For
this year's verdant holiday, slave put out a notice to fellow
apartment dwellers:
“Plan
on joining me Thursday evening in our common room for a taste of
Saint Paddy's Day. Traditional Irish recipes done my way.”
On
the menu:
Shrimps
on the Green
Colcannon
Soup
Dublin
Coddle
Sliced
Corned Beef
even
Irish Green snake bread!
“Bring
a smiling face and something to drink! “Any other treats welcome!”
Speak
Fluent Blarney!
So
now to share with you the recipes used. Feel free to change any
around to fit the tastes of Your family.
The
night before:
Colcannan
Soup
Colcannon
is a side dish usually made of mashed potatoes & kale. Here it is
interpreted as a soup with spinach substituting for kale.
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 pkg frozen spinach (thawed)
- 1 1⁄2 lbs small red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 lg leek, washed and chopped (white and pale green parts only)
- 5 cups low sodium chicken stock
- salt + white pepper, 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 1⁄4 cups non fat half-and-half
Cut the leek and rinse well to remove any sand. Peel the potatoes and cut into pieces.
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in spinach, potatoes, and leeks. Stir until vegetables start to turn soft. (about 8 minutes) Add stock and bring to a boil. Cover, then reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until the vegetables are soft (about 15 minutes). Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Carefully using an immersion blender, bounce the mixer with an up and down motion to blend the soup until smooth. (or transfer mixture to a blender or food processor in batches and process until smooth).
Note: the recipe can be made ahead up to this point. When warming the next day, whisk in the non-fat half & half and serve hot.
The
next morning:
Corned Beef
Ever cook a corned beef?
Simple and impressive as hell. Just takes preparation and a crock
pot! For this a “brisket” is used. Normally a tough and cheap
piece of meat, around this time of year the prices soar. To get it
tender takes brining, slow cooking and the right spices. The only
other secret is to be sure to slice it ACROSS the grain not with the
grain of the meat.
Buying the brisket.
Supermarkets have made this as easy as possible. It will come wrapped
in plastic, filled with the proper brine and even a small packet of
spices.
Read
the label. Buy a “Point Cut”. It is more flavor-full. You can
cut off the extra fat (called the deckel)
AFTER
the meat is cooked.
By
the way: the term “corned” has nothing to do with the vegetable
we now call “corn” at all. “Corn” was an old English term for
a small particle. IE: the coarse-grained salt that was used in
curing.
These
are the Ingredients you will need:
3
to 4 lbs
corned
beef brisket – point
cut.
2
medium
onions
at
least 2
cups
of
apple juice not
drink (used three 6oz boxes juice)
water
Start
10
hours before
dinner time. So if dinner is planned for 7
PM,
everything has to be in the crock pot and the lid on by
8:30 AM!
Crock
Pot:
Wipe out the crock pot
and spray with cooking spray. Slice the onions.
8AM
place half of the onions
on the bottom of the slow cooker and turn it on low. Add apple juice
and 1 cup water along with contents of the spice packet.
Cover.
Rinse
the brisket off well
under
running
water and pat dry with paper towels.
Then
lay it (with fat side up) on the onions. Cover with the rest of the
onions. The lid then goes on and you let it cook on low
for 10
hours,
in
our example 6:30PM!
Next lift out the
brisket carefully, it will be fork tender. Let it sit on cutting
board covered with a piece of foil for about 15 minutes.
Cut
it in slices across
the grain
and place on large platter. Again cover with that piece of foil until
the platter can make its entrance!
Corned
beef is as simple as that!
Dublin
Coddle This
goes into oven to cook at 4PM
This
Irish dish is often made to use up leftovers, and therefore without a
specific recipe. However, it most commonly consists of layers of
roughly sliced pork sausages and bacon with sliced potatoes and
onions.
The
dish should be cooked in a pot with a well-fitting lid in order to
steam the ingredients left uncovered by water. The only seasoning is
usually salt, pepper, and occasionally parsley.
The
name comes from the verb coddle, meaning to cook food in water below
boiling, which in turn derives from caudle, a warm drink given to the
sick.
Ingredients:
1
bag frozen hash brown potatoes (thawed)
2
large onions, peeled and sliced thickly
2
lbs cooked bratwurst sliced
½
lbs bacon, thick cut
1
pint chicken or beef stock
1
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
salt
and pepper (to season)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325F
Slice
the onions and the sausages. Finely chop the parsley.
- Cook
bacon in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat until crisp,
about 10 minutes;
Drain briefly on paper towels. When drained, chop the bacon into
one-inch pieces, reserving the drippings in the skillet.
- Cook sausages in the hot bacon drippings until evenly browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side; add to another paper towel to drain.
- Cook
and stir onion in the bacon drippings until tender, 5
to 7 minutes;
again drain on paper towels.
In
a large dutch oven with a tight lid, start layering the
ingredients: onions, bacon, then sausages. Cover these with a
“thatch” of the uncooked hash browns. Season each layer with salt
& pepper and the chopped fresh parsley. Make a second layer of
this in the same order.
Pour
the chicken stock over this. On the stove, bring the liquid to a
boil. Immediately turn the heat down and cover the pot. (You may like
to put a layer of foil underneath the pot lid to help seal it.).
Put
the covered pot in the oven and cook for two hours, check the pot and
add more stock if necessary. There should be a small amount of liquid
at the bottom of the pot at all times. Brush the top potatoes with
melted butter and return to oven uncovered
for another 30
minutes
or until they are golden brown.
Serve
with a large ladle to get the liquid along with the rest.
Now
while that's cooking let's do the shrimp!
Shrimp On the Green Bump
up the oven to 500
degrees
at 6PM
Shrimp is the perfect
candidate for this green sauce: it can withstand high heat: it gives
off some wonderful juices while it cooks, and its pink hue is
absolutely gorgeous when surrounded by the green.
Ingredients:
6
cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
⅓ cup
extra virgin olive oil
6
green onions, trimmed and sliced.
1
cup parsley, leaves and thin stems
2
pounds shrimp, peeled
Preparation
Heat
oven to 500
degrees.
Peel
and rinse shrimp, drain and pat dry.
Combine
garlic and oil in a food processor and blend until smooth, scraping
down sides as necessary. Add green onions and parsley and pulse
until mixture is minced. Toss with shrimp, salt, pepper and pepper
flakes.
Put
shrimp in a large roasting dish that has been sprayed. Add liquid and
place pan in oven. Roast, until mixture is bubbly and hot, and shrimp
all pink, 15
to 20 minutes.
Stick
toothpicks into each piece of shrimp for guests to sample.
Now
watch your time line:
8:30
AM crock pot starts cooking Corned Beef
4
PM Coddle goes into oven to cook
5
PM Start to heat up the soup on
low and mix in the half & half
6
PM Shrimp goes into the oven
6:30
PM Remove the corned beef to
rest: Remove shrimp from oven
6:35
PM remove the coddle (top of
potatoes should be browned)
6:45
PM slice corned beef and
re-cover, slide bread into turned off oven to heat.
Insert
tooth picks into shrimps and start to load up the table or buffet.
Don't
forget to serve the bread.
How
about some music for tonight? Let's not do too much Irish, OK?
Serving
twelve people or only my Master Indy, it is a true joy!
socialslave
To
satisfy and restore.
To
nourish, support and maintain.
To
gratify, spoil, comfort and please,
to
nurture, assist, and sustain
…..I
cook!
Please
buy slave's cookbook:
The
Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes
by
Dan White
http://www.amazon.com
/dp/B00F315Y4I
/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM
via
@amazon
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