Saint Patrick's Day Dublin Coddle

“This traditional supper dish dates back at least as far as the early eighteenth century. It seems to be more of a city dish than a rural one: it was a favourite of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels. In Dublin itself, coddle retains its reputation as a dish that can be prepared ahead of time and left in a very slow oven while the people who're going to eat it have to be out of the house for a while - making it an excellent dish for very busy people! The name of the dish is probably descended from the older word caudle, derived from a French word meaning "to boil gently, parboil, or stew". The more recent version of the verb, "coddle," is still applied to gently cooked eggs, "Coddled Eggs". This recipe would also work VERY well if cooked in a crock-pot, reduce the liquid by about half if cooking the coddle this way. Comfort food at its best! Sláinte.”

4 1/2-5 lbs. Potatoes
2 large onions
1 lb. Irish sausages
2 lb. Bacon
2 1/4 cups hot water
1 chicken or beef stock cube
3 Tab. Parsley
Salt and pepper, tt

Chop potatoes into large chunks. If they are small, leave them whole.
Dissolve the stock cube in the hot water
Grill or broil the sausage and bacon to give them color. Let cool.
Chop the bacon into 1-inch pieces and the sausage into pieces the same size as the potatoes.
Preheat oven to 300F.
In an oven-proof pot or casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid, layer the bacon, sausage onions and potatoes. Season liberally each layer with salt, pepper and parsley.
Pour the bullion broth over.
Bring liquid to a boil on top of the stove, and then put lid on tightly and place in oven.
Cook for two hours. Add more liquid, if necessary. There should be an inch of liquid on the bottom.
Put back in the oven and cook for 1-3 more hours. (If desired, add a little Guinness to the pot towards the end of the cooking.)
Serve with Guinness and Irish Soda Bread.

Source: Genius Kitchen

Irish Colcannon

• 1/2 head cabbage, finely chopped
• 4 potatoes, cut into chunks (I used red potatoes)
• 1 large (or two small) leeks, chopped
• ½ cup half and half (cream or milk)
• 1/4 cup butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄8; teaspoon pepper
• ¹⁄8; teaspoon mace or nutmeg

Place cabbage, potatoes and leeks into a large pot and simmer for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are soft enough to mash. Drain. Add milk and butter and mash until desired consistency. Add spices and stir thoroughly.

1. Adapted  from  the  recipe  here.

Potato Candy for Saint Patrick's Day



These little spud candies are delicious, easy to make and are even made out of potatoes!
What could be better than that for a St. Patrick's Day treat?

Boil and mash one small potato. Add:
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup of peanut butter

Cream together until there are no little lumps of potato.
Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until it reaches a good soft playdough type consistency.  It all depends on how large and moist your potato was. It will be any where from 2-4 cups of powdered sugar.

Mix about a quarter cup of powdered sugar and a quarter cup of cocoa  powder together in a small bowl.
Take a small piece of your candy dough and shape it into the shape of a miniature potato.
Roll in the cocoa-sugar mixture to coat.

You can break off little pieces of peanuts to make the eyes of the potatoes.
Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. They will firm up a little as they cool.

(First published on 3-16-2011.)

Saint Patrick's Day Recipes from Household Ways

Irish Colcannon

Irish Soda Bread

Shamrock Shake

Leprechaun "Pies"

First step is to put a plastic or foil covered chocolate coin in the bottom of a cup or parfait glass.
Make instant Pistachio pudding in a bowl.
Your little one can pour the ingredients in the bowl and can even hold the mixer!
Have your little one spoon it in the cup on top of the coin.
Top with whipped cream. Yum!
A desert with a special treat at the end!

Saint Patrick's Day Rainbow Cupcakes

I had planned to make Jello rainbows for our St. Patrick's day dessert, but Steven forgot to pick up the Jello, so I had to come up with a new idea quickly. Then I saw Sara at Best Bite's recipe for rainbow cupcakes and I knew I had to make these. She has a wonderful blog that has lots of wonderful recipes and tips. Sara uses a store-bought cake mix and adds things to it, but I only had a Red Velvet cake mix, so used this recipe, which seemed to turn out just fine:

WHITE CAKE

•1 cup white sugar
•1/2 cup butter
•2 egg whites
•1 whole egg
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
•1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Stir in vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time - alternating with the flour/baking powder mixture. Stir in the milk slowly, constantly mixing, until batter is smooth. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Cupcakes take less time, perhaps 20-25 minutes.

Now is the time to divide your batter into as many colors as you want to use and food gel coloring to make each portion a different color. This is when I found out that I did not have any red food color. Then I remembered the Red Velvet cake mix and mixed up that batter as well and used a portion of it for the red. Sara has a wonderful tip for making the rainbow layers,"To get a layered stripe like I used, you'll want to put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. The batter is thick, so it won't spread on it's own. A great tip is to set out a little bowl of water where you're working. Dip your finger in the water and then gently spread the batter out. The water will make it so the batter doesn't stick to your fingers." It really works!

Then, I couldn't leave my gluten & casein free kids out of the fun, so I used Betty Crocker's new Gluten-free yellow cake mix. I mixed it according to the package and divided it into five different colors (we used pink food coloring for red this time.) This mix is a little speckled when you add color to it, as if part of the batter doesn't take to the coloring.

When the cupcakes were baked, however, it did not have a mottled look at all. This batter was much more runny, so we could not spread it as well as the other batter.

It turned out with a wonderfully swirled rainbow look, however, and was delightful.

All were iced with white icing and topped with St. Patrick's day sprinkles (although rainbow sprinkles would have been great too) and a single plastic gold coin. Gold foil wrapped chocolates would have been even better. Perhaps next year...

(First published on 3-17-2011)

Green Hills of Ireland Popcorn for St. Patrick's Day

4 quarts popped corn

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional, does make mixture slightly more creamy)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
green food coloring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon Wilton paste color in Kelly Green)

In heavy saucepan on medium heat melt butter then add sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt. Increase temperature to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Once mixture boils, add in food coloring and stop stirring. Boil for 5 minutes (Do not stir). Mixture should be about 250-260 degrees.

 Remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly and while mixture is foamy, pour mixture over popped corn and gently stir to coat popcorn. Place popcorn into a large roaster or rimmed baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sprayed with cooking spray) and bake at 200° F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

(First published on 3-16-11)