This. Always and forever.

Trailblazing vodka brand, Absolut and electro giants Le Galaxie joined forces to host a party of mesmeric proportions on the 9^th October in The Academy for the launch of the new single Carmen and the exclusive reveal of a collaborative project six months in the making, the Carmen video.

Over 500 invited guests, which included influential members of the capital’s art and music scene…and moi, a lushy rose by another surname, HOLLA….

…were welcomed into an Absolut…ly transformed Academy where they were treated to an Art Battle with artists Steve Simpson and James Kirwan, DJ battle from Nialler9 and Philip Boyle Aka Ghostboy, Remix by Absolut run by Jamie White of Youth Nation, a set from electronic duo Faune and the main act the electrifying, Le Galaxie.

On the night guests were treated to a selection of Absolut cocktails including Absolut Crush and Absolut Raspberri & Lemon from the Andy Warhol bar.

Guests got involved on the night with the Art Battle being fuelled by suggestions which were sent to the Twitter wall.

Over the last six months, the collaborative video project known as Pulse by Absolut captured electrifying reactions of Le Galaxie’s fans to their brand new single Carmen and digitally transformed them with special effects, filters and finally polygonal shapes to include them in this futuristic video.

Take a taste of the most flavoursome food West Cork has to offer this November as Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa bring back the popular event with a winter twist on the 14^th November.

Inchydoney’s Taste of West Cork sumptuous seven course tasting menus will bring guests on a culinary tour of West Cork as Head Chef Adam Medcalf showcases the best produce West Cork has to offer during the colder seasons as well as the hotels own artisan produce.

This culinary feast will open foodie’s eyes to local businesses and produce and will be refreshingly complemented by wines from the hotels cellar.  With most ingredients being sourced within a 50km radius of the hotel, Head Chef Adam Medcalf’s unique feast will give guests a true ‘Taste’ of West Cork.

While the menu is top secret at the moment, previous menus have included Inchigeelah Wood Venison-Roasted Loin of Venison from Inchigeelah Wood, Dunmanway, caught by Dan McCarthy and served with a Celeriac Fondant, Homegrown Rosemary Potato Puree, and a Smoked Apple Cream; Smoked Tuna – Blue Fin Tuna Smoked by Shellfish de la Mer, Dinish Island, Castletownbere with a Tomato and Chilli Jam and Fresh Horseradish Cream; Mulled Apple Sorbet – Apples from O’Dowd’s Garden, Mulled, Puréed and Frozen with an Apple and Cinnamon Purée.

And of course no West Cork menu would be complete without Clonakilty Black pudding & sausages.

Tickets are €65 and are available at the hotel reception. 

Special overnight accommodation rates are available for guests who want to make a night of it with full access to the heated seawater therapy pool, sauna, steam room and relaxation areas.

Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa is located near Clonakilty, West Cork has been named Ireland’s Leading Spa Resort three times at the World Travel Awards, in the Top 10 Hotels in Ireland by the 2013 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards and is the perfect place for people who value time together.

For more information please visit www.inchydoneyisland.com, www.facebook.com/InchydoneyIsland or www.twitter.com/inchydoneylodge.

Additional photos from the Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa Facebook page.

First thing to sort is the meat marinade. This will work for chicken, beef, or turkey as I used here.

Fajita Meat Marinade

1 red chilli, finely chopped

Zest from 1 lime

A quarter of one red onion, chopped fairly small

1-2 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon of salt

A quarter cup of olive oil

Salsa

3-4 tomatoes quartered

3 cloves of garlic

1 small onion roughly chopped

1 green chili (half if you don’t want it that spicy)

A good handful of coriander chopped

1 teaspoon of salt

Squeeze of lime to taste

Griddling the Meat & Veg

I griddled the turkey first, set it aside in a pan to keep warm in the oven while I finished off the peppers and onions.

Dish up and tear some coriander over the top of the meat and veg.

Serve with sour cream/ Glenisk creme fraiche (my preference), grated cheddar cheese and tortilla wraps. You can add rice, but there’s plenty going on here for four as a main course.

Omelette, per person-

2 eggs

Handful of spinach

4 tablespoons cooked salmon

1/4 red onion

4 cherry tomatoes

Seasoning

Olive oil

Chunky guacamole, serves four-

1 avocado

1/2 large red onion

5 cherry tomatoes

Handful of coriander

1/2 teasp crushed garlic

Seasoning

Juice of half a lemon

To make the guacamole-

Finely chop your onion and tomatoes, add to a good sized ceral type bowl. Scoop out your avocado and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon. Add your crushed garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Chop your coriander, add in and mix it up. Using a regular knife and spoon, chop into the avocado as you mix it all up, making it as chunky as you wish.

To make the omelette-

Chop the onion finely. Quarter the cherry tomatoes. Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Add a splash of olive oil to the pan, cook the onions for about five minutes before adding the whisked eggs. Break up your cooked salmon with a spoon and evenly distribute around the pan, following with the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the spinach over the top.

Once the edges start to firm up around the pan, transfer to under a grill. Make sure the spinach isn’t too close to the heat.

Once the omelette is cooked through and turning a little golden, remove from the grill and transfer to a plate using a large spatula.

Spoon the guacamole over the top in the centre and serve.

Everyone seems to have the Monday grumps today. Here, have  some cute. Ahem.

Originally posted on my old blog Where’s My Parade?! April 2012.

Spotted on the Tesco Real Food site, I couldn’t wait to give Tortilla Pizzas a go.

Who doesn’t love pizza, right?! We don’t like the love handles though, BOOO!

Rocking in at just over 400 calories a serving, this is a great compromise. It really is all the flavour, with a helluva lot less time needed to work it off after.

You might think that you’d need a second tortilla, but the toppings are rich and filling, so you’ll have more than enough going on with the one serving.

It is incredibly simple and cheap to make, and of course, hugely adaptable to your preferred toppings.

Perfect mid-week comfort food, and easy on the waistline!

Quick, cheap and easy.

You are what you eat, wha’!

Edited and re-posted from my old blog Where’s My Parade?!

Originally posted June 2012.

Recipe taken from here.

• 250g plain chocolate biscuits
• 125g butter, melted
• 3 teaspoons gelatine
• ½ cup (125ml) water
• 250g packet cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 300ml thickened cream
• 425g can pitted black cherries
• topping
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon Cointreau or Grand Marnier

Blend or process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter; process until combined. Press biscuit mixture evenly over base and side of a 20cm spring form tin, place on oven tray; refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until firm.

Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug; stand jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves; cool 5 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and juice in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth; transfer to a large bowl.

Whip cream until soft peaks form, fold into cheese mixture in two batches; fold in gelatine mixture. Drain cherries over a bowl, reserve ¾ cup of the syrup for the topping.

…the next part of the recipe says to pat half the cherries dry on absorbent paper. Don’t bother. I lost the will doing this. The juice might bleed into the cheese mix so perhaps pat them all together between a couple of kitchen roll sheets to take the worst off. I, ridiculously, patted each one dry, one by one…

The original recipe states you will need half the cherries for this recipe but lob as many as you want in. I think you could’ve gotten away with using nearly all of them. You can see I put some on the top, which ruins the smooth glossy effect, but sure, ’tis far from sleek line cheesecakes I was reared.

Spoon 1/3 of cheese mixture into crumb crust, top with half of the reserved cherries; repeat layering, ending with cheese mixture. Refrigerate until just firm.

Topping
Combine the cornflour and sugar with reserved cherry syrup in a small saucepan. Stir over heat until the mixture boils and thickens, stir in Cointreau; cool 10 minutes.

Spread Topping over cheesecake. Refrigerate cheesecake overnight

Do not serve just out of the fridge. It loses all flavour when too cool.

Look at the picture on the link-so smooth, glossy and chic looking. Ahem…mine obviously turned out a bit more down-home style looking….

It’s a handy alternative to the monster Black Forest Gateaux cake, and certainly lighter in weight and taste. Seriously, that cake is mahoosive.

The stock is just the rabbit carcass brought to the boil, a chopped onion, two small carrots, a celery rib and some parsley added and then left to simmer for an hour on a medium-low heat.

I researched the most traditional of traditional recipes and picked Spanish brains for tips in order to do it right. Despite all my research, I ended up working off a badly written method found online.

Stuff was burnt, stock yield was poor, and I wandered from the traditional Valencian ingredients in order to try and make it palateable. It was what the Spanish would call El Grando Pain In The Culo. I spent the first 45 mins knowing it was not working and was pretty much….

But, as there were mouths to be fed and I’m a stubborn wagon who can’t see food go to waste (even if it might end up as total muck) I saw it through.

I’ve since made it a few times and it is essentially a very easy dish to prep and cook. Here’s what works for me.

Serves 6, using a 38cm/ 15 in pan

Ingredients

420g white beans (I used butter beans)

 3 medium tomatoes, diced

1 whole onion, diced

6 chicken drumsticks

1lb rabbit, skinned and jointed

18 snails, cleaned and prepped (optional)

8 artichoke halves

4 handfuls green beans

A pinch of saffron

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Olive oil

I used roughly 1.5 lt of chicken stock from cubes and two fingers depth of the rabbit stock that was left. It’s best to keep an eye on it and top up with a little extra stock or water as it cooks, depending on your pan.

Good pinch of saffron

400g paella rice, although arborio works just fine.

Not traditional but I chuck it in-

Half a red bell pepper, diced small. You could throw the whole lot in or use the remainder for decorative strips on the top.

Two chicken stock cubes, dissolved

Chorizo, cuz it’s purdy and tasty

If you want to make rabbit stock, give yourself about 2-3 hours prior to wanting to start your paella. It would be better to do it the day ahead. Also, if you follow the instructions for stock above, use a massive pot and a ton of water to ensure the liquid doesn’t disappear.

Stock. Where you going. Stock. Staaaahp.

Method

Pan fry the rabbit and chicken with enough olive oil to stop it sticking, turning the meat as needed for about 15 minutes.

Make up your stock and stir in the saffron.

Remove the meat temporarily after the 15 mins, and add in the onion, garlic, tomato.

I added half a small diced red pepper as I half wanted to make Sofrito, not traditional as far as I’m aware but a tip from a fabulous Spanish friend.

So, either make the sofrito and add it in once the meat has had it’s cooking time, or remove the meat and gently sauté the onion, garlic and tomato in some more olive oil. When the onions are softened/ slightly translucent, return the meat to the pan, with the snails if you’re using them, and add the beans (drained, if from a tin).

If the pan is looking a bit dry, top up with a bit of olive oil before adding the rice.

Add your rice and mix all the pan contents quickly. Add the stock/saffron mix. I initially poured in just under a litre of stock mix, and then topped it up during the hour with another half a litre or so as it needed. It’ll depend on your pan, mine is quite shallow (and judgy, what a bitch) so keep an eye on it.

Add the artichoke quarters around the top of the mix.

Top with about four handfuls of green beans. I used frozen, straight from the packet and it worked just dandy.

Of course, I topped it with chorizo, just to give the traditional ship that had long sailed the saffron stained finger.

It tastes like paella should, or from my travels it’s up there with the paellas I’ve experienced.

Rabbit meat or stock is not necessary for a tasty paella but it adds that extra oomph and if you manage to have any stock left over for another dish, it’s a bonus.