No Joke Good Irish Cuisine

If you see the phrase good Irish cooking you may think it's a joke, especially with today being April Fool's Day. Yet that was the featured article in yesterday's New York Times Dining Section.,written by Dining regular Julia Moskin. She interviews the Alice Waters of the Emerald Isle, Darina Allen. hers is an interesting piece about the changes in Gaelic cooking and the many improvements that have been made.

Ms. Allen is more than just a champion of Irish cooking however. She runs the Ballymaloe Cookery School which is a twelve week course on all sorts of cooking and even 19th Century preparation skills. There is butter making, bacon curing and animal skinning as part of the work. She demands her students have a hands on approach to cooking starting with them planting their own vegetables and herb gardens.Ms Allen is part of the fresh food locavore revolution which advocates cooks use nearby farms and orchards.

Let's not forget her contribution to Irtish cooking. It is simple and humble, learned from her mother in law Myrtle Allen, a proprietress of the Ballymaloe House.This was a restaurant that featured true Irish cooking complete with brown bread , smoked eel, fresh picked turnips and apple cake made with the farm's freshly made yellow butter.She showed what could be done with what the Irish had to work with for centuries,After all the Brits robbing them of their best products After all all the best Irish products such as salmon, lamb and beef were all taken by the British. This left the natives with a limited and simple diet. However the island, is rich in other seafood such as fish both fresh and salt water., along with goats and sheep, herbs berries,turnips onions and the famous potato There are a number of dishes that can be made with these. All are nutritious yet delicious. Most of all they are fresh and locally grown and raised.

Irish cooking is no longer a joke . It's not just corned beef and cabbage anymore. It is a full bodied and flavorful cuisine straight from the garden and fields .The real April fool in all of this are the foodies who think Irtish cooking is nothing more than something from a bad St Patrick's Day menu. It's so much more thanks to Darina Allen.