Food

This sauce will make your fish and chips taste even better

Shelf Help: Irish-grown wasabi gives a gentle touch of heat and flavour to mayonnaise

Wasabi grown in Ireland by McCormack Family Farms. The root, stem, leaves and flowers of the plant are edible and have different culinary applications. Photograph: Shane O'Neill

Marie Claire Digby's face
Marie Claire Digby
Tue Mar 14 2023 - 05:00

What is it? Mayonnaising Wasabi Mayo (€5.95, 150g).

What’s good about it? It is from Mag and Ger Kirwan’s Goatsbridge Rainbow Trout Farm in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, made with Irish-grown wasabi supplied by a neighbouring business. Beotanics, a plant-based food and crop development enterprise, has been growing wasabi in Stoneyford, Co Kilkenny, since 2015, and having now developed a variety that is suitable for commercial scale cultivation, McCormack Family Farms is bringing it to market to supply restaurants and food producers.

How do I use it? The pretty, pale green mayonnaise, made with rapeseed oil and 20 per cent fresh wasabi, has a pleasantly mellow kick, rather than the sinus-clearing strength of the wasabi paste you might find with sushi. It’s a natural partner for Goatsbridge’s core product, farmed rainbow trout, and would work alongside lots of fish dishes. It was particularly good with crab fishcakes, and with courgette and sweetcorn fritters, and livened up an egg salad sandwich. You could also serve it with fish and chips, instead of tartare sauce.

[ A healthy lunch in a bag that’s hot and tasty and contains only 149 calories ]

[ This is the best version of an Ottolenghi favourite ingredient ]

Where can I buy it? It is available online from goatsbridgetrout.ie, and you can also find it in selected fish shops and speciality food stores, including Ardkeen Quality Food Store in Waterford. It is a chilled product, so must be kept in a refrigerator, and once opened it must be consumed within 16 days.

READ MORE

Anything else? There are two additional varieties in the Mayonnaising range from Goatsbridge, one with cranberries and another with beetroot relish. These are a little less expensive at €3.95 a jar.

Send your Shelf Help product suggestions to marieclaire.digby@irishtimes.com

READ NEXT
LATEST STORIES