FOOD FILE:If you were to buy Zest! Recipes from 62 Top Irish Restaurants, for only one reason, it would be for Paul Flynn's turf-roasted belly of pork, a fascinating recipe that involves oven cooking the pork on a layer of turf, onions, sage and garlic, and which he has had on the menu at his Tannery Restaurant in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
“I have to give credit where credit is due. A few years ago I had turf-roasted sirloin of beef at a Euro-toques gig in Brook Lodge, Macreddin village. I was fascinated by it and by the method of cooking, and so I decided to try it with belly of pork,” Flynn says.
But happily there are many reasons to gladly part with €20 for this vibrant collection of recipes published in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation, a successor to its Whoseday Book (2000), Art:pack (2001), Peter the Wolf (2003) and LifeStory (2007).
Participating chefs contributed three recipes each – starter, main course and dessert – as well as their own photographs of the finished dishes.
Restaurant critic Paolo Tullio acted as culinary adviser for the project, and there is a careful balance of intricate and simple recipes, each giving a flavour of the establishment it represents.
Try your hand at Chapter One’s lime-marinated scallops, avocado purée and crème fraîche; Harvey Nichols First Floor Restaurant’s seabass with sauce vierge and confit fennel; the Lodge at Doonbeg Golf Club’s fillet of John Dory with white beans, globe artichoke and smoked bacon velouté; and Sha-Roe Bistro’s lemon posset with butter biscuits. Zest! is available from bookshops nationwide, participating restaurants or from www.zestcookbook.ie.