One thing that we've noticed over the years is that food plays such an important role our in lives and not just for fuel but for entertaining and providing us with fond memories too.
We've chatted to some of Ireland's well-known faces to discover their favourite dishes and meals, be it from their childhood or simply something they like to rustle up at home.
Tara Flynn is an Irish comedian, actress, voice over artist and writer. Based in Kinsale last year she came into the spotlight after her video
Racist B&B went viral.
Here in her own words, Tara describes her favourite recipe to cook, sweet potato soup:
"I’m a pretty useless cook. I love it, but I have no patience with it and no sense of smell. Really. That means constantly stopping to taste is a slow process, which often goes wrong
after I’ve added to much or too little of whatever. Or burnt it, but not smelt the smoke til the fire brigade arrives. I am, however, one of the kings of soup.
"I’m vegetarian and non veggies often roll their eyes: “Urgh. Healthy.Boring.” So my quest is always to find something that wows them, without them missing a big slab of bacon on the side. Coconut milk is a veggie dairy-avoiders dream: it makes everything lush and there’s a whole can in this. It’s an adaptation of something my friend Wendy made for her kids after school one day when I was visiting. I wanted to go back to school.
"I add a bit more chilli, serve in warmed bowls, and it not only tastes good, its bright orangey face cheers me up. Not an exact recipe (told you I was useless), so adjust to your taste."
Wendy's sweet potato, coconut & chilli soup
Ingredients
- 1 small red chilli, finely chopped (seeds in if you’re game)
- 1 (or 2 – more the merrier for me) clove garlic, crushed
- 2 tblspsOlive oil
- Per person: 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 500ml stock
- Water to top up
- Salt and pepper, if you like
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
- Add the garlic and chilli, stirring well for about 2 mins.
- Toss in the chopped sweet potato, coating in the oil/ garlic/ chilli and cooking over a low heat for about 5 mins.
- Season with salt & pepper if you like that kind of thing; I think there’s plenty going on already myself.
- Add the coconut milk and mix well with sweet potatoes, leaving on the low heat for about another 10 mins.
- Then add the stock.
- Careful here – I love this soup quite thick, but only add as much stock/ water as you like to make your preferred consistency (and depending on the size of the sweet potatoes).
- Cover, bring just to boiling point and then allow to simmer for 20 mins, stirring occasionally.
- Then using a hand blender, smoosh it all up and eat it.
