July 1st, 2009
As the summer approach we are delighted to offer you a special midweek deal. This Offer is valid from the 1st of July until the 31st of August.
Based on our summer week-end special of 2 nights B&B + one evening meal for 115.-€, you
can now extend your stay into the week. Just…
- ad as many nights (including brakfast) as you wish for 30.-€ per Person sharing.
- ad as many three-course dinners as you wish for 35.-€ per dinner.
Posted in Special Offers | No Comments »
July 2nd, 2009
The Achill Country Market began twelve years ago in 1997. Ever since then, there has been a band of eager producers offering their quality, assorted goods for their customers under the motto Freshness and Quality at a Reasonable Price
The wide range of produce on offer includes traditional baking such as brown bread, tea bracks, fresh scones, mouthwatering sponge cakes, and apple tarts. Even allergy sufferers needn’t miss out, with cakes available made from spelt wheat. Jams, marmalades and chutneys in variety are always popular. There is a range of health-inducing chemical-free vegetables – courgettes, leeks, potatoes, salad fare – and herbs, including thyme, tarragon, sage and parsley. Seaweeds gathered from Achill’s beautifully clean shores, such as dillisk and carrageen, are very popular. Lovely free-range hen and duck eggs from small family flocks are offered. Original handmade crafts include stylish scarves, handspun woollen bags and hats, babyware and cot-quilts, printed cloth bags, hand-made Greetings cards and bookmarks, and small original watercolour paintings. As if that weren’t enough there is a range of interesting and practical vividly-coloured pottery. Last but not least, there is a range of Achill-grown ornamental plants and shrubs festooned with foliage and flowers.
The Achill Cuntry Market takes place at Ted Lavelles in Cashel every Friday between 11am and 1pm. Don’t miss it!
Posted in Recommendations | No Comments »
July 1st, 2009
- 1 kg fresh mixed berries (for example blackberries, raspberries and blue berries)
- 5 tablespoon of sugar or honey
- 4 to 5 cubes of chopped cristalised ginger (you find it in health shops, it is not as strong flavoured as normal ginger and give a wonderful aroma)
- 0,5l Water
- 0,25l sweet Wine
- ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
Put the berries into a pot and simmer on low mark for about 5 minutes. Then ad the sugar or honey and the ginger (optional). Ad the 0,5 litre of water and 0,25 litre of sweet wine and let it simmer for about another 20 minutes until the berries are soft but not mashed. At last ad the cinnamon.
Optional
Cranberries, apples or any other seasonal fruits can be used to your preference. For sweeter texture use apples or pears, for a more sour texture pitted cherries or cranberries could be used. The preparation of the compote is the same.
For a more savoury texture do not ad any honey or sugar, just fruit and stir for 10 minutes until slightly soft but stil crunchy. The result is a healthy and wonderful simple dish for a summers evening
Download the Recipe for Summer Berry Compote (pdf,152KB)
We recommend to serve the Summer Berry Compote with Crumbled Potatoes
Tags: berries, cinnamon, ginger, honey, sweet wine
Posted in Deserts, Recipes, Side Dishes | No Comments »
June 30th, 2009
- 2kg of (salad) potatoes
- 4 tablespoons of self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Boil the potatoes until soft but no mushy. After boiling rinse them in very cold water, which will make the peeling easier. Let them cool down until you can handle them, then peel the potatoes. After peeling the potatoes grate them in to a bowl, add the flour and salt and mix well. Always try not tu mush the potatoes.
Heat up some sunflower oil or similar in a big frying pan that will hold the whole quantity of potatoes. (If you do not have such a pan, you will have to do the following in two runs.) You can test the right heat of the oil, with a little of the mixture. If it browns fast, reduce to medium and ad the whole mixture into the pan.
Stir and mix it constantly until the mixture forms golden brown crumbles. The dish is ready to serve, when there are no sticky bits left.
Download the Recipe for Crumbled Potoatoes (pdf,166KB)
We recommend serving it with a Summer Berry Compote. If you do so, you should take some mild cheddar or some gruyere cheese(if you find some) and grate it over the crumble. That’s just fantastic!
Tags: cheddar, gruyere, potatoes
Posted in Main Courses, Recipes | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2009
First of all, we want to thank you all for your feedback about our Newsletter. It has been very positive! Thank you.
We have turned our list of e-mail addresses into a mailinglist and using Mailchimp we delivered our first newsletter exactly a week ago. We cleared the List of 250 recipients from 10 bounces and had three complaints, for which we want to apologise once more. We know, that some of the addresses were quite old, as we have been collecting them since we opened about seven years ago.
Over all the we had a great response. 42% of all recipients opened the newsletter, which is 19.7% above the industry average. The click-rate was 9.2%, which is more then three times the industry average of 2.7%.
We will continue to work hard on our newsletter to meet your expectations. The next newsletter will be sent on the 17th of June and this time, we will have something special for fathers day, so stay tuned and subscribe now!
If you have any suggestions about the content or other issues regarding the newsletter, please let us know. We also want to thank Achill Online Internet Solutions for their great technical support.
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
May 27th, 2009
A haven of tranquillity and peace
Right by the Atlantic coast, hidden in a small bay on Achill Island, you find the most westerly public garden in Ireland.
The 3 acres of gardens belong to Bleanáskill Lodge which is established around 1870. The house can be found in a quiet hamlet, two miles from Achill Sound. From here you have a view over to the Curraun Peninsula and the waters of the Sound. The garden is situated at the sea.
Posted in Recommendations | No Comments »
May 25th, 2009
- 12 Salad Potatoes
- a Pinch of Lavender
- Pepper & Salt
- Butter or Olive Oil
Cut the potatoes in half and season with lavender, pepper & salt. Sprinkle with Butter or Olive Oil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C (Gas Mark 6).
Download the Recipe for Lavender Potatoes
This Side Dish goes well with:
Tags: lavender, olive oil, potatoes
Posted in Side Dishes | No Comments »
May 24th, 2009
- 1 medium Cabbage
- 10 mushrooms
- 6 good size Strawberries
- 1 teaspoons of fresh Garlic
- 1 pint of Apple Juice
- Salt & Pepper
- a dash of Olive Oil
Chop the Cabbage very fine and put in a hot frying pan with a little bit of Olive Oil, add the garlic and season with pepper and salt. Fry it for one minute or two, then add the 10 sliced mushrooms and half a pint of Apple Juice, bring to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining Apple Juice and the roughly chopped Strawberries and gently heat up for another 2-3 minutes.
Serve it straight away, otherwise the Strawberries will desintegrate.
Download the Recepie for Cabbage Mushroom Stirfry with Strawberries
This Side Dish goes well with:
Tags: apple juice, cabbage, garlic, mushrooms, olive oil, stirfry, strawberries
Posted in Side Dishes | No Comments »
May 24th, 2009
- 2 tablespoons of Crème Fraiche
- fresh or frozen Cranberries (alternatively you can use 2 tablespoons of Cranberries in a jar)
- 1 tablespoon of fresh Gralic
- 1 tablespoon of Irish Honey
- 3 teaspoons of Irish Whiskey
- a poinch of salt
Mix all ingredients and heat gently.
Download the Recipe for Crème Fraiche and Cranberry Dip
This Dip goes well with:
Tags: cranberries, creme fraiche, garlic, honey, whiskey
Posted in Dips | No Comments »
May 23rd, 2009
for 4 people
Ingredients
- 800g to 1kg of Lamb Rack (ask your butcher to cut off the bone and prepare little steaks)
- 2 tablespoons of Irish Honey
- 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- some pepper
- 1 teaspoon of Chives
- 1 teaspoon of Mint
- 1 teaspoon of Lavender
- 1 teasoon of Garlic
Finely chop herbs and garlic and mix them with the Olive Oil. Add salt and pepper. Then marinate the lamb in this mixture for at least 30 minutes. Pan fry the steaks to your likings and serve with your choice of vegetables. Just before serving, you can flame the steaks with whiskey.
Download the Recipe for Lamb – “How the West was Won”
With this Main Course, we recommed:
Tags: chives, garlic, honey, lamb, lavender, mint, olive oil, rack
Posted in Main Courses | No Comments »
The Unique Experience