Have you ever heard of The Swashbuckler?
Ice cream and fish or chocolate and avocado? Yes these food pairings sound rank but apparently they are actually a treat for your tastebuds.
One person’s food pairing hell can be another person’s heaven and Today FM’s Ray Foley wanted to know all about Ireland’s weird and wonderful food pairings.
For Ray, his tingle on the tongue moment comes from Club Orange paired with Cheese and Onion crisps, preferably Tayto. To be fair that sounds perfectly acceptable.
Then we cut to producer JP. His favourite pairing sent Ray into a tail spin.
He takes a bit of bread and butter, slaps on some ham and then he adds jam. Yes you heard that correctly. Ham and jam.
JP billed it as salty and sweet. The jury is out on this one but who are we to pass judgement on any man’s food pairing preference.
Chef Aisling Larkin joined Ray to walk us through the good, the bad and the downright disgusting food pairings she has come across.
“Look, ultimately, with all these pairings, what you're trying to do is create balance."
"So balsamic vinegar and strawberries work really well. I do a gorgeous roast strawberry balsamic ice cream."
"You put the strawberries in the oven, pour balsamic on them, roast them, and then make it into a strawberry ice cream. That's delicious!"
Another of Aisling's favourites is the pairing of strawberries with black pepper and goat's cheese in a salad.
Simply chop up some strawberries, add a little bit of soft goat's cheese, a bit of olive oil, crack fresh black pepper over and garnish with a little bit of basil. Delish!
The Swashbuckler
This is when you take a water biscuit and stack a tiny little bit of blue cheese, a small bit of Cadbury's chocolate and a thin slice a strawberry on top of it.
Aisling says, “Pop it all in your mouth, give it a couple of chews then take a little swig of red wine and eat it all together. It is epic. I know it sounds so strange, but it works as a flavour combination!”
Catch the full chat, where Ray and JP also come face-to-face with the world's smelliest fruit.
Lads, it is SMELLY.
Food with Ray Foley, thanks to Cully & Sully, Great Food & Soup-er conversation.
