Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Taste of the Week. Skeaghanore Confit Duck Legs


Taste of the Week
Skeaghanore Confit Duck Legs

I’m sure most of you had lots of good food over the Christmas and New Year. And so did we. But one dish stood out and the basis for it was a pair of succulent Skeaghanore Irish Confit Duck Legs, bought in Bradley’s, North Main Street, Cork, as a “just in case” filler, just in case we didn’t have enough already!

These multi-award winning Skeaghanore Confit duck legs have taken the hassle out of cooking duck. The Hickey family have slow cooked the generously meaty legs for 5 hours and all you need to do is reheat! See Skeaghanore.ie for stockists.

We kept it simple, roasted it for 15 minutes and served with “Sweetheart” cabbage, roasted potatoes (cut at angles and coated with duck fat), and the jus from the duck itself. A magnificent Taste of the Week and one that will soon be repeated here.

Hickey's breed the Pekin duck "... because we live so close to Roaring Water bay, the salt air effects adds to the texture of the duck giving a salt marsh flavour. Our duck is succulent, tender and has a high meat yield."


Skeaghanore East,
Ballydehob, West Cork,
Ireland
 Phone: (028) 37428
 Mobile: (087) 2333184
 Email: info@skeaghnore.ie

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Taste of the Week

Taste of the Week
Skeaghanore Smoked Duck

Many of you will be familiar with the award winning Skeaghanore West Cork Duck, produced by Eugene and Helena Hickey near Ballydehob.  Recently, I spotted a pack of their Smoked Breast of Duck at the Fresh from West Cork stall in the English Market. I could see the duck through a "window" in the pack and couldn't resist. Traditionally smoked with oak, it is fully cooked and ready to eat. It is absolutely delicious, a really top notch product, tender and succulent and naturally plump but, in this case at least, with a lot less fat than you'll see on similar products. The 220 gram pack costs nine euro and is our Taste of the Week.

* A few weeks back, I highlighted a trio of quality ready to use dishes by Yumm! Since then, they have come up with another gem, called Lisheen Lasagne, also available at the Fresh from West Cork stall.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

GOURMET RAINBOW AT END OF BOREEN


GOURMET RAINBOW AT END OF BOREEN
Anthony Creswell with his 2010 UK Great Taste Gold and newly delivered salmon being processed.

On a boreen at the back of Timoleague, the back if we agree the front faces the estuary, there is a fork and if you take the left, even before you take the left, you will see a modest timber building below you.

It looks like a big hut but this is a state of the art smoke house and is the home of multi-award winning Ummera. Some of the awards are displayed outside. I had a guide here last week, none other than the owner Anthony Creswell.

Not only is this building a state of the art organic smoke house, it is also a highly efficient production unit, very streamlined indeed with the raw material arriving at one door and the tasty finished products leaving at the other end.

On the day I arrived, a delivery of salmon from Clew Bay had been made. The ice-packed boxes were being opened and the salmon, all individually tagged, were being filleted in preparation for the smoking. At the end is the packing and the dispatch, a room from which these high class products are sent to destinations all over the world.

The much sought after Ummera Smoked Products include Smoked Organic Salmon, Organic Gravadlax, Smoked Eel, Smoked Chicken, Smoked Duck and Smoked Dry Cured Bacon and are available at a range of outlets in Ireland. Sea Salt from Portugal and Raw Cane Sugar (Organic) from Costa Rica are used in the process but no artificial preservatives.

Ummera products have even ended up in Hawaii but they are also appreciated locally and indeed I enjoyed a gorgeous plateful of them in Dillon’s Restaurant (highly recommended) in Timoleague village before meeting Anthony.

Aside from being a very efficient “production line”, the smoke house is also extremely environmentally friendly. There are armies of worms working out the back in the vermi-composting unit set up to dispose of production waste and the site has a natural wetland for water waste.

The business goes back to the early 70s but this new house was built in 2000 and modified in 2004 to meet the demanding standards required by the Irish Government and the EU for the export of meat and poultry products. This enabled Ummera Smoked Chicken and Smoked Dry Cured Bacon to be exported throughout the EU in compliance to EU regulations. The Ummera Smoke house is the only one in Ireland licensed to smoke both fish and meat (including poultry).

Check out all the fascinating details here. http://www.ummera.com/