Sunday lunch with a difference at Greene’s Restaurant

 Sunday lunch with a difference at Greene’s Restaurant

Halloumi

Local Produce with a Global Twist

Greene's restaurant has undergone many changes in the past year, but its commitment to local producers remains strong. New Executive Head Chef Nicolas Alegre and his team are putting a Spanish and South American twist on the menu, with stunning results.

Alegre is using local produce from Twomey's Butchers, Glenmar Fish, and Ardsallagh Cheese, and others, to create dishes that are both delicious and innovative. His Slow-cooked Twomey's Pork Belly with black garlic, hibiscus, cauliflower puree, and bechamel sauce is a must-try, as is his Glenmar Salmon Peruvian Tiradito with coriander oil, lime sauce, and onion salad. 

Tiradito

Super Flavours and Textures

The flavours and textures in Alegre's dishes are simply superb. The pork belly is tender and juicy. The salmon is fresh and delicate, with a hint of spice from the coriander oil and lime sauce.

Tiradito: A Peruvian Dish with Japanese Influences

Tiradito is a Peruvian dish of raw fish, cut in the shape of sashimi, and served in a spicy sauce. It reflects the influence of Japanese immigrants on Peruvian cuisine. Alegre's Tiradito is a perfect example of this fusion cuisine, with its delicate salmon, tangy lime sauce, and crunchy onion salad.

Last Sunday we were back at Greene's, where the experienced Ricardo Pinto heads up the front-of-house staff, for lunch We were greeted warmly and our coats were taken and hung up for us. We were soon seated at our "usual" window seat, with its beautiful view of the waterfall.

We opted for the regular lunch menu, which is a four-course meal for €42.50. The same menu is also available as an Early Bird, but be sure to check the website for times.

We started with a delightful amuse-bouche of mini fish cakes with a lime sauce. This was a lovely surprise and it set the tone for the rest of the meal.

We also had the breads, which were served with a delicious honey butter with sweet pepper and lime. The breads, white and brown, were fresh and crusty, and the butter was the perfect complement.

Pork Belly

The super flavours and textures just kept coming. My starter was the Slow-cooked Twomey’s Pork Belly (with black garlic, hibiscus, cauliflower puree, and bechamel sauce) while CL picked the Glenmar Salmon Peruvian Tiradito (with coriander oil, lime sauce, onion salad).

Both were absolutely top-notch. They looked so appetising and the promise was delivered. 

Cod

The fried fish of the day was Cod and that was accompanied by Pil Pil Vasco (Basque) and Spinach. Quite a lovely piece of fish, the cooking was spot on. My pick was the Grilled Halloumi, seasonal vegetables, and curry (Ras el hanout grilled halloumi, Indian chickpeas, curry). Another beautifully presented dish and it didn’t flatter to deceive - very happy with it. 

You can have a side with each of the mains and we enjoyed their Honey Roast Root Veg and Triple Cooked Fries. Rosemary Baby Potatoes and Buttery Mash were also available.

The Woodruff set cream pudding is a long-time favourite dessert here and is still on the menu! But this time, we choose the Burnt Basque Cheesecake, enhanced delightfully by blackberry textures. 

Basque cheesecake

A big thumbs up for the dessert (and the coffee) and for the meal in general! If you are looking for a four-course Sunday lunch menu that is a bit different from the norm, and is both delicious and affordable, I highly recommend you check this out!

The Lunch Menu

Begin

Ardsallagh Goats Cheese (with apricot, candy walnuts, roasted oats.

Slow-cooked Twomey’s Pork Belly (with black garlic, hibiscus, cauliflower puree, bechamel sauce.

Glenmar Salmon Peruvian Tiradito ((with coriander oil, lime sauce, onion salad). Vegetable Tisotto (with Aioli and vegetables).

Spanish Asidillo (with fresh mix lettuce and pickled vegetables).

Mains

Pan Fried Fish of the Day (Pil Pil Vasco, Spinach).

Striploin of Twomey’s Beef (Smoke Mash, Broccoli, Café de Paris Beef Sauce).

Grilled Halloumi, seasonal vegetables, curry (with Ras el hanout grilled halloumi, Indian chickpeas, curry).

Mint and Spinach Risotto (Stir-fry spinach).

Sweet

Chocolate and coconut cream (dark Chocolate, Toasted Coconut, Dark Chocolate Sorbet).

Woodruff set cream pudding (Caramelised apple, oats, vanilla ice-cream)

Burnt Basque Cheesecake (Blackberry Textures).

Selection of sorbet

To Finish

Freshly Brewed Tea or Coffee

SANO serves up a slice of Naples in Cork

media release

SANO serves up a slice of Naples in Cork

The authentic taste of Naples has arrived in Cork with the opening of the highly affordable Neapolitan pizzeria SANO Pizza.

SANO has ventured to Cork after successes seen in Dublin and Glasgow and promises to bring the same quality and service speed to their new home at Parnell Place.

Pizzas are made Neapolitan style with a softer and lighter base and chewy crusts using a sourdough, which has lower salt content than other styles. All dough is made on-site daily, using only four ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast. The dough is fermented for a minimum of 48 hours, which breaks down the gluten and starch, creating the lighter style. Each pizza is hand stretched before being topped with ingredients sourced from Italy, including spicy salami from Calabria, mozzarella di
bufala, La Rosina tomatoes and the finest, softest ‘00’ flour considered the gold standard for Neapolitan pizza. 

The restaurant has two Valoriani Italian ovens which cook pizzas at 450 degrees in 90 seconds. The menu is straightforward and unfussy. Pizzas include the ‘SANO Marinara simple’ with tomato sugo, garlic, basil and oregano, as well as the ‘Sapori Del Sud’ - Italian fennel sausage, nduja (a spicy pork sausage), Italian broccoli and options for mozzarella de bufala. For anchovy fans, the Maradona comes with the salty umami flavoured fish, capers, oregano, olives, basil, garlic, fresh mozzarella & tomato sugo. And vegans can enjoy a drool-worthy pizza topped with crema porcini, roast potato, black olives and fresh baby spinach.

All pizzas are priced between €6.90 and €13.50. Sides include Meat or Veg Antipasto, Caprese salad and Burrata with cherry tomatoes & extra virgin olive oil. For those with a sweet tooth, there are milkshakes and a selection of desserts, including soft vanilla ice cream served in a bowl or cone from €3.50 or cheat day favourite Nutella Pizza, which comes with strawberries or banana.

The restaurant has seating for 140 guests. The open plan design extends to the kitchen, allowing diners to see the talented ‘pizzaiolos’ at work. The highly Instagrammable design-led interior includes reclaimed wood panels, geometric tile flooring, industrial lighting and walls covered in sassy photography and graffiti murals inspired by those on buildings in Naples.

Co-owner Raymond MacHugh said: “We’re passionate about giving people in Cork the finest Neapolitan Pizzas at an affordable cost. In other traditional Italian outlets, a family of four could expect to pay in excess of €100, whereas in SANO Cork Centre, a family of 4 could have 4 x 12 inch Margherita’s, a glass of wine, pint of beer, 1 litre of cloudy lemonade and a pizza Nuttela enough to share for 4 for only €59.”

SANO Cork Centre is the first in Cork and follows two successful SANO restaurants in Dublin and one in Glasgow for restauranteur twins Raymond and Tony MacHugh, who have owned restaurants in Ireland for more than three decades.

The substantial €½ million renovation of the previous Sliced Pizza location was carried out by Opus Construction & Developments, with consultancy from DL Group Consulting Engineers, both Cork-based firms. SANO expect to employ up to 60 staff.

Opening hours are Sunday-Wednesday 12 noon-10 p.m., Thursday 12 noon-10:30 p.m. and 12 noon–11 pm Friday and Saturday. Home delivery is available via Deliveroo.

For more information, visit sano.pizza

PepperBox Shiraz Will Spice Up Your Home Cooking

PepperBox Shiraz Will Spice Up Your Home Cooking 

PepperBox Shiraz SE Australia 2019, 14% ABV

€13.50 in Supervalu and Dunnes Stores; also available in Carry Out stores

“Bring your food to life with the spicy aromas and blackcurrant and cherry flavours of Pepperbox Shiraz. The wine's sublime intensity is hard to resist, especially if you are slow cooking, searing or grilling.” That’s the encouraging call from producers Casella to try their Australian Shiraz.

So let us try! The colour is a deep ruby. Aromas are rich, and peppery. And these aromas accompany superb flavours, ripe fruit character (blackcurrant and cherry) and smooth tannins, all the way to a spicy finalé, a peppery punch which is a trademark of Shiraz, especially Australian Shiraz. As the label says, “It’s what makes the PepperBox the perfect partner if you are eating chargrilled, seared, roasted or slow cooked…..”

Might be no harm to put a few bottles aside for the Christmas as it pairs well with most meats right the way through to chocolate desserts. Naturally intense, it is the perfect partner for great food and the ideal choice for get-togethers and special occasions with friends and family.

Specific parcels of fruit were selected across a variety of regions in South Australia. These parcels had a full, rich flavour profile and contained certain characteristics the winemaking team wanted to showcase. The fermentation of the fruit was across a span of 5-7 days at mild to warmer temperatures. Wines then spent up to 9 months in contact with a mixture of new and second-year oak prior to bottling.

PepperBox comes from sunny South Eastern Australia. It's a part of Casella Family Brands, the largest family-owned wine brand in Australia. Started in 1969 by Filippo and Maria Casella and is now run by their son John Casella.

While Casella had a long experience of wine in Italy, it wasn’t exactly an overnight success in Oz. But their turn-of-the-century partnership with a leading American distributor changed all that. Their spectacular rise to prominence in the US led renowned Australian wine writer AD Halliwell to call Cassella “A modern-day fairytale success story”. 

So there are good reasons to keep an eye on this relatively recently launched PepperBox which is aimed at “the more adventurous shopper who has a keen interest in cooking at home, and who is prepared to pay a little more for their wine to match this food and impress their hosts, or indeed for the guests to choose a wine to take round to their hosts and impress.”

I reckon they are pretty much on the bullseye with this Shiraz. Highly Recommended

Ballymaloe Foods add a grown-up twist to delicious cranberry sauce! i-Stil 38 Premium Irish Vodka in a limited-edition for Christmas

Ballymaloe Foods add a grown-up twist to a delicious cranberry sauce!

iStil Ballymaloe Foods Royale

i-Stil 38 Premium Irish Vodka in a limited-edition for Christmas. 

As part of their ongoing commitment to engage with the best local Irish producers, Ballymaloe Foods is proud to announce details of their latest partnership, a cranberry sauce made with i-Stil 38 Premium Irish Vodka.

Since the brand was established in 1990, Ballymaloe Foods has always prioritized working with the best producers and suppliers to ensure their products are of the highest quality and always taste great. Their collaboration with i-Stil 38 Premium Irish Vodka is a prime example.

One of the three vodkas in the i-Stil 38 portfolio, is a pink berry made naturally with distilled Irish grains and Irish berries. It is rich with a fresh, fruity flavour and was chosen by the Ballymaloe team to infuse with their cranberry sauce. The end result is a grown-up twist on a delicious cranberry sauce that works wonderfully with roast turkey, nut loaf, brie cheese or even mixed into a festive cocktail.

General Manager of Ballymaloe Foods and daughter of the company’s founder, Maxine Hyde adds,

“With the holiday season nearly upon us, no dinner table is complete without a jar of cranberry sauce - whether it's destined for the plate or lovingly dressed onto a sandwich, it is the perfect accompaniment to so many Christmas meals. I have also taken great pleasure in mixing our Ballymaloe & i-Stil 38 Vodka cranberry sauce into some very tasty cocktails, an ideal way to celebrate some Christmas cheer!”

Oisin Davis* of Great Irish Beverages consulted on a cocktail creation for the cranberry sauce, a simple drink to mix up either at home or in a bar.

CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS ROYALE

INGREDIENTS:
35 ml i-Stil 38 pink berries vodka, 1 teaspoon Ballymaloe & i-Stil 38  vodka cranberry sauce, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, 100 ml of dry prosecco and a lemon twist to garnish.

METHOD:
Place the cranberry sauce into an iced shaker and pour in the vodka and lemon juice. Seal the shaker and shake hard for ten seconds. Fine strain the cocktail into a chilled champagne glass before topping up with the prosecco and garnishing with a lemon twist.

* Fancy more cocktails with great Irish ingredients? Try Oisin's debut book,"Irish Kitchen Cocktails", published earlier this October (2023).

Valley of the Spiders. Sunday at Glen River Park

Valley of the Spiders. Sunday at Glen River Park

22.10.2023

CorkBillyBeers #50. Quite a quartet of craft with Kinnegar, Third Barrell, O'Hara's and Rodenbach.

CorkBillyBeers #50

Craft with Kinnegar, Thired Barrell, O'Hara's and Rodenbach.

Four beauties for you in #50

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Kinnegar has a festival beer for you. 

Kinnegar Leaf Kicker 2023 Marzen, 5.9% ABV, 440 ml can Bradleys

Gorgeous golden/amber colour on this one, a repeat of last year's Leaf Kicker Märzen, one that I enjoyed immensely. And it's the same again in 2023. “You enjoyed it so much in 2022 (and we did too) that we’re giving it another whirl before departing this particular chapter of German lager tradition”, say Kinnegar, meaning that they’ll more than likely move on to another German lager style (festival related no doubt) for 2024.

There’s a lovely bubbly white head atop the gold/amber. It has an almost creamy mouthfeel.  This supple beer leads with its rich malts, along with a sweetish bagel flavour and a touch of caramel. It finishes clean and a little hoppy.

It is deeply refreshing and also well suited to food including BBQ, pizzas and tacos plus a chicken from the rotisserie. A deeply satisfying lager and  Very Highly Recommended.

Geek Bits

LEAF KICKER 5.9% ABV

STYLE Märzen

COLOUR Dark amber

HOPS German noble

TASTE A deeply satisfying lager.

KNOWN AS Märzen was the original Oktoberfest beer

AVAILABILITY Autumn seasonal

440ML can and keg

BB: 04.05.24 (bouight 25.09.23)

Most of us who have hosted and or attended weddings will no doubt have enjoyed a beer or two. Very few weddings have started a beer trend. But that’s what happened when a royal wedding between Ludwig (the future king) and Therese took place in Bavaria in October 1810. That party was so good and the couple so popular that another party was held the following year and so Octoberfest was established.

By 1819, the festival had become a 2-week event (beer was just one strand), now organised by the city of Munich, and kicked off, as it does now, in mid-September. Marzen was the main style of beer for the festival and its name came from the fact that it was brewed in March to be at its best in Autumn.

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Third Barrel Vulture Culture Cold IPA, 6.0% ABV, 440 ml can Bradleys

Third Barrel: “Clean, crisp and bursting with flavours of ripe tangerine, peach and papaya from a healthy dose of Idaho 7 Cryo and Luminosa hops.”

Rice is also included in the ingredients. The beer is fermented with lager yeast, add in those hops and you get, as promised, a clean refreshing and fruit-forward cold IPA.

From Idaho 7, comes pungent tropical fruit and citrus (think apricot, orange, red grapefruit, papaya) with big notes of resiny pine and hints of black tea.  Here though, we are talking Idaho7 Cryo and that, designed to be aromatic and flavour enhancing,  means you get an even more potent aroma and flavour and also good bitterness.

Add in the contribution from Luminosa and the whole beer is brighter, the tropical side enhanced and you know you’ve got a good thing going.

At least, you've got a good thing going if you know your stuff as well as Third Barrel does! Very Highly Recommended.

Most of us are familiar with the hop cone, used by brewers for centuries. Then along came hop pellets and now we have Cryo, which is so concentrated that they’ve become an essential in a brewer’s toolbox. 

The word Cryo (or similar) pops up a lot these days and you may be familiar with it through medicine (especially sports) where certain injuries can benefit from Cryotherapy Treatments, a kind of ultra-cold immersion. Cryo comes from the old Greek word for cold. 

On to the hops then which, using liquid nitrogen (which your doctor might use to make a wart vanish), the raw hops are quickly chilled to sub-zero temperatures — after that, the producers shatter it. More on the process here .

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O’Hara’s Irish Red Ale, 4.3% ABV, 500 ml bottle Dunnes Stores 

The Carlow Brewing crew is quite proud of their red ale: “This Red stands out in this beer style category. The malt body is as impressive as a bock, albeit in a uniquely Irish way. With an incredibly smooth malt body complimented by caramel tones and perfectly balanced in bitterness, this Irish Red is much more complex than its mainstream rivals.”

O’Hara’s has a very dark red robe but that “dense lasting white head” fails to materialise, though I have to add subsequent top-ups did shape up with a coffee-coloured crown. Roasted caramel stands out in the aromatics. And you get that caramel and toffee flavour on the palate as well, thanks to the addition of a “pinch of roast barley during the brewing process”. The sweetness of the malt and traditional hop flavour combine well. A terrific example of the style gets a major thumbs up from this quarter.

Excellent balance and Very Highly Recommended

 

They say: Visually the red colour is intensified by the finest roast barley, while subtle hop additions in the kettle give just the right bitterness and aroma to craft this distinctive Irish Red Ale. The traditional red ale style is sweet malt based, dominated by caramel malts which give a sweet malt base complimented by nutty flavours in complete contrast to the Belgian Red ale style which has a distinctly sour character attributed to lactic acid.

For the Geek

Style: Traditional Red Ale

ABV: 4.3%

Plato °: 10.75°

IBU: 34 

Fermentation: Top fermentation 

Availability: Keg (carbonated), Bottle 50cl and 33cl (occasional 41L cask)

Serving Temperature: 6-8°C

Food Pairing: Pairs well with baked and roasted main courses from the oven such as beef hotpot. Also excellent with winter soups. A delicious accompaniment to mature cheddar or soft goat cheeses.

Glass: O’Hara’s tulip glass or O’Hara’s conical glass. 

BB: 28.08.24 (bought 20.09.24)

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Rodenbach Grand Cru Flanders Red Ale, 6% ABV, 330 ml bottle Bradleys

Brownish red is the colour of our Rodenback Grand Cru Red ale. With a short-lived coffee-coloured head. Aromas are certainly on the sour side. There’s also quite a tang on the palate but also the sweet contribution of delicious fruit flavour. Complex and amazing and a totally different animal to the O’Hara’s Red Ale. 

The sourness in the aromas is repeated on the palate and, if you’re not prepared for it, you might as well throw your hat at it at this stage. Someone here has joked that a citron pressé would be a better drink. But remember, it is “probably the most award-winning beer in the world”. So pay a little heed and a little respect!

Soon, at least for me, that complex fruitiness begins to assert itself, both on the palate and all the way through to the finish and you realise there is much more to this than the obvious sour character. Sour comes up quite often but I’m pretty sure the word doesn’t appear on the label (lots of tiny print though!)

The Rodenbach Grand Cru sour red/brown at 6%, is a blend of 1/3rd young beer and 2/3 of beer aged two years in large oak vats, giving fruity taste, complexity and intensity. It even has its own AOC. It takes over two years to make (even the angel’s share happens here and they know the good things) and the young beer is added to restart fermentation. 

I throw in the odd non-Irish beer, not to be rated, but just for variety and as an example of what can be done by our much more experienced Belgian and German brewers. Perhaps a few of these could be enticed over here for collaborations.

The Rodenbach Grand Cru is the archetypal Flanders red-brown beer. Each of these beers is a unique blend, but they all share a brewing process characteristic of the area surrounding Roeselare and Kortrijk.

The typical sweet and sour taste of a Rodenbach Grand Cru is produced by a two-stage fermentation process called mixed fermentation, involving top-fermentation and bacterial fermentation using lactic acid bacteria. The Rodenbach Grand Cru matures in oak foeders, or barrels, over a period of two years, giving the beer a unique, complex fruitiness that is reminiscent of wine.

Rodenbach, the mother beer, is usually one-quarter mature beer to three-quarters young beer. When it comes to Rodenbach Grand Cru, the blend is two-thirds mature beer with one-third of a young brew added.

By the way, there is a series of these Rodenbachs and do watch out for the Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. It is billed as a red/brown sour and it is sour but also packs amazing fruitiness. The beer is macerated with fresh cherries, raspberries and cranberries and, after that, is matured in oak barrels.

BB: 15.12.25 (bought 25.09.23)