the Kitchen Garden at Balymaloe Cooking School (photo courtesy Kitchen Gardens International)
Today is St. Patrick’s Day and what better way to celebrate than to get into the kitchen and prepare some Irish dishes for your family?
It may be Corned Beef and Cabbage and that’d be just great. But if you’d like a selection of other fine ideas, follow along here. I’ve gone shopping for some recipes to whet your appetite. And so, if you’re not all filled up with green beer by the end of the day, have some fun here!
I don’t know about you but this time of year gets me hyper-focused on the color green. It’s partially because I have been starved of the color of growing plants outside my door for many months and also because it is indeed a much-appreciated confirmation of the rejuvenation of the earth’s promise. Plus, green is just plain happy and inspiring in every way. I am busy keeping my little journal of little sprouts of life popping up everywhere. Every day now there is a new statement. Buds are coming on Forsythia, trees and from the earth. All forms of Narcissus are up and coming and I’m anxiously awaiting my new spray up in front of the stable.
This morning I went searching for the equivalent of The Potager in Ireland and found, on a site called Library Ireland, that the word for kitchen garden is lubgort, (loo-ort), lub, “an herb” and gort, a fenced in and cultivated plot. In neighboring Scotland, the word would be kailyaird. The Potager, of course the French word for kitchen garden is the most well known. When I travel near and far I love to look at other people’s gardens. For me, they tell a great story about love of the earth, devotion and faith.
When it comes to the EU and community that has developed there, the food world can’t be excluded. While perhaps, Ireland would definitely rival any other country when it comes to pristine food production, they tend to be viewed somewhat secondarily as I pointed out in my post on Monday. That could very well be a big mistake and, if you take a good long look around at the quality of chefs and their food in the Emerald Isles you’ll get a good bird’s eye view. Surely, at the very least they deserve great notice of their wide array and quality of food production. Irish producers represent among the highest quality of producers in the categories of meat, game, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy and produce. Their ingenuity and artistry are very well up there as well.
In the recipe department, yes, Corned Beef and Cabbage tends to be the go-to dish. But a great Irish Stew is also fabled and this would be my choice of entrées for the day. You can use their most common of meat selections for stew, that of lamb, as their lamb is very highly regarded. Following closely behind is a great stew calling with their prized beef.
Many people have used Guinness and other Stout in their cooking and baking and incorporating some Guinness into your stew would be just fine. Here is Nevin Maguire’s Irish Stew recipe. I love that it includes pearl barley. Why not try it today?
The Irish Scone is well known as is its famed relative, the Soda Bread. But Ireland is known, as I have said, for its pristine selection of vegetables and other produce as well as its beautiful seafood and meat and game. One can’t ignore the quality of Irish butter and cheese either. Yes, it is true that just as the EU has fostered cooperation among countries, the contemporary Irish chefs have borrowed upon many ideas of the cuisines of the their neighbors. They’ve applied lots of ideas to their own intrinsically extraordinary ingredients to a much heralded result. Ireland offers many great venues for garden gazing as the land greens up as well as a good selection of prominent cookery schools. Perhaps the best known is the school at Balymaloe. I’ve got a number of these venues on my to-do list these days.
Here’s a little reading on the quality of Irish seafood: http://www.bordbia.ie/industry/buyers/industryinfo/FishSeafoodIndustry/directories/IrishSeafoodAResponsibleChoice2012/Irish%20Seafood%20-%20A%20Responsible%20Choice.pdf
Green is a powerful color in cuisine and here in Kevin Dundon’s Wild Garlic Pesto it is in its concentrated glory. Perhaps this is the most versatile of recipes I can offer today. This is a wonderfully useful recipe to use from morning till night. Place a dollop on your scrambled eggs at breakfast. It is also a great counterpoint to some delicious jam on a morning scone. At lunch, spoon onto a simple grilled chicken breast or add to a salad dressing. In the evening, use a scant teaspoonful on your lovely Irish cheese with a biscuit. At the dinner table, you can spoon onto a simple piece of grilled freshest fish or serve with a grilled lobster. /http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food/recipes/2013/0923/744216-wild-garlic-pesto/
If you have a little time, read through these articles and recipes and pick one or two. I’ve tried to offer a nice variation and they are mostly from Irish chefs.
http://www.cookingisfun.ie/gardens/potager
http://www.ireland-guide.com/ten-of-the-best/kitchen-gardens—ten-of-the-best.12080.html
http://nevenmaguireblog.com/2016/01/06/a-fantastic-fragrant-duck-salad/
http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a35995/sesame-watercress-salad-recipe-clv0214/
http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food//recipes/2015/0303/743369-brown-scones/
http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food/recipes/2015/0513/743278-crunchy-orange-butter-scones/
http://www.clodaghmckenna.com/home/recipes/?id=123
http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food/recipes/2013/0923/744218-baby-leek-gratin-with-smoked-gubbeen/
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/crushed-potato-watercress-cakes.aspx
A nice selection of vegan options: http://inhabitat.com/5-vegan-irish-recipes-for-st-patricks-day/
http://magazine.foxnews.com/recipe/rachel-allens-irish-apple-cake
http://communitytable.parade.com/270811/darinaallen/make-irelands-famous-roscommon-rhubarb-pie/
https://www.guinness.com/en-ie/recipes-and-pairings/pairings/raspberry-chocolate-torte/https://www.guinness.com/en-ie/recipes-and-pairings/pairings/raspberry-chocolate-torte/
Rachel Allen’s Porter Cake – http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/porter-cake-51146200http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/porter-cake-51146200
Several versions of the iconic cakes with Guinness Stout: http://abeautifulbite.com/guinness-chocolate-cake-with-irish-cream-frosting/
and another: http://www.bostonchefs.com/recipe/chocolate-guinness-cake-irish-cream-sabayon/http://www.bostonchefs.com/recipe/chocolate-guinness-cake-irish-cream-sabayon/
I personally like this one because it has cocoa powder and chocolate in it! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/217100/dianas-guinness-chocolate-cake-with-guinness-chocolate-icing/
Perennial Favorite from Nigella Lawson: http://www.thekitchn.com/nigella-lawsons-chocolate-is-the-best-way-to-enjoy-guinness-period-recipe-reviews-from-the-kitchn-79475http://www.thekitchn.com/nigella-lawsons-chocolate-is-the-best-way-to-enjoy-guinness-period-recipe-reviews-from-the-kitchn-79475
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/guinness-ginger-cupcakes.aspxhttp://www.finecooking.com/recipes/guinness-ginger-cupcakes.aspx
Well, that’s a good start. Really, need I say more? Hope you have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!
Skip the beer, eat the cake!