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?