The Pig Party at Dunworley

Otto Kunze and his wife Hilde run a restaurant with rooms in Dunworley near Butlerstown in West Cork. They’ve got 5½ acres of land where they live an almost self sufficient existence, producing a wide variety of produce for their restaurant from the farm and garden. They have two tunnels, a few cattle, some duck to eat the slugs and hens which recycle the scraps from the restaurant and produce eggs a few days later. Local fishermen land their catch in the little bay below the house and the catch of the day, be it mackerel or turbot or a crate of mussels goes on the menu.
Otto and Hilde (who is of Dutch origin) arrived in Ireland from Germany in 1980. At first Otto was a social worker supervising the foster care of German children. Even as a student in Berlin he loved food and spent countless hours trying to recreate dishes he tasted in restaurants. He longed to make his hobby his profession, so after much soul searching he picked up courage to knock on Gerry Galvin’s door. He spent two years in the kitchen of the Vintage Restaurant in Kinsale before Gerry and his wife Marie moved to Galway. Otto and Hilde had fallen in love with West Cork and decided to start a little business, so Dunworley Cottage was born. They served local food and developed a lively trade through word of mouth. 
For years they have reared their own pigs, Otto favours a Saddleback-Tamworth cross, which he feeds on organic grain and waste from the garden.
The Pig Party at Dunworley has now become an annual affair , the first was held in 1985 when Otto built an oven and roasted a whole pig on a spit. For the past couple of years Otto and Hilde linked up with Slow Food West Cork to organise this amazing event to celebrate the pig and the foods of the local producers. This year Otto and Hilde closed the restaurant for three days prior to the pig party and cooked a phenomenal amount of food – almost 150 people turned up. This year the pig was butchered into smaller cuts – chops, spare ribs, leg and sausages were cooked on a sizzling barbecue, there was also sâté with peanut sauce, prawn and vegetarian kebabs…. . There was a wonderful selection of smoked fish from Ummera, Woodcock and Belvelly Smokehouses - wild salmon, eel, mussels, mackerel and herrings. Smoked and cured meats from Frank Krawczyk and Fingal Ferguson, a huge array of salads, soft herby cheese, hummus, Black Hamburg and Muscat and Alexandria grapes hung from the conservatory ceiling over the buffet table. People from far and wide helped themselves and wandered out into the garden to find a table and chair and then helped themselves to barbecued wild salmon, fat Dublin Bay prawns in the shell and a gorgeous Spinach and St Tola cheese gratin, and a salad of organic leaves. 
Mary Pawle supplied some of her terrific organic wine (if you don’t know about these wines contact Mary Pawle at 064-41443 to have a look at her list). The Azul y Garanza was mellow and fragrant, the Can Vendrell chardonnay was equally delicious, gone are the days when all organic wines were rubbish. Now the grapes for many of the world’s best wines are grown organically and bio-dynamically, plus one has the bonus of a clearer head from less chemicals and sulphur dioxide. The food was predominantly local, meat from local butcher Dan Moloney in Bandon. Many of the food producers were there, local food hero Bill Hogan (he who took on the Dept of Agriculture and FSAI and won), local organic farmer Stuart Kingston, vegetable growers Caroline and Eddie Robinson, Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen, Sally Barnes of Woodcock Smokery in Castletownshend. Legendary local photographer John Minihan was busy snapping revellers tucking into home made ice-cream, home-grown cherries and local farmhouse cheese.
The adorable local ‘clown’ Trace thrilled the children with her delicate face painting and fantastical balloon sculptures. The weather was glorious so people sat around for hours relaxing and chatting – a wonderfully convivial party to celebrate the bounty of the garden and the produce of the local farmers and artisan producers. 
O.C.C (Otto’s Creative Catering) is open from Wednesday to Saturday for dinner and for Sunday lunch. One can also book a special party or a small wedding. 
O.C.C. Dunworley, Butlerstown, Bandon, Co Cork Tel 023-40461 www.ottoscreativecatering.com  e-mail:ottokunze@eircom.net 


Some of Otto’s Dunworley Pig Party Recipes:

Otto’s Nutty Carrot Salad

Peel 400 gr. Organic carrots and cut them in rough chunks – put them in a food processor with the juice of 3 oranges and 150 gr. roasted cashew nuts. If the nuts are not salted, add a pinch of salt. Process for a minute or to the preferred consistency – I like to have something to bite on, not quite like baby-food. Serve as part of a mixed salad.

Spinach and St. Tola Organic Goat’s Cheese Gratin

Blanche ½ kg of organic spinach for 1 minute and refresh in cold water, drain well and chop roughly.

Prepare a basic white sauce by frying 1 finely chopped onion and one crushed clove of garlic in 50 gr. butter till golden, add 1 heaped tablespoon flour and let it bubble for a minute, add one bay leaf, a pinch each of nutmeg and black pepper, a teaspoon of good granulated vegetable stock and enough milk bit by bit to reach a creamy but not too thick consistency when boiling. Simmer the sauce gently for ten minutes and adjust seasoning to your taste – strong enough to flavour the spinach. 
Mix spinach and sauce in a baking dish, crumble 200 gr. St. Tolas organic goats cheese on top and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese turns slightly brown.
Serve with new British Queens.

“Sate” – Vegetarian or Pork

Peanut sauce

Brown 150 gr. crunchy peanut butter in a saucepan till the colour turns slightly darker, add 250 ml water, ½ teaspoon “Sambal” (or minced chilli), 1 tablespoon soy sauce, ½ teaspoon ground cumin and ½ teaspoon ground coriander (alternatively just give it an Indian twist with curry powder) – bring to the boil while whisking the sauce and adjust the seasoning to your liking of hot food. Re-heating can turn the sauce too thick, but this can be cured by adding more water and seasoning.

This sauce goes well with different meats or vegetable kebabs that are cooked on a BBQ. I like to use our own tender organic pork (shoulder cut will do fine) put on skewers and marinated for a few hours in a mix of soy, “Sambal” and lemon-juice. The same applies to the vegetarian kebabs combining vegetables in season that have similar cooking times or are precooked. At the pig party I added some pineapple for extra flavour.

Vegetable rice

Fry ½ ltr. Rice with 4 tablespoons olive oil till grains turn white, add ½ carrot, ¼ leek, ¼ celery, ¼ red pepper (all finely diced), ½ ltr. and 2 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoon of good granulated vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Stir well and cover tightly - bake in the oven at 130 C for 40 minutes. This rice can not overcook and is very easy to keep warm as long as it is kept in a warm oven in an airtight container

Rhubarb fool with Vanilla custard

Trim the ends of 1 kg tender young rhubarb and cut in approx. ½” pices – mix with 200 gr. sugar and let it stand for an hour to draw out the juices. Bring very slowly to the boil while stirring and simmer for 2 minutes only. Cool and serve with the real custard.

Bring 750 ml cream with 5 vanilla pods (split open and the seed paste squeezed out with the back of a knife) to the boil – whisk 10 egg yolks with 200 gr. sugar till thick and creamy; pour cream into egg mix and whisk; return to the saucepan and gently heat while stirring to 80 C or till custard is binding – strain the vanilla pods off and cool. Use with rhubarb fool or churn in an ice maker 

Strawberry Quark

Liquidize 500 gr. strawberries ( David Bushby’s from Rosscarbery are brilliant) with 1 tablespoon icing sugar to a smooth fruit puree. Whip 200 ml cream till stiff, add 250 gr. Fromage Frais (Quark) from Genilen Farm and 2/3 of the puree, mix through and adjust the sweetness with maybe a little more icing sugar. For a nice presentation pour the mixture into wine glasses and spoon a little of the puree on top as garnish.

Foolproof Food

Darina’s Summer Pasta with Zucchini and Sugar Snaps

Serves 10 approx.

450g (1lb) Penne or Spaghetti
450g (1lb) green and golden zucchini, 5-6 inches in length
450g (1 lb) sugar snaps
55g (2oz) butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 oz/55 g fresh basil leaves, chopped
115g (4oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

55g (2oz) freshly grated Parmesan (Parmigiana Reggiano)
A few zucchini blossoms if available 

Top and tail the zucchini and cut into ¼ inch thick slices at an angle. String the sugar snaps if necessary. Bring 12 pints of water to the boil in a large deep saucepan, add 2 tablespoons salt, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Meanwhile shoot the sugar snaps into (1.2L/2 pints) of boiling water with 1½ teaspoons of salt and cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes or until crisp and al dente. Drain. If you’re adept at juggling and have enough stove space you can also cook the zucchini while the pasta and sugar snaps are cooking. 
Pop a pasta bowl into the oven to heat or better still put it sitting on top of the pasta saucepan. Heat the butter and olive oil in a saute pan toss in the zucchini, increase the heat and continue to toss for 3 or 4 minutes, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, cover and reduce heat to medium for another few minutes by which time the zucchini should be tender but still al dente; Draw off the heat.
By now if you’re timing is good the pasta should be al dente so drain it quickly. Add the sugar snaps, chopped parsley and torn basil to the zucchini pour in the steaming hot pasta, sprinkle on the freshly grated Parmesan and toss well. Taste. 
Turn into the hot pasta bowl, sprinkle a few zucchini blossoms and basil leaves over the top if available. Rush to the table - Serve on hot plates with extra Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.
Simple, yet if the Parmesan is good and all the ingredients are fresh - Sublime. 


Another nice easy summery recipe- make now with fresh seasonal fruit
Sugared Peaches or Nectarines with fresh raspberry sauce

A truly delicious combination – even more irresistible with a scoop of home-made vanilla icecream.

Serves 6

6 perfect ripe peaches or nectarines
castor sugar
freshly squeezed lemon juice

Fresh Raspberry Sauce
: lb (340g) raspberries
freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon
22-3 ozs (70-85g) castor sugar
Garnish
sprigs of mint or lemon balm

First make the Raspberry sauce - purée the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice. Push through a nylon sieve to remove the pips. Taste and chill.
Put the peaches into a deep bowl, cover them with boiling water, pour off the water and drop into iced water. Peel immediately and slice into 3 inch (5mm) slices removing the stone. Nectarines do not need to be peeled. Put into a bowl, sprinkle with castor sugar and lemon juice to taste. Serve chilled with Raspberry sauce and perhaps a blob of home-made vanilla ice-cream. Garnish with a sprig of mint or lemon balm if you have it to hand.


Hot Tips


Culinary Adventures in Spain
Culinary Adventures, a Spain based company who specialise in the design and organisation of culinary services in Spain for the international traveller and culinary professional, has just launched a new line of Cooking Classes specially designed for travellers in Spain with an interest in the “Nueva Cocina’ – the top chefs of Spain who include Ferran Adria of El Bulli, have brought a lot of attention recently to Spanish cuisine. For full details contact Marta Angulo e-mail:culinary@atasteofspain.com  
www.atasteofspain.com 


Slow Food Ireland –
For details of Slow Food Membership and Events check into www.slowfoodireland.com  


Fabulous Food Trails – Food Adventures in Ireland
Fabulous food trails will introduce you to the very best of Irish food and its culture, on and off the beaten track – visit local food markets, visit herb gardens, meet the best food producers – farmers, gardeners, bee-keepers… designed for people who have a passion for fresh food and a sense of adventure. Contact Fabulous Food Trails, 44 Oakley Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Tel 01-4971245 info@fabfoodtrails.ie  www.fabulousfoodtrails.ie 

The Cork City Tour –
This is the summer to visit Cork City – Join the Cork City Bus tour - buy your ticket from the driver or at The Tourist Office, Grand Parade - this is where the tour starts.
Tel. Tourist office – 021-4255100 or Cronin’s Coaches, 021-4309090. 

Growing Awareness Farm Walk on Sunday 17th July 
At South Reen Farm, Reen, Union Hall. David McCormick farms suckler cows on a 65 acre organic farm by the coast. Animals are grazed outdoors year round on a rotational basis and all calves are finished to beef. Also of interest is a young native woodland, vegetable garden and spectacular sea views. Directions: From Union Hall follow the signs for Reen Pier via Myross lake on left hand side. Just before Reen Pier, turn left uphill and continue to signed farm entrance on right hand side. Contact David McCormick on 028-22947.