James Kavanagh - The Currabinny Cookbook

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Penguin Ireland is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

First published 2018

Copyright James Kavanagh and William Murray, 2018

Photography copyright Brd ODonovan, 2018

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

Colour reproduction by Altaimage Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-844-88415-5

T O THE MEMORY
OF
J ENNY M URRAY, 19872007

All sorrows are less with bread

Miguel de Cervantes

Welcome to The Currabinny Cookbook!

For us, food is lifes greatest pleasure, so it has been a labour of love to bring together recipes to answer that simplest of questions, What do I want to eat?

This question will arise in all kinds of environments and moods, whether youre living in the city or the countryside, getting home late from a long days work and using mainly store-cupboard ingredients to make something simple, or with the luxury of time shopping for fresh produce and preparing ingredients for a more complicated recipe. Whatever your circumstances, we believe your food should taste great and be a source of enjoyment and comfort.

But first, who are we?

Well, were not chefs or any kind of experts. Were just devoted foodies and home cooks. Both of us grew up in homes William in Currabinny on Cork Harbour, James in Rathfarnham in South Dublin where delicious, freshly prepared meals and baking were par for the course (thanks, Breda and Gags!).

After completing his Fine Art degree, William decided to explore his passion for cooking by doing the three-month course at the legendary Ballymaloe Cookery School. At the same time, James was working in public relations and two of the clients he worked with were iconic Irish brands, Barrys Tea and Kerrygold Butter. Having to think about what made these brands great quality and tradition sowed a seed in James that came to fruition when we got together.

Our shared obsession with great food and cooking made us realize that it was more than just an interest it was something we wanted to make our lifes work.

After spending a summer in Currabinny, talking and dreaming about selling our food at markets, catering, doing pop-up food events, one day owning a caf, writing a cookbook, we started brainstorming names for our baby. And of course the perfect name was staring us in the face

Currabinny is a peninsula that projects into Cork Harbour between the port of Ringaskiddy and the fishing and sailing village of Crosshaven. Currabinny Woods rise steeply behind houses that are strung along the waters edge, looking across to Crosshaven. Its a quiet and picturesque place, dominated by trees, rocks and water.

In Currabinny there is a huge interest in food. While there is a respect for tradition, and families have their own recipes that have been handed down from one generation to the next, there is also an appetite for experimentation and innovation. People are in the habit of foraging for ingredients from both land and sea. Recipes, techniques and new discoveries are generously shared between neighbours. (Indeed, local botanical artist Patrick OHara shares his wonderful elderflower cordial recipe.)

Fishing and tending a small vegetable patch are both second nature to William. And inspired by his mother, he grew up experimenting with and inventing ways to use the produce that came from outside the kitchen window.

So Currabinny is not just a place we love, but the food culture there embodies everything we admire and value as an approach to cooking and eating drawing on the best of local produce and old traditions while being willing to try new things.

For us, cooking is about curiosity, community and, above all else, taste. We tend to toggle between countryside and city, taking things weve seen and learned in Dublin to Cork to tease out and develop and vice versa.

CURRABINNY IS NOT JUST A PLACE WE LOVE, BUT THE FOOD CULTURE THERE EMBODIES EVERYTHING WE ADMIRE

When were in the city, nothing pleases us more than exploring cafs and restaurants, seeing classics done brilliantly or reinvented, and also getting a feel for emerging flavours and innovative methods of cooking.

And when were in Currabinny, we will while away a day sailing around Cork Harbour, pulling into new places and trying out whatever is on offer. Youll find us picking samphire along the shore, buying vegetables at a farmers market and some fish or meat from a fishmonger or butcher, and then discussing what were going to make for dinner all the way home.

We love the fact that when were in Cork we have uninterrupted time to develop our food ideas and come up with recipes that we can refine further in Dublin, where things are a little faster paced for us. This call-and-response pattern is something that has arisen naturally out of our lifestyle, but it has been a crucial influence on the evolution of Currabinny as a company and has shaped our food vision.

WE LIKE TO BE SPONTANEOUS AND FRESH AND WE ALSO LIKE TO MAKE OLD FAVOURITES AGAIN AND AGAIN WITH CONTEMPORARY, BOLD TWISTS

In our cooking we like to be spontaneous and fresh and we also like to make old favourites again and again with contemporary, bold twists. We have made all kinds of food; some dishes have been resounding successes and others not so much.

By taking the time to experiment, to be curious and to take risks, to do it the wrong way and then correct course, adding a little more of this or less of that, we have developed a repertoire of recipes that we love and that we know that other people love too. For us, this is the essence of cooking and enjoying food: trying out things, refining recipes until they are truly delicious, sharing.

As we said, were not experts. We dont so much have rules as guiding principles. We believe in making an effort to source ingredients locally and to support small producers. And we like to eat seasonably and sustainably.

We have no interest in advising people on their diets and what to eat. Of course, we strongly believe in a varied diet and a healthy attitude to eating, but we dont demonize any ingredients, especially when they might be simply misunderstood.