Exploring Ireland's culinary delights: Scones, seafood, and desserts

Food is my true passion. I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef and host of Bigger Bolder Baking. So that means great food is a huge part of my everyday life. You've seen me boldly bake over the top recipes. Now travel In the first episode of Gemma Eats, with me on my culinary I'm in my hometown of Wexford, Ireland, eating giant adventures around the world. traditional scones, the best local seafood and a legendary frozen treat. All right now on Gemma Eats. Welcome to the sunny southeast part of Ireland. We are in County Wexford. This is actually where I'm from. I brought you down to Rosslare where I wanted to show you a little bit of what it has to offer. It is a seaside town people come from all over Ireland to go on their vacation here during the summertime. It's really pretty. It's got some great food. And I'm going to go ahead into Kelly's deli right now and get a cup of coffee and one of their delicious scones. So come on. Before we head into Kelly's you should know a little bit more about the Kelly family. The Kelly's Hotels were founded in Wexford in 1895. Kelly's Hotel is just down the street from Kelly's Deli here in Rosslare. Families come from far and wide to spend their summer vacations here year after year in Kelly's. Being from Wexford my family celebrated many special occasions here including my Holy Communion when I was just seven years old. On my latest trip to Ireland my dad, husband and I had an incredible meal in their bistro But I'll save that story for another time. The Kellys family have been taking care of people for years so they really know what they're doing. Everything they serve is baked nearby. You'll find fresh loaves of Irish soda bread, gorgeous breakfast danish and flaky croissants and other goodies made from scratch. But the reason why I'm here today is their scones. Not only are they as big as your hand but they are dark golden brown which is just the way that I like them. So in Ireland you can't have a cup of tea or coffee without having a homemade scone. This is a raisin scone and they serve it here traditionally with some jam, cream and some butter and you would have all three on there. Absolutely delicious with a cup of coffee. So I know it seems a bit extreme to be putting jam and cream and butter on a scone but when you have them all together you're going to know exactly why. So great. I will admit that it seems more like a dessert than it does like something you'd have for breakfast. Have a little bit of my coffee. They make really good coffee here. Bit of my scone. um I don't know. In America, if I would be eating this for my breakfast, but there's something about being home in Ireland, having a cup of coffee, you have to have a scone, oh so yummy. So scones are like kind of little crispy cakes, they're really easy to make, you bake them off really fast, they're kind of crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle, loaded with fruit usually, maybe berries, something like that, nuts. My favorite one is just like simple with berries, because that's the kind of traditional way you would have them. I think my favorite part about a scone is actually the crispiness around here, you see And on the base, see how crispy that is? I always get tons of requests for Irish recipes on Bigger Bolder Baking, and that is why my traditional Irish scone recipe is one of my favorites to share. I'd say it's because we're a nation of tea drinkers, the weather is cold here, it's rainy a lot. Kettle is always on. I'd say that's why scones are so popular because you're always having a cup of tea or coffee and then you have something a little bit sweet to go with it. But it's a whole big ritual of like you have a hot drink, you have a scone and it's sweet, you put jam and cream on it. It's freshly baked. Like my mom would whip these up at home in no time at all. If she knew somebody was coming around in half an hour, she would whip up freshly made scones. Outside of Ireland, I've never had a scone that tastes the same. In America, they're very different. They're a little bit drier. Sometimes they put icing on them. So it's a bit of a different experience and they don't put butter in the middle. Irish scones are definitely unique. When you come to Ireland, you have to try one of these. I definitely like to have my fair share of scones when I'm home in Ireland. Now that I've grabbed a quick bite, I'm going to hit the road. Getting around my hometown of Wexford means I'll be driving a lot. Everything is really spread out, but at least I get to enjoy the beautiful Irish countryside as I go. So right now we are driving to Carn. Carn is a little kind of a village near Rosslare Strand in Wexford and it is known for its seafood. They got great seafood here that comes in from Kilmore Quay and seafood that comes actually into this part of Ireland gets shipped all around the world. It's really fantastic. So we're going to head to this really popular local little brew pub kind of a thing and it's called the Lobster Pot and it has been around for donkey's years. And it's really quaint, for me it's a blast to the past because we used to go here as kids all the time with my brother and my sisters, my mum and my dad, and we used to love it, so it's really nice to be able to go back. These villages in Ireland are tiny, there's only a few thousand people that live in them, because they're kind of like villages in smaller towns, so they're their own little communities. For years visitors from far and wide including locals like my family have gone out of their way to make a trip to the lobster pot. Places just like the lobster pot are part of the fabric that makes Ireland so special and unique. They have so much character that makes each one unlike any other. I went a little early on this particular day but usually during the summer season this place is jammers I have a bit of a personal connection to this place too. This is the owner, Anne Hearn. She's the mother of my friend, Sharon Hearn-Smith, who is an incredible Irish cookbook author and food stylist. Anne and her husband Ciaran have owned the Lobster Pot for 33 years and to this day it stands an institution. So it's pretty cold and rainy today so it's a nice day for soup and being in a seafood restaurant you have to order their seafood chowder because you just know it's going to be good. All of this fish is sourced locally in Wexford, just look at that, how meaty it is and those gorgeous mussels. We're really fortunate in Wexford to get really great fish and shellfish, so good. So you get such different chowders all over the world but generally in Ireland you get like a creamy base chowder. Now it's not generally really really thick, it's a little bit of touch of cream. Then local fish, some shellfish, a few vegetables in there. Chowder is serious comfort food. It's like a hug for your heart. It makes such a difference when your produce is sourced locally. It's as fresh as it can be. The seafood and the shellfish is like that little bit sweet. There is no fishiness from this. Good fish should never smell or even taste like fish. It should taste like the seawater and that's what this tastes like. Oh, I could eat that all day long. So the whole reason I came here is for this dish it's called crab mornay and it is crab meat with a cheesy sauce on top. Now this crab is fished in Carn where we are right now in southeast of Ireland. Just check that out do you see that crab and the cheese sauce? The thing about it is it's not like really rich it's just absolutely beautiful a little bit salty decadent yummy. Make sure I don't eat it too fast and burn my mouth. You know what when they say some things never change that's not a bad thing this tastes the exact same it did when I was a kid. It's absolutely gorgeous. One of the reasons I love crab meat and a lot of shellfish is that little bit of sweetness you know. And a little bit of saltiness from the sea water. And the cheese sauce on top is a Wexford cheddar cheese sauce so that is also cheese that comes from the local town. I'll tell you it doesn't get much better than this. So years ago, probably when I was in like my early teens, they filmed the movie Saving Private Ryan here. Not a lot of people know that, but they filmed it in Wexford on one of our really big beaches. And I remember the film crew actually came here to the lobster pot to eat and I was just astonished. I thought that was absolutely amazing. People from Hollywood going to the lobster pot. So here I have a dish that is absolutely simple and delicious, it is crab claws fried with garlic butter. Now that seems kind of like a pretty easy thing to do, the flavor of this with the sweetness of the fish and the crab claws, it's absolutely gorgeous so I'm gonna put on a little bit of lemon on top. Gonna dip them in my garlic butter, I'm gonna go like this, take it straight off, when you get this, you go like that, and then you suck out that bit of meat that is in there, and that's how you eat a crab claw. Not the most polite way, but definitely the most delicious. Look at this big bad boy. Crab meat is really delicate. It's got a delicate taste and a delicate texture. It just kind of falls apart. So when I was a kid, we used to come on holidays to Rosslare and we'd rent a house. And in the morning, my mum used to go over to the fishermen and she used to ask them for crab claws because they would take the body of the meat of the crab and they would sell it, but they'd give my mum bags of crab claws. And we were like seven, eight, nine, like pretty young. So she would bring the crab claws home and she would cook them and then she would give us big bowls of crab claws. And we would just sit there watching TV and eating them. I can still picture myself sitting there eating them and I can almost taste them. You know when people talk about their final meal, definitely mine would be a whole lot of seafood. Shellfish, prawns, crab, lobster, all that sort of stuff. That's the way I want to go. The world has become filled with fast food chains and large restaurants but that's not what Ireland is about. It is great to see a family run place, especially one that has been around for so long. Even though it's gonna be pretty hard to top that seafood lunch, I am still on the hunt for more great eats to show you, and I think I know just the thing. Now I know a convenience store doesn't seem like the kind of place a food lover should be, but just wait and I tell ya. Shops all over Ireland serve this giant ice cream famously known as a 99. This is what you have when you go to the beach in summer time in Ireland or in Britain, it is soft serve ice cream, mmm. Are the Cadburys flakes stuck into it? Now why it's called a 99, I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that it's absolutely delicious and this reminds me so much of my childhood and summers and being off school. Yep, you can't beat a 99. You know Ireland isn't always thought of as a food destination but in my opinion it should be. Whether it is freshly baked goods, seafood straight from the ocean or simply delicious desserts, you'll find some of the best food you've ever had here, I guarantee it. Coming up next week on Gemma Eats, I enjoy a traditional Irish breakfast, find out what a Fáilach Fia is, and see me brave the elements to enjoy some of the best fish and chips around. All right here on Gemma Eats.