weekend bites

This week I’ll be eating... wild garlic. It’s in full spate now and we have lots of it growing in our woodland. Wilted on a pan with some butter, it’s much nicer than spinach and, of course, if you substitute it for basil, it makes a great and very punchy pesto. We like to blitz it with feta and olive oil to make a brilliantly green and exceptionally tangy dip for raw vegetables or crisps, or to cook with potatoes and stock to make a fabulous soup.

Back in the 1980s Groupe PernodRicard had faith in the future of Irish whiskey when virtually nobody else did. They bought Irish Distillers and set about making Jameson an international brand. Jameson has just been named as one of the world’s top ten premium spirit brands with annual sales topping 7.5 million 9 litre cases. I make that 90 million bottles, all from Midleton, Co Cork, every single year. And growing.

Opus One, one of the New World’s most sought-after red wines, was the brainchild of Baron Phillipe de Rothschild of Bordeaux’s Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Robert Mondavi of the Napa Valley in California, back in the 1970s. I see its winemaker, Michael Silacci will be in Dublin on 25 March for an Opus One dinner hosted by Pembroke Wines. It kicks off with a Delamotte Champagne reception and the cost, per person, is €200. Not bad, considering the 2014 vintage is on sale in Dublin for €525 a bottle!

Aldi will have a whole range of kitchen equipment at remarkably affordable prices from next Thursday, 21 March. There’s a brilliantly versatile food processor for €69.99, professional kitchen pans from €14.99 to €24.99, an all-in-one electric soup maker for €69.99 and a whole range of gadgets from mandolin slicers to can openers for €2.99. There’s a four-slice toaster, which you may or may not want to keep in a cupboard (if Derry Girls are to be believed), for €24.99.