Glazed Carrots with Guinness

The perfect side dish for St. Patrick’s Day

Corned beef and cabbage for St. Pat’s? You’ll need a side dish.

What better than these colorful (and nutritious!) Glazed Carrots with Guinness?

Eat your veggies in style. You’ll probably want seconds, too. Because beta-carotene, right?

Guinness Beef Stew

Meaty goodness with an Irish twist

On St. Patrick’s Day we’re all Irish – and we want to celebrate. So how about some hearty Guinness Beef Stew?

It’s a great dish for entertaining. Because you braise the beef slowly, most of the prep work will be done hours before you need to serve. You can even make this dish a day ahead, then reheat it – the flavor will only get better.

In fact, it will have more flavor than you can shake a shillelagh at.

Irish Soda Bread

Make This Easy Bread as Plain or Fancy as You Want

In the US, we tend to think of Irish Soda Bread around March 17th — Saint Patrick’s Day.  The rest of the year?  Not so much.  Which is too bad, because it’s easy to make.  Not to mention tasty.  And its flavor blends well with the simplest meal or the fanciest dinner.

In its original form, Irish Soda Bread was quite plain.  But over the years, bakers have made additions to the recipe.  Nowadays, you’ll see elaborate versions that include butter, eggs, and sugar.  Even the plainest loaves sold in the US now commonly contain raisins (or currants) and caraway seeds. 

So today’s post is a twofer:  We present both a simple version of Irish Soda Bread, and a more elaborate alternative.  One of these is sure to appeal.

But be warned:  It’s tough to choose.  You may decide to do what we did — and make both!

Colcannon

Mashed Potatoes and Kale Flavor this Traditional Irish Dish

When the topic is Irish food, what do you think of first?  If you live in the US, the answer is likely Corned Beef. With cabbage, of course. Second? Probably potatoes (who hasn’t heard of the Irish Potato Famine?).

Potatoes have been an important food in Ireland since the late 17th century, and historically formed the foundation for many a meal. Equally important historically are cabbage and kale (kale is actually a form of cabbage). These two foods would appear on most tables many times each week. So of course someone eventually decided to combine them — in a dish that became known as Colcannon.

Colcannon mixes mashed potatoes with kale (or cabbage). For extra flavor, many cooks add onions, leeks, or scallions. It’s a hearty dish that’s almost a meal in itself (and at times it no doubt was). Today most of us would probably serve it as a side dish. It pairs well with almost any meat, but particularly shines with ham, sausages, or corned beef.

Almost everyone will love this dish! After all, mashed potatoes are a near universal favorite, and the addition of kale adds terrific healthy flavor. Best of all, this is a pretty simple recipe to make.

So with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner (a week from today), maybe it’s time to try Colcannon. Once you taste it, you may contemplate moving to Ireland. I may join you.