Organico Bantry

Organico Cafe is delighted to once again welcome Lorraine Bacchus to the Cafe with her new work for 2007. Lorraine has had a number of other shows since she exhibited with us last winter (click here) and her work has matured and become, if such a thing is possible, even more beautiful. The pieces are mostly oil on canvas, though there are some sketches as well. The theme is Nudes, and the predominant colours are pale – white, with washes of green, blue and greys bringing an ethereal dream-like quality. They are perfect for this time of year when we are experiencing such beautiful vibrant weather and it is somehow fitting to have soothing and calming art on the walls.

The piece pictured above is called ‘transparent’ and is oil on canvas, roughly 25cmx60cm (I don’t have the measurements – that’s a guess). It is selling for €1000.
Organico Cafe is open from 9.30 – 5.30 Monday – Friday; and 9.30 – 5pm on Saturdays. Come and enjoy a delicious vibrant organic lunch and take a look at Lorraine’s work at the same time. The paintings will be with us until the end of the month.

Fair trade fortnight in Bantry, 2007, was a resounding succes. The Fair trade committee, including Liz Ewing from Organico, put together several very entertaining events. The main focus was on the visit paid by Renwick Rose from the Windward Islands Farmers Association, who came to Bantry on the 7th of March and had lunch in Organico Cafe before giving a talk on fair Trade in the Youth Cafe. Renwick was very enthusiastic about Ieland’s commitment to Fair Trade and said the ‘wherever I have had the privilege of visiting there has been a spontaneous outpooring of friendship and solidarity in keeping with the principles of the Fair Trade movement’. He described fair trade as a way of ‘contributing to the practical expression of a new trading relationship between consumers and producers based on social justice’.

The Fair Trade committee also held a delightful Cookery Demonstration profiling Fair Trade produce and hosted by John and Sally McKenna, as well as a coffee morning.

Organico Shop, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391

Organico Cafe is delighted to be involved with the West Cork Literary Festival again this year. the Cafe will be the venue for the Literary Club, which will offer organic food and wine, as well as music, games and a literary quiz. We will open from 6pm – 9pm Monday to Thursday.
The West Cork Literary Festival is a festival for writers and readers alike and attracts at least 150 people to Bantry every year. The programme is very varied – the 2007 workshops range from song writing to media, poetry, and sportswriting – and this year Gavin Kostick of the Fishamble Theater Company is to tutor a playwriting Workshop. Elenaor McEvoy is coming to give the Songwriting Workshop as well as a live performance.
From what we have seen in Organico Cafe the Festival is throughly enjoyed by all the attendees. Many of those who are accepted for publication in the Fish Anthology come and of course the winner (of the €10,000 prize) is sure to attend. The comapartively small numbers mean the Festival creates an intimate and friendly atmosphere, and the Workshop attendees get a lot of hands on attention from the leaders.

For more information on the programme for 2007 click here

This warming organic Chilli is always best the next day, so make plenty and keep or freeze it. This recipe when served with organic brown rice will serve 4. We prefer Biona organic beans and tomotos for these recipes. Worth the extra cents.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 cm fresh root ginger, grated1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 courgette, diced
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp crushed chilli flakes
• 1 heaped tsp cocoa powder
• 2 can chopped tomatoes, 400g
• 1 can kidney beans, 400g
• 1 can harricot/cannolini beans, 400g
• salt and pepper to taste

To Serve

• Handfull of organic corriander, chopped
• Minced onion
• grated cheddar cheese
• Tabasco (for the real chilli fanatics) or Green Tabasco (not organic but great flavour!)
• Creme fraiche or natural live yoghurt

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot garlic, ginger, cumin and paprika and fry for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Tip in the red pepper and courgette and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and fry for a further 2 minutes. Empty the can of chopped tomatoes and their juice into the pan and simmer until cooked down and thickened and the vegetables are soft. Wash kidney beans and add along with the chopped coriander and cook for a further 5 mins. Serson with salt and pepper.

Serve piping hot, with organic brown basmati rice, and a selection of the toppings mentioned above. If you are having people to dinner you can put all the topping out on the table and let your guests chose their favourites. Another option that we offer in Organico cafe is to serve the chilli in a wrap – in that case heat the wraps (tortilla wraps made without chemicals are available in most good health food shops) and put them on the tabls covered with a tea towl to keep them warm. Put everything else in serving dishes and let your guests mix and match! Make sure lots of napkins are to hand!

This soup is a favourite with adults and children alike, and is a quick and easy receipe for a winter’s lunch. As with all our receipes we reccommend the use of organic vegetables and pulses for their superior nutritional qualities and taste.
Read more…

Ireland is one of those countries where vegetarians can often be left with one option on the menu, most often a pasta dish. Luckily for those living in the West Cork area we in Organico Cafe are trying to change all that! Our menu aims to cater for vegetarians who like organic food and also for non-vegetarians who are interested in health and in a lighter, more positive diet.

On our website you can see some of our receipes, and reports of some of the differents events we have held in our Cafe. We also have a health food shop so one of the things we focus on is experimenting with all the ingredients we sell. All our fruit and veg is supplied by the shop so it is all certified organic, as are all the pulses and grains we use in our cooking.

We are always looking for customer feedback and receipe suggestions so please feel free to let us know what you like and what you think!

We always reccommend organic ingredients, but in this case they are more important than ever for taste reasons. Organic carrots are a superior product by far than conventionally grown carrots – sometimes in our shop we have ‘dirty’ carrots which are covered in sand and which in the winter keep their flavour very well.

Ingredients

6 large Carrots, peeled (the only time I peel organic carrots is for salad as they discolour if just scrubbed)

50g dessicated coconut

Juice and zest of 1 orange

Handfull of sultanas

Good pinch of sea salt

Add the juice and zest to the coconut and sultanas and allow to soak for 30 mins.

Grate the Carrots and put into a large bowl, add the coconut, sultanas and juice and combine. Add the sea salt to taste.

Leave to chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator and serve.

5 Ripe tomatoes

1 Cucumber, diced

250g Feta cheese, crumbled

a handfull of black olives, kalamata if possible

125ml olive oil

4 tbsp lemon juice

freshly black pepper

small bunck of Oregano, finely chopped

Chop up the tomatoes and put into a large salad bowl, and add the cucumber, feta cheese and olives.
Pour over the olive oil and lemon juice. Season with freshly ground black pepper, add a little salt if necessary bearing in mind that the feta is very salty. Toss gently to mix. Serve with some crispy lettuce sprinkling with fresh oregano.

This recipe was given to me by a great friend and fellow cook, it has been enjoyed by all our customers and remains a firm favoriate in the cafe. At the moment the beetroot that is available is amazingly sweet yet still earthy and the simply ingredients in the following recipe complement it perfectly.
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In Organico Cafe yesterday a customer commented on her roasted aubergine and chickpea curry saying that it smelt and tasted amazing. ‘I know why’ she said ‘it’s because it is un-polluted food’.

As I carried on serving lunch I reflected on her comment. I think it is an excellent way to describe our food. We are not trying to serve Cordon Bleu. What we are trying to do is serve tasty, nutritious, clean ‘un-polluted’ food.

Today, our menu contains the following:

Organic Lentil and Pumpkin Stew served with Spelt Bread

Roasted Organic Aubergine and Chickpea Curry served with Organic Brown Rice

Spelt Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Fetta served with 2 Salads

Lentil and Seed Loaf served with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Rice and 1 Salad

Shepherd’s Pie (topped with Organic local potatoes and a red lentil and vegetable base) Served with 2 Salads

Fetta Cheese Salad with either Organic Bulgar Wheat or Quinoa, Organic Tomatoes, Cucumber and Lettuce

Cheese sandwich: Local Gubbeen Cheese or Dubliner

Salad Selections: Wild rice, Quinoa, Bulgar, red Cabbage and Pumpkin Seeds, Beetroot and yoghurt, Potato, Thai Noodles (all made with organic vegetables, sprouts and seeds).

A selection of cakes and cookies from our Bakery, all made with Organic Spelt Flour and served with organic cream.

A selection of Fair Trade Organic Coffees and Teas.

Come over for Lunch sometime – and be sure to let us know what you think!