St Tola Raviole and the Chinese TV Crew

I can’t believe it has been three years already; I was sitting on the garden table, sipping on a nice coffee and honey, just the way I like it when the phone rang. ” 9 am!” I thought, “can’t a man enjoy a wee bit of peace before heading to work?”. It was a lady from Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority of Ireland if you prefer, “Fáilte” meaning “Welcome”; by the sounds of things it seemed to be important and it came from the top, well you know, top enough! A camera crew from China, CCTV to be precise were touring Ireland; they wished to stop at my work place and wanted me to speak about cheese…

– ” O.K, cool, I can do that! When will they be here?”

– ” On Wednesday morning, thank you so much! You’re a star!”

I always like to help if I can and it is not everyday that a camera crew from China comes to visit to make a three week marathon filming about all aspects of Ireland, five of them and a translator. Sure why not, the orientation seemed to be leaning towards food and the beauty of its landscapes, right down my street, a philanthropic and Diplomatic mission for Franckie, which reminded me of something while I was still on the phone with my “Failte  lady”…

-” Actually, just so you know, I have been invited by the French Embassy  on Wednesday to meet the French Prime Minister Manuel Vals and An Taoiseach Enda Kenny!”

-” Oh no, you can’t make it so?!”

-” Oh I can, this sounds like way more fun! Don’t worry, I’ll look after them!”

-” That is wonderful, thank you so much Franck, I really appreciate that!”

I organised lunch for the crew and driver, and a visit to a cheese maker on the way down towards Wicklow, next stage of their tour. It was a lot of fun in fact and an opportunity to interact with another culture, share stories and anecdotes. Everything works better around a big table. The best moment was when I put a bit of St Tola goat’s cheese on a cracker and the cameraman got a bit excited asking me through their translator to do it again but a bit more slowly this time. So I took the cracker, put the cheese on it gently, we’re all friends here, it’s cool, and then I took a teaspoon and put a bit of chutney on top and in a moment of extreme enlightenment and revelation, the whole crew went:

-” AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! ”

Yes, you see, little things might seem natural or obvious to you and me, maybe a bit less evident for a culture – excuse the pun- not really exposed to cheese and Dairy. Like I said, it was a lot of fun and and I got inspired for my latest recipe by this little story. A couple of months later ( if even that long), the nice lady from Fáilte Ireland sent me a lovely email with a link to the documentary the day after its first broadcast in China. “Ireland the Glamorous”  had been seen by 55 Million viewers!!! I am now known in China as “The Cheese Guy”. Cool uh?

For the broth: You’ll Need

• A bag of organic spinach
• 2 cloves of organic garlic
• a few cashew nuts
• 1 tsp of Allspice
• a splash of organic soya sauce
• 2 spring onions
• 1 lime
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Wash and chop the spinach and fry gently with olive oil all the ingredients, add a splash of the soya sauce and cover with water and let it reduce a bit…

For the pasta dough: You’ll need…

• 100 g of organic pasta flour
• 1 egg
• salt
• a little bit of water

Knead the dough quite well and let it rest in the fridge for an hour…

For the stuffing you’ll need…

• 130 g of fresh goat’s cheese ( St Tola)
• a small organic courgette cut in tiny batons
• thinly sliced spring onion green part ( just one)

Using a pasta maker, roll the dough with plenty of flour until very thin, you don’t want it to be too thick as it would be quite chewy …

Cut the ribbon in two parts and place a generous portion of the stuffing in the middle, keep the other one for the top. The French call it “Raviole” exactly like ravioli, just a bit bigger…

Beat one egg in a bowl and with a pastry brush, seal the ravioles. With a pasta cutter try to cut them in a round shape, but it doesn’t really matter…

Put the ravioles in a pot of simmering salted water and poach them for 5 minutes. Reheat the broth and serve hot… Et voilá, enjoy!

Keep Well and eat Happy

Slán Tamall

Franck