Email
RSSIrish Food at its best.
Posted under: It pains me to do this but have you ever googled Irish Food ‘images’? Don’t. Well do. Here. I will take the pain out of it by providing an easy link to what google thinks Irish Food looks like.
A lot of brown, right? Well, in order to improve our over all googled-global-Irish-food-image, Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board) has asked all the Irish Food Bloggers to include the words ‘Irish Food’ in the titles of our blog posts. I can see how this would help, because gawd almighty there are some excellent food bloggers in Ireland with more than a keen eye for capturing what is on our tables and going in to our bellies. But, let’s face it, it would be near impossible (for me anyway) to put the words ‘Irish Food’ in the titles of my blog posts. It just would not say ‘enough’.
I am here, in Ireland. We eat a healthy diet of food — 80% — produced within a 30 mile radius. It is as Irish as it gets. And, I think it looks real, and appetising. Not very brown at all.
Now, if you want to see better (and way more professional) images then pop back over to the Bord Bia website where they have a bank of Irish Food Images all laid out for you to look at.
Order a 'bone in pork loin' from your butcher.
Now on to more pressing matters. Isn’t it time that we started savouring Autumn? Don’t you want to release the last days of summer and welcome the scent of savoury roasts simmering in the oven. I know I do. Autumn is my favourite season.
Seeing as I started off on an Irish food kick, let us have a look at one of my favourite pieces of Irish meat: Irish Pork Loin. It is one of the loveliest pieces of meat going. A piece cut like this (8 bone) will run you about €24 at the butcher shop.
You will have to ask for it like this:
You: (the role of ‘you’ can be played by you and will not work if you are a guy reading this – sorry lads. Unless of course you are a guy that likes guys which is totally cool with me)
Hello Mr. Butcher. Can I please special order a ‘bone-in pork loin’ for a dinner party next week.
Butcher: (the role of the butcher can be played by Willy Vlautin).
Why sure you can honey. When do you need it for?
You:
Totally at a loss for words because his accent has thrown you for a loop into the world of ‘why in the heck did I not marry a man from Alabama with a soft southern drawl like that’ . . . . and then you snap out of it because you realise you did!
Ha ha ha, I did anyway.
Ok, so ask the butcher to trim off the ‘chine bone’ and LEAVE THE FAT ON. Yes, leave the fat on. Remember the saying ‘Fat is the train, upon which flavour rides’. You do not have to EAT the fat, but you need to use it for the cooking process.
On a side note, and to remind all you readers out there of the PURE HELL it is to live with an egotistical Chef like mine, he bitched and groaned about me not getting the butcher to cut off the chine bone. All weekend long. This coming from a man who butchers his own lamb and pork with a saw, in our kitchen. I’m just saying, no matter what I do – it is just never enough. For sixteen years now.
The night before we cooked this piece of meat we — and when I say we, you know I mean the Chef –soaked it overnight in a very large pot filled with water and salt. A very quick brine. Fill large pot with water. Add 1/2 cup of salt. Leave meat to soak overnight. (10 litres or 2.5 gallons : 1/2 cup of salt)
Because you cannot take instruction well, you are no longer needed in the kitchen and can start taking photos. Large pieces of raw garlic and rosemary are mixed into a nice puddle of extra virgin olive oil. Using coarse salt and coarsely ground black pepper, season your meat well on all sides. Do not skimp on the seasoning or the oil.
Get the seasonings in under the skin.
Place the beautiful piece of meat on a wire rack (like the thing you cook your turkey in at Christmas) in the middle of a blistering hot oven. Watch it like a hawk for a half hour until it is nice and brown.
Do.Not.Let.It.Burn.
Reduce the temperature in the oven to a low heat and let cook for 1 hour max. If you, like A LOT of other people in the world, like to cook your pork to death because you are still worried it might kill you, rest assured, it will not. Read this. I found it on the internet, so it must be true. I have been eating undercooked (carefully selected mind you) pieces of pork since the Chef started cooking it that way – A long long long time ago. And I am alright. I can just see my Mum reading this and her mouth dropping to the floor as she begins to wonder if we ever gave her some of that undercooked pork that might kill her. Rest assured Granny, we boil your piece first to kill every ounce of flavour and make it rubbery and dry, the way you like it. (side note – she is away for the weekend on some holy retreat so will not read this till later in the week and I might never catch hell for dogging her!)
The most beautiful yellow tomatoes from the polytunnel
I had planned on roasting some tomatoes for a nice side dish but it would have been criminal to do that to these beauties. So we just ate them with a bit of salt and pepper and wished our friend Farmer Jon was dining with us because the seeds came from his farm!
Once the pork has cooked, and looks and smells intoxicatingly good, LEAVE IT ALONE on the rack you cooked it on, for at least 15 minutes. It really needs to rest. Do not pick at it. And put the cat outside.
Ah. Yum indeed.
Blackberry and Apple Pie.
When our friends arrived for dinner on Friday night, the came bearing the best kind of gifts you can bring to our house. Apples that had been nicked (or picked) earlier that day. The Chef, in his usual fit of fancy, tore into peeling and coring the apples whilst I started to drink the nice wine we had just opened make a light shortbread pastry from scratch.
Biggest. Lie. Ever. (not about the wine though, it was happy hour after all).
I pulled out one of those ‘here’s one I bought earlier at Tesco for 99 cents’ and took it out of the box. It was one of those cheap already rolled shortcrust pastry rolls made by Tesco themselves and considerably cheaper than the ‘jus-roll’ brand. Happy to report it was quite nice and I would buy it again. Even the Chef grumbled less at using a ‘pre-made-pastry-crust’ when ‘making pastry is so easy’ yada yada yada ……give it a rest darling and have a glass of wine.
Bad shot taken with iPhone (sorry) but important to see messy kitchen. Also note that our butcher did not trim the 'chine' bone off the loin for us. I will make sure to ask him to do that with the next one or suffer the wrath of the Chef.
The pork loin was gorgeous. It was succulent and brimming with juices and cooked to perfection so the timing worked well. We served ours with a topping of balsamic glazed onions and some roquefort cheese. We added blackberries and pomegranate to the pan juices for a few minutes towards the end of the oven time and that was poured over the meat as it was plated up.
See how easy it is to feed four (very hungry) adults and six children all with hollow legs.
A piece of cake.
If, like it states below, you like reading WiseWords and want to stay in the loop for the ‘goody giveaways‘ I do on occasion, you need to sign up via email because if you are not in, you can’t win. And, I ship most goodies worldwide, so do not let that stop you. To seriously increase your chances of winning pop over to my WiseWords page on Facebook and click ‘Like’.
Those are all the WiseWords I have for today.
We are having a leftover pork chop sandwich for lunch. What are you having?
WiseMóna
No related posts.
Like this post? Subscribe for free by email to get notified of new posts.
32 Comments + Add Comment
Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!
About MónaI am a native Galway girl that seems to be drawn to professions that rhyme with 'err'. Writer, Mother, Restauranteur, Wedding Planner, Dishwasher, Grass cutter, Cocktail maker. I suppose you could say I am a well rounded entrepreneur.
You can find me here
About the ChefYou can't find the Chef here.
You might as well just come visit.
He prefers face to face communication.
From The Kitchen
Buy the Book
Recent Comments
- WiseMóna on Hot off the press – The Sunday Times interview and first column
- Simone on Hot off the press – The Sunday Times interview and first column
- WiseMóna on Hot off the press – The Sunday Times interview and first column
- catherine on Hot off the press – The Sunday Times interview and first column
- WiseMóna on Hot off the press – The Sunday Times interview and first column
Latest Tweets
Networked Blogs
Stats
So agree with you… there’s nothing like loin of pork…. with lots and lots of cracking!
I had a feeling you would agree with me Margaret!
Good stuff Mona! The website you linked to for Branstrator Farms is the bad and old one. http://www.branstratorfarm.com is the correct one. It’s a long story but the bad one shows up at the top of google serches. Oh, those Sungold cherry tomatoes are addictive candy!
Hey Jon. I fixed it. Sorry about that. I have also deleted the old link and added the new link to your new and shiny website on my browser. Lovely website it is too!
Miss you. Tomatoes and all Squash behaving themselves and being fabulous. Hope you are having a great pumpkin season. xxxxx
Looks absolutely amazing. Great for feeding a large crowd. A good butcher is only too happy to respond to customers’ requests. Blackberry & apple pie looks great too. Love your phototography.
Hi Colette,
Thanks for stopping by (and the comment). It is nice to find an obliging butcher and you are right, the good ones jump at the chance to
get you what you need. The pie was great. I love this time of year. Everything warm and yummy!
Yummy looking piece of meat – cooking a large joint in our house often means half the weeks’ menu is done. I never make pastry either
and just discovered that Superquinn do their own brand which is much better than the Jus Rol.
P.s. Autumn is my favourite time of year too!
I do not even know where the nearest Superquinn is to me in Galway, but I will make sure to look for it now.
I think that is one of the best things about cooking a nice roast. Assuming there are leftovers of course, it is nice to be able to have
the ‘meat’ part of dinner all ready to go!
This was like a French Film about Irish Food, all little significant character vignettes and enigmatic asides. I could just hear ‘Can’t Live if Living is Without You’ (piano version, no vocals) playing in the background during that butcher flirtation scene. Bravo. Next episode please.
You got the lyrics right Mise. There is a lot of carrying on in this kitchen of ours.
All good clean fun xx
Now that’s Irish food as it should be! Love the sound of the balsamic glazed onions, roquefort and blackberries, YUM.
Thanks Kristen. We used to serve pork chops with the same topping at the restaurant
back in the US. It was very very popular,
This post has me laughing out loud. Not to mention drooling. (and I don’t even eat pork!)
I have to admit that I ate very very very well in Ireland (I don’t eat potatoes either)
Went straight from Kerry to an old friend’s wedding though no longer fit in my outfit by that point. I blame the banoffee pie.
Your writing style is so wonderful.
Have a lovely week.
I am glad to hear you ate well whilst in Ireland! We have wonderful cuisine, wonderful farmers and producers.
I think that once the food bloggers get going the overall image of Irish food will be elevated quite a bit.
Thank you for the visit and have a great week too! xx
oooh, I’m hungry just looking at that
Thank you Lorna. I like making people hungry and then feeding them!
Rainy and dark here today but blissfully quiet in my home.
Great tip there on the own-brand pastry as I’ve never been entirely happy with Jus Rol. This post is a fabulous promotion for Irish pork – I’ll definitely be asking my butcher to prepare this cut for me in future.
Thanks Joanne. It is a fab piece of pork for sure. Full of flavour.
I am not really pushing Tesco at all, but some of their items (like said pastry) and a few other things are just very hard to beat price/quality wise.
Thanks for the visit!
It’s all your fault Mona! I’m starving!!!!
Ha ha! We aim to please Caroline! Pity you do not live closer ;0)
When in Galway, give me a shout xx
Oh my god Mona it doesn’t even look real~! I don’t even eat pork, and it’s only about 9am here in the States, but my mouth is watering!
Good morning Jen!
And I always LOVE IT when I can get the non-pork-eaters to find the images appetising.
The images on Google are atrocious. I really hope that we, Irish Food Bloggers, can change that image!
Thank you for stopping in for a visit. Hope you are well and happy in Ohio.
xx
24 euro for a piece like that… Hmm, well maybe in my wildest dreams.. I love pork but I really only love good pork. Once we went to our cooking class a couple of years ago and tasted real pork for the first time, we were spoiled for life. Still, I think I need to have the chef train us as we are simply not good in preparing large pieces of meat… We’re practising sofar with very mixed results..
Just as a sidenote Mona; I was seeing a typing error earlier on above here and wanted to correct it, but I cannot correct it by going back… I think you’re probably using blogprotector or something similar and I remember having the same issue, but I just thought I let you know.
Btw… I could eat some of that pie too!
You know Simone, I am using that PlugIn you told me about. (Thank you).
When you come visit, we will eat some pork! We have a very good butcher and you are right to
only eat the good stuff. AND I am sure that the Chef would be more than happy to teach you how to
cook this, but you do not really need a lesson. It is very very easy.
The pie was not half bad for bought pastry!
You have just changed the landscape on Google for what Irish food looks like. Hey Google…put this on your front page for St. Paddy’s Day
Why thank you kindly Paula. I really hope (for once) that big brother Google is watching!
Some of those images are shocking!
Thank you very much for the visit and the comment.
I am liking your pie – and yes, the tesco pre-rolled is a great little thing to have tucked away – I have been a fan for a while now. That meat looks amazing but I would have to say if I had broken into your kitchen that day – the first thing I would have gone for would have been those geeeeeorgeous tomatoes!
Ha ha – this unnerves me a wee bit considering you know where I live and you know where the tomatoes live.
The meat was gorgeous but, the tomatoes stole the show. We are still getting some gorgeous golds on the vine and a few red ones.
Lots of green ones still making shapes too. A little sun would go A LONG way right now!
And nice to know another foodie uses the Tesco pastry!
A soft, Southern drawl, perfectly crisped pork, yellow tomatoes, pie? Mona, I’m so envious right now. All this very Irish food looks nothing short of perfect. Am comin’ over for dinner, warn the Chef
Thank you for the warning Ishay. I will happily warn the Chef and you guys are welcome here anytime.
THe yellow tomatoes are something special. Delicious – every last bite.
You see now, that would be impossible for me to make, Mona. I could never let the meat rest without snaffling some of that crackling and maybe testing the end slice. Sigh! You have a jewel in that butcher. I’ve a great local butcher too. I haven’t bought meat in a supermarket for about 3 years now. Flavour, tenderness, and great value. Although he doesn’t have a lovely Alabama drawl. I lucked out there!
Hester,
We REALLY really wanted to pick at it but I had given strict instructions for them to STAY AWAY until I got the shot.
We still have a bit of the cracklings in the fridge. I think they will settle nicely atop a salad of mustard green and ruin all health benefits thereof!