Cook club:The Butler's Pantry has made an art of cooking for busy people, writes Catherine Cleary
Twenty years ago the only convenience foods on offer were of the frozen-pizza and fish-finger variety. Eileen Bergin (right) was at the time running a catering business for corporate clients that involved travelling to Canada and the US, where she saw a different kind of prepared food for sale. "Back in 1985 and 1986 the fresh-food offering in Ireland was nonexistent. We had nothing in fresh food that you could take home, and it was a real gap in the marketplace." And so the Butler's Pantry was born.
"I set up my first shop on Mount Merrion Avenue in Blackrock [ Co Dublin]. Behind the counter we had the kitchen, and we filled containers from the pots and customers got to take them home." The experience was "a little bit like Coronation Street", with customers giving feedback on the previous night's dinner.
They started with a small number of staple dishes that remain on the menu two decades later. "It's still shepherd's pie, lasagne, beef stroganoff. If we took them off today there'd be pandemonium," she says. "People have a nostalgia for that kind of food; call it nursery food or comfort food."
The customer palate shifts into posher foods later in the week. "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it's all the traditional foods, then on Friday people move on to the gourmet foods because they're having friends to dinner."
And do people stash those cartons and pour her food into simmering pots, claiming to have made it themselves? "I don't think it's a secret. It has become a way of life. It's the cash-rich-and-time-poor thing. I'm time poor myself, so I know what it's like. Most people couldn't could cook coq au vin while working 24/7 and trying to juggle childcare."
The Butler's Pantry sells between 7,000 and 8,000 dinners a week, not including desserts and sandwiches. "The mould has been broken. Mothers are no longer cooking at home, so children are not being exposed to cooking skills or setting a table," she says. "It's so much better for welfare and wellbeing to eat food like you might have cooked at home."
At the moment, The Butler's Pantry is running a promotion, featuring family-friendly recipes, at its shops in Blackrock, Clontarf, Donnybrook, Monkstown, Rathgar and Sandymount in Dublin, and in Wicklow town
CAULIFLOWER SOUP
Serves four to six
This is a very quick soup to put together, and it is quite filling. If you find it too thick, you can add extra stock or milk.
50g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 medium cauliflower, florets only, no leaves
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
4 tbsp milk or cream
croutons or toast
chopped fresh parsley, to garnish
Heat the butter in a large, heavy pan. Add the onion and garlic and sweat gently until they are soft. Add the cauliflower and stock, then cover and simmer for an hour. Puree the soup with a hand blender, or in a food processor, then return it to a clean pan and check the seasoning. Stir in the milk or cream and reheat the soup to simmering point. Scatter the croutons, or the toast cut into cubes, on top of the soup and sprinkle with parsley before serving.
SCAMPI INDIANA
Serves two as a main course or up to six as a starter
This is a very unusual dish that only takes about 15 minutes to prepare. It is best served as soon as it is cooked.
400g raw prawns or frozen raw prawns, peeled if possible
3-4 tbsp oil
55ml brandy
1 tbsp curry powder
½tsp garlic salt
200ml cream
6-8 tomatoes, cut into segments
Tabasco
1 butterhead lettuce
parsley, to garnish
cooked rice, to serve
Peel the prawns, if they are not already shelled. Heat the oil and fry the prawns quickly. Season to taste. Add the brandy, light it with a match and allow it to evaporate. Add the curry powder and garlic salt and stir them in well while frying. Add the cream, then the tomato segments.
Bring to the boil and simmer slowly for two or three minutes. Add seasoning and Tabasco to taste. Just before serving, add the shredded lettuce and garnish with parsley. Serve with rice.
Recipes taken from The Butler's Pantry: Recipes for All Seasons, published by O'Brien Press next month, priced €25