Hello, happy Friday, and happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
I’ve always thought that the best way to celebrate holidays is through food! Cooking for a holiday is an opportunity to share food with family and friends, to celebrate at home without having to plan anything extravagant, and to discover the culture, history, or food trends of a time or place.
Below, I’ve listed some recipes that are inspired by my time in Ireland and my love for this holiday. They’re listed by suggestions of when/how/with whom they can be made. Bake some cupcakes, eat some bread, drink some Guinness, and have some great craic!!
For breakfast:
Soda bread
Time: 45 mins | Difficulty: 1/5 | Yield: One small loaf
Soda bread! Maybe the simplest and humblest of all breads. There’s no proofing, there’s barely any kneading, and it all comes together in minutes. According to the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, the earliest documented recipe for soda bread in Ireland is dated back to 1836! (My favorite part of this recipe is the note to knead the ingredients “all intimately together”…) The rise comes from the interaction between the acid in the buttermilk, and the baking soda. Basically, this recipe is like a baking soda volcano, but one that you can eat! This recipe makes a small-ish loaf that’s perfect for one person, but you can easily double it if you need to feed more people.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of buttermilk (or, if you don’t have buttermilk, combine 3/4 cup of milk with 1 3/4 tsp of lemon juice)
Butter, for greasing the parchment paper
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 450°.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a big bowl.
Make a well in the center of the bowl, and pour in the buttermilk.
Using your hands or a rubber spatula, combine the wet and dry ingredients until everything just comes together in a ball. Knead the dough as little as possible, or the bread will become stodgy.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and grease the paper lightly with some butter. Tip the bread out onto the baking sheet, and shape it into a round, about an inch-and-a-half or so tall.
Slice through the middle of the bread, top-to-bottom and left-to-right. (If you’re making smaller loaves, you can get away with just one slice). Make sure to slice all the way to the bottom of the dough—this is the only way the heat escapes, and the bread will puff up and fill the gaps while baking!
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 425 for 10-15 more minutes. The loaf should be lightly golden brown, and sound hollow when you tap the bottom.
Serve with lots of butter!
For sharing (sweet):
Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey’s cream cheese frosting
Time: 2+ hrs | Difficulty: 3/5 | Yield: 10 tall cupcakes or 12 smaller cupcakes
These cupcakes are DELICIOUS. They’re so moist and chocolatey, and have a deep, nutty flavor that comes from the Guinness. The cake recipe is adapted and scaled down from Nigella Lawson’s Guinness Cake recipe, where you make the batter all in one big pot, and then transfer to a cake pan. I prefer making this recipe in cupcake form, because they’re much easier to store, they’re already portioned out when you want to eat them, and you can frost them individually when you’re in the mood for one. The frosting here is cream-cheese based, because I’m not a huge fan of buttercream (too sweet and also difficult to make without a stand mixer), and it adds an amazing tanginess to the dark flavor of the cupcakes. And a bonus—this recipe uses Guinness, Jameson Irish Whiskey, AND Bailey’s Irish Cream. Talk about a trifecta!!!
Ingredients/Tools:
For the cake:
1/2 cup of Guinness
8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg
A few tbsp of Jameson whiskey, reduced down in a little saucepan to about a 1/2 tbsp worth
1 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp of baking soda
A heavy bottomed pot
Cupcake pan
A whisk
A big bowl
For the frosting:
4 oz cream cheese
3ish tbsp of Bailey’s Irish Cream
3ish tbsp of confectioner’s sugar
A bowl
A whisk or fork
Method:
Pour the Guinness into the pot. Slice up the butter into chunks and add it into the pot. Turn on the heat and melt the butter into the Guinness.
When the butter is melted, add in the cocoa powder and whisk or stir until incorporated. Do the same with the sugar.
In a bowl, whisk the egg, then whisk in the sour cream and the Jameson. Add it all to the big chocolatey Guinness pot.
Add in the flour and stir well until there are no lumps and it’s all well incorporated. Then add in the baking soda.
Preheat the oven to 425°. Grease the little cupcake wells with butter. Then cut out some little circles of baking parchment and line the bottoms of the cupcake wells.
Pour the cake mix into the cupcake wells. Then bake for about 12-20 minutes (depending on your oven). Stick the cupcakes with a skewer or a long fork to check when they’re done—if it comes out clean, you can take them out.
While the cupcakes are cooking and cooling, make the frosting: put the cream cheese in a bowl, and whisk it up a bit to loosen it. Add in the Bailey’s and whisk it all around. It should be fairly loose and liquidy at this point—add in the confectioner’s sugar until it becomes a frosting-like consistency.
Frost the cupcakes when you’re ready to eat them, and enjoy!!
For sharing (savory):
Fried brie bites
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Dinner, salad topper, or snack
There’s nothing particularly Irish about this recipe. But it was at a pub in Killarney that I first had fried brie. It introduced an entirely new cheese to be fried! And I’ll forever associate this with a cozy snug, a pint of Guinness, and the feeling of a full day of travel in my body and soul. Turns out fried brie is a delicious combination of salty, gooey, and crispy. Try these!!
Ingredients:
Brie cheese
An egg (or two, depending on how much cheese you have), whisked
Breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil
Method:
Chop the brie into 1-inch triangles.
Put the egg in one bowl and the breadcrumbs with a touch of salt in another. Dip a brie triangle in the egg, then roll it around in the breadcrumbs. Then dip it again, back into the egg and back into the breadcrumbs.
Place the brie bites on a plate and leave them in the freezer until they’ve hardened.
Heat vegetable oil in a non-stick pan or skillet. When the oil is really hot (test with a little bit of egg mix), drop in some of the bites and fry until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.
Bonus: these bites go very well with greens, tossed in some lemon juice and mustard, to counter the richness of the brie.
For lunch:
Turmeric Colcannon
Time: 45 mins | Difficulty: 2/5 | Yield: 1 bowl
Colcannon! It’s so delicious. Just mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale, with scallions, but you can be really creative with it! This recipe is adapted from a base one from Lucy Madden’s “The Potato Year,” but I made a few adjustments: I sauté the cabbage instead of steaming it, to avoid the stinky cruciferousness you can get from introducing cabbage to hot water. I also added turmeric to the cabbage, because it’s a great flavor complement for both the cabbage and the potatoes. And I sautéed the scallions in a touch of butter before adding milk and boiling it for the potatoes. This makes about two servings, especially if you’re pairing with something like bacon, sausages, or mushrooms!
Ingredients/Tools:
2-3 potatoes
1/2 a head of cabbage
2 scallions, whites and greens chopped
100ml of milk
Lots of butter!
A potato masher (or I used a big slotted spoon)
Method:
Peel and chop the potatoes into big chunks, then set to a boil in salty water. Boil until they are soft enough to smush with a fork. Drain them when done and keep warm (in the oven or covered with a dish towel).
Chop the cabbage into small strips. Sauté in lots of butter and a touch of olive oil. When the cabbage is starting to brown, add salt, pepper, and turmeric. Cook it all down until the cabbage has started to wilt and looks a bit caramelized.
Once you’ve boiled the potatoes, add the scallions to the same pot in a bit of butter. Sauté for a couple minutes, then pour in the milk. Bring to a boil.
Add the potatoes back into the pot and mush them down into a mash. Add salt and pepper. Then add the cabbage in and stir it all until well combined.
Serve with the scallion greens on top and a big pat of butter!
For dinner:
Irish Tacos
Time: 2 hrs | Difficulty: 4/5 | Yield: Two large or three small tacos
These tacos are soooo yummy!! They’re loosely based on corned beef and cabbage, and inspired by a recipe by Sam Sifton—but here, I added potatoes and some pickled onions, and the meat isn’t corned beef, just “quick pickled” ground beef. Which means the recipe takes a couple of hours, not a couple of days. Plus, portions here are for one person. There are lots of elements here so I’ll clarify—optional: cheddar, pickled onions. NOT optional: beef, potatoes, slaw. Do NOT skimp on the slaw!! I’m not normally a huge fan of mayo (it freaks me out…) but this may have changed my mind. FYI, I tried these with both hard shell and soft shell tacos (only the most thorough testing for you) and soft shell won by a MILE.
Ingredients/Tools:
For the beef:
1/4 lb ground beef
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp pickling spice
Water
A big bowl
For the potatoes:
2 small potatoes
Grater
Dish towel
For the slaw:
1/4 of a cabbage, thinly chopped
3 tbsp mayonnaise
Hot sauce
Mustard
Spices: Salt, pepper, mustard powder, coriander, paprika, chili flakes
A big bowl
For the onions:
1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced
Apple cider vinegar
Water
Pickling spice
Irish sharp cheddar, shredded
Butter
Soft taco shells/tortillas
Box grater
Dish towel
Method:
Marinate the beef: mix the apple cider vinegar, a good amount of water, and pickling spice. Add in the beef, making sure it’s all covered in the liquid. Cover and refrigerate while you prep the other ingredients. (Note—this is not an actual brining process like you would do for real corned beef! It’s more like a basic marinade, to get some flavor into the meat.)
Shred the two potatoes onto a dish towel with your box grater. Wrap them up and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Add a good amount of butter to a pan. When the butter is melted, add the potatoes in a single flat layer in the pan. Add salt and pepper on top, and a drizzle of olive oil.
When the bottom is crispy, carefully flip the potato! (It’s okay if it breaks—you just want to make sure you get two crispy, flat sides.) Salt and pepper the other side. Remove to a plate once fully cooked.
Chop the cabbage in thin strips and add to a big bowl.
In a smaller bowl, mix the mayonnaise, hot sauce, mustard, and spices. Taste to see if you need to add anything else. (It will ideally taste like a cross between an aioli and thousand island dressing!)
Add the mayo mixture to the cabbage, enough to get all the cabbage coated. Refrigerate until you plate.
Chop the onions and add them to a smaller mix of vinegar, water, and pickling spice (don’t use the same brine as for the ground beef. Raw meat ew!). Let them sit as you cook the beef.
Add some butter and olive oil to the same pan. Then remove the ground beef from the bowl and put it right into the pan. Don’t worry if you get some of the spices in there with it. Mush it up so it’s all in little bits, and cook it down on medium heat until all the liquid has evaporated. Add salt and pepper at the end as needed. Remove with a fork or slotted spoon.
Wipe out the pan, and quickly toast your soft shell tortillas!
Layer up! Chop up your potato slab into 6 rectangular sections. Add two to either side of a tortilla, then add some beef in the middle. Next, add the slaw, and be generous! Add shredded cheddar on top, and the onions on top of that.