,” well Maguire is a practiced, perfectionist marksman –Vasili Zaitsev (the famed Russian sniper of Stalingrad) rather than Billy the Kid – every dish we ate was faultless.

Starters range from €7.50 to €16 and we were hard pressed to choose between them. In the end we had three between the two of us. Mackerel with horseradish, smoked eel, apple and fennel salad (€15) was crisply cooked mackerel with all the flavours in the salad working in harmony to lift and dignify the flavours of the fish. The apple and horseradish elements cleaned the palate of any oil while adding accents, the fennel added depth of flavour, and the dressing bound it all together.

Duck liver and foie gras parfait with spiced pear and cornichons (€14.90) had depth of flavour with lightness of touch – everything a parfait should be; and the Fisherman’s Soup (€9.50) had substance and heart warming flavours and even subtlety – difficult to achieve in a tomato based fish soup.

With our starters we drank a lovely bottle of Rueda from Monsalve at €28 - fragrant on the nose, honeyed and citrus fruit on the middle palate, but with crisp acidity on the finish; it coped admirably with the diverse flavours it was up against.

For mains we had “Mullard duck with puy lentils, glazed navet, broadbeans and devils on horseback (€26.50)” which was served perfectly pink and full of flavour (sourced from the Champagne region according to our waitress, and according to Google a Mullard is a cross between a Mallard and a Muscovy duck). The broadbeans and baby carrots were perfect with it while the devils on horseback acted as a foil and the figs added a touch of class.

Dry aged ribeye steak with bearnaise or snail and Roquefort sauce, watercress and chips (€28.90) was perfection. The chips were quite honestly among the finest I have ever tasted and remained crisp and fluffy from first to last. Upon enquiry I was told they are blanched three times before being fried in oil – such perfectionism pays off admirably. The steak was correctly cooked, full of flavour, and the sauces (we ordered béarnaise and snail and mushroom) were almost licked from their ramekins.

For wine with our mains we had a Ribero del Duero from Hijos de Antonio Polo, a steal at €26, medium bodied and juicy – slightly more suited to the duck than the steak.

For dessert we moved to some comfy chairs near the bar and shared an intense “single estate chocolate brownie with kumquat and vanilla ice cream” (€8.50) and a couple of glasses of sweet Gaillac for €9 each. This was probably the richest and most complex and perfect brownie I can remember tasting – a flavour that lingers even now a week later. The chocolate was Valrhona Palmira from Venezuela (they showed us) but I know this chocolate and excellent as it is, the perfection of the brownie came from the chef.

The bill was €189 .80 with no service charge and we floated out on a high caused by much more than the wine.

Walnuts

Walnuts - More of the treasures of Autumn if you know where to look. My hands are black from peeling these damn things (apparantly when they had an empire British chaps used to use juice from walnut husks to disguise themselves as natives and head down to the marketplace in Kabul or New Delhi to find out what the natives were thinking - or so my friend Dermot tells me!)

Best to remove the green husk after a few days as it is easy to break the shell if you do it too soon. They take a few days to dry out but taste fantastic. I seem to have left it too late for Hazelnuts as all I could find were empty husks around my usual tree but I am determined to get a good haul of chestnuts this year - St. Endas has dozens of trees but I reckon the ones in the Phoenix Park will yield better results.

Balzac
35 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 677 8611, http://www.balzac.ie/

According to the website Paul Flynn’s Balzac is designed to “recreate the ambiance and glamour of the best Parisian brasseries”, and he largely succeeds.

The bling of the old La Stampa restaurant has all but gone to be replaced with comfortable cool green leather banquettes and bentwood chairs with green cushioned seats. The lighting is diffuse and the ambiance is comfortable and relaxing. To get the true Parisian Bistro feel the room will need a couple of years wear but so far so good.

The menu is classic French Bistro with the odd twist (French Onion and Beetroot Soup, Brandade of Cod with Catalan Escalivada) and some classic Paul Flynn such as Crab Crème Brulee.

For starters I opted for Oysters Mignonette €12.50 (about as classic as they come) and herself had the Crab Crème Brulee with pickled cucumber. The pacific oysters were spanking fresh and served on the half shell and the accompanying mignonette sauce of shallots, vinegar and herbs worked well. The Crème Brulee was creamy, crabby, sweet and tasty as with the pickled cucumber a perfect foil. One crib however is both of us felt the dish would have worked better had it been served with a hint of warmth throughout rather than stone cold with a hint of warmth in the top.

For main I had “Pot au Feu of Pork” for €22.50 which turned out to be an essentially vegetable broth (albeit one made with meat stock) topped with a slab of slow roast belly of pork and mashed potatoes. Now pot-au-feu is a meat stew (“the foundation of empires” according to the Comte de Mirabeau) made with varied boiled meats and if I had wanted roast belly of pork I would have looked for it on the menu. It tasted fine but badly needs a name change in my view.

“Slow Cooked Beef, Horseradish and Parsley Crust” €25 was rich, full flavoured and melted in the mouth. The horseradish could have been a little more piquant but that is a quibble. The small boy had a perfectly rare and very tasty “Rib Eye Steak with Bearnaise Mousseline and Fries” for €27. Praise the Lord the chips were as they should be – thin, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle - other restaurants take note; if we want wedges we will ask for them.
We couldn’t resist a couple of extra potato dishes – duck fat roast potatoes and dauphinoise potatoes at €4.50 each – the dauphinoise was very good but the duck fat roasties were fantastic, and tasted even better the next day when heated up in tinfoil with some of the left over beef (our doggy bag).

Our shared Chocolate Truffle cake was rich, chocolaty quite fine in flavour rather than unctuous – I would have preferred unctuous, but elegance has its place too.

The wine list is creative and quite interesting but with few bargains – house wines are €26. For something interesting I felt the need to spend €32 (the next cheapest red as it happened) which got a fine elegant, slightly spicy bottle of Cotes du Rhone from the excellent co-op Vignerons D’Estezargues.

Total bill came to just over €190 including 12.5% service charge. On mature reflection this final bill seems a little more than the meal was worth. This is generally very solid bistro cooking, but that price tag seems to lead one to expect just a tad more.