St Canice's Cathedral St Canice's Cathedral
A grand Cathedral with a massive wooden roof, a lots of statues and grave stones.
view of Kilkenny St Canice's Cathedral near vertical stair up the round tower the round tower at St Canice's Cathedral
What attracted me most is the tall round tower, very common in many monastic sites in Ireland, built in 5-10th C. This is one of two in Ireland that you can climb up, 121 steps on wooden ladders, nearly vertical to the top, with a wonderful view.
Built in the Marshall's era, one of the merchant houses being totally renovated to show how it was like in those days. With the living room building in the front, then courtyards leading to sleeping quarters. At the back is a long strip of land, for growing fruits and veg, good design.
Roth Manor house Roth Manor house Roth Manor house Roth Manor house
Built by William Marshall and then owned by the Butler family from 14th C until mid 1900 when it was give to the Office of Public Work, to be renovated extensively into a museum.
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| Kilkenny castle |
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| Kilkenny castle - thick wall |
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| Kilkenny castle, hand painted wall paper and furniture from China |
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| Kilkenny castle, Moorish style staircase |
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| Kilkenny castle |
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| Kilkenny castle |
Kilkenny Kilkenny Kilkenny
A mid size town in southeast Ireland, it is small but with a lot of historical monuments in the centre. Most important development came in 12 C when William Marshal married the Princess of Leinster, using her family wealth and his military background to build a protected town to invite merchants from all over Europe to stay. The same background as Bastides (protected new towns) that were being built in 12 C France.
Cake Face Pulled pork sandwich at Design museum Bacon benedict at Hotel Zuni
It is pleasant to wander around Kilkenny, with river Nore flowing in the middle, lots of restaurants, cafes, and museums and galleries.
Red date glutinous
rice cake Red date glutinous
rice cake
I only like red date version of this cake, love the beautiful fragrance of red date, and more healthy.
A bit more work to prepare it, cooking red dates, then remove stones, blend to puree and sieve out skin..... but well worth the effort.
I used 450gm red date (with stone), boiled with 500gm water, to make the red date liquid. Mix with 220gm glutinous rice flour and 80gm wheat starch, steam for an hour.
A lazy method to serve it is to cut into pieces, instead of searing with egg, just bake at 170˚C until soft and warm, less presentable though.
Managed to buy some ingredients to make traditional dishes, and various steam cakes. This one is based on turnip cake, since I could not source turnip, use the seasonal local produce celeriac instead.
I learned to like this vegetable after watching Mr Raymond Blanc's cooking program, it indeed has a nice fresh fragrance, a bit like celery, the cake has more flavor and character than turnip cake.
Celeriac cakeceleriac celeriac
Celeriac is not watery like turnip, hence need to add more liquid to get the same result.
The recommended ratio by weight for turnip cake is turnip5: water2: rice flour1
For celeriac cake, I used celeriac 5: water 4 (2 parts used in cooking celeriac) : rice flour 1
fresh squid from north west Ireland seared squid
I am happy to have another delivery of fresh squids, good size. This time decided to just clean the inside and keep the reddish skin on, for the seared caramelised flavor, without scoring the tube. Deglaze the pan with white wine, reduce as sauce, no other seasoning needed.
Other than looking a bit crude with the big tube on the plate, it is easier to sear than the scored one, which will roll up very fast.
I normally stew these tougher cuts of meat, either in a pot or in the slow cooker. This time I would like to test using sous vide cooking in water bath at 85˚C. This way, I don't need to worry about liquid level, have to turn the meat over in order to stay below sauce, less worry.
After cooking for 5 hours, result is good, meat and skin is soft but stay in shape, sauce is rich and the right amount to serve.
Sousvide cooking of
pork belly and beef brisket at 85˚C Sousvide cooking of wild boar belly
Sousvide cooking of wild boar belly deep red meat of 'apple fed wild boar' belly
Pork belly seasoning: dark miso, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice wine, star anis, cloves and ginger.
Sousvide cooking of beef brisket Sousvide cooking of beef brisket
Beef brisket seasoning: salt, light miso, mustard sauce, rice wine, smoked pimenton, black pepper, Garam Masala, brown sugar.
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| Coffee shop Old Barrack |
Stumble across this modern stylish coffee shop, well equipped, offers a range of single origin beans and different degree of roasting to choose from. Had a well executed cafe cortado, a bit more milk than machiato , moussy, thick and delicious.
January is marmalade making month, it is the favorite jam in the house and the one fruit I can't grow! Lucky that I can order organic oranges from the on-line supplier. I made Seville orange marmalade, which has very little juice and need to add lemon juice, and blood orange marmalade, with is juicy and has a good balance of sour and sweet orange flavor.
Seville orange marmalade finished cooking blood orange marmalade before cooking Seville orange marmalade before cooking
I keep the pips and boil them a few times to extract pectin, to add to the orange peel.
The orange peel, sweeten with honey is brought to boil, then rest to cool down, and repeat again 3 times until peel swell, soften and the marmalade is thick enough. Other then the pectin water and lemon juice I do not add any water, the thickness comes from having a lot of peel, pectin, and not from the use of a lot of sugar, store in freezer.Fresh squid is on offer, caught from the north west coast, beautiful taste and lovely texture.
seared squid with cooked seaweed seared squid with fennel
I clean the tube and score it, the tentacles are left with skin on, which is necessary to create a caramelised flavor during searing. Deglaze the pan with white wine, reduce to thick sauce, drizzle on top of squid, no need any seasoning.
I serve one with cooked seaweed and the other with fennel.
Favorite fish, back in season, or probably fisherman have quota for the year. 1.3 kg, very thick fish, with juicy fin muscles and gelatinous flesh in the fin bones, nothing wasted.
Season with salt for half a day, bake at 200˚C for 12 minutes, rest with oven door ajar for another 10 minutes.
turbot turbot fin muscle turbot
A loop walk along river Mulkeer, a long river which is mostly gentle, I never thought that there is such a section with big rocks and a series of cascades.
The walk is great, easy along big stones, with evergreen laurel trees and ivy hanging making it looks like walking in the jungle.
