This post is dedicated to Enda from Fisherman's Cottage Restaurant. His cynicism and chocolate oat slice made my trip to the Aran Islands unforgettable.
I had to use that cow pic as the first pic. I was walking all over the island, came across this most beautiful cow, I asked her to smile as I had the camera poised, and she turned her head and looked straight at me giving me this magnificent picture. You can see the amazing drystone walls in the background - these walls wander all over the island. Some are new, and some are centuries old.
Anyway, I get ahead of myself. Sorry.
Doolin is a jumping off point for the Aran Islands, and when I arrived in Doolin I knew I had to spend a night in the islands - I had romantic visions of cream Aran Sweaters and lacemaking. I booked a night on the smallest of the three Aran Islands, Inisheer (the biggest island is called Inishmoor, and the other one is Inishmaan).
So, the following morning I rocked up to the Doolin pier, was ushered onto one of those little boats (pic 2) to get out to the bigger boat (pic 3), then a 40 minute roly poly boat ride followed, landing us finally at Inisheer. I hopped off the boat (through another boat and up a very steep wacky ladder) and found my B&B for the night, South Aran House. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL room in a cute little cottage (pic 4) run by the magnificent Enda and Maria, who also run the Fisherman's Cottage Restaurant next door.
This place is amazing. It's a small island, I criss-crossed it twice, saw all the ruins, and grabbed some supplies, all in an hour and a half!!
You can see the ruins above - a couple of churches, cemetery, and a wonderful fort to keep an eye out for Napoleon! All this amongst real farms and houses still active in their livlihood.
And food. Yummy food. Enda is a magician in the kitchen. You can see his handiwork there in the local crab linguine with lemon and chilli, and in the Lemon Posset with Lemon Biscuit. What's a Posset? I hear you ask. Glad you did. A posset is a very old English dessert - it's a mixture of cream and sugar gently boiled till thick, then mixed with some lemon juice making it set like a very heavy mousse or panacotta even, only much much better. DELICIOUS!!!!!!
And while we're on delicious...the afternoon before I had grabbed a slice of Enda's choc oatmeal slice to give me energy on my walk...OH MYYYYYYY...SOOOOOOOOOO YUM. I begged for the recipe, which I have for you readers...oh yeah baby! Now, it makes a huge slab, so halve the ingredients for a normal lamington tin, and heads up, it's in the old fashioned measurements...oh, and I've changed the name...
Enda's Aran Slice
1 lb oats
12 oz butter
8 oz sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence (or extract if you have it)
Melt butter, add the syrup and vanilla, stir in the sugar and oats and bake for 30 mins in 350F oven. Cut when warm (it sets really hard), and ice with chocolate icing or a ganache.
Give that one a bash!! I will when I get home...mmmm they gave me another slice before I left yesterday, and I can still taste it!!!
Thanks Maria and Enda, it was "class"!
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