I love the break at the end of the year but, that said, it feels very good to have the restaurant open again, and a refreshed and enthusiastic team and guests in the early part of 2026.
Before Christmas we always have Connemara Hill Lamb on our menu. But from January on we change it to Thornhill Duck reared on the Moffitt family farm, just a few miles away in Blacklion.
Kenneth has been supplying us with beautiful duck going back to my parents’ time and it is always of the highest quality. I haven’t done the maths but I am sure they are our longest serving supplier.
I had a delicious Thornhill goose at home this Christmas. I do it every year and it has become a bit of a tradition. I keep it simple and serve it with red cabbage, and a honey and clove sauce. It’s always one of my favourite meals of the year.
One of the nice things about writing for the the Irish Farmers Journal is that we have a copy for each of our guest rooms. Our guests often comment on the contents and appreciate it, and it’s regularly a talking point after they have enjoyed a meal.
Recently, one of our guests was a journalist who told me that he sometimes writes for the Irish Farmers Journal. And I was delighted to see on social media that Eunice Power appreciated my mention before Christmas of her excellent My Kitchen Table cookbook.
You never know who is reading what you write or hearing what you say on the radio so it is great to see when it lands in the right places.
We have so many talented hard-working people in our food and hospitality sector and it is great to be able to give some encouragement now and again to those who are doing a great job. People have been good to me over the years, and I know how much it matters. So a big thank you to the Irish Farmers Journal for always having good reading material for our guests – it is much appreciated.
Perfect pork
Today, I have two delicious and simple recipes for Quality Assured Irish Pork. Pork is good value and very versatile and rack and shoulder are two of my favourite cuts.
This roast rack of pork is great for a Sunday lunch or if you are having some friends over for dinner. Your butcher will trim the rack to show the bones and it looks very impressive.
The bone gives so much flavour and apple always goes well with pork. You could glaze it if you have any ham glaze left over or I sometimes rub in some cajun spice.
Use some nice flowery potatoes for your roasties. When you add the cream after par boiling them, they will have a lovely colour and richness. The port sauce gives you a really rich gravy. You want it tangy and not too sweet.
The second recipe using the shoulder has an Italian twist. You often see ‘al forno’ in recipe books and it just means cooked in the oven. This is another nice tasty pork dish. Use a nice medium bodied red wine and when it comes to stock, Carol’s Stock Market, made by Carol Banahan and her team in Derry, have a fabulous range of handmade stocks using traditional recipes.
We use them a lot in the cookery school. The seasoning is a nice mix of basil and oregano and the sourdough topping gives good texture. I serve the pork here with a nice fresh egg pasta, but you could use rice, or some mashed or baked potatoes.
These are two lovely feel-good pork meals to come back to time and again for family dinners or occasions.
Roast rack of pork with crispy cream roast potatoes
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 apple, cored and cut into wedges
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra
1.2kg potatoes,
peeled and cut into large chunks
1 rack of pork
4 tbsp cream
1 tbsp plain flour
100ml dry white wine
1 heaped tbsp Cumberland and port sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4). Arrange the vegetables and apples in the middle of a roasting tin to act as a trivet and drizzle over the olive oil. Then place the pork joint on top and rub with a little more oil. Roast for 1 hour then remove the joint and give it a good baste. Increase the temperature to 220°C (425°F/Gas Mark 7) and continue cooking for 40 minutes until the pork is cooked through and tender.
2. Add the potatoes to a large pan of cold water with a good pinch of salt, then bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or until almost cooked through. Drain and set aside to steam dry. Take the potatoes that are still warm and gently fold in the cream with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of sea salt.
3. Tip out on a non-stick baking tin and cook on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 minutes, then turn the potatoes. Roast for another 40 minutes until cooked through and crispy, turning once. Leave to rest for 20 minutes covered loosely with foil.
4. When the pork has cooked, remove it from the oven and put on a plate in a warm place to rest. To make the gravy, put the roasting tin with the vegetables on a medium heat. Spoon off any excess fat and discard, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
5. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the Cumberland and port sauce with a splash of boiling water and stir until dissolved. Strain the gravy into a clean pan and keep warm, adding the resting juices from the pork meat just before serving.
6. Unwrap the meat and carve a
chop per person to serve on plates
with the roast potatoes and the gravy. Have some stuffing and roasted vegetables to hand around separately.
Pork Al Forno with pesto crumbs
Neven Maguire: Pork AI Forno with pesto crumbs/ \ Philip Doyle
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 pack of pork shoulder slices,
at room temperature
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
225ml red wine
350ml chicken stock
1 jar of Italian tomato and sweet
garlic tomato sauce
2 tsp Mediterranean seasoning
2 packs Italian fresh egg tortiglioni pasta
1 pack basil pesto sourdough topping
3 tbsp grated Parmesan
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F/Gas Mark 2). Dry the pork with kitchen paper and season generously. Heat a casserole dish with a lid over a high heat. Add the oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes on each side until well browned. Transfer to a plate.
2. Pour the wine into the casserole and allow to bubble down, removing any sediment from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock, pasta sauce and Mediterranean seasoning, stirring to combine.
3. Return the pork to the casserole, then cover and bake for 2 hours until the meat is completely tender and falling apart. Leave to relax for 15 minutes with the lid on, then use two forks to shred the meat.
4. When the meat is cooked, increase the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4). Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the pasta and give a good stir, then cook for three minutes until ‘al dente’. Drain into a colander and fold into the shredded pork. Transfer to a baking dish that is roughly 8”x 8” and scatter over the sourdough topping followed by the Parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes until bubbling and golden brown serve straight to the table.
I love the break at the end of the year but, that said, it feels very good to have the restaurant open again, and a refreshed and enthusiastic team and guests in the early part of 2026.
Before Christmas we always have Connemara Hill Lamb on our menu. But from January on we change it to Thornhill Duck reared on the Moffitt family farm, just a few miles away in Blacklion.
Kenneth has been supplying us with beautiful duck going back to my parents’ time and it is always of the highest quality. I haven’t done the maths but I am sure they are our longest serving supplier.
I had a delicious Thornhill goose at home this Christmas. I do it every year and it has become a bit of a tradition. I keep it simple and serve it with red cabbage, and a honey and clove sauce. It’s always one of my favourite meals of the year.
One of the nice things about writing for the the Irish Farmers Journal is that we have a copy for each of our guest rooms. Our guests often comment on the contents and appreciate it, and it’s regularly a talking point after they have enjoyed a meal.
Recently, one of our guests was a journalist who told me that he sometimes writes for the Irish Farmers Journal. And I was delighted to see on social media that Eunice Power appreciated my mention before Christmas of her excellent My Kitchen Table cookbook.
You never know who is reading what you write or hearing what you say on the radio so it is great to see when it lands in the right places.
We have so many talented hard-working people in our food and hospitality sector and it is great to be able to give some encouragement now and again to those who are doing a great job. People have been good to me over the years, and I know how much it matters. So a big thank you to the Irish Farmers Journal for always having good reading material for our guests – it is much appreciated.
Perfect pork
Today, I have two delicious and simple recipes for Quality Assured Irish Pork. Pork is good value and very versatile and rack and shoulder are two of my favourite cuts.
This roast rack of pork is great for a Sunday lunch or if you are having some friends over for dinner. Your butcher will trim the rack to show the bones and it looks very impressive.
The bone gives so much flavour and apple always goes well with pork. You could glaze it if you have any ham glaze left over or I sometimes rub in some cajun spice.
Use some nice flowery potatoes for your roasties. When you add the cream after par boiling them, they will have a lovely colour and richness. The port sauce gives you a really rich gravy. You want it tangy and not too sweet.
The second recipe using the shoulder has an Italian twist. You often see ‘al forno’ in recipe books and it just means cooked in the oven. This is another nice tasty pork dish. Use a nice medium bodied red wine and when it comes to stock, Carol’s Stock Market, made by Carol Banahan and her team in Derry, have a fabulous range of handmade stocks using traditional recipes.
We use them a lot in the cookery school. The seasoning is a nice mix of basil and oregano and the sourdough topping gives good texture. I serve the pork here with a nice fresh egg pasta, but you could use rice, or some mashed or baked potatoes.
These are two lovely feel-good pork meals to come back to time and again for family dinners or occasions.
Roast rack of pork with crispy cream roast potatoes
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 apple, cored and cut into wedges
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra
1.2kg potatoes,
peeled and cut into large chunks
1 rack of pork
4 tbsp cream
1 tbsp plain flour
100ml dry white wine
1 heaped tbsp Cumberland and port sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4). Arrange the vegetables and apples in the middle of a roasting tin to act as a trivet and drizzle over the olive oil. Then place the pork joint on top and rub with a little more oil. Roast for 1 hour then remove the joint and give it a good baste. Increase the temperature to 220°C (425°F/Gas Mark 7) and continue cooking for 40 minutes until the pork is cooked through and tender.
2. Add the potatoes to a large pan of cold water with a good pinch of salt, then bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or until almost cooked through. Drain and set aside to steam dry. Take the potatoes that are still warm and gently fold in the cream with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of sea salt.
3. Tip out on a non-stick baking tin and cook on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 minutes, then turn the potatoes. Roast for another 40 minutes until cooked through and crispy, turning once. Leave to rest for 20 minutes covered loosely with foil.
4. When the pork has cooked, remove it from the oven and put on a plate in a warm place to rest. To make the gravy, put the roasting tin with the vegetables on a medium heat. Spoon off any excess fat and discard, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
5. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the Cumberland and port sauce with a splash of boiling water and stir until dissolved. Strain the gravy into a clean pan and keep warm, adding the resting juices from the pork meat just before serving.
6. Unwrap the meat and carve a
chop per person to serve on plates
with the roast potatoes and the gravy. Have some stuffing and roasted vegetables to hand around separately.
Pork Al Forno with pesto crumbs
Neven Maguire: Pork AI Forno with pesto crumbs/ \ Philip Doyle
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 pack of pork shoulder slices,
at room temperature
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
225ml red wine
350ml chicken stock
1 jar of Italian tomato and sweet
garlic tomato sauce
2 tsp Mediterranean seasoning
2 packs Italian fresh egg tortiglioni pasta
1 pack basil pesto sourdough topping
3 tbsp grated Parmesan
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F/Gas Mark 2). Dry the pork with kitchen paper and season generously. Heat a casserole dish with a lid over a high heat. Add the oil and sauté for 2-3 minutes on each side until well browned. Transfer to a plate.
2. Pour the wine into the casserole and allow to bubble down, removing any sediment from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock, pasta sauce and Mediterranean seasoning, stirring to combine.
3. Return the pork to the casserole, then cover and bake for 2 hours until the meat is completely tender and falling apart. Leave to relax for 15 minutes with the lid on, then use two forks to shred the meat.
4. When the meat is cooked, increase the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas Mark 4). Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the pasta and give a good stir, then cook for three minutes until ‘al dente’. Drain into a colander and fold into the shredded pork. Transfer to a baking dish that is roughly 8”x 8” and scatter over the sourdough topping followed by the Parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes until bubbling and golden brown serve straight to the table.
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