2 Friday Night Cocktails

Scarlett O'Hara

This deliciousy crisp cocktail was created way back in 1939 to promote the legendary film Gone with the Wind.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 50ml Southern Comfort
• 50ml Cranberry Juice
• 25ml Lime Juice

Method

This cocktail needs to be served deliciously chilled so fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour all the ingredients into the cocktail shaker and shake for three minutes until icy cold. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a small slice of lime. If you want to add that touch of glamour then replace the slice of lime with some of the lime's rind (get using a potato peeler) and twisting it.

The Pomtini

Served at this year's Oscars, its innovative take on an age-old concoction is a favourite with the stars - and you'll love it too.

Ingredients (makes one drink)

• 30ml POM Wonderful® 100% Pomegranate Juice or freshly squeezed pomegranate juice
• 45ml Vodka
• 45ml Grapefruit juice
• 15ml Sour mix or freshly squeezed lime
• 15ml Simple syrup, (equal parts sugar and water dissolved together)
• 1 Spiralled orange rind, to garnish
• 10 Ice cubes

Method

1. Assemble all ingredients in bar or mixing glass

2. Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass

3. Garnish with spiralled orange rind

4. Enjoy!









Cocktail recipes provided by http://www.stylist.co.uk/

O'Hara's Pale Ale - a great compliment to our steaks

At Darwins we are constantly looking for new tastes to go with our foods. We were delighted when the Carol Brewing Company, an Irish brewer, asked us to stock their new range of O'Hara's Irish Pale Ale. After tasting it, we knew straight away it was a great compliment to our daily fresh fish and hand picked steaks.

 Here are the tasting notes provided by Carol Brewing.

DESCRIPTION:

New to the O’Hara’s range, Carlow Brewing Company added O’Hara’s Irish Pale Ale to its core brand selection in 2010.

INDUSTRY AWARDS:

Grand prize winner - Best Beer 2010 as voted by the members of Irish Craft Brewers.com.

TASTING NOTES:

Description: 

Contemporary style I.P.A. - dry hopped for extra aroma.

ABV/Plato °: 

5.2% abv/ 13.5° plato. 

Appearance: 

Rich golden colour with a white head.

Flavours:

This pale ale has a light malt base with just the right mouthfeel to allow the hop character to predominate. Grapefruit like bitterness is full and lasting and is balanced by a zesty citrus burst of aroma from two late additions of cascade hops.

Aftertaste:

The Citrus flavours give way at the end to the floral, spicy bitterness of Amarillo hops.

FoodPairing:

Light fish dishes - sea bass, crab, prawns, roast pork, or blackened chicken with buffalo wings where the IPA will strengthen the spicy flavours in any spicy dish.


We stock some of the other O'Hara range at different times, depending on stock. Our you can always choose from our fine selection of wines and beers.

www.darwins.ie

Fillet of Venison wrapped in poppy seed filo pastry with polenta and port sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

6 sheets of filo pastry
40g of poppy seeds
4 venison fillets
4 shallots
100g of button mushrooms
50g blackcurrants
60g of butter
250ml port
300ml game stock

For the sauce:
Melt half the butter, sweat the mushrooms, shallots, blackcurrant and cook gently until soft.
Add the port and reduce by half, add the stock and simmer for 25 mins.
Pass through a sieve.

Method:
Brush the pastry with honey and wrap the venison fillet, brush with honey and cover in poppy seeds.
Cook for 15 mins until pink.

For the Polenta:
500g corn meal
1 ltr of water
salt
olive oil

Bring the water to the boil and stir in the corn meal.
Wisk constantly for 45 mins and add salt to flavour.

Owner mother and daughter duo Dolly and Amy

Dolly is the hostess with the mostess, regularly highlighted and praised in reviews of our restaurant as one of the most friendly and hospitibale restaurant owners in Dublin. A huge favourite with locals and tourists alike Dolly is now famous for her harmonica playing for occasions such as Birthdays.

As a strict vegetarian Dolly ensures we have a varied and interesting vegetarian menu which often gets as much praise as our al a carte menu. This includes our famous honey and lime marinated tofu steaks which are available to pre order. Checkout our menu online or on our Facebook page and then make sure to let us know when you are booking online. Also, remember to give us notice for your birthday bookings.

We also scoured the web and found this collection fo Vegetarian Recipes we thought might be of some use to our vegetarian friends.

Great Vegetarian Recipes

Prepping meat in butchers

So why are Darwins so famous for our steaks?

Having found the perfect premises in 80 Aungier we found that the building at the back of Darwin’s crossed onto Stephen’s street, ironically the location of Michael Smith’s late father Sean Smith ‘s butchers for 25years. The connections of these two buildings allowed us the space to build a state of the art kitchen alongside an in house butchers where all our meats are specially prepared.

Our kitchen staff, alongside our in house butcher Michael Smith, prepare and cut all of the meat on our menu in the butchers attached to the rear of the restaurant. All of our fillet steaks are rolled in cling film and shaped to perfect circular cuts. Through a very careful rotation process our chefs and Michael only allow steaks which are perfectly aged and matured to be served in the restaurant.

The secret to the perfect steak

• The meat must be hung for at least 21 days. Longer if possible. 
• The meat should be left at room temperature for a period before cooking. Putting a cold steak straight from the fridge onto a hot pan will cause the meat to become tough. 
• Sear on a very hot pan or grill until each side has a nice brown colour. 
• Season a metal oven flat dish and cook the steak to just below the temperature you want in an oven. 
• Take the steak out of the oven and rest for at least 5 minutes. Longer for more well done meats. 
• Finally finish the steak on a pan/grill and serve immediately.

Name The Sister

When Darwin’s Restaurant first opened we purchased a pair of lady statues from the original tenant, Cliffords Antiques, but only one would fit in our first premises on Aungier St - her sister was put in storage for 5 years until we moved to our current residence, number 80 Aungier Street where they could be reunited once again. The first of our ladies, as seen on the left in the picture below was christened Fiona. Now, we are looking for a good name for her sister. So what do you think?

What name do you feel suits her sister and why? The Winner will win a bottle of our Wine of the Month.

How to cook a blue steak

Despite the common conception that a blue steak is very quick and easy to cook it can in fact take as long, or longer, to cook than even a well done steak and requires skillful cooking and preparation.

A blue steak is almost completely raw on the inside and is only lightly seared on the outside. The reason it takes so long to prepare is that the steak has to be brought very slowly up to a core temperature of 60C. This is often done under hot lights at the kitchen pass or in a very low oven. It can take 20 or 30 minutes to achieve this temperature especially for very thick cuts of meat, such as our 12oz fillet steak. The steak is then seasoned and cooked for a matter of seconds on a hot pan or flame grill.

Halal Meats
Halal meats are available on request so please be sure to mention when you are booking.
Book well in advance to avoid disappointment as it may not always be possible to have halal
meats on short notice.

Orange and star anise soup

Orange and star anise soup with spiced orange and chilli butter

• 1oz Butter
• 1 Onion (Roughly chopped)
• 3 small butternut squash
• 2 small oranges (zest and juice)
• 1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock
• 3 whole star anise
• 2 gloves of garlic

Heat the butter I a large saucepan and add the chopped onion and garlic. Fry for 5 minutes until softened and add the butternut squash and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes.

Mix the orange juice, zest, stock and star anise and poor over the squash and simmer for 30 minutes until the squash has softened. Remove the star anise and puree in batches in a blender or food processor.

For the spiced orange and chilli butter which goes on top of the soup, beat 3 oz of butter and a small deseeded chilli. Add a pinch of turmeric and ground clove and from into a sausage shape using cling film. Refrigerate until set and cut into thin disks to serve on top of the soup.

The secret to the perfect steak

The secret to the perfect steak from Darwins

The meat must be hung for at least 21 days. Longer if possible.

The meat should be left at room temperature for a period before cooking. Putting a cold steak straight from the fridge onto a hot pan will cause the meat to become tough.

Sear on a very hot pan or grill until each side has a nice brown colour.

Season a metal oven flat dish and cook the steak to just below the temperature you want in an oven.

Take the steak out of the oven and rest for at least 5 minutes. Longer for more well done meats.

Finally finish the steak on a pan/grill and serve immediately.



Unlike many restaurants in Dublin we never add supplements to our pre-theatre menu. And considering the sirloin steak on this menu is a 9oz cut this is even more impressive.

Our Wine of the Month

Special wine this month on our list is from our French wine supplier Didier Fiat from Classique & Gourmet Wines:

Bourgueil 2009, Joel Taluau Domaine - €27


This 100% Cabernet Franc is a deep garnet wine with a toasty rich character and a hint of Bordeaux elegance. No oak is used to preserve its brilliant and ripe fruitiness. Medium to full bodied it pairs very well with Darwin's grilled steaks.

Special meat on this week is a 12oz Veal T bone at €29.





About Didier Fiat

Classique & Gourmet Wines Ltd. was founded by Didier Fiat, an award winning experienced Sommelier with 25 years experience in the wine industry.


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Darwins becomes more social

Hi and Welcome to Darwins Restaurant Blog. We are delighted that you have joint us and we hope to provide you with an array of interesting articles about Darwins and what it has to offer you. This will include Recipes, Wine secrets, Competitions, What's On in Dublin and so much more.

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