A Taste for Love (18 page)

‘That’s the way I like them.’ Emmet laughed. ‘With the garlic butter or oil running down my fingers and my chin.’

‘Well, the ones I’m using tonight I’ve already peeled and cooked, and we are just going to heat a nice few spoons of olive oil and some chopped garlic and then throw in the prawns. Try not to keep stirring at them or they may start to break up a bit.’

A few moments later, Alice continued. ‘OK, as you can all
see the prawns are beginning to cook, so now I’m adding some of the halved baby cherry tomatoes and you will see the juice from my tomatoes is mixing with the prawns. As they cook a bit more I’m adding about half a glass of white wine. It’s good to taste at this stage, in case we need another drop of wine. Everything is looking good, but now as the final flourish I’m adding a large knob of butter. This gives the sauce a rich, almost creamy, feeling and a sort of gloss. You must let your sauce thicken up a little bit, but also make sure you have plenty to serve with the prawns. For a starter, I am going to serve this with a little bit of rocket leaf or mixed green salad, and some nice crusty bread, but if this were a main course for Gemma and Paul or someone I would probably serve it with rice or baby potatoes.’

They were all delighted to sample the piping hot prawns, and Alice left the dish on the counter as she began to show them how to pan-fry the salmon and how to make a proper creamy mash without any lumps and that wasn’t too watery.

Now it was their turn.

Paul and Gemma, a great young couple, were a pleasure to watch in action as they divided the work equally. It was funny that Liam had never given a hand in the kitchen, or lifted a finger to cook a meal for her or his children during all the years of their marriage. Cooking was Alice’s business and she had let him get away with it.

She must have been daft! She’d made sure the boys could cook, but had never tried to get Liam involved. She wondered whether Elaine was making the same mistake; or maybe Liam was somehow different with her.

Lucy’s face was intent as she cut the tomatoes and added
them to her prawns. She might need a little more oil. Emmet was already preparing his potatoes for the mash. He was an instinctive cook and clearly enjoyed food and eating out.

‘Lucy, you need more oil in that!’ he advised, as if reading Alice’s mind.

Tessa’s prawns had turned out perfectly, and her fish was almost ready.

An attractive woman in her late thirties, she always seemed slightly tense to Alice, but then it couldn’t have been easy for her to give up her career and independence and come back home to Dublin to look after her mother.

‘Alice, Mum loved the chicken with mozzarella. She made me make it again the other night when her friend Annie came over.’

Florence Sullivan seemed to be a great character, and was enjoying all the meals Tessa brought home to her.

‘Well, I hope that she enjoys the fish, too!’ Alice said.

Kerrie was hunched over her frying pan trying to salvage the salmon, which was far blacker than intended and breaking up into pieces. Her potatoes were undercooked, which had made them almost impossible to mash, and her prawn starter seemed to have far too much liquid and needed a bit more reduction.

‘I hate fish!’ she said. ‘I’d never cook it at home.’

‘Kerrie, why don’t you use this to lift out your salmon,’ suggested Alice, passing her the plastic fish slice. ‘Hopefully you will be able almost to get it out in one piece to put on your plate.’

Before her eyes Alice watched the overcooked salmon
disintegrate in the pan, with Kerrie trying to spoon it out. The mash looked lumpy, and Kerrie was near to tears when Alice suggested adding some milk and a little butter to it and popping it back in the pot. Alice didn’t know what was going on with Kerrie, but she certainly did not appear to have any understanding of cooking or feel for it.

‘It’s crap!’ Kerrie said. ‘Absolute crap! I’m just a crap cook, and no matter what I touch it goes wrong. I’ll never learn how to cook properly.’

‘Listen, Kerrie, we all have a few disasters.’ Alice laughed. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘I’m getting married in a few months’ time, Alice, and I cannot cook. Cannot cook anything! I’ve managed to fool my boyfriend into thinking I’m some kind of Rachel Allen because I can heat up the best ready meals ever and make them look good on the plate, but I can’t keep it up for ever. I’m such a fraud.’

Alice stood there stunned. Kerrie was simply trying too hard, expecting too much of herself. It was funny, but people who were, like her, afraid of food and not relaxed and comfortable with it, and needed to do everything too precisely, were often awful cooks. While others, who just flung things together and never needed to bother to check recipes or amounts, just cooked instinctively and were brilliant.

Lucy had darted over and was being very solicitous while Tessa wordlessly took over the mash.

‘My mum’s a pretty crap cook!’ confided Lucy. ‘So at the weekends or if there is anything special on my dad usually does the cooking. He loves it. It’s his secret hobby. Kerrie, it doesn’t really matter who cooks, does it?’

Alice smiled. Nina was a fairly good cook but she’d always suspected it was David who was the adventurous chef in the Brennan household!

‘But I should be able to do it.’ Kerrie sniffed. ‘Cooking is simple, pretty basic. Surely anyone can learn?’

‘Of course they can!’ said Alice matter-of-factly, glad that the drama was over. ‘Now, I have some extra fish in the fridge and here’s a nice fresh pan. How about you give the salmon another go? One of the most important rules for any good chef is always to have extra ingredients around, just in case they need them. Never ever leave yourself short!’

Twelve minutes later, under her watchful eye, Kerrie had produced a perfect piece of blackened salmon, which she served with the creamy mash that Tessa had managed to whip into shape.

‘Your boyfriend will love that!’ said Rob reassuringly.

Kerrie O’Neill drove home and pulled up into the basement car park. She opened the silver foil container and ate a bit more of the warm blackened salmon and mash. It was nice, and she really liked the asparagus which had been quickly roasted in the oven with a little balsamic vinegar. She finished off the asparagus and then got out of the car and walked over to the big communal bin and tipped the remainder of the food in its container inside. Then she grabbed her bags and laptop from the car and, locking it, took the lift to their eighth-floor apartment.

Matt was stretched on the couch watching TV.

‘How did your class go?’ he asked.

‘Intense. We were looking at various comparisons in the global markets.’ She smiled.

‘The company work you far too hard,’ he said. ‘How much longer does this course go on?’

‘A few more weeks,’ she said, rinsing her hands in the kitchen and pressing on the Nespresso machine as she secretly studied next week’s menu.

‘What about a walk and lunch on Saturday?’ suggested Sally, as the three friends left the Monkstown parish fundraising coffee morning. ‘Hugh’s off playing golf most of the day.’

‘Well, I’ve nothing on,’ admitted Nina. ‘What about going to Powerscourt?’

‘I haven’t been there since the autumn,’ Alice said.

Alice certainly liked having something to do on a Saturday, and the old Powerscourt house and estate in Eniskerry, with its magnificent Versailles-type gardens, waterfall and pet cemetery, had some great walks. During the summer months it could be very overcrowded with tourists and overseas visitors, but this time of year it would be a bit quieter.

Sally collected them at ten o’clock, and they went for a brisk two-hour walk around the grounds. They laughed as they watched a crowd of young scouts trying to set up their picnic near the waterfall. In the Japanese garden the early spring blossom had begun to appear and, like snow, clung to the branches of the trees, and along the rest of the woodland paths the ground was covered with dainty snowdrops, their
pretty heads bowed. Sally, who had taken up digital photography, tried to capture them on camera.

‘I’m starving!’ said Nina, as they headed back to the old house, part of which had been restored and converted into a busy café and gift shop, with a great garden centre housed separately outside.

They managed to get a nice table near the window with wonderful views, and all opted for the lamb hotpot, which looked great with its pastry topping.

‘Good, warming, hearty fare,’ declared Alice, as Sally entertained them with the antics of her beloved little granddaughter Ava.

‘You’re such a granny!’ Alice joked.

‘I love being a granny!’ Sally admitted. ‘Though Hugh keeps saying he wants the baby to call him Hugh when she’s older, not Granddad! Did you ever?’

‘I cannot believe Hugh being vain like that!’ teased Nina. ‘David would love to be Granddad except that our two somehow got the words mixed up, and call him “Gandy”!’

‘Gandy?’ shrieked Nina and Alice in unison.

‘I know! Poor David, as no matter what he says they will not budge from it, and no doubt he’ll be Gandy for ever!’

Alice told them about her cookery school.

‘I just can’t believe it’s going so well, and that I’m enjoying teaching so much.’

‘Lucy says she really looks forward to Tuesday nights,’ confided Nina. ‘She says you are so interested in what you are doing that you are passing that enthusiasm down to them.’

‘That’s nice to hear.’ Alice smiled. ‘Lucy’s great, really bright, and a natural at cooking!’

‘She’s testing all your recipes on us and her new boyfriend Finn.’

‘Well done,’ said Sally. ‘We’re proud of you, Alice.’

‘I know, a few months ago I was so nervous about it. But now, I can’t believe it, I’ve so many people wanting to join that I’m starting a new group after Easter on a Thursday night.’

They had all picked out a cake for dessert and Alice offered to go up and get the coffees.

She was walking down with the tray in her hands when she almost did a double take … oh no … don’t say bloody Liam and Elaine were here, too! She had spotted Liam in the distance, and he seemed to be carrying food for two on a tray.

Don’t let them be sitting anywhere near us, she prayed silently! She really did not want to ruin a good day by bumping into her ex and his girlfriend.

‘Here’s the coffee,’ she said, almost flinging the scalding mugs at her friends. ‘Nina, change seats with me!’ she ordered.

‘What?’

‘Change seats!’

‘What is it? Alice, what’s up?’ Nina questioned, standing up and moving to the other side of the table.

‘I want to have my back to the rest of the restaurant. There is somebody I don’t want to see.’

‘Somebody?’ they both asked, curious eyes darting in all directions.

‘Stop it, the two of you!’ she bossed. ‘He’ll see you.’

‘He’ll … you don’t mean Liam, do you?’ asked Sally.

‘Ssshh!’

‘Where is he?’ asked Nina, spinning around and earning a sharp kick under the table.

‘He was walking over to the far side with a tray,’ Alice whispered.

‘Is she with him?’ quizzed Sally. ‘I’ve never seen her. I’d love to see what his girlfriend looks like.’

‘Feck off, Sally!’ Alice hissed. ‘I don’t want to meet them. Hopefully Liam didn’t see me.’

Alice tried to concentrate on eating her slice of carrot cake and forget about her ex-husband’s presence. The restaurant was long and quite spread out, and as usual was very busy. Hopefully with any luck he’d be gone before they finished. Liam was a real eat-and-go person, while the three of them were out to relax and were happy to chill here for the rest of the afternoon chatting and having more coffee.

‘He’s coming,’ whispered Sally, pasting a smile on her face. ‘He’s coming over this way with Elaine.’

‘Shit!’ thought Alice, wondering if she could make a sudden bolt for the Ladies.

‘Sally, how are you?’ asked her ex, stopping at the table. ‘How’s Hugh? I haven’t seen him in months.’

‘He’s fine, Liam. Off playing golf today, so we said we’d treat ourselves to lunch.’

‘Hi, Nina! Alice,’ he said, looking uncomfortable.

‘What are you doing here?’ quizzed Nina, peering at him over her expensive designer frames.

‘Elaine and I stayed over in the Ritz Carlton last night, and decided to stroll up here for a bit of lunch.’ He sounded slightly embarrassed.

‘The hotel is meant to be gorgeous!’ said Nina. ‘I haven’t been in it yet.’

‘It’s lovely, with a great restaurant and some spectacular views from the terrace,’ offered Elaine. ‘And of course the rooms are enormous.’

Alice clenched her fists under the table. The utter bastard! Her ex-husband and his girlfriend were swanning off to one of the most expensive hotels in Dublin for a night when he kept moaning to her about how tight things were financially, and how the kids needed to cut back and economize!

‘Everything OK with you, Alice?’ he asked, almost as an afterthought.

‘Fine.’

She had absolutely no intention of having any form of conversation with Liam in front of the girls. She had seen Elaine only once before briefly, and that was on the night two years ago that she had decided to surprise her husband in his regular wine bar. As soon as she’d seen the anorexic-looking Elaine she had got a strange sense of foreboding. OK, it had taken almost another three months for Liam to come clean about the affair, and admit that it was Elaine that he was seeing and phoning and texting constantly. It was only when he told her that he loved Elaine that Alice had finally begun to accept the inevitable break-up of their marriage.

It wasn’t her fault! She hadn’t done anything wrong! Yet somehow she blamed herself for letting Elaine steal her husband away.

‘Well, Elaine and I are going to go look at the fountain and walk down by the lake. Tell Hugh and David I said hello!’ Liam said, leaving their table and exiting by the large glass door that led out to the open-air terrace.

‘Phew!’ said Sally when they had disappeared. ‘That was awkward.’

‘I thought you said she was really good-looking, Alice,’ accused Nina. ‘She’s totally different from what I imagined.’