Published: Sunday, 3rd January, 2010 10:00am

Cavan's cooking!

"I'd love to say I tested all the recipes, like we tested all the walks, but I didn't!" Kate Ennals of Cavan Community Forum was talking about its new cookbook, and comparing it to the walking guide of 2007.

The forum is always on a tight budget, she explained, and every year comes up with an innovative idea to generate extra funds. In 2007 it was Cavan, The Lake Country Walking Guide; last year it was CDs of stories garnered from across the county, and this year it's one for foodies - the Community Cookbook.

It opens with Apple Dessert Cake, closes with The Real Cavan Women's Cooking and contains delights such as Rory's Pain Perdu, Cowboy Hot Pot, Orla's Chocolate Cake and Trevor's Tea Brack.

Kate says she's fond of cooking and wondered about trying to get recipes from people and community groups as the basis for the 2009 Community Forum money maker. She started putting the word out in April and May and the responses began to "trickle in" during the summer, though it was September before submissions hit bigger numbers.Cavan Kedgeree is Kate's choice of recipe, and like so many favourite dishes, it's "one my mum used to make - it's easy and exotic thanks to the spices".

"We often have family from England, there could be 12 friends here to stay, so I like big dishes to do in the morning, then settle down to enjoy the day out with the visitors."

Though she calls it Cavan Kedgeree, it's Anlgo-Indian in origin. In the cookbook Kate writes: It is an old English dish that people used to have for breakfast! It uses fish... usually haddock, but anything fished and smoked from the Cavan lakes will do!

"I also like the sound of Bacon and Black Pudding Salad... we're trying to go through them," said Kate. "What we might do is have a meal and everyone brings a dish from the cookbook, "possibly on a murder, mystery theme".

"Next year the forum is planning to celebrate its work with a banquet, a festival supper," she said on a more serious note, which is something all Cavan foodies can look forward to.

Some 400 groups across the county are affiliated to Cavan Community Forum, a volunteer base that does an incredible amount of good work, and one that is fortunate to have a full time worker in the shape of Kate.

The forum works closely with Cavan Co. Council and is represented on its Strategic Policy Committees, an area that Kate wants to concentrate on by providing training for members: "We will be looking at the issues so the representatives we send will have a clear mandate, and we will provide effective guidelines."

The forum works hard to communicate with the community at large, through its newsletters, Anglo-Celt column and its website, and always has an eye on the future.

Its three-year plan is based on the energy theme and aims to help communities "to be more resilient, to cope with the pressures of recession and climate change" by helping them to power down, providing training and awareness of peak oil

Among Kate's aims are a scheme to help people share lifts to and from work, park and ride schemes (for the M3 at Virginia) and a bike scheme for Cavan town, similar to the successful one in Dublin."We want to develop a model of good practice regarding sustainable energy, such as wind turbines and sustainable community buildings, and look at feasibility projects from community groups," said Kate.

She and her colleagues in Cavan Community Forum have lots of ideas, and they're looking forward to putting them in place. You can find out more by contacting Kate Ennals on 086-3737847 or at cavancommunity.ie.

If you're hungry and want to make some clean, healthy food, copies of the cookbook are available from Cavan Community Forum, Farnham Centre, Farnham Street. Cavan.