Marie-Claire Digby's round-up of other food news
Duck the hard work
Sheridans Cheesemongers might not be the first place you'd think of if you were looking for duck confit, but their new version, created by in-house chef Enda McEvoy and manufactured by the Steele family's Silver Hill Foods in Co Monaghan, is superb. So now, in addition to picking up cheeses matured to their optimum ripeness, you can tick off one quick and easy supper by picking up a vac-pack containing two generously-sized confit duck legs (€9.70). Their recipe involves marinating the legs in a mix of coriander, star anise, cinnamon and pepper, before poaching them in duck fat. All that remains is to pop them into a hot oven for 20 minutes. Sauté potatoes and spiced red cabbage make good accompaniments.
Sheridans was recently awarded a Food & Wine magazine Hall of Fame award. It has branches in Dublin and Galway, a counter at Ardkeen Quality Food Store in Waterford, and market stalls countrywide. See www.sheridanscheesemongers.com.
Stock up
Lakeshore Foods, whose grainy mustard was one of the original Irish artisan products when Hilary Henry still owned the company, is now part of the Boyne Valley Foods group. The Lakeshore range, recently repackaged and given smart new labels, includes some useful Irish-made store cupboard staples. There are attractive recipe suggestions for using the products in Lakeshore Little Book of Recipes, a new cookbook by Michelle O'Brien, which is available free of charge when you buy two items from the range in Dunnes Stores, or by sending a stamped (€1.35), self-addressed envelope, at least 24cmx17cm, to Lakeshore Foods, Platin, Drogheda, Co Louth. www.lakeshore.ie
Stars on your table
A range of eye-catching mugs and plates have been designed by celebrities, including Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver, for Whatever It Takes, a charity which aims to raise funds to address global development issues. They each cost £10.99 (€13 and 50 cent), plus p&p, when purchased online from www.whateverittakes.org. The mugs are also on sale in Brown Thomas, Dublin, in attractive presentation boxes, and cost €16. A present problem solved, perhaps? However, if your budget is considerably larger, a collection of more than 100 tea cups by Clarice Cliff goes under the hammer at Bonham's Design Sale (1860-1945) in London on September 23rd. The estimate is an eye-watering £25,000 (€30,650).