The Menu: Picture-perfect cocktails thanks to an expert
Cocktails Book Drinks Coghlan Monika Craft
Featured in his annual Christmas Hamper in this august publication late last year, The Menu had long planned to elaborate further on his then brief mention of , by Monika Coghlan, an Irish cocktail recipe book, showcasing Irish distilleries with more than 50 excellent recipes — all backboned by Irish-produced alcoholic beverages.
And there would seem to be no better time for a further appraisal than the imminent arrival of the garden party season, as lockdown restrictions ease and we are allowed welcome small groups once more providing a most perfect opportunity to start delving into Cork-based food photographer Monika Coghlan’s wonderful little publication, and experimenting for yourself.
A keen mixologist, this labour of love saw Monika engaging with many of Ireland’s finest distillers, independent boutique operations and the tippling tome includes recipes featuring some of The Menu’s most favourite Irish alcoholic beverages, not least, Teeling’s Whiskey, Kalak Vodka, Blackwater Gin, Waterford Whiskey, Kinsale Mead and Longueville House Irish Apple Brandy.
Comprising recipes and stories from those included, the entire package is tied up beautifully with Monika’s very lovely photographs, all styled and shot in her own studio and on location in Cask cocktail bar, in Cork, and in Bar 1661, in Dublin.
Craft Cocktails also happens to be the name for an excellent range of premium bottled cocktails from Bar 1661 in Dublin and while Monika Coghlan shot some of her book’s images in Bar 1661, it was entirely coincidental that they should select the same name for what proved to be one of The Menu’s favourite alcoholic beverages of lockdown and he has no doubt the latest additions, The Banana Old Fashioned, French Martini, and Whiskey Sour, will continue to deliver from the top drawer. Available for nationwide delivery or from independent retailers.
The Menu was greatly touched to hear of a wonderful new initiative, Consider It Cakes, started by Franciska Acs and her boyfriend, Darragh, who prefers to contribute from behind the scenes, baking cakes for those who can’t afford one, including the homeless and asylum seekers in direct provision.
Baked by hobby bakers, seeking to ‘bake the world a better place’, and working from their own home kitchens, Franciska has built up a network of more than 300 bakers around the country operating in 11 different cities, towns and regions to help parents, partners and friends who want to celebrate someone special’s birthday but don’t have the wherewithal to do so.
Each cake is personalised and entirely free and CIC are always on the lookout for new bakers with levels of engagement entirely up to the individual, depending on schedules and availability.
everyone-deserves-a-birthday-cake.jimdosite.com/contact/
Chef Rachel Allen and author Paul Howard, (aka Ross O’Carroll Kelly) are will be combining for a unique online cooking event (10.30am, May 15) to raise funds for the very wonderful humanitarian aid agency GOAL.
As Rachel cooks up a storm, ‘Ross’ will be doing his level best to stir the pot to boiling pot in what promises to be a highly entertaining lesson in how to cook up a great brunch.
Once registered, participants receive a recipe booklet and a list of ingredients so they can cook along and the event is suitable for all skill levels, All money raised will go towards GOAL’s work supporting vulnerable communities in 14 countries on four continents, and the organisation has had to adapt its programmes to combat the spread of Covid-19. Registration costs just €10.
The Sligo Food Trail network, now celebrating five years in existence is offering a series of online events (running until May 14) to whet the appetite for an eventual return to the North West. Highlights include the wonderful Prannie Rhatigan (Irish Seaweed Kitchen) presenting ‘Seaweed the Superfood’.
Finally, there are a wealth of food trucks out there on foot of Ireland’s latest food craze but The Menu fancies Sinead Doran’s shiny silver Orbit Food Truck, in select locations around East Cork and the rest of the county, may well prove one of the hits of the coming summer for the erstwhile Crawford Gallery Cafe supremo is a whizz when it comes to whipping up wonderful foodstuffs. More anon. @orbit_food_truck via Instagram
With judicious use of preserves and long-stored produce allied to the sterling efforts of some very fine local producers, The Menu has once more navigated the ‘hungry gap’ — that period between the end of last year’s harvest and the arrival of the first crops of the new year’s planting, and nothing signals the new season for The Menu like the arrival of the first of the Irish strawberries.
Irish strawberries are amongst the very finest in the world. And that is no cheap hyperbole for, while those grown in the much warmer temperatures of Southern Europe present as plump, lush and radiant, their taste profile is rather one-dimensional, strawberry bubblegum in comparison to the very finest Irish strawberries. The Irish berries are grown in a regional band that sweeps across southern Ireland and England, in a climate offering the perfect balance of temperature and conditions. And when The Menu hears that Bushby’s Strawberries, of Rosscarbery, are once more in season, sublime complex champagne, the Grand Cru of the Irish strawberry world, it is time to issue an official declaration of summer’s true arrival. And even as he looks out on wintery wind and rain while writing, he can taste endless summer with every single mouthful.