Your chance to win a Michelin-starred experience awaits...

Welcome to April’s Irish Times Food & Drink Club newsletter.

Happy Easter

Is it the roast lamb or the chocolate eggs you’re most looking forward to enjoying as part of next weekend’s Easter celebrations? Or perhaps you have a vegetarian or vegan treat lined up to mark the holiday. If traditional spring lamb is on the menu, our monthly columnist Russ Parsons has some interesting things to say about it in tomorrow’s Irish Times Magazine. We don’t always treat it right, he says, referencing the sad sight of an over-roasted leg at a carvery buffet.

With lamb prices, along with those of most other foodstuffs, on an ever-upwards path, perhaps it’s time to look beyond the premium leg and rack cuts and give lamb shoulder, a less expensive option that’s often more forgiving to cook too, a chance to shine. Paul Flynn’s recipe for barbecued lamb shoulder with tomato and ‘nduja sauce hits all the right notes. If meat isn’t part of your festive table, his Provencal vegetable crumble, with courgettes, fennel, tomatoes, herbs and Parmesan is an equally indulgent treat.

Win some amazing prizes

Aniar restaurant in Galway is celebrating 10 years in business, and to mark the occasion its head chef and owner, JP McMahon, has given us a VIP restaurant experience to give away. Our winner will experience the tasting menu for two guests at the Michelin-starred restaurant, with wine pairings, plus copies of JP McMahon’s books, and Aniar and Cava restaurant aprons. In addition we have one of the much-coveted Easter chocolate hampers from Bean & Goose to be won. For details of how to enter, scroll down. Congratulations to Andrew Culhane from Dublin, who has won lunch for himself plus three friends, with cocktails and wine, at Volpe Nera restaurant in Blackrock, in last month’s Food & Drink Club subscribers’ competition. Congratulations, too, to Cora Doyle and Keith Sexton, who have won George Foreman Grills.

Read all about it

In tomorrow’s Irish Times Magazine I meet Roisin O’Connor, the new head chef at the Michelin-starred House restaurant at the Cliff House in Dungarvan, and its manager and head sommelier, Alexandra Raitaneva. Paul Flynn reveals why he has been on a hunt for Ireland’s best food trucks, and shares three street-food recipes you can make at home. Ever wanted to know how to bake a perfect tarte Tatin? It’s easier than you might think with Aoife Noonan’s step-by-step baking masterclass. Lilly Higgins is transforming unloved vegetables into delicious fritters, and JP McMahon has a recipe for wild-garlic pesto with an Irish twist. John Wilson explores Italian wines, and they’d be just perfect with Russ Parsons’s lamb with garlic, rosemary and anchovy.

Check in with us regularly at irishtimes.com/food for all the latest food news, features and great dishes to cook. If you would like to invite family and friends to join the Irish Times Food & Drink Club, they can do so here. You can also follow us on Facebook here, and on Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Marie-Claire Digby