Eighteen cooking enthusiasts, including journalists, food bloggers, trainee chefs and keen home cooks filled the kitchen of Delpeut’s restaurant Bridges in Amsterdam with everybody eager to add that star touch to their comfort food.
Chefs' Irish Beef Club member Andrès Delpeut (centre) conducting the masterclass in Irish Stew.
Butcher Barry van Leeuwen of Hesseling Vlees explained the difference between the various forequarter cuts, clarifying why certain cuts need a longer cooking time than others. He also emphasised the importance of using quality beef, preferably Irish beef, in stewing. Delpeut described how to go about creating the basis of a good stew: selecting the right cut and browning it in butter before taking it out again and adding to the juices herbs – a bouquet garni. After that it’s a question of layering flavours from red wine or beer to beef stock or even coconut milk. He couldn’t stress enough the two key ingredients to very delicious stew – the right beef and patience. Don’t let the stew boil and give it plenty of time! The participants then savoured the stew and array of accompaniments cooked by Delpeut in advance of the masterclass before heading home with a "goodie bag" containing their own stew and additional information about Irish beef and where to buy it.
The newly appointed Bord Bia Manager for the Netherlands Ms. Laura Crowley expressed her satisfaction with the event saying: "Events like these really help to raise the profile of Irish beef. The Dutch are amongst the highest users of social media in Europe, and the masterclass participants were selected deliberately because of their online reach. Features began appearing in blogs, on social media and in journals within hours of the masterclass finishing."
Beef exports to Netherlands
The Dutch market provides a solid consumer base for 80% of Ireland`s forequarter beef exports in addition to being our fourth largest beef market overall. Exports to the Netherlands for the first six months of 2016 amounted to over 27,000 tonnes valued in excess of €120 million, a 5% rise in volume compared to the same period in 2015. Over 65% of this product is made up of forequarters and visual lean meat. Irish beef is sold as a premium product in the major retail outlets and the environmentally aware Dutch consumer recognises the efforts of the Irish producers and processors in meeting the animal welfare and sustainability targets of our Beef Quality Assurance Scheme and Origin Green programme.
The Irishbeef.nl site provides instruction videos on how to prepare Irish beef in a stew. Visitors to the site are also shown how the cattle are reared and cookery tips from well-respected chefs.