Spooky ice cream flavour from Morelli

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Food NI member Morelli, Northern Ireland’s award winning producer of Italian style ice cream, has launched a spooky flavour in time for Halloween.

Based at Coleraine in county Derry, the family-run processor has introduced a unique and limited edition pumpkin flavour to its existing portfolio of award winning ice creams and sorbets.

Arnaldo Morelli, managing director of Morelli, commenting on the new flavours, says: “We always like to produce an innovative flavour for particular seasons. Our new product is a candied pumpkin ice cream with our special Halloween flavoured cookie ripple.

“We are rolling the new pumpkin ice cream throughout Northern Ireland in time for the festivities,” he adds.

The new flavour follows the company’s most recent success with its frozen yoghurt with raspberry at the prestigious Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards in Dingle, county Kerry.

This product featured yoghurt from another Northern Ireland artisan dairy business, Clandeboye Yoghurt in county Down. It also sources cream from Ballyrashane, also based in Coleraine.

Morelli, which has been in business in Northern Ireland for over a century, has also won UK Great Taste Awards for its Italian-style ice cream and sorbets as well a string of Ice Cream Alliance Awards especially for its double cream vanilla.

Originally from Italy, the Morelli family has been making ice cream in Northern Ireland since 1911 and currently has ice cream shops and franchises across the region, as well as a portable vending pod for festivals and events.

The firm also supplies additional retail and wholesale customers including Spar, Asda, hotels and restaurants. It exports its products to the Republic as a result of a significant deal with Tesco Ireland.

 

New artisan goat’s cheese from Dart Mountain

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Food NI member Dart Mountain Cheese has added a new hand-made goat’s cheese to its successful portfolio of pasteurised cow’s milk cheeses.

Based near Dungiven in the rural Sperrin Mountains in county Derry, Dart Mountain is an award winning artisan cheese producer owned and managed by husband and wife team Kevin and Julie Hickey, the master cheese maker.

The new goat’s cheese, the company’s first soft cheese, is described by Julie Hickey as “a light and fresh cheese with a slight lemony taste and a delicate rind”.  “I’ve always loved goat’s cheese and have been thinking about creating one for many years,” she says.

“One of the problems we faced was a shortage of local goat’s milk. While there are very few goat farmers in Northern Ireland, we managed to source a supply of quality milk from county Tyrone.

“Our focus as an artisan producer is on sourcing ingredients locally. We were delighted find a supplier in county Tyrone. It’s also our business strategy to name our cheeses after local areas and townlands. So, we named the new goat’s cheese Carraig Ban, the Irish for white rock, a local landmark,” adds Mrs Hickey.

The new cheese, which was launched at the recent Slow Food Festival in Derry, has also been taste tested with local restaurants. “Feedback has been extremely positive from all those who have tasted the cheese.

“It was hugely popular, for instance, at the Slow Food event and has been used by leading chefs to create original dishes,” she continues. “It’s great for pizzas and grills really well,” Mrs Hickey says. The cheese has been in development over the past four months.

Dart Mountain Cheese is part of Tamnagh Foods, the business formed by the couple in 2011. As well as cheese, Tamnagh produces granolas, relishes and chutneys which have won UK Great Taste Awards.

In June 2012, the company converted a disused farm shed into a modern approved food unit – incorporating a modern production kitchen, a cheese production area and specially constructed cheese maturing rooms to facilitate the controlled ageing of cheese. It began producing cheese in 2014, the first being a Sperrin Blue from pasteurised cow’s milk.

Other cheeses in the Dart Mountain portfolio include Banagher Bold, a semi hard cheese washed in craft beer from Derry’s Northbound Brewing Company, Dart Mountain Dusk, an ash coated semi hard aged for four months, Kilcreen, an Alpine style cheese, and Tirkeeran, which is matured for at least seven months.

Food NI proud to be the Northern Ireland partner for #PeasPlease

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Food NI is proud to be the Northern Ireland partner for Peas Please.

This is a ground-breaking new initiative focused specifically on veg. Our consumption levels are declining. Peas Please aims to bring together farmers, retailers, fast food and restaurant chains, caterers, processors and government departments with a common goal of making it easier for everyone to eat veg.

Our diets are leading to high levels obesity, type 2 diabetes and other diet-related disease and we need to eat more veg. The project will explore the levers along the supply chain which have the potential to increase vegetable consumption in a sustainable manner. Peas Please recognises that, to date, education programmes have not had the desired impact. So this project will focus on the wealth of opportunities there are, in the supply chain, for improving vegetable intake.

There are 5 peas in our Peas Please Pod:

Pleasure – making our veg delicious whenever we eat it and connecting us to where our veg comes from
Producers –growing veg sustainably at all different scales
Prices – that work for producers and consumers
Products – new ways of getting veg into what we buy and eat every day
Placement – more prominence in shops and on menus, more places to buy it in towns and cities

The Objective

To secure commitments from industry and government to improve the availability, acceptability (including convenience), affordability, and quality of the vegetable offer in shops, schools, fast food restaurants and beyond, and in turn stimulate increased vegetable consumption among the UK public, particularly children and those on a low income.

Click here to read the Commitments framework 2017-2022, and click here to see who has pledged already!

We would love to secure some Pledges from Northern Ireland. If you would like more information, please contact Lindsay on lindsay@nigoodfood.com.

Food NI members win big at Blas na hÉireann 2018  

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A record 32 Food NI members have taken home awards from the Blas na hÉireann Irish food awards from Dingle in County Kerry.

The Supreme Champion was Rooney Fish from Newry whose Millbay Oysters wowed the judges. They also won the Shane McArdle Award for Best in Ulster.

The bronze, silver and gold winners from Antrim, across a range of different categories are Glenballyeamon Eggs, Maud’s Ice Creams, Morelli’s Ice Cream, Dale Farm, McErlains Bakery, Yahi, Deli Muru, Tom and Ollie, Ke Nako Biltong, Lacada Brewery and The Irish Black Butter Company. Ke Nako Biltong won the overall Best in Farmers Market prize.

The winners from Armagh, across a range of different categories are Hannan Meats, Ballylisk Dairies, Irwin’s Bakery, Holmes Bakery, Armagh Cider Company, Long Meadow Cider, Mac Ivors Cider Co with Ballylisk Diaries winning Best in County and Best in Farmers Market.

The 2 winners from Derry are Corndale Farm and Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil who also won Best in Farmers Market for Derry and Best in County.

The 13 winners from Down, across a range of different categories are Springmount Farm Free Range Eggs, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt, Glastry Farm Ice Cream, , Rooney Fish, Cookie Jar, Mash Direct, Suki Tea, Harnett Oils, Noisy Snacks and Whitewater Brewing.

Cavanagh Free Range Eggs from Fermanagh also won an award.

The Blas na hÉireann awards are the biggest blind tasting of produce in the country, and the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself, which was developed by Blas na hÉireann with the Food Science Dept of UCC, is now recognised as an international industry standard.

During the first round of judging which took place over the course of four weeks in June and July, over 2,500 entries were judged in UCC & The Baking Academy, bringing the total number of finalists in each category down to just five. Those 5 winners in each of 140 categories were submitted to the judging day in Dingle, where all 350 producer finalists had their food products tasted, compared, savoured and judged at the final of Blas na Éireann 2018 on Thursday 4th October, with over 4,000+ samples tasted over the judging day by over 100 judges.

Judges come from all backgrounds, including chefs, academics, trade, buyers and home cooks. The few days around the judging process in Dingle are also an opportunity for the producers and the general public to mingle, taste and enjoy some of the most exciting and interesting Irish food products, meet and hear the fascinating stories of some of the country’s most intriguing new, best loved and long-established producers and entrepreneurs, and celebrate the winners and participants in this year’s Blas na hÉireann awards.

Speaking after the announcement Artie Clifford, Chairperson and founder of Blas na hÉireann said, “All food on this island is local, but the passion for food, good food and local food has never been greater. The community that has come together through Blas an hEireann over the last 11 years – their hard work, obsessiveness and the quality of the product that comes from that focus and commitment – is seen more clearly every year in the standard of our entries.”

Food NI Member Rooney Fish wins Supreme Champion at Blas 2018

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Blas na hÉireann, the Irish food awards, announced this year’s winners, with Rooney Fish crowned Supreme Champion for their Millbay Oysters at the 2018 finals which have just concluded in Dingle.

Food NI member Rooney Fish are a family run business established in 1975 in Kilkeel, Co. Down. Now in its second generation, they specialise in catching, preparing and processing the finest catch from the waters surrounding Ireland. In 2014 they opened an oyster farm in Carlingford Lough close to their Kilkeel base where they combine traditional methods with innovative, new ideas to produce their award-winning oysters Millbay Oysters.

The Blas na hÉireann awards are the biggest blind tasting of produce in the country, and the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself, which was developed by Blas na hÉireann with the Food Science Dept of UCC, is now recognised as an international industry standard.

John Rooney says, “We are absolutely delighted to win Supreme Champion at Blas na hÉireann 2018 for our Millbay Oysters. In 2014 we fulfilled a long-term ambition and opened an oyster farm in Carlingford Lough close to our Kilkeel base where we combine our passion for the industry with traditional methods and new techniques to produce our oysters. Although we’ve grown considerably since we began we’re still a family business and to be recognised with this award from Blas na hÉireann, who themselves believe so strongly in community and family, is a huge honour”

6-10-2018: John and Rosemary Rooney from Rooney Fish in Newry pictured with their Millbay Oysters in Dingle, County Kerry on Saturday night after they won the Supreme Champion award at the 11th Blas na hÉireann / Irish Food Awards. The awards are the largest blind tasting on the island, with over 2,500 products entered in 2018. more info: www.Irishfoodawards.comPhoto Don MacMonagleFurther info: breffni@hostandcompany.ie

Speaking after the announcement Artie Clifford, Chairperson and founder of Blas na hÉireann said, “All food on this island is local, but the passion for food, good food and local food has never been greater. The community that has come together through Blas an hEireann over the last 11 years – their hard work, obsessiveness and the quality of the product that comes from that focus and commitment – is seen more clearly every year in the standard of our entries.”

Seafood Week Sails Into St George’s Market

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Foodies, families and friends alike can prepare to have their taste buds tantalised when Seafood Week comes to St George’s Market on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October 2018.

This celebration of Seafood Week is organised by Seafish in partnership with Belfast City Council, FoodNI and the seafood sellers of St George’s Market. The event is a Northern Irish celebration of Seafood Week – an annual campaign aimed at promoting the consumption of seafood.

Seafood Week at St George’s will see top chefs including Andy Rea of the Mourne Seafood Bar, Ian Hunter of the Belfast Cookery School and Susan Gillespie of Chowder Up Seafood cook a delicious variety of seafood dishes in the Market’s demo kitchen.

Master fishmonger, Hal Dawson will be on hand to provide classes in how to perfectly fillet a fish and local students from South Eastern Regional College and Belfast Met will be showcasing their seafood skills in the kitchen. The event will be compered by local celebrity foodie and seafood fan, Kim Lenaghan of BBC Radio Ulster.

Visitors to the Market will have the opportunity to enjoy the seafood preparation and cookery demonstrations, taste some fantastic local seafood and perhaps even enjoy listening to a sea shanty or two played by well-known local musicians who will be there helping to celebrate Seafood Week at St George’s.

Dr Lynn Gilmore, Seafish Northern Ireland Manager, said:

“We are delighted to work with Belfast City Council and Food NI to celebrate local seafood at our Seafood Week at St George’s event. This is one of a number of exciting activities taking place across the UK during Seafood Week and we’d encourage everyone to get involved. The aim of Seafood Week is to get more people, to eat more seafood, more often and is being promoted by Fish is the Dish, our Seafish consumer campaign.”

Seafood Week is now in its fourth year and the campaign is aimed at encouraging the consumption of seafood everywhere – whether it is at home, in a café or restaurant, or at the local fish and chip shop and to celebrate our amazing fishing communities around the UK.

Lots more information can be found on the website http://seafoodweek.co.uk/, and you can get involved in the Seafood Week conversation using the hashtag #seafoodweek.