Engineer turned caterer, and now with a very successful online cookery classes business, who better than Offaly woman Yvonne Carty to get us in the mood for some good food – the easy way….
Yvonne invited me to join her online ‘Fakeaway’ class this week and I just had to do a quick Q & A with her to share with you. I love her easy relaxed style while teaching and you can join in and cook along or kick back with a cuppa and enjoy the chat while learning about good food and great Irish food products.
Let’s start off with an easy one Yvonne! You’re on a desert island (taking a break from cookery classes) and you have 2 pieces of kitchen equipment and 5 ingredients. What will they be?
I’d like a sharp knife and a frying pan (and could I sneak in some firelighters and a large box of matches – because obviously I’d have to have a fire to cook on!!)
I’d bring
· (Durrow Mills) flour to make bread, I mean I could evaporate sea water for the salt!
· (Glenfield) rapeseed oil
· Does my spice box count as one ingredient ?
· Rice – to go with the curries I’d make with the fish I could catch !
· A box of O’Donnell’s crisps to keep me going if my hunting and gathering isn’t successful!
We are all very conscious of waste and the amount of food that is thrown out every day. Could you share some ideas for what us grown up can do when the bananas go brown (but not banana bread!), when the carrots and parsnips start getting a little wrinkled and when the sliced pan should have been used the day before yesterday?
I would peel and chop the bananas, freeze them for a few hours and then whizz with some cocoa powder to make ‘mock choc’ ice cream
With the vegetables I would either make a delicious soup or grate them into a batter and make vegetable fritters for tea
Well with the bread you’d have to make French toast and serve it with lots of berries – and maybe even the mock choc ice cream for dessert!
Name that one ingredient that is not in your kitchen and will NEVER be?!
Do runny eggs count?
Do you have many disasters in the kitchen? We’d love to know if you do!
When I was in school it was my job to put on the potatoes for dinner – every evening my Mum would come home to the smell of a burning saucepan as I never seemed to put enough water in !! Even now when I use a steamer I seem to have a disaster 😉
You’re well known on local radio for sharing your recipes and your canapés always look amazing – would you share a couple of simple ideas that will impress guests when we can finally have visitors into our homes again.
The easiest and a very impressive thing to do is to take all your favourite cheeses, cold meats and dips and organise them nicely on large board or platter – because we’ll all be too busy hugging and chatting to want to spend too much time in the kitchen.
Sausage rolls are another good idea or even cocktail sausages with honey and sesame seeds drizzled over them.
And there’ll have to be cake – and there’s lots of ideas for that on my website 😊
You seem to have made a seamless move from events and teaching night classes to the world of online cookery classes. Tell us what classes you have coming up and where can people sign on?
My next few cookery classes are about getting ready for visitors – next week is all about easy entertaining and then the following week, for anyone who wants to spoil their Mum for Mother’s Day, I’ll be showing you how to make lots of treats for Mother’s Day. You can check out all the details on Cookery Classes – Hey Pesto!
And lastly…..
Lyons or Barrys
Neither I’m afraid, can I have coffee please?
I think we can allow her a coffee after all the work she puts into her classes. I urge you to check them out and Yvonne runs a free Facebook Cookalong every Friday at 6.30pm – no excuses to not cook great food now!
This week I am recommending Freddy Buttons and the Apple Bandits – this story will get children thinking about the picnics they can have during the Summer and I hope will encourage the grown ups to consider a soft fruit bush for the garden.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Fiona xx
You can contact Yvonne:
Phone: 087 2488124
Email: yvonne@heypesto.ie
Website: Hey Pesto! – For Stress Free entertaining!
Facebook link Hey Pesto!
IG link: Hey Pesto! (@heypesto
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