Well it’s not every day an Irish Celebrity chef, bestselling author and the owner of the world renowned cookery school Ballymaloe in Cork, drops in to pay a visit to your cookery school along with the fabulous food author, journalist and broadcaster Caroline Hennessey. But yes, this was reality recently. This fantastic opportunity came about as part of my participation in several local Business and Council groups relating to food, local tourism and culture. Darina Allen visited Seamus Heaney Homeplace Visitor Centre, Bellaghy to tell us all about her new book “One pot feeds all” and called in for a short visit, particularly wanting to learn about potato bread or “fadge” as it’s called locally.
Fadge is something we have all grown up with and an Ulster fry wouldn’t be the same without it. It brings together our genetic love of bread and potatoes and is perfect slathered in butter or fried in pan juices as a vehicle soaking up those delicious flavours. It’s a delicious treat and the homemade version is spectacular. My mother made us potato bread growing up and she never measured anything, just leftover boiled potatoes mashed up with plain flour, salt, pepper, butter and a bit of milk to create a workable dough.
I decided it would be lovely to invite local school children to Bakehouse to put the fun into fadge and show our special guest Darina just how simple it is to make. A large bowl of flour and still warm, boiled potatoes were placed on the table in front of the children along with butter, full fat milk, salt and pepper. The children, along with help from myself and Darina took a few medium sized boiled potatoes into their bowls and mashed them up with a good knob of butter, half a teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper. We added a tablespoon of milk to the potatoes then to loosen the mixture before adding a couple of tablespoons of plain flour before the potato mixture began to resemble a dough.
The dough was placed onto a floured surface and rolled out thinly to about 1cm thick. The children had fun using cookie cutters to create fun shapes from the fadge. We cooked the fadge for a few minutes on each side on a non-stick pan and some of them on the flour dusted griddle suspended over the kitchen fire. The children waited expectantly as their shapes were served onto a plate before a wee slather of butter. They loved the fadge and the best thing was that they made it themselves. It was a fabulous experience for the children and so wonderful to share it with Darina Allen
