Chef Emmett McCourt
BLOODIED steak sandwiches, frightfully fiery soup and other ghoulishly good food will be on the menu when Derry’s Waterloo Place is transformed into Hell’s Kitchen during Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Hallowe’en celebrations from October 28th until October 31st.
Some of the North West’s most spooktacular street vendors will be cooking up terrifyingly tasty bites from 12 noon until 8.30pm next Friday to Sunday and on Monday until 10pm when Hell’s Kitchen stays open that bit later to feed famished festival foodies – there might even be a full moon!
Local celebrity chef Emmett McCourt will be among traders and revellers getting into the spirit of the celebrations by donning a special costume and, his Irish Food Heritage truck will also be getting a Hallowe’en makeover for the event coinciding with October’s Harvest theme during Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016, supported by Derry City and Strabane District Council.
Mary Blake, Council’s Tourism Development Manager, said Hell’s Kitchen will cast a culinary spell on foodies keen to get their teeth into the city’s 30th anniversary ‘Out of This World’ Hallowe’en celebrations in Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place.
She continued: “We are delighted to be incorporating our new Hell’s Kitchen together with Council’s Haunted Harvest Market showcasing food and crafts from local producers and suppliers, including the Walled City Market.
“As with all our festival events, Hell’s Kitchen will celebrate award-winning local food provenance and we are delighted the event is attracting street vendors from across the north west and wider region as we continue to celebrate Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink and this month’s Harvest theme.”
Emmett McCourt, author of the Gourmand world award-winning cookery book, ‘Feast or Famine’, will be cooking three special Hallowe’en themed dishes in Hell’s Kitchen including, Bloodied Steak Sandwich using 25-day salt cured sirloin steak from Hannan Meats with Sperrin Blue cheese from Tamnagh Foods served on local sourdough bread and wild rocket.
Hungry revellers will also be saying a big ‘fang you’ when they get the chance to feast fearlessly on Jack O’Lantern Fiery Turnip and Pumpkin Soup, and Emmett’s signature Boxty – a traditional Irish potato pancake – given a special Hallowe’en twist with Armagh apple and Lumper potato.
While Hallowe’en is believed to stem from Samhain, the Pagan Feast of the Dead which marked the old Celtic New Year, it was also a celebration of everything that came to fruition during harvest time, preservation of foods for the winter and slaughter of cattle to feast on to celebrate the old and the new, the ‘Feast or Famine’ author explained.
Emmett will be following the tradition of carving turnips known as Jack O’Lanterns named after the mythical character ‘Stingy Jack’ associated with All Hallows Eve, who, according to ancient Irish folklore, tricked the devil into saving his soul by sending him off to pick apples.
He continued: “When the Irish emigrated after the Famine they took these stories to America.
“They started off with rutabaga, a root vegetable similar to turnip as they couldn’t find that many turnips growing.
“The pumpkin is the modern version of the Jack O’Lantern and is easier carved to put a light in, but America has Irish folklore to thank for the tradition.”
If there’s a culinary choice to be made between the humble turnip or the plumper pumpkin, it’s no contest for the ‘Feast or Famine’ author. “It has to be the turnip, pumpkins are a bit bland”, according to Emmett who has fond memories growing up eating turnips fried in bacon fat.
“The turnip is very underrated but it features in a lot of my signature dishes such as turnip puree and diced with corned beef. In the 1880s there were thousands of turnips growing wild around the North West; they were rife and people loved their turnips.”
As the country’s leading ambassador for food heritage, Emmett will be adding both turnips and pumpkins – which have grown in popularity and availability here over the past decade – to the cauldron for his special fiery soup as Hell’s Kitchen turns up the heat in the Best Hallowe’en Destination in the World as voted by USA Today readers.
ShapeShifters! live music stage and street performances and, The Ghost of Dopey Dick interactive performances and light installation, will also add to the festive atmosphere in the Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place areas from October 28th-31st.
The full programme of the city and district’s Hallowe’en events including the Haunted Harvest Market and Hell’s Kitchen is available at www.derrystrabane.com/halloween
For further information on council events celebrating Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 visit www.derrystrabane/food
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