Author: traleeculinarygangsters

Chef, food truck owner, Gardner, forager, blogger, author , columnists,

Garden

As the photos below show , spending time in the garden, setting it up for the seasons ahead, adding new beds, we’ll I removed old smaller beds and added large beds as I totally relay out the garden it was ad hock developed over the last few years, but now I’m pulling it all out and laying it out in a better more organised way, as well as laying stone footpaths throughout it ,

Paul on life

Year 2

I suppose it’s been a while so here goes another year, spring is off to a flying start with all the herbs and wild weeds coming thick and fast at this stage. I found the winter period tough on the foraging front as it became harder to locate usable sustainable quantities of different herbs both coastal and forestry, flowers, just gorse on tbe menu, ( them damn thorns), yet another joyous start in the tunnel rhubarb straight off the mark and strawberries in 2nd place along with last year’s chard gaining a new lease of life. The radish I dropped in and the beetroot also spouting nicely.

This year is an unknown entity due to restaurant coming on stronger than ever with the number of accolades growing steadily. The feeling of bittersweet joy and pride in my work, showing results is unusual I’m not used to being a successful in work, I’ve been by my own admission a failure in my own personal life, with comparisons to to others perceived situations. So overall balanced life even if it is a little sleepless at times. The foraging has taken itself to new heights and the wild garlic talk led me to have more confidence in my own abilities, with new ideas planning with every new day in the forestry or the shore.

I’m now getting spotted and stopped more often now and most commonly known as your one of them, the gangsters or the lads from Croi. I find it amusing as people don’t believe we actually do what we say we do.

Later this year my preservation will take a serious turn with the arrival of my wedding and the meriad of preserves I plan on making for it.

As always more action @chefpaulc on insta and twitter or a feed from the restaurant @croitralee on all social media platforms

veg

Vegetable of the week – Spinach!

Time to Sow – Anytime of the year.
Position – Likes full sun, with some shade.
Time to Harvest – 40 to 50 days. Cut and come again crop.
Companions – Cabbage, Celery, Lettuce, Onion, Peas, Radish.
Cooking – Stir-fry, salads, even smoothies. Can be eaten raw or quickly fried.

Paul on mushroom hunting

Mushroom hunting. 
As I have mentioned before here that when foraging mushrooms you will need to be 110% sure that the mushroom you are picking is edible, check and double check each time until you are sure yourself that what you pick is the right identification.
the best thing about facebook and Instagram is memories, a mushroom showed up on my memories this year from 2 years ago, I therefore went back to my spots in hope of finding said mushrooms again but to no avail. the 1st time I ever spotted these mushrooms was by pure chance, then again from the size of the mushroom I found you would think that it would have been hard to miss. measuring 1ft across at its widest point. Although edible in its smaller stages I found the larger ones better for drying and keeping for later in the year for stock and soup or gravy etc.
I hope this year, I am fortunate enough to go and collect small ones, I don’t expect to  find them, I dehydrated most of what I picked last year and still have some left in my jar, Ive added more mushrooms dried to another jar to start a collection for this year, lets see where it goes.
I hope to identify more edible mushrooms, to add to my repertoire, as well as my jar of flavours. I will be posting these finds on my Instagram so I know what and where the mushrooms are. Im happy to share my finds as well as any info I find and my identifications. 
As always stay safe and you can follow my hunting journeys on my Instagram @chefpaulc 

David talks france

Irish food culture
After leaving and working outside of Ireland for a while now, I have discovered a few things about the perception of the Irish food culture.
1) We don’t have a bold rich historic food culture, so people are ignorant to our views and some of ours foods. (you try to compare dishes or explain similar ingredients and people just don’t want to know)
2) People think we belong to the UK (united kingdom), this really irritated me as Ireland has its own culture, and its own presence in the food world we certainly do not need to piggy back off the UK
3) Beer – so aside from being associated with the UK for food if you’re Irish while living abroad or associated with an Irish establishment, people straight away ask about beer and whiskey.
As I sit here at my desk writing these stereotype discoveries, I ask myself what I can do as a chef to showcase Irish food culture. The only solution for me at this moment is to cook even if just for one person at a time, if only just one person opens their mind and learns a little about a different culture then it’s all a success, as food is always enjoy therefore a culture never dies.

Grape chutney by luke

A short one today. For this chutney you will need:

  • 1 punnet of Grapes
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar
  • 1 tablespoon distilled vinegar
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • 1 pinch Chinese 5 spice
  • 1 pinch ground cinnamon
  • 1 whole star anise
  • 40 mls Irish whiskey (“The liberator” was used in this recipe)

Add all ingredients to a medium sized pot, put on a low heat and cook until grapes are soft, until the skin is almost falling off of them. Remove from pot and put into a bowl, blend until desired consistency and chill.
Compliments cold cured meats

Summer

summer begins 
As the country begins to emerge from yet another lockdown, so do the plants in the wild, gorse is dying back, while hawthorn, and elderflower and rowan take its place amongst other perennials, the hedgerow now a bloom of white flowers and the fragrant elderflower will undoubtedly brighten up the roadsides of rural Ireland, as always if your are picking roadside try find the quiet unused roads where traffic fumes will be minimised. 
while all this is happening at eye level and above, the herbs of the undergrowth, are battling for space and sunlight, including cleavers, (robin run the hedge/sticky willy), herb Robert, daisies, sorrel, different varieties of cress, depending of the ground type different plants will thrive, many of which are edible, some pleasant some not so pleasant.Ive always found nature of a great place to be to pass time, think about things clear your head, and explore whats close to you, I think people forget that sometimes that the hustle and bustle of life can be overwhelming and the return to what I can only expect to be mayhem, even the crowds around towns, shopping milling around talking chatting while its great to see some semblance of what we knew of normality returning I know it will be extremely busy in kitchens and food outlets across the country, and not just our beautiful county, I just hope that people will remember that there is more to life than the mayhem that will be the summer season.
I know myself I will be once again making an elderflower cordial, using both lemon and lime separately, this elderflower and lime drink made an epic keifer, as well as a stunning addition to  gin and tonic. 
while picking flowers please bear in mind that the more flowers you pick the less elderberries you will have later in the year, while I keep an eye on the trees and the flowers Im also watching the world go n=by in a stream the runs through the forestry, its nothing spectacular its just a gargling, bubbling stream that splashes out, over stones and rocks, dousing herbs and mosses at random.
As always stay safe and you can follow my journey in the forest @chefpaulc on social media platforms