BUT the first event of the year still went down a storm with some excellent speakers who as always had brilliant stories to tell! Here’s the interview with Brendan O’Driscoll of Soundwave, a hot new app which tracks what songs people are listening to on their smartphone and where they are in real time so users can plug into different people to see what songs they are playing. A cool idea and with some big investors behind them I think these guys are seriously ones to watch….

You can imagine my delight then when at the end of the year I was awarded Image Magazine’s Young Businesswoman of the Year 2012! (It was the under 30 category so I just got in there in the nick of time )

It was such a huge surprise and I was so honoured to receive the award, it really ended my year on a massive high!

The awards ceremony and dinner was a fabulous evening and I met so many exceptional women.. You couldn’t help leaving the evening feeling inspired to keep dreaming big! I’ll have to get cracking on the rest of my list…..

On Saturday night I had a craving for lamb burgers so whipped up these ones which were just so tasty I had to share the recipe. I normally serve lamb burgers in pitta bread but this time I tried some nice wholewheat flatbread that I spotted in the supermarket and they worked a treat, I’ll definitely be using them again. With some lovely coriander raita and a dollop of mango chutney spooned on top, they were simply gorgeous!

For the Burgers (makes 4):

Approx 400g minced lamb (it’s best not to use extra-lean mince as the fat will help to bind the burgers)

1 crushed clove of garlic

1 small red onion, finely chopped

thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp mango chutney

handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Raita:

3 tomatoes

150g Greek yogurt

large handful of fresh coriander, chopped

squeeze of lime juice

To Serve:

4 x wholewheat flatbread or pitta bread or burger buns

Mango Chutney

Mix all the burger ingredients together well in a large bowl. Season and then use your hands to shape the mixture into 4 equal sized burgers. Place the burgers on a plate, cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (this improves the flavours and allows the burgers to become firm).

To make the raita halve the tomatoes, scoop out the seeds and dice the tomato flesh into small pieces. Mix the tomato pieces with the yogurt and coriander in a bowl. Add a squeeze of lime juice and season. Taste and tweak the flavours if you feel it needs it by adding more of any of the components.

Pour a lug of olive oil into a large non-stick frying pan and heat over a medium heat. When hot add the burgers to the pan and fry for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the burgers.

Warm the flat bread in a microwave or under the grill and serve the burgers in the flatbread with some raita and a dollop of mango chutney. Fold the flat bread all around the burger and c0ndiments and tuck in! Be prepared for messiness

I also got to go down to Listowel in Kerry for the Food Fair. Minister Deenihan asked me to speak briefly at one of the evenings before Minister Simon Coveney’s talk to the local farmers about the up coming Common Agricultural Policy. I have to say I was so impressed with Minister Coveney. The evening went on for a few hours but the whole time I was completely captivated by everything Minister Coveney was talking about, he was fantastic and it was obvious that the whole room had a huge amount of respect for him. He even gave Kooky Dough a few mentions in his talk

Later on Jimmy Deenihan showed us the good spots around Listowel and we had a fab night! What a lovely lovely man and so interesting to chat to! It was definitely another one of those times where I thought to myself “how the hell did I end up here?!” I seem to have had a lot of those moments over the last few wacky years…. Let’s hope they keep on coming!

The great thing about the Archie Talks is the brilliant speakers that we have on, they make the whole night so interesting and a lot of fun. The format of the event is very relaxed and informal which makes the guests speak very openly and honestly about their stories of starting a business, it’s very inspiring listening to them. I think this is what makes Archie Talks very different to any other networking event I’ve ever experienced.

One of the speakers at Archie Talks #8 was Louise Hodgson of the Undergraduate Awards, an Ireland based academic awards programme run by a young team with a vision to identify the innovators, influencers and disruptors of tomorrow across all academic disciplines. It’s been an amazing achievement what Louise and her team have done, growing the awards programme from a national programme to a hugely successful international programme in just a few years. What I love about the story is how much it helped being an “Ireland-based” programme in order to get some of the top universities in the world on board. You have to hear Louise’s anecdote about “Deirdre Moloney” which says it all!
It’s a small world because one of the founders of UA, Oisin Hanrahan, was actually in my year in college! We studied Economics in Trinity together and were both lucky enough to get Scholarships so I definitely got to see first hand that this guy would be very successful. I know he’s involved in lots of other innovative things so I wish him all the best!

Here’s the video of my chats with Louise, she’s a great speaker and absolutely hilarious so you will be entertained!

I hope you enjoy, Love Sophie x

Here’s how I like to make my caramelised onions. These are also a great addition to a steak sambo!

Heat a few lugs of olive oil in a saucepan and add 2 red onions finely sliced. Sauté the onions over a medium heat until soft, approx 5-7 minutes. Add 1 Tsp of caster sugar and 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar and cook for another 5 minutes over a low heat until reduced and Caramelized.

And that’s it! So easy and so worth doing! If you want an even more intense flavour you could add a bit more balsamic and cook over a low heat for a much longer amount of time but I think this method gives perfect results and it’s speedy which is always a winner in my book!

Love Sophie x

Beef and Thyme Cobbler is a November recipe in Sophie Kooks so I thought I’d share it with you now It’s brilliant if you’re craving a stew but don’t have hours to wait for one. I like that it’s something a bit different to make using mince, as opposed to the typical spag bol or cottage pie. It’s called Cobbler because savoury scones are placed on top of the mince filling and when baked they look like cobble stones! I like to flavour the scones with fresh thyme which gives them a delicious taste.

I brought the lads in from Pure Brazen, Dave & Daragh, to help me cook this dish for my YouTube channel. The boys set up Pure Brazen last year and I absolutely love their products. They manufacture 100% natural stocks which are low in salt and taste just as if you were making homemade stock at home. Their story is quite like myself and Graham’s in that they were both working in completely different industries to food but believed there was a gap in the market for their product and just went for it! I love getting to meet other companies in the food industry and ourselves and the lads have become good mates. Check out their website, it’s fab! http://www.purebrazen.com

Here’s the video of us cooking the cobbler, the guys were brilliant craic and even gave me a gorgeous Pure Brazen apron which is now one of my favourites!