Tag Archives: St. Patrick’s Day

Donegal oatmeal cream for St. Patrick’s Day

IrelandFor today’s Pastry Post-Doc we are going Irish for St. Patrick’s Day. Even though St. Patrick’s Day is more popular in the US than in Ireland, Irish recipes are a must. We try to feature a different Irish recipe here every year – nothing artificially green allowed! For a sweet treat a little more authentically Irish than a Shamrock Shake – try making a Donegal oatmeal cream. This simple Irish dessert is similar to a trifle, and is composed of fresh fruit, jam, cream and whole Irish oat grains, aka steel-cut oats in the US. European Recipes has the full scoop on how to make Donegal oatmeal cream (seen below).

DonegalCream

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Carageen / Irish Moss Pudding for St. Patrick’s Day

IrelandSo we have heard of Irish Moss before – but it turns out it is actually an edible plant natively found off the Atlantic Irish coast. When hunting for Irish recipes  for St. Patrick’s Day, we saw a variety of Irish Moss-based dessert recipes – and we were intrigued! The Irish name for “Irish Moss” is Carageen (from the Irish carraigín, which means “little rock”) – and you may have heard of Carageenan – a product derived from the moss that is often used in ice cream as a thickener. Irish Moss can be found in many health food or natural stores as a powder, and it is sometimes even still foraged by hand. Nessa’s Family Kitchen has a recipe for a simple Irish Moss pudding, or try one with raspberry coulis.

 

Irish Moss

Vintage Irish Moss Ad – by Rich Luhr

 

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What is a 99?

99 Ice Cream

99 Ice Cream by Louis du Mont

Ireland

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s time for another Irish treat – the 99. But what in the world is a 99? A typical 99 is vanilla softserve served in a cone, and topped with a piece of Cadbury Flake chocolate. Each of these elements has to be present for it to be a true 99. 99s have been around since at least the 1930s, when a special, shorter version of the Flake bar was introduced as a “99 Flake.” But where does the name come from? No one is quite sure, but this short documentary on the 99 provides some theories.

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Irish Soda Bread And Spotted Dog Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

Spotted Dog

Spotted Dog by my amii

IrelandIrish soda bread is one of the most iconic St. Patrick’s Day recipes, and it is super simple to make. In fact, this historic recipe requires little more that buttermilk, baking soda, and flour. However, for a little twist you can also make Spotted Dog – a richer, sweeter riff on Irish soda bread that has raisins or other dried fruits in the batter. Here is a Spotted Dog recipe on Serious Eats, from Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking. Seems like a perfect accompaniment for some Irish breakfast tea, don’t you think?

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Dublin Coddle for St. Patrick’s Day

IrelandSt. Patrick’s Day is here, and while that means that all your favorite foods will be colored green in America. However, a less verdant but perhaps more authentic way to celebrate is with the versatile Dublin dish, coddle. One of the most emblematic dishes from Dublin, Dublin coddle (aka Irish coddle or just “coddle”) is a homestyle (some may say old fashioned) stewed dish made with pork sausage, bacon and potatoes, and everyone has their own version. The name comes from the cooking technique of “coddling,” cooking in below-boiling water. Edible Ireland has a great recipe, along with recipes for boxty and colcannon.

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Guinness Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

IrelandThough Saint Patrick’s Day it is not widely celebrated in Rio (surprised?), we thought we’d share some festive recipes that all feature Guinnessa classic Irish beer for any day – but especially this one! Design Sponge has a recipe for Guinness chocolate cake which looks delicious.  Chocolate and Guinness seems to be a winning combo, which is repeated in Closet Cooking’s Guinness chocolate cheesecake. A final sweet recipe: Nigella’s Guinness gingerbread (even in March). For something savory, check out stout Macaroni and Cheese or Guinness and honey glazed pork loin. I wonder if they have Guinness at Zona Sul?

Guinness_Turtle

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Historic Irish Soda Bread Recipe for St. Patrick’s Day

IrelandJust in time for St. Patrick’s Day, have a look at the oldest published Irish Soda Bread recipe [Via Sodabread.us]. It comes from a November 1836 Farmer’s Magazine (London) p.328 referencing an Irish newspaper in County Down.

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread by Claire Brosman

A correspondent of the Newry Telegraph gives the following recipe for making “soda bread,” memorablystating that:

“There is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the state of the bowels.”

The recipe follows:

“Put a pound and a half of good wheaten meal into a large bowl, mix with it two teaspoonfuls of finely powdered salt, then take a large teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, dissolve it in half a teacupful of cold water, and add it to the meal; rub up all intimately together, then pour into the bowl as much very sour buttermilk as will make the whole into soft dough (it should be as soft as could possibly be handled, and the softer the better,) form it into a cake of about an inch thickness, and put it into a flat Dutch oven or frying-pan, with some metallic cover, such as an oven-lid or griddle, apply a moderate heat underneath for twenty minutes, then lay some clear live coals upon the lid, and keep it so for half an hour longer (the under heat being allowed to fall off gradually for the last fifteen minutes) taking off the cover occasionally to see that it does not burn.”

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The history of Corned Beef and Cabbage

IrelandIn honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s a little post about the quintessential St. Patty’s food – corned beef. So…What’s the deal with it? I always though it was an actual Irish dish, but, it turns out it is really more of an Irish-American creation. According to Wikipedia, while cabbage has long been a traditional Irish food, beef was substituted in America as a cheaper alternative to bacon, which was traditionally served in Ireland. The ‘corned’ in corned beef actually is an antiquated way to say “brined.” The dish itself dates back to 1621! If you really want to go for it, here’s a corned beef recipe from Food Network.

CornedBeef

Corned Beef and Cabbage by Craig Dugas

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