New bresaola spiced beef from award winning KeNako Biltong
KeNako Biltong, Ireland’s leading biltong producer, has launched a uniquely delicious bresaola cured meat.
KeNako Biltong is based near Ballyclare and run by Ilse and Alanagh Van Standen. The new bresaola is the latest cured meat developed by the artisan business. The business also won the Best Savoury Snack Award in Ireland at last year’s Blas na hEireann Awards in Dingle, Co Kerry.
The Food NI member, has developed a successful portfolio of cured meats that also includes chorizo, salami and Droëwor. Droëwor is a South African sausage of ground beef and spices. The product comes in an array of flavours and is available in original, garlic and chilli flavours, chilli bites and even stokkies. Therefore, it is a low-fat, high protein snack.
Ilse is originally from Pretoria in South Africa. She has used her experience as a chef and butcher to create the new bresaola.
“Our bresaola is made from premium beef fillet spiced with black pepper, juniper berries, rosemary, thyme and garlic. We cure it for two weeks in our own fermentation cabinets. The cured meat is then wrapped in muslin cloth, air-dried and smoked slowly and carefully over cherry wood before slicing and packaging for sale.” explains Ilse.
She continues: “Feedback from people who have tasted the new bresaola has been extremely positive. They enjoy the delicate flavours of the cured meat, a further example of our focus on creating delicious and different products. We launched the bresaola at Balmoral Show and were delighted by the response of visitors to the Food NI Food Pavilion. It was a huge success for us,” she adds.
The company is based on Culmore Organic Farm and sources meat from retired, organically reared dairy cows. It was formed in 2012 by Ilse and Alanagh, a lecturer in Animal Management & Biology Belfast Metropolitan College.
The Blas na hEireann award follows their success in winning BBC TV’s Top of the Shop series last year.
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Trudy Brolly of Ocho Tapas in Portrush is Ulster Chowder Champion
Trudy Brolly of Ocho Tapas in Portrush has won the Ulster Chowder Championship held as part of the popular Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival.
Trudy, assisted by husband Sean, came out on top in the championships which attracted entries from nine other chefs. Gary Stewart and Stephen Lampard, both from Tartine Restaurant at Distillers Arms in Bushmills, were placed second and third respectively in the successful event. Ocho Tapas and Tartine are both Taste of Ulster members.
The championship celebrates the superb seafood available in Ballycastle and other parts of the Causeway coast in particular.
Trudy will now represent the region in the world famous Kinsale Chowder Cook Off in 2020.
Commenting on the award, Trudy said: “I was thrilled to win this award against such a distinguished group of competitors. It’s a great boost for our restaurant in Portrush.”
The Spanish restaurant has been an enthusiastic supporter of Food NI’s Chefs’ Steering Group, throughout the years. These are visits to food producers and restaurants across Northern Ireland, for local chefs.
Sean and Trudy Brolly are committed to using as many local ingredients as practicable in their popular bistro. They opened Ocho Tapas in 2015 on the back of successful careers in catering. Trudy brought her passion for Spanish cooking to Ireland after spending 19 years in the sun.
Trudy attended the now closed Hotel and Catering College in Portrush. She worked in local restaurants as a specialist in desserts. Her passion for Spanish cuisine (which led to the novel tapas bistro in Portrush) stems from periods working in Malaga and Alicante. As well as spending 13 years on the island of Mallorca.
Sean’s family has deep roots in the hospitality trade in the north coast. He continued the family tradition with posts in Culloden Hotel, Holywood and two years in Boston’s Ritz Carlton, returning home to set up an outside catering business and two cafes in Coleraine.
Morelli’s launches new dairy free ice cream flavours
Morelli’s, the UK champion ice cream producer, has launched two dairy free ice cream flavours that are also suitable for vegans.
Morelli’s, a Food NI company, has just introduced chocolate and strawberry flavours under the new Libero brand for its dairy free and vegan ice cream products. The company, which is based in Coleraine, has also introduced milk shakes made using soya milk.
The family owned and managed business has been named the UK’s leading ice cream producer by industry body the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA).
The business was established in Northern Ireland in 1911. Since then, the company has developed the dairy free ice cream flavours to meet the growing demand for allergy free products.
Sales and marketing director Daniela Morelli-Kerr says: “The new dairy free flavours are the result of extensive research and product development. It’s probably the most challenging new product development we’ve undertaken. We’ve been approached over many years for a dairy free ice cream. We had, of course, to find a way of replacing the milk with ingredients that maintained the creaminess and flavour long associated with Morelli’s ice cream. We settled on a base of healthy coconut oil to replace the milk. Feedback from our taste panels has been very encouraging about the creaminess and flavours of the new products and given us the confidence to launch the ice cream under the new Libero brand.” Daniela adds.
The company, which employs 20 people at Coleraine, has been working on the dairy free ice cream with its suppliers of ingredients for the last six months.
Morelli brought the coveted UK National Champion award to Northern Ireland for the first time ever earlier in the year.
The business, headed by Daniela’s brother Arnaldo Morelli, has long been at the forefront of successful innovation in ice cream in Northern Ireland. It launched the first diabetic friendly ice cream.
A frozen yoghurt was also created successfully from yoghurt sourced from Clandeboye Estate in Bangor. The yoghurt subsequently collected a gold medal at the Blas na hEireann Awards – The Irish National Food Awards – held annually at Dingle, Co Kerry.
Food NI Backs Campaign To Increase Consumption Of Vegetables
Food NI and Belfast Food Network are working with the Peas Please initiative to raise the level of vegetable consumption in Northern Ireland currently the lowest across the UK.
The campaign follows research by Peas Please which found that people in Northern Ireland eat an average of two vegetable portions a day (less than any other UK countries), and 20 percent of the Northern Ireland population eats less than one portion a day, compared with 11.8 percent in England, 13.8 percent in Scotland and 15.9 percent in Wales. The Eatwell Guide recommends adults eat at least five
portions of fruit and vegetables daily.
On average in Northern Ireland, 140kg of veg is consumed per person each day, but that rises to 160kg in Scotland, 167kg in Wales and 178kg in England.
The Peas Please initiative, which is working to drive up consumption in the UK, launched its Northern Ireland chapter in the Food NI Pavilion at Balmoral Show. Food NI and Belfast Food Network are lead partners in Northern Ireland.
Peas Please is coordinated by partner organisations in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and aims to bring together business and brands from across the food system to secure commitments to improve the availability, affordability and quality of the veg offered in supermarkets, shops, schools, pubs, fast food outlets and beyond. Peas Please has delivered 4.8 million additional portions of veg in its
first year, as detailed in 2018’s Progress Report.
For every one of your five-a-day eaten, your risk of mortality decreases by five percent. Eating more veg could prevent diet-related illnesses like heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes, and significantly reduce the subsequent financial burden on the NHS.
Peas Please is part of the ITV and Veg Power #EatThemToDefeatThem campaign which will also showcased its work at the Balmoral Show in the Healthy Horticulture tent. Amanda Grant’s Cook School ran cooking demonstrations and teaching kids to prepare simple, vegetable-based dishes, and other vegetable-centred activities will help to highlight the veg appeal for children at the show.
Anna Taylor OBE, Executive Director of the Food Foundation, said: “There’s huge potential for Northern Ireland to be a veg consumption trailblazer – its considerable vegetable production makes it an exciting place to work on the much-needed challenge of driving up veg intake. Peas Please shows that it is possible to make it easier for everyone to eat more veg, and the new Northern Ireland pledgers are taking the first step in showing concerted leadership from progressive businesses. Now the pressure is on to change pledges into portions and ensure genuine impact on the nation’s health.”
Michele Shirlow, Chief Executive Food NI, said: “We are delighted to continue our work with Veg Power and Food Foundation in highlighting the tremendous health benefits, especially for children and young people, of a diet rich in seasonal vegetables during Balmoral Show.
“Veg Power is being supported proactively by several Food NI member companies especially Mash Direct which was among the first here to please support for Veg Power’s Peas Please initiative. Veg Power will have an opportunity to win further pledges from producers and other organisations here.”
“This participation, in addition, will help to showcase to the public just how easy it is to find quality vegetables in season from local companies in particular, many of which will be showing fresh produce in our Food Pavilion.”
Mash Direct and Ulster Farmers’ Union have also pledged support for the campaign.
New smoked triple cream cheese from Ballylisk of Armagh
Cheese innovators Ballylisk of Armagh has introduced a delicious smoked version of its hugely popular Triple Rose, a unique triple cream cheese that’s won widespread acclaim here, in the Republic of Ireland and in Great Britain.
The new cheese – the first smoked soft cheese produced in Northern Ireland since the 1970s – is sourced again from Ballylisk’s own pedigree Friesian herd and is smoked slowly over beechwood at the company’s processing plant.
Food NI member Ballylisk intends to substitute apple wood for beech shortly, which will also reflect the company’s commitment to source from suppliers in Armagh.
The new cheese joins the original and very successful Triple Rose triple cream cheese. The cheese has recently been listed by the iconic Fortnum and Mason department store in London’s Piccadilly. It is seen understandably by the entrepreneurial brothers as a “huge endorsement of the quality and taste of the product”.
Triple Rose from Ballylisk of Armagh, was launched in 2017, based on the 200-acre family farm at Tandragee.
The family has been farming in the Ballylisk area of Armagh since 1820. They have one of the most highly regarded pedigree herds in Ireland. The cheese is processed at their state-of-the-art creamery in Portadown, which is centre of new product development. In addition to the original Triple Rose and the new smoked cheese, Ballylisk has developed an Armagh cider washed variety. This has also won widespread acclaim.
“We’ve been working on a number of soft cream cheeses in addition to those already introduced and to meet market opportunities that we’ve identified over the past few months,” says Mark.
The diversification into cheese production in 2015 followed an extensive period of market research to identify new business opportunities.
Ballylisk is the only artisan cheesemaker in Northern Ireland with its own milk pool. Triple Rose cheese is now stocked in restaurants, delis and farm shops across Northern Ireland. They also secured business at Borough Market with a specialist cheese retailer. Export business has also been secured in Portugal with a leading supermarket operation and hotel chain.
For more information about Ballylisk Dairies – Click here