A sallow 17-year-old, I was sent away with a recipe book, and not a clue how to cook – that’s an Irish Mammy for you!
Of course, I was never afraid to seek guidance, knocking on my flatmate’s door to ask how to make an omelette.
When he had his girlfriend around!
Well, you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs.
I’m still checking out how the experts do it: when the Scary One allows me into her kitchen.
Here are my cookery demos from around the world:
It’s got arms and legs
Pulpo; The driver transporting me from Santiago de Compostella on my Camino would repeat two words on our 100km drive.
Albergo (hostel) and pulpo (octopus) .
Eating pulpo with Galician tomato sauce (not the stuff out of the bottle) sitting on a high stool with a vase of Rioja…
Bueno!
My friends at the Spanish Tourist Board in Dublin took us to Cookery School to show us how it’s done.
It looks like just boiling: something I could master.
Visit CaminoWays www.caminoways.com and read A pilgrim’s prayer
And obvs salty pulpo was the first dish I ordered in Tenerife with CanariaWays www.CanariaWays.com.
Where they taught us how to make mojo rojo, a fancy tomato sauce! A walk through the ages… Tenerife.
Ruby’s a gem:
Barbados Okra: Cooking in the Caribbean is a shared experience.
Which is why Ruby enlisted me as her assistant at Club Barbados http://www.thelubbarbados.com
To make Barbados Okra.
This is how to do it… heat the butter in a saucepan and sauté onion and garlic until soft and nicely smelly.
Add okra, salt and remaining water. Cook for ten to 15 minutes on low heat or until okra is cooked.
Of course Ruby had something to say.
Also see www.visitbarbados.org and www.tropicalsky.ie.
And here’s my misadventures in Barbados Let’s rumba in Barbados and My kiss with Rihanna.
Pasta masters
Pasta: Catherine Fulvio is Ireland’s pasta master.
And she’s now got me, of course, too whenever she needs some advice at her www.ballyknocken.ie.
Catherine and her kitchen were good enough to teach me how to make my own pasta and more.
When Top Flight, the Italian specialists, brought us along to showcase their new brochure www.topflight.ie.
Italy is a culinary dream and everyone returns with tales of their favourite restaurant and dish.
Mine’s is a risotto ai piselli in Padua… Frescoes
Cooking with Auntie
Curry favour: Or more accurately Uncle…
The uncle in this case being Uncle Kenneth at the Blue Crab restaurant in Scarborough, Tobago http://www.tobagobluecrab.comand http://www.visittobago.gov.tt
Uncle Kenneth let me help him cook the chicken curry… there’s a big Indian culinary influence on the island.
Auntie Alison was the real entertainer (hilarious) though telling the womenfolk how to keep their men interested.
Auntie Alison was the real entertainment (hilarious) though telling the womenfolk how to keep their men interested.
Here’s a peek, and some of my ramblings on the island made famous by Robinson Crusoe and, er, Ainsley Harriott… ainsley.
How to boil an egg
Egg fried rice: The obvious one. But in the hands of a professional cook, and entertainer, it’s pure comedy.
And on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas they’ll do just that with their open kitchen.
What these guys can do with an egg… we’ll actually hatch a chicken in their chef’s hats.
While starting a singalong.
Visit www.royalcaribbean.com. And here’s a Royal party for you A Royal Party.
