Last Sunday there was a three course lunch special with a glass of house wine for €20 per person !!!!!!!! 
which combine to produce a tender mouth watering flavoursome piece of meat when cooked with care and respect. We started off 2 years ago slow cooking ox cheeks and lamb necks over night in the alto sham which on occasion produced fantastic results the ox cheeks being meltingly tender and delicious with a fantastic pink hue that made look as if they had been cooked medium. That was occasionally, more often than not they were under done or over cooked and falling apart (they made fantastic crispy beef cheek rillette won tons) then in July of last year we renovated our kitchen and purchased a sous vide water bath which can perfectly control the temperature give or take a half a degree up or down . This allowed us to cook tough but flavoursome cuts of beef very accurately for long periods of time allowing you to get perfect results every time with certain cuts of meat. From there we started using housekeepers cut for steaks we were able to cook these tough pieces of meat in the water bath at 58 degrees for 15 hours and then sear them in the pan to create a mouth watering medium cooked steak, we used the same process for topside, skirt steak/bavette, chuck, ox cheeks, flat iron and brisket using varying times and temperatures to suit even adding braising liquids to add flavour. Of course we were not always successful and more work needs to go into perfecting the timings for some of the cuts, the chuck for instance is fantastic but inconsistent because of the irregular division of fat, muscle and sinew in the joint. The Dish above is a trio of corned beef brisket, skirt steak and braised topside with Guinness jus the head on the Guinness jus is created by putting some of the sauce in a siphon and charging with N2o the sauce foams out on top of the sauce in the glass.
I recently visited Pat Clarkes nursery in Donore county Kildare. After speaking with Pat on the phone i realized his farm is located adjacent to Mondello race track only a mile and a half from my house in Coill Dubh it always amazes me whats right on your door step and you know nothing about it. Any how i had been using micro herbs imported threw my veg supplier from koppert cress in Holland, a nice product but nothing compared to a product i can pick up on my way to work, freshly cut that morning by the guy who grows it and while I'm there i can sample new products and pass on any feed back i have that could be helpful. Is there a better way to deal with a supplier or a more Eco friendly way. Pat hand cuts his herbs and salads so the individual pieces are fantastic to use for presentation and the taste is incredible, micro bulls blood with a fantastic beetrooty zing, magenta, gold and red chard, fantastic aniseedy bronze dill, micro mizuna and dandelion leaves and my personal favourite a punchy micro celery leaf. As an added bonus to my visit which has turned into a weekly collection and short!! chat Pat showed me his small holding of rare breed Tamworth pigs with there fantastic red coats a truly fine animal raised with respect and the highest standards of husbandry. These super intelligent beasts regard you in a manner that makes you wonder how any one can raise pigs in concrete sheds so over crowded there is a daily royal rumble resulting in missing ears and frayed ears. Pat feeds his pigs with waste from the micro herbs, which i can tell you gave fantastic character to the meat which is lamb like in its dark hue unlike the pale anemic mass produced pork we are used to in this country the collar of pork i roasted on Paddy's day for lunch was sublime so much so i am planning on purchasing half a beast the next time Pat has one available. This meat eater is looking forward to many porky feasts in the coming months and some fantastic choice cuts of rare breed pork to use in the restaurant.
A new dish on the menu the last three months is the seafood tasting plate which i think will remain on the menu for a long time such is the excellent feed back recieved from customers the dish has remain relatively unchanged since the new year as we were lucky enough to get it right very quickly. The discription of the dish on the menu goes.
The idea for this dish came together over Christmas as a garnish for the carpaccio of beef which was on the new years eve tasting menu. tornadoes Rossini is a classic dish incorporating fillet beef, foie gras and truffle, the idea with our dish was to take the three main ingredients and reinvent them around the carpaccio of fillet beef with some classic foie gras and truffle garnishes like cherry, almond and salt & pepper caramel. Carrot was consider after it worked well with a foie gras and confit duck terrine on the Christmas menu as carrot gel, carrot foam and carrot powder but in the end the cherry worked better. With the foie gras we started off with a torsion but this changed quickly as it over powered the beef but it worked well with the cherry. Next we tried a mousse with slightly more success in the end a foie gras custard brulee was perfect as the custard diluted the powerfulness of the foie gras while maintaining the subtle flavour characteristics. We wanted to use fresh truffles but the cost was prohibitive and the tinned ones were not very good quality so in the end we used a very good quality truffle oil and vinegar to make a dressing and the oil and tapioca corn starch to make a truffle dust. The final dish read like this "Miniature Beef Rossini" Carpaccio of Fillet Beef, Foie Gras Creme Brulee, Truffle Dust, Cherry Mousse and Foam and Toasted Brioche Cube.
