Since my last column for the paper I appeared on the telly!  I was on the TV3 sofa with Sybil Mulcahy and Martin King.  I can only assume that my diet and fitness regime are working as I was introduced to the viewers as the “the small butcher who’s thinking big”.   I was very amused by this and imagined that when the camera panned to me, the audience would be expecting someone very short in stature.

These days few people get excited about things but not me.  I wish I could pretend to be blasé and tell you that the whole thing was tedious but I can’t; the whole experience thrilled me and it really was great fun.  Maybe it is quite dull for someone who is used to being on TV but for me it was all shiny and new.  Now I’ve appeared on television before, but usually I am interviewed in my own surroundings, this time I had to go to the TV3 studios in Dublin.

You are probably wondering what they wanted with me.  One of the people we communicate with through our Twitter page, Adrian Shanahan, told TV3 about our website and on line meat offering.  In turn they felt it was newsworthy and also quite novel and so they called last week out of the blue and it caused quite a stir in the office.  To be honest when they contacted me I was a tad hesitant but it didn’t take long to convince me to go and I was very proud to fly the flag for Clonmel and for Tipp.

Now the strange thing about television is that the actual broadcast time is short and passes really quickly, but you have to be there ages before your slot so you get to drink in the whole thing.  Up close and personal nothing is really as it seems.  TV3 is a very modern studio and much of the tech stuff is controlled remotely so contrary to what you might think there are not lots of people behind cameras or running around with clipboards.  It is actually relatively relaxed and given time I’m sure you can forget you are on television and just get into chatting with the presenters.  Anyway it went well, I enjoyed it and it was great publicity for our website Jameswhelanbutchers.com and a little bit of diversion from the normal week.

So with the excitement and glamour behind me it was back to business once more and thoughts of food.  Personally this week I am planning for Mothers Day which is coming up this Sunday.  I have two women to think of; my own mother and my wife; mother of our children.  Given that they are all under seven, they understand the concept of making it a special day for Mammy but they need my help to procure the gifts and help with arrangements.  Their idea of what their mother would like as a gift is often touching, sometimes crazy and other times quite ingenious.  In a recent pre shopping chat someone suggested that, “Mammy might like a new set of Star Wars Lego!”  (Mental note to self, “Teach the children to be less mercenary!”)

When it comes to my own mother I am finding it increasingly difficult to come up with fresh ideas for gifts come any occasion, but particularly Mothers Day.  I have friends who have echoed a similar sentiment.  Flowers, chocolates, ornaments are all great and suffice for a time but then suddenly they seem lame and inadequate.  Maybe you only feel this way once you become a parent yourself and suddenly you appreciate your own parents more.  Perhaps our gift anxiety is more about trying to repay, when really that is quite impossible.

I have recently discovered that what humans ultimately appreciate more than anything is simply time spent together.  A friend of mine who is in her late fifties concurs completely.  She pointed out that as an older woman she has everything she needs materially.  She has lost interest in collecting more stuff and is, in fact, giving things from her house to her adult children as she feels it is one less thing to dust.  She told me that at this point in her life she is collecting memories; days spent with her grandchildren, browsing shops with her daughters and, of course, long lazy family meals where they all get together to break bread and fellowship.

That conversation certainly gave me a fresh perspective.  What’s interesting is that the origin of mothering Sunday has its roots in that idea of family.  Traditionally girls in service at the big houses were allowed home to visit their mothers on one Sunday during Lent.  Commercialism, as with many other traditions, has wrestled the day from our hands and packaged it in flowers, schmaltzy poetry and expensive cards.  Obviously if you are out of the country there is little you can do but send the cards and flowers but if you are here then you could make a bigger effort to do something that costs time rather than money.

So this year I’ve decided to cook at home.  Many people like to take their mothers out for lunch on Mothers day and if you have a group of adults that may be fine.  Sadly with small children it is my least favourite option.  There is a false sense that it will be alright as they are usually well behaved for the first 20 minutes and then you spend the rest of the time trying to restrain them from running around the dining room or escaping and getting lost.  Someone always wants to go to the loo just as your dinner arrives to the table and inevitably there will be row, a spillage or some other potential calamity. Eating under such conditions is unpleasant for all, even the doting grandparents and that’s before you deal with the disapproving looks of the strangers around you.

The recipe below is ideal for a family lunch at home.  There are also plenty more on the website with ‘How to’ videos as well so no excuse for not creating the perfect Mothers Day meal this Sunday.

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Food Market Monkstown and Avoca Rathcoole. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers

In my student days St Patrick’s Day was really just an excuse for a liquid lunch, a liquid dinner and a liquid evening supper! Several friends included breakfast in that list but even as a carefree student I was never that professional in my drinking habits. Food has always been the greater passion for me and regardless of the craic or peer pressure I would always stop and eat; even if it was a less than gourmet, gourmet burger.

Between student-hood and recent years St Patrick’s Day largely lost its appeal. As I matured I began to resent the connection between our national day and a day in the pub. I will admit it is a type of snobbery in that I believe the overriding Irish stereotype of excessive drinker is long gone. Particularly these days when those of us with families to support, mortgages to pay and all the other responsibilities can hardly afford a champagne lifestyle. There are also the health and social issues surrounding drink and if anything curtails a potential drinking career it’s small children, but that’s not a bad thing at all. Having gone off St Patrick’s Day for quite some time suddenly I’m beginning to ‘get it’ again particularly as the little ones reach an age where the parade is a highlight and they are learning about St Patrick and making St Patrick’s Day stuff at school. La Feile Padraig is definitely having a renaissance in chez Whelan. I’m slowly but surely coming around and I’m also starting to think that it might be a chance to celebrate the good things about being Irish given all the negative political and financial fallout of recent times. I noticed on the news one evening last week that there had even been a Tricolour Commemoration in Waterford recently. Our national flag was raised there for the first time by Thomas Francis Meagher in March 1848.

Maybe we are finally getting a grip on our culture and heritage and finding ways to celebrate it positively without the emphasis on alcohol. I think we can really do that through food and send that message to the world at large. To celebrate St Patrick’s Day we should go all out and gather our family together to enjoy the best of real Irish food. I’m not talking about green food colouring in the mini meringues although it’s a touch that the kids always love. I’m talking about generating a feast for the family.

There are many ways to create this traditional Irish feast, a warming one pot that can be prepared the day before and gently reheated after a cold parade. A large meat pie made with local ingredients and oozing with gravy or you could go all out and create a roast dinner. I like the idea of the roast and it also gives a great deal of choice. Choose from fresh lamb, luscious beef, a tender chicken or turkey. Yes, it’s just long enough since Christmas to bring one to the table again. However I’ve decided that this year we are going to try an even more traditional route and I’ve settled on Bacon and Cabbage with a Mustard Crust. Anybody who has my book, An Irish Butcher Shop, will find this recipe on page 91. It is simply cooked bacon but finished off in the oven with the addition of a crumbed topping. It certainly lifts an everyday bacon dish to a higher level.

I have also been experimenting recently with various cooking liquids. I liked Nigella Lawson’s recommendation for cooking ham in Coke so I thought I’d try it with bacon. I sliced up the onions, put the bacon on top and covered it with Coke. This works quite well with the sweetness of the coke offsetting the saltiness of the bacon and there is a definite, subtle taste change. According to Nigella you can make black bean soup out of the dark, inky liquid left behind but I have yet to try that and found myself just discarding the warm sticky mess that it is. Usually I try to cook the accompanying vegetables in the meat liquid but found that cabbage cooked in coke was all wrong according to my taste buds. The carrots weren’t as offensive but I still wouldn’t recommend it. I also tried cooking the bacon in cider. Arguably a little more expensive than coke but it gave a fine result. While I think I would ultimately prefer the taste of the meat cooked in the coke, the cider cooked cabbage was good. However the best result all round is cabbage cooked in plain bacon water and so for me cooking the bacon in plain water has to win every time.

When serving bacon and cabbage it’s hard not to think of buttery mash, but for a special occasion you could try being a little fancier. There is a simple recipe for potato gratin on page 212 of An Irish Butcher shop that would be just perfect. The creamy cheesy potato dish also provides a moist sauce in and of itself. Some people like to make an onion or white sauce with bacon or ham but potato gratin allows you to dispense with that. My special tip with potato gratin is that it can be very, very hot when it comes from the oven. I like to let it cool slightly before serving as this also helps it to set and therefore it’s easier to portion and looks better on the plate. Five to ten minutes cooling should do it.

The great thing about a bacon or ham joint is that it is just as good cold in a sandwich or with some coleslaw and salads the next day. Cook a large enough joint and the day after St Patrick’s Day will be an easy ride to get you in the mood for a nice weekend. It certainly shortens the week. Enjoy. I welcome your feedback to [email protected]

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Food Market Monkstown and Avoca Rathcoole. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers

Online Butcher Pat Whelan writes on meat and food in general and this week he talks about the humble sausage.

It must be our current fascination with all things frugal that every food magazine I’ve come across recently has at least one sausage recipe in it.  Toad in the Hole has been resurrected from its 1970s resting place and is seriously sexy again.  Just in case you haven’t come across it Toad in the Hole is an English dish of sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding batter and if made properly can be comfort food heaven.  Leaving the batter aside every chef also seems to have some take on bangers and mash.  They’re attempting to tart it up with a fashionable sprig of rosemary here or a handful of coriander there, but it is still sausage. Dry and plump, smothered in batter or gravy, puffed up with herbs – the pork sausage has had an Oprah style makeover and the audience is going wild.

I suppose it had to happen.  During the boom sausages had no need to grace a dinner plate.   The abundance of builders in the country had devoured truckloads of sausages in breakfast rolls before most of us even put our feet on the floor.   Sausages had a function as a breakfast staple and a child’s tea perhaps.  Before the downturn the idea of sausages for dinner would have been alien to many.  It’s quite funny how we quickly murdered our inner food snob in light of penury.

However the humble sausage is very versatile and every fridge and freezer in the land should keep a pack to hand and they have a good shelf life for a meat product.  There are the obvious uses; a quick sausage sandwich or a cooked breakfast but I have often used a few sausages for stuffing when I haven’t had sausage meat to hand.  Chopped small they enliven a dull omelette which is basically a combined cooked breakfast at lunch or suppertime.  Then there are the more complicated baked sausages in mustard and Toad in the Hole often served with “frilly” mash.  I use the word frilly because few chefs can leave mash alone these days.  They have to snip in some chives or throw in a pinch of cumin.  Stop playing with the mash, all it needs is butter and plenty of it!  Finally the onion gravy is a thing of much debate and getting it right is crucial.

And where did those names come from?  Bangers and Mash, Toad in the Hole, weanies (American) and Pigs in a Blanket!  If you Google Toad in the Hole you may be told on several websites that it is so called because the sausages resemble toads’ heads popping out of the batter.  It’s nonsensical in the extreme.  I’ve looked at Toad in the Hole from every angle and there is nothing anywhere in the dish that resembles a toad, let alone a hole!  Another suggestion is that Toad in the Hole was the name of an 18^th century tavern game where people threw discs into holes in the table; a slightly more plausible answer perhaps but nothing concrete.  Pigs in blankets are probably just a visual description.  In England pigs in blankets are small sausages wrapped in bacon; a party food or Christmas dinner accompaniment while in America the blanket is usually pastry and more like our common sausage rolls.    Weanies or Weaners in America come from the German name for Vienna, (Wien) where a particular pork and beef mix sausage came from.

We all know what a sausage is but if we didn’t have one to hand and a visiting alien asked us to define it in words what would you say?  Sausage is a food, generally made from meat mashed together with salt, herbs and spices and put into a long narrow casing.  Irish sausages are usually made from pork but every country has its own version and sausage can be prepared by drying, curing or smoking.

For many years butchers made their own sausages.  The general idea, shape and size were the same but obviously the taste varied slightly.  In my own shop we have a secret recipe for our award winning sausages.  When a James Whelan Butcher is deemed ready, and it takes many, many years of service, we reveal the “secret of the sausage to him” in a grand ceremony in the cold room!  Regular readers will know that I’m joking of course, but we do make excellent sausages to our own specific recipe.  You won’t find a James Whelan Butchers’ sausage anywhere else and I’ll personally stand over the quality, the texture and the taste.  While many like the challenge of making their own there are such good sausages available to buy that it seems an unnecessary and painstaking task.

Whatever kind of sausage you are after it can be easily found in today’s market.  From the oily Spanish chorizo that works so well in many dishes to the firm Frankfurter or plump and juicy traditional Irish pork sausage there are a myriad of inexpensive dishes to prepare.  Try as many as you can.  Some you’ll love and others will be too spicy, too chewy, too gritty, too smoky; you’ll never know until you try and don’t just resign the more unusual ones to pizza toppings and buffet platters.  Heat them in a pan and see what happens or mix them with some other ingredients or try them cold.  The big challenge will be to see if you can create an acceptable dinner with the humble sausage.  I am very confident that cooked with a little style and given some respect bangers and mash could have them dancing in the aisles and asking for seconds but you have to stick to the rules:

1.  Buy the best possible sausages you can get your hands on. (Butchers are probably your best bet.)

2. Master the art of onion gravy and, whatever the recipe says, cut the onions big and coarse!

3. Leave the mash alone – smooth and naked but for a butter lake is all the perfection needed.

I welcome your feedback to [email protected]

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of  James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Food Market Monkstown and Avoca Rathcoole. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers