Year of Food and Drink, which launched at the start of January, features breakfast as its theme for the month. Sam Butler enjoyed an award winning breakfast at Newforge House, Magheralin and met the Krazibaker bringing new life to griddle breads.

This is what an award winning breakfast looks like. It’s a traditional Ulster Fry that has earned Newforge Country House at Magheralin recognition from top Irish food writer Georgina Campbell as the ‘Best Country House Breakfast’.

The breakfast is the favourite of John Mathers, chef/owner of the stylish country house for the past decade, a successful business he runs with wife Lou. His approach to breakfast – and all meals served at the hotel – is underpinned by a commitment to the best ingredients that are all locally sourced and cooked simply and carefully to ensure outstanding taste.

“The Ulster Fry is seen by some people as being stodgy. It shouldn’t be. It can be a great way to start to the day. Our Ulster Fry is prepared without fat. We use a small amount of rapeseed oil from Harnett’s in Waringstown to cook the ingredients from suppliers all within a few miles of the hotel. This means the products are fresh and we know where they come from. Provenance is immensely important to us and so we depend on sourcing products that we can count on to be tasty and wholesome,” he adds.

“We source eggs, for example, from our own free-range hens. The yolks are a rich orange colour and full of flavour. Our bacon is dry-cured and comes from Hannan Meats in Moira. The thick pork sausages are from Martin Madden’s butchers in Lurgan and use natural rather than synthetic casings. We cook the sausages slowly to get a golden colour.

“The potato and soda breads are from a local bakery. We coat these lightly on one side with Abernethy handmade butter from Dromore. The spicy black pudding is from Gracehill, near Ballymena. The tomatoes are roasted. We never ever us baked beans in our Ulster Fry because they make the meal soggy and overcome the flavours of the other ingredients. Mushrooms, also a bit controversial among purists, are available. These are lightly cooked in rapeseed oil.

“Food is central to the Newforge House experience. As well as our small and select network of local suppliers, we source seasonal produce from our own gardens and orchard for our daily changing dinner menu. The orchard provides fruit for our homemade desserts, chutneys and preserves,” he adds.

Guests can also enjoy Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt from Bangor, Armagh apple juice and porridge from White’s in Tandragee.

This attention to detail and excellence in sourcing ingredients has earned the boutique hotel as string of culinary awards including ‘Irish Breakfast Awards National Winner 2014’ and Good Food Ireland’s ‘Culinary Haven of the Year 2014’. The influential Restaurant Association of Ireland said it had the ‘Best Hotel Restaurant in Ulster 2014’ and the local Licensed and Catering News said it was the ‘Best Guesthouse in Northern Ireland 2014’.

Newforge House is also listed in Ireland’s highly influential Blue Book of Irish Country Houses, Historic Hotels and Restaurants this year, with the likes of the famed Ballymaloe House and Castle Leslie, both based in the Republic of Ireland.

A five-star Georgian country house, Newforge was originally the family home of John Mathers. It took two years to transform the distinctive Georgian house into a luxury establishment that maintained its distinctive exterior. It opened in May 2005 and has fulfilled John and Lou’s aspiration to create a luxurious country house in tranquil and relaxing surroundings, a home from home based on superb hospitality and excellent food.

Family and friends told Mark Douglas that he was crazy to give up a steady job to start his own business. But the Dromore baker was determined to push ahead with his plan to bring traditional griddle baking to markets and other events around the country. And Krazibaker was born.
Over the past two years he’s been successfully raising awareness of the taste benefits of traditional griddle baking of soda and potato bread as well his potato apple, which earned him a Great Taste Award last year, at farmers’ markets here.

A baker by trade over 30 years, Mark Douglas is now part of an enthusiastic group of talented artisan foodies to be found at markets across the province.
He’d like to bring his expertise to the successful St George’s Food Market, also in Belfast, but sadly there’s no room there for newcomers, which is a shame because the market would benefit greatly from his expertise and his free and easy exchanges with customers keen to know how he bakes traditional breads the way their grandmothers did. He’s even been recruited by Tourism Ireland to demonstrate his skills to a selected group of VIPs and food writers in London.

Krazibaker specialises in “anything that can be baked freshly on a griddle” The breads are all baked with local ingredients such as Neill’s Flour, Drayne’s Farm buttermilk and Armagh apples. None of them need yeast or preservatives. There’s little point in adding preservatives because all the breads he bakes sell as quickly as he lifts them from the hot griddle on his market stall.

“I served my apprenticeship as a baker and subsequently sharpened my skills and knowledge working at several local home bakeries including Moira Bakery,” he says. While Northern Ireland, unlike Great Britain, has managed to preserve a heritage in home bakeries, I noticed that griddle baking at farmers’ has been declining steadily. The days when traditional breads like potato cakes and soda farls were regularly baked in many homes have long gone. It’s a skill that appears to be dying, and that’s sad because griddle breads are tastier. This led me to attempt to do something to keep the technique alive.

“What also encouraged me to set up my own artisan business was my experiences visiting markets around Europe. I saw that most sold artisan breads brought into the markets from bakeries elsewhere. It seemed to me that baking on site might just appeal to shoppers now more concerned than ever about how the food they consume is produced. I decided to give it a go at local markets. And it’s worked.”

Ardtara Country House is honoured to receive two new awards-
The AA’s Four Star Gold Award
& 2 AA Rosettes for the Restaurant
to add to the 2015 “Best Hotel Restaurant in Ulster” award (Irish Restaurants Association).
( Gold Star Award-The AA’s supreme accolade for guest accommodation. AA Gold Stars are awarded to the very best properties offering excellent levels of quality throughout and outstanding levels of hospitality and service).

Over the past 20 years, Ardtara Country House has hosted ‘romantic couples’, ‘golfing heroes’, ‘Nobel prize winners’, ‘Olympic champions’, ‘Hollywood celebrities’, as well as thousands of loyal locals while garnering kudos from discerning reviewers such as:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER (“One of the five best hotels in the country”); The AA (“Most Romantic Hotel of the Year”); CONDE NAST TRAVELER (“Offers superb fare and sublimely comfortable rooms each with a glowing fireplace”).

Ardtara has been a member of the prestigious “Ireland’s Blue Book” since 2004 (a collection of Irish Country House Hotels, Manor Houses, Castles and Restaurants), and is one
of four Northern Ireland members.
The other three are Browns Restaurant, the Bushmills Inn and Newforge House.
www.ardtara.com

Local Agri-Businesses Unite to Help Simple Power and Rural Support Deliver over 100 Hampers to Rural Families in Need

Farming and rural charity, Rural Support, and wind energy company, Simple Power, are celebrating the success of their third annual ‘Christmas Hamper Scheme’, which aimed to help hard-hit families throughout Northern Ireland.
With support from 19 local agri businesses donating food and drink items, the charity was aided in delivering over 100 hampers for farming and rural families in need this Christmas. Since its launch in 2013, the scheme has grown year-on-year, with 2015 delivering the largest appeal to date and doubling the number of hampers distributed since year one.

Rural Support’s Chief Executive, Jude McCann, commented, “In the wake of farm gate prices and the dairy crisis, 2015 has been a particularly challenging year for the farming and rural community. This has been reflected in the increasing number of people availing of Rural Support’s services through our helpline which has seen a 25% increase in calls in recent months compared to the same period last year.”
“With even more families in distress, we are delighted that we were able to deliver our biggest hamper appeal yet, with over 100 families benefitting from the scheme this year. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of local agri-producers, especially given the added pressures these companies are under during the festive season. Their help is much needed and makes a great difference to a rural family in need this Christmas. We would like to sincerely thank Simple Power for their support in co-ordinating the scheme and enabling us to reach more families with packed hampers this year.”

Rural Support is working with its CSR partner, wind energy company Simple Power, on campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing in rural communities and farm families, including the Christmas Hamper Appeal.

Simple Power Chief Executive, Philip Rainey, commented, “We are delighted to see the Christmas Hamper Appeal become bigger and better each year and we are proud to support this very important charity initiative. Christmas can be a very special time for many but it’s important to acknowledge that it can also be a difficult time of year for those in hardship. With the support of the local producers, the hampers go some way towards delivering a little Christmas cheer this year to hard-hit rural families, alongside Rural Support’s very beneficial support services. The scheme would not be possible without the generous support of donors and we thank each of the 19 companies that contributed to the scheme this year.”

This year’s Christmas Hamper Appeal included generous donations from Ballyeamon Eggs, Cavanagh Eggs, Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt, Comber Potato Company, Dale Farm, DJ’s Apple Juice, The Good Little Company, Karro Foods, Kerry Food Group, Lidl NI, Mash Direct, Moy Park, Punjana Tea, Rural Development Council, South Antrim Community Network, Tayto, Tesco NI, Ulster Farmers Union, White’s Oats and Wilsons Country.
Rural Support helps farming and rural families across Northern Ireland on a wide range of issues, from farm business and financial issues to concerns about physical and mental health. The charity provides support for the rural community through a helpline offering a listening and signposting service.

The next call for applications will be open from Monday 8th February to 3pm on Friday 26th February 2016.

Please click here for further information

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