St. Patrick’s Day

I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by making a big lunch with somewhat traditional Irish dishes. I’m part Irish, I think, but this was the first time I’ve attempted to make Irish food. The meal consisted of a little bit of meat, a little bit of vegetables and a whole lot of starchy goodness. It was definitely carb overload. But, hey, it was a holiday.

First up was a loaf of brown butter soda bread. I’m not a big fan of soda bread with raisins, so I definitely wanted to use a savory recipe. This one uses browned butter, rosemary and cracked black pepper. I don’t know how authentically Irish those flavors are, but I don’t care so much. It tasted really good, and that’s all that really matters. I baked the bread in my brand new cast iron skillet, which made it even more exciting. Here’s the recipe from Epicurious.

Despite my general aversion to red meat, I decided to make an exception for a pot of beef and Guinness stew. I’ll admit, it was the Guinness part that won me over. After looking through several recipes, I chose this one from the Food Network Web site. The stew cooked for about three hours. The Guinness gave it a great flavor. And I only ate a few bites of meat, but they tasted pretty good too.

Next, I made a batch of Irish cheese pudding from The Gourmet Slow Cooker by Lynn Alley. (The recipe has been reprinted here.) Obviously, this was not such a healthy meal. This was an especially rich dish, but if you’re a fan of bread and cheese, you’ll probably like it. If you’re not a fan of bread and cheese, I don’t think we can ever be friends. I used a combination of extra sharp and white cheddar cheese for the pudding. This recipe also calls for Guinness, although it lists chicken stock as a suitable substitute. I used about 2/3 Guinness and 1/3 stock. The Guinness does make it a little darker, but it adds a lot of flavor. Yum.

And it wouldn’t be an Irish meal without potatoes, so I made a batch of boxty. Well, actually, I mixed up the ingredients for boxty and my mom fried them up. They were similar to potato pancakes only heavier and bread-ier. Apparently, there’s an old song that goes, “Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.” Our boxty went over pretty well, so I guess we’re OK in that department. Here’s the recipe.

Overall, it was a successful St. Patrick’s Day meal. But I doubt I’ll make any of these recipes again until next year – I don’t think my arteries can take it.