So Many Dishes

Like many people who celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, neither Ken nor I has a drop of Irish blood. We haven’t traveled to Ireland, either, although it’s definitely a place we’d love to visit. But the closest connection either of us has is that Ken has given a talk about the Irish potato famine.

Our St. Patrick’s Day celebration is all about the food. My mother always cooked corned beef and cabbage, but, once I discovered colcannon, that has been the focus of our holiday meal. Any dish that starts with mashed potatoes is going to be high on my list. I use cabbage as the greens, although kale is also common. I’ve seen a recipe that calls for spinach, but I think that would change the texture too much. I like the chewiness of the wilted cabbage, and wilted spinach doesn’t give you that.

For a protein, I cooked honest-to-goodness bangers, which, I discovered are essentially the same as Irish sausage. I was a little nervous about the bangers; I’d had them in the freezer for over a year. I’ve ordered from a company that specializes in British style bacon and sausages a couple times, and always end up freezing some of what I buy. The package said they could be frozen up to six months. I’m happy to say that they were fine after 14 months in our freezer. The sausages cooked up just fine, and I’ve never had another sausage that tastes like these. so good!

What I did not make this year was a loaf of Irish soda bread. I’ve baked a loaf each of the past several years, but I tried to fend off carb overload this time. However, I looked at pictures of previous loaves, and I’m trying very hard not to regret my decision 😄

It’s impossible to make a small batch of colcannon, at least for me, plus there were six sausages in the package, so we repeated the meal this evening. The leftovers were just as delicious as the original dinner, and definitely less work.

Happy eating!