St Patrick's Day Fare
>> Friday, March 11, 2011
Being that my SO is half Irish (his mother emigrated from Co. Cavan) and therefore my children are one-quarter Irish, I usually pull together a St. Patrick's Day supper sometime around the 17th of March. Besides the usual corned beef and cabbage, I've fine-tuned menu over the years that includes Beef and Guinness Pie, Colcannon (for my vegetarian friends) and Irish Soda Bread. The doubling-up of beef and beef has been bothersome, though, so this year, I'm adding a lamb stew to the repertoire.
Colcannon
1 md head cabbage, quartered and core removed
2 lb potatoes, scrubbed and sliced with skins left on
2 md leeks, thoroughly washed and sliced
1 c milk
1/2 t mace
Salt
Pepper
2 garlic cloves
8 T unsalted butter
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil the cabbage until tender, about 12-15 minutes. Remove cabbage, when cool enough to handle, chop and set aside.
In the same water, boil the potatoes until tender. Drain off the water and set potatoes aside.
Put the leeks in a saucepan, cover with the milk, bring close to boiling and then turn down to a simmer until tender. Set aside.
Add the mace, salt and pepper, and garlic to the pot with the potatoes and mash well with a hand masher. Now add the leeks and their milk and mix in with the potatoes, taking care not to break down the leeks too much. Add a little more milk if necessary to make it smooth. Now mash in the cabbage and lastly the butter. The texture that you want to achieve is smooth-buttery-potato with interesting pieces of leek and cabbage well distributed in it.
Transfer the whole mixture to an ovenproof dish, top with cheese and bake until cheese is melted.
Yield: 6 servings
The mace in this recipe adds an interesting flavor and it tends to have a slightly anesthetizing effect on the tongue. It's also swimming in butter, which isn't really a bad thing IMHO! :-D
Irish Soda Bread
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup dried currants or golden raisins
1 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk, at room temperature
1/4 cup of honey
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk, for glaze
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl, sift and combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add salt, orange zest, and caraway seeds.
Use a pastry cutter or fingers, cut in or blend butter into flour mixture until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the currants or raisins. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine honey with 1 1/2 cups buttermilk.
Stir into flour mixture until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn out onto a floured surface (dough will be sticky).
Knead, 1 minute. Cut dough in half. Shape each piece into a round loaf. Place on a greased and flour-dusted baking sheet. Dip a sharp knife into flour and cut across 1/2 inch deep, across top of each loaf.
Brush loaves with egg-and-milk glaze. Let stand for 10 minutes before baking. Bake in preheated oven, 35-40 minutes. To test for doneness, turn the bread over and tap underneath. If the bread sounds hollow, it is fully cooked. Let cool on racks before slicing. Slice thin or cut in wedges.
The addition of honey and orange zest is far from traditional, but it definitely works with the other ingredients. Unfortunately I have no idea where I originally found these two recipes.
Irish Lamb Stew
1 1/2 pounds thickly sliced bacon, diced
6 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup water
4 cups beef stock
2 teaspoons white sugar
4 cups diced carrots
2 large onions, cut into bite-size pieces
3 potatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup white wine
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside.
