Posted by Majik Sam on November 29, 2006, 2:52 pm Recipe for champ Method
82.157.104.236
Saturday
Up at 9am and we tuck into a full Irish breakfast before speeding off to the next gig in Enniskillen. We have to go back to Belfast to pick up the drum kit en-route and the thought comes to us that we could do the rest of the gigs without drums and cut down on the mileage. Last night’s gig worked well without drums and it was only the fact that we are described in the programme as having a drum kit that makes us decide to go and pick up the drums. Hence the ‘almost triangle tour’. We would also have ended up travelling in a triangular direction from Belfast to Dublin to Enniskillen to Belfast, which seemed like a sign, but one we decided not to act on in the end. Anyway the sun is shining and the Mourne mountains look beautiful and colourful as we head back towards the north. We soon get to Belfast and another ‘Dad’s Army’ moment as we try to find our man in Ulster, (tour organiser Nigel Martin)’s gaff. After a few false turns we eventually find Nigel’s place and make up a stripped down kit of Bass drum and snare that we can just manage to cram into the Zafira. The hi hat stand doesn’t have a clutch so we have to pass by Belfast’s funkiest music shop ‘Bairds’ to get one. The price on the tag is £5:95 but the guy lets me have it for a fiver and that will ensure that I’ll go there again when I’m next in the area and in need of drum bits.
We speed off west towards County Fermanagh and the lakes of Enniskillen, I’m feeling drowsy in the back of the Zafira as I watch the very green rolling hills flash by, then I realise we’ve hired another Irish car with green tinted windows; must come as standard over here! We stop at a service station that has a ‘Subway’ and I have a veggie delight along with Murray and it goes down both our hatch’s very well. We also stock up on provisions like gaffa tape and pens from the supermarket. We make good speed and reach the next venue ahead of time. It’s the Ardhowen theatre on the edge of town beside one of the many lakes in the area and it’s a beautiful setting for the gig. It’s great to have a nice view when you’re playing and that night I keep one eye on the lights shining on the black waters outside as we performed. We played here the same time last year and it was snowing; this time it’s raining and very windy but mild. This part of Ireland is renowned for its changeable weather and it can turn from bright sunshine to black rain clouds in seconds which it proceeds to do as if to order.
Tom the sound guy arrives and we do the sound check, (Best sound man joke of the tour award: “we had the 3 Tenors here the other day and folks round here were saying; ‘ 3 Tenors for £17:50 that’s a bargain, I guess we’d better not miss that show!’). After a relatively painless sound check we then head off to the wonderfully gothic Fort Lodge Hotel complete with dungeons (for you Goths out there)! This is the same place we stayed last year and it’s a nice hotel but it has unjustly picked up a bit of a bad reputation due to the activities of some of its more notorious patrons.
’Killin’ in Enniskillen’
Julie and Gerald McGinley masterminded a sex blackmail scam from one of the rooms in the hotel. She would lure local businessmen and farmers back to the hotel for sex romps and he would secretly video their escapades. They would then send tapes to their victims and extort money from them in return for not exposing them to their wives and the community. Later Ms. McGinley started an affair with another man and ended up murdering her husband, not in the hotel as we at first thought but at their home a few miles away. They basically smashed his head in and buried him in some woods over the border. She has recently been sentenced to 15 years for the crime. Businessmen and farmers in the area wait in fear and trepidation for her to sell her story to the newspapers! Lol.
We head into town in search of music and food. There is a festival on and we find that we are in the festival programme, which is news to us. Also playing tonight are Irish folkies ‘Altan’ and we wonder if that will affect the turn out for our gig, but we needn’t have worried as we ended up selling out and turning people away. We head for the William Blake (the ‘Blake’ as it is known) and find a little session going on. Later I discover that one of the pipers in the session is no other than Cathal McConnell, founder member of Irish super group ‘Boys of the Lough’. You never know who you’re sitting next to when you’re in Ireland, it’s that kind of place. Next we search for food and end up in the Bush Bar, an Australian theme pub. I order tomato soup and Fish and chips, and we all go for variations of the soup and fish option. The tomato soup was probably the best I’ve ever tasted. Quite often restaurant tomato soup is little better than a puréed tin of tomatoes but this was creamy and tasty and it goes down well with us all. Unfortunately the fish and chips were a disappointment but I fell in love with a hitherto undiscovered Ulster delicacy; ‘Champ’ as I sampled Chris’s leftovers. Champ is basically Creamy mashed potatoes and onions and it’s lovely. Here is a recipe for you with peas:
ingredients
1½kg/3lb 5oz potatoes, scrubbed
100g/3½oz butter
500ml/18fl oz milk (if you want it rich use ¾ milk to ¼ cream)
450g/1lb peas
75g/2¾oz spring onions, chopped
4 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. To make the champ, cook the potatoes in salted water for 5-10 minutes, until tender.
2. Drain three-quarters of the water and continue to cook on a low heat. Avoid stabbing the potatoes with a knife, because if they're floury potatoes they'll break up if you do.
3. When cooked, drain all the water off, peel and mash with most of the butter while hot.
4. Meanwhile, place the milk in a saucepan with the peas and spring onion and boil for four or five minutes, until cooked.
5. Add the parsley and take off the heat.
6. Add the potatoes, keeping some of the milk back in case you don't need it all.
7. Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth, adding more milk if necessary.
8. Serve piping hot with the remaining butter melting in the centre.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread