Green washed at the Farm?

I am part of an informal dinner club with two friends. Once a month we splash out and try a new restaurant. It's a great way for us to stay in touch since I have moved away from the city. As we are all food lovers we enjoy indulging ourselves. Sometimes we even have four deserts between the three of us!

In December we decided to visit The Farm on Dawson Street, Dublin, a restaurant seemingly specialising in organic and local foods. It sounded right up my street and I was really looking forward to my visit. First impressions were good; a big blackboard outside announced its ethos of commitment to local and/or organic produce. The decor, although not screaming eco or organic was pretty. I was late and my friends were really hungry so I chose quickly from the menu.

It was only as I settled down that I noticed that my companions were drinking Heineken, not very organic or even local. Then I noticed that in the centre of each table, on top of white bleached paper tablecloths was a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup. I started to wonder what if anything in this place was organic. Our starters came and went, I had the hummus, which was nice. One of my friends has just completed a wine course so I let her choose the wine. When it came I discovered that it wasn't organic either in fact there was a limited choice of organic wines on the list and they were all quite highly priced. When our mains came I looked down on two small, overcooked pear and brie tartlets, they looked like they had come straight from the supermarket, the rocket salad was pleasant though and I did my best to disguise the taste of the tartlets by piling loads on top of it. One of our party had pizza made from organic flour - at last something organic - which I believe was fantastic, as was the burger enjoyed by the third member of our group

Desert was great too. We all had chocolate cake which had been individually decorated for each of us. The service was fast and very attentive. Although overall the food was good (for my companions at least), I came away at the end of the evening desperately disappointed. I'm really not sure who this place is aimed at, the hardcore environmental foodie would want organic ketchup (readily available), an organic wine list and more visible eco credentials, someone ambivalent towards the organic movement would probably be put off before they walked in the door.

I can only hope that The Farm will re-think its formula and become the restaurant it claims to be.

Running A Paperless Office

I am going to try to give up paper for February and am moderating a discussion on the subject on Irish Business Women.com at the moment. I will keep you up to date with my progress on my blog but you can also follow the discussion here.

Recipe - Sheepless Shepherds Pie

After a month off from blogging I thought I would give you all a treat and share with you one of my favorite recipes for this season. I find it goes down really well with both vegetarians and meat eaters and is a great warming, rustic, comfort dish.

Serves 4

225g lentils soaked over night (Green, Brown or Puy are best)

2tbsp Yeast extract (eg. Marmite although there are some organic ones available)

1tsp Dijon mustard

50g Butter

1 Onion

2 Carrots chopped into cubes

A handful of string beans sliced into 2cm lengths

1tsp Dried mixed herbs or 1tbsp fresh mixed herbs

450g Potatoes

1 Large parsnip

Extra butter and milk for mashing

Pre-heat the oven to 180c 350F or Gas Mark 4

Cut the potatoes and parsnip into small chunks and steam or boil for about 20 minutes until tender. Mash them together with some extra butter, salt and milk until smooth.

Add the yeast extract to one liter of boiling water. Stir in until dissolved

Cook the lentils in half of the yeast extract mixture for approximately 20 minutes or until they are tender. Drain the liquid.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry the onions for a couple of minutes until soft. 

Add the chopped carrot and stir for another few minutes until they begin to soften. 

Now add the string beans and stir for another minute.

Stir in the flour until it has soaked up all the moisture from the pan. 

Slowly add the rest of the yeast extract mixture, continuously stirring until smooth. 

Mix in the Lentils, dijon mustard and herbs. Season to taste.

Pour the mixture into the bottom of an oven proof dish and top with the potato and parsnip mixture.

Make grooves through the mash with a fork and bake for 30 minutes.

If you would like to recieve a seasonal recipe every month to your inbox, join the Feelgood Organic Hampers recipe of the month.  This months recipe is spicy tomato and lentil soup.