potato, coriander & chilli soup

Well, the summer is finally starting to leave us here in Ireland (most of us question if we even had one this year!), and so it's time to bring out the comfort food. Last night was decidedly nippy, so I made this lovely belly-warming soup, plonked myself firmly on the sofa and focussed on warming my cockles.

This is a great soup for vegetarians too, and the vegans amongst you can simply replace the milk and crème fraîche with soy milk and soy sour cream respectively. The total cooking time, including chopping is around half an hour. Simple eh?! Oh and last (but not least), make sure you have a few chunks of crusty bread for dipping and mopping purposes...

the best malteser cake

There comes a time in your life when you just have to go for it, and try to make the richest, sweetest, chocolateyest (is that a word? Definitely should be!) cake possible. After much searching around, and even more experimenting, I decided to go for a tried & tested recipe. Not only that, it just looked so good!!

Lorraine Pascale is a former model and pâtissière who is rising in the TV chef world recently in the UK, and it's Lorraine's recipe I had a stab at last week.

There's a link to the original recipe here, but I've also listed it out below for those of you too lazy to click!

review: green 19, dublin 2

Friday nights on Camden Street, just south of Dublin city centre, can be busy affairs, and stressful ones too. With so many eating & drinking holes to choose form in this buzzing part of town it's often a case of which pub to go to? And in which order? And where to eat?

Thankfully that last question doesn't take too much thinking about, thanks to the guys & gals at the uber-trendy Green 19. So popular is this cafe-cum-restaurant-cum-bistro-cum-gallery, that tables are always at a premium, whether it's funky Friday or mundane Monday.

Reservations can't be made after 6pm, so it tends to be a case of first-come first-served. No worries if you can't get in immediately though; service is fast & efficient (and friendly!), and turnover of covers is quick as a result.

We visited around 9pm, which I know from experience is one of the busiest times here. Not a bother though; an approximate waiting time of half an hour was given, names & numbers were taken, and we popped next door to Anseo for a glass of something suitably fizzy/dry/on the rocks whilst we waited. 15 minutes later the call came in, and we're told to "take your time - the table's yours whenever you need it". How great is it to hear that on a Friday night in Dublin when you haven't even booked a place?!

Specials Board - Green 19, Camden Street, Dublin

Having been here before, I know the portions are a good size, and will satisfy the hungriest of appetites, so we tried to play it safe with our starter. We went for the excellent sharing plate of cured meats at €8. A larger portion is available for €12 for those who haven't eaten for a couple of days.

The meats were tasty and reminded us of our recent trip to Barcelona - always a good thing! We had a good few slices of salami, chorizo, pastrami and Serrano ham; great with some bread, and a forkful of the accompanying dressed leaf salad. Incidentally, this all arrived (expertly draped across a wooden board), within around 3 minutes of ordering - fast as this may seem, it's a perfect example of the typical level of service you receive at Green 19, and always comes with a smile and an undoubted feeling of nothing being too much trouble.

Next up was the Mains event (see what I did there?)...

I opted for one of the specials of the night, the other being fish & chips, which had sadly sold out - not surprising; I've had it it the past and it seriously rocks. Instead I went for the round steak, which comes with chips and a Béarnaise sauce. I asked for it to be cooked rare, and rare it was - perfectly seared on the outside, perfectly red on the inside, and tender as you like, with my accompanying dagger sliding through it like the proverbial hot knife through butter; not easy to achieve with this particular cut of cow.

Her Majesty went for the veggie option, thinking it to be a safe bet for "not much". How wrong she was, and I could see her face recognise that fact when her Mexican Chilli Bean Burrito arrived. Falling off the edges of the plate, this also came with a more-than-generous serving of those marvellous hand cut chips. Fair play, she almost finished the lot, however had trouble speaking for a while afterwards, which isn't always a bad thing. After such a tasty meal I mean of course...

The wines we chose (white for the burrito, red for the cow) were brought towards the end of the starter as requested, with the white being crisp, dry, and cold as you like, and my Rioja at room temperature as is the standard these days. All very acceptable, and both very downed without a hint of a grimace.

Desserts were beckoning but sadly belts were busting so I settled for a small coffee whilst HRH stuck with the complimentary water. Shortly after that the bill came (with free mints woop!), we paid up, stood up (slowly), and waddled our way to the door.

All-in-all, a great meal in very cool and super-friendly surroundings. Head for Green 19 soon (and as often as you can), for perfect food, outstanding service and ridiculously low prices. What are you waiting for?

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Our Starters

Selection of Cured Meats & Sausages (to share)

€8

Our Mains

Mexican Chilli Bean Burrito

€10

Round Steak, chips & Béarnaise sauce

€19

Our Plonk

Viña Bujanda, Rioja

€6

Bianco di Toscana Trebiano

€4.50

Our Afters

Espresso macchiato

€1.50

Our Bill

€49.00 + tip

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Green 19
19 Camden Street Lower
Dublin 2, Ireland
www.green19.ie
+353 (1) 478 9626

lamb's kidneys with mushrooms on toast

This is my take on one of my favourite Spanish dishes 'Riñones al Jerez', or kidneys with sherry. Whilst I was living in Spain this turned out to be really versatile, in that it makes a great tapa, a substantial starter or a lovely comfort food supper.

Ensure you get nice fresh kidneys, with all of the fat trimmed off (your butcher will do this for you). Kidneys are a really tasty piece of offal, and are cheap too - usually only around 60c each!

Ingredients

• 6 lambs kidneys
• Handful of smoked bacon lardons
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 100g closed cut mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 2 tbs sherry vinegar
• 2 tbs olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 tbs crème fraîche
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

1. To prepare the kidneys, first make sure you take off the thin membrane that covers them - you'll know if this is still on as the kidneys will look greyish in appearance - once removed you'll see them in all their lovely plummy shininess! After that, cut the kidneys lengthways, snip out the white cores with scissors (these can be quite tough to eat), and cut the kidneys in half again, giving you quarters. Place these on a plate and cover in the lemon juice to marinate a little.
2. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over a medium high heat and add the bacon. After a couple of minutes add the garlic & fry for a further minute.
3. Add the mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they soften.
4. Pour in the kidneys, including the lemon juice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring gently (don't kill the kidneys!).
5. When the kidneys have started to lose their pinkness, add the sherry vinegar and again stir to combine all those lovely flavours.
6. Throw in the parsley and and salt & black pepper to taste.
7. After a minute or so, take off the heat a add a good dollop of crème fraîche. Stir this in to give a nice rich sauce.
8. Serve with lovely thick slices of toasted ciabatta.

This dish tastes lovely with a nice glass of Rioja - my favourites with kidneys are Campo Viejo or Marqués de Cáceres Reserva. Enjoy!

i love fresh food!

But then, who doesn't love fresh food?!

I was just in Fallon & Bryne in central Dublin and just couldn't help but take a couple of photos of the produce they have in there. Lunch has been & gone already today but looking at this lot, I'm already starting to feel hungry again! I can feel a mushroom risotto coming on very soon...

Fresh fruit and local asparagus at Fallon & Byrne, Dublin

A huge range of mushrooms & lovely aubergines at Fallon & Byrne, Dublin

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Fallon & Byrne
11-17 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
http://www.fallonandbyrne.com/
01 472 1010

soda bread with chives & radish

Doesn't get much simpler than this really. Great for a light lunch/brunch, a starter to a meaty main, or as a quick supper, this is a winner. I first saw this in Munich, the thriving capital of Bavaria in southern Germany, and it just blew me away! Preparation takes approximately 5 minutes, so there's really no excuse for not giving this a go, is there?

Just take a few slices of soda bread and spread with lots of butter. Then chop a load of fresh chives and sprinkle all over the bread. Sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt and you're good to go! Finally, slice some radishes as thinly as you can and serve these on the side, to pop into your mouth with every mouthful of the bread.

Enjoy!

temple bar food market, dublin

Crepes In The City

If you're into your food then the Temple Bar Food Market is a definite must! Held every Saturday in and around Meeting House Square, the market features foods from around the world, as well as some of the best in local Irish produce.

There's a huge range of stalls, which include cheeses, fresh fish, herbs & spices, crepes, smoothies, and freshly cooked dishes from countries such as Spain, Italy, India, France... Take a look at some of the photos from yesterday's market. Great food and great weather too!

Fresh fruit & veg

Free range spit roast pork

Noirin's Bakehouse

Corleggy Cheeses

The Real Olive Company

Piece Of Cake Bakery

Piece Of Cake Bakery

Fresh oysters from St Martin Shellfish

baked greek vegetable omelette

Talk about versatile! You can stick anything you like into this - within reason! This is a really tasty omelette, baked in the oven instead of the traditional in-a-pan job.

welcome to chefilepsy!!

A big HELLO! to you from Chefilepsy, a Dublin-based blog concentrating on food!

Whether it's buying it, cooking it or eating it, you'll find some (hopefully) useful stuff here to have a read through, even if you're just one of those people (like me) that just like to look at nice photos of lovely, tasty, too-good-to-leave grub!

We'll be sharing recipes we've had a go at (and no one died as a result), keep you updated on the latest foody goings-on across Dublin & Ireland (and sometimes beyond), provide some honest (but not too serious) reviews of restaurants we've been to, and generally just indulge in our fundamental love of food.

Feel free to have a click around and don't forget to spread the word amongst your friends. Oh and click on the right-hand side there to Like us on Facebook too if you don't mind, 'cos, well, we all like to have friends don't we?