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RACHEL’S COASTAL COOKING

Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen Mussels Image Name: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen Mussels Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen learning about Mussel fishing. Copyright: Pic: Rob Partis
Rachel Allen 4 Image Name: Rachel Allen 4 Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen
Rachel Allen Image Name: Rachel Allen Description: Rachel's Coastal Cooking - Rachel Allen
RTE One New Season: Rachel Allen: Coastal Cooking Image Name: RTE One New Season: Rachel Allen: Coastal Cooking Description: Rachel Allen

EPISODE NINE OF TWELVE, RTÉ ONE, NOVEMBER 18th, 7.30pm

Rachel’s culinary travels have brought her to the wild coastline of Connemara, and she heads to Killary Fjord, famous for its breathtaking beauty and for being one of the wettest places in Ireland.

There she meets Simon – a rope mussel farmer who runs Killary Fjord Shellfish. He welcomes her aboard his harvesting barge and demonstrates how the mussels are hauled in. Rachel tries her hand at pulling in the ropes, and discovers that one hazard is sea squirts.

After cooking a dish with mussels on the water’s edge, Rachel journeys to Rossaveal to a very unusual farm by the sea – this one breeds abalones and nurtures sea cucumbers. Marine biologist Cindy O’Brien shows Rachel the various stages of growth in her seawater tanks. Then Cindy dishes up sea cucumber tempura, and abalone and sea cucumber soup for Rachel to try.

Rachel makes a cucumber soup of her own (with a land cucumber) on the beach below. And then she visits another seaside business – Connemara Smokehouse. Graham Roberts prepares gravadlax on the rocky beach, so that they can share a perfect coastal picnic.

Series Overview 

Ireland’s gourmet goddess Rachel Allen is back with a new show that sees her travel along the southern and western coast in search of the best local produce.

In this new series Rachel takes to the road visiting the south and west coasts, hunting down the very best of the abundant local produce; foraging and, at times, battling wind and rain. Rachel cooks as she goes, for her crew and participants, usually outside in the elements and subject to the vagaries of the Irish weather. Taken away from the relative comforts of the kitchen, Rachel’s Coastal Cooking plays to her natural curiosity and sense of fun while showcasing some of the best of Ireland’s produce and the people behind it.

This food and travelogue series marks a real departure for Rachel, as she challenges herself to explore landscape, culture, social and culinary history in a way she has never tried before. The series also sees Rachel immersed in local communities, meeting incredible characters and exploring a mix of traditional and contemporary approaches to food production, from a state of the art Abalone farm to foraging for Woodruff in ancient woodland.