Top o’ the mornin’ to ye!  St. Patrick’s Day is here again, one of the favorite holidays around the ol’ Flamingo Pond.  The husband is half-Irish, and back when we got married, we made a deal:  I would get all the Jewish holidays and he would get St. Patrick’s Day and Christmas.  I took this to be a pretty fair compromise, since the only holidays he wanted were the ones involving good food, good drink, and prezzies!  And we like to start the morning with a slab of old-fashioned Irish Brown Bread.  This is not the sweet bread with raisins or some such, that you might find in stores, today.  Real Soda Bread is just that – bread. Slice it up for sandwiches, chunk it up to sop up soup or gravy, toast it up & slather with good butter, a piece of cheese, maybe some jam.

We don’t dye anything green around here, no sir!  From the beginning, we’ve only made traditional Irish recipes, prepared as closely as possible to the traditional ways.

One of the really lovely things about this bread is that it’s pretty quick to make. Just mix up the dough – either by hand or mixer with a dough hook – form it up and bake.  No resting time, no rising time.  You can have this on the table, all warm, crusty, and ready to eat in about an hour!  And I’ll bet you have the ingredients ready to go, right now.  So, let’s do it:

Irish Brown Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 3 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbs. sugar, honey, or molasses (optional)
• 2 1/2 cups soured milk *

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425° F.

In a large bowl (or your mixer bowl), combine the flours, salt, and baking soda. Mix well.  Add the sweetener (if using),  and add the milk, a little at a time, mixing well.  The dough should be firm and still just a bit sticky.

Divide the dough into two pieces, form into firm balls, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or pan liner.  Flatten each ball slightly with your hand, to about 2-3 inches thick.  Slash an X across the top of each loaf (to let the fairies out, of course!).

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when the bottoms are rapped with your knuckle, or an instant-read thermometer inserted through the side indicates at least 192° F.

* Yes, I actually let milk go naturally sour for this. Don’t go freaking out. No, it’s not going to hurt you.  After all, that’s how basic farmers cheeses historically got their starts, and the natural acids work with the baking soda to get the dough rising.  And it’s a great way to use up milk that’s “gone off” on you.  If you don’t have any soured milk on hand, just measure out your milk and add either a teaspoon of lemon juice or a teaspoon of white vinegar, mix it well and let it sit till it reaches room temperature.

Don’t save this just for St. Patrick’s Day, either! This is a tasty, healthy bread that’s great all year long, especially if you just noticed that you’ve run out of bread for sandwiches or snacks.

More St. Patrick’s Day food ideas:

• Mashed Potato Biscuits (Irish Potato Cakes)
• Shepherd’s Pie for St. Patrick’s Day
• Chicken in (Non-Dairy) Tarragon Cream Sauce
• Colcannon (Mashed Potato with Cabbage and Leeks)

Shepherd’s Pie is actually one of the traditional Irish dishes that you’ll find at all the pubs and festivals, today. Everyone has their own way of making it – some as a loose sautéed ground beef or lamb and vegetable mixture with a pile of potatoes on top, but I really like it as more of a pie that you can slice and serve.

Of course, as you can see from the photos, I did go a little crazy with the potatoes on this one, but then, how many times do I need to tell you that I’ve rarely met a carb I didn’t like? Also? Please forgive the photography here – I’ve got two lights burned out in my kitchen, and we were too hungry to wait for me to set it up properly. I really have to stop doing that.

Shepherd’s Pie
(serves 4 – may be doubled)

Ingredients:

2 – 3 lbs. gold or russet potatoes
1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg
2 Tbs. ketchup
1/2 cup oatmeal (uncooked)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper (or to taste)
1/2 cup milk (or soy milk)
2-3 Tbs. butter (or margarine)
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables or peas & carrots

Special equipment: 8 or 9 inch pie plate; cooking spray

Preparation:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Peel the potatoes and cut them into roughly 2 inch pieces. Place them in the pot and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, or until fork-tender, and drain.

Spray the pie plate with the cooking spray. Place the ground beef, egg, ketchup, oatmeal, garlic powder, salt and pepper in the pie plate and mix lightly with your hand (you can do this one-handed – I know you can!) until all ingredients are well-combined. Pat the meat down to fill the bottom of the pie plate evenly.

Place the pie plate into the microwave (I know!) and cook on high for 8 minutes, then put it in a preheated, 375º F oven for about 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can bake it in a preheated, 375º F oven for about 40 minutes. (See? It takes longer.) Set aside.

Mash the potatoes while they’re still hot and add the milk, butter, and salt and pepper to taste.

Put the frozen vegetables on top of the meat “pie”, making an even layer, then pile on your mashed potatoes. No, you don’t have to get as crazy as I did, but you do want them to cover the meat and vegetables completely, as you might do a meringue on a sweet pie.

Drag a fork lightly over the top to make shallow furrows (it’s a design thing), and place the pie back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Now place it under the broiler element for another 5-10 minutes to brown the top a bit.

Slice and serve.

I think I’ve mentioned before (probably last St. Patrick’s Day) that corned beef and cabbage is not really a traditional Irish meal, so by all means try the Colcannon (a mixture of mashed potatoes, cabbage or kale, and leeks), which is.

Have a glass of Guinness on me. Sláinte Mhaith!

Hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but Corned Beef & Cabbage is not a traditional Irish dish. And, up until the last 20 or 30 years or so, St. Patrick’s Day was not really all that big a deal in Ireland, either. In fact, St. Patrick’s Day was regarded pretty much as a minor saint’s feast day.

No, all that changed here in America. We made St. Patrick’s Day what it is today, and likewise, today you can find St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and corned beef & cabbage in Ireland, because we expected it.

Nonetheless, if you really want to celebrate with traditional Irish fare, try some Colcannon alongside some poached salmon or tarragon-scented chicken. Oh, and don’t forget the Guinness!

Colcannon
(serves 6-8 as a side-dish)
Ingredients:

approx. 1 lb. cabbage or kale
2-3 lbs. potatoes
2 leeks, washed & sliced thinly (white & pale green parts only)
1 cup milk
1 stick butter (preferably Irish)
salt & pepper to taste

Method:

In separate pots, cook the cabbage or kale and the potatoes in salted water until tender (approx. 12-15 minutes).

In the meantime, cook the leeks in the milk over medium heat till the leeks are tender (approx. 8-10 minutes).

Chop the cabbage or kale and mash with the cooked potatoes, add the milk with leeks and the butter, salt & pepper to taste, mashing and stirring till well-blended. What you want is a smooth mashed potato consistency with interesting bits of cabbage and leeks throughout.

Make a small indentation on top and put an additional “knob” of butter in it to melt into a little pool.

Notes:

If you have a pasta pot with a vegetable steamer insert, I boil the potatoes in the pot and steam the cabbage simultaneously.

For extra authenticity – if your friends are single – you can hide a small ring in the Colcannon. Whoever finds it will be the next to marry. Traditionally, the Irish are fond of hiding things in certain foods as portents of things to come during the year. Of course, that’s an optional “ingredient”.

Enjoy!