Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner! And if you’re like me, you’re already getting ready for what to cook. And if you’re also like me, you grew up eating corned beef and cabbage… every. single. year.
Is it just me, or is corned beef and cabbage awful? I’ve never liked it much personally. Mushy cabbage and dry beef? No, thank you. And the worst part? It’s not even Irish! The notion of corned beef and cabbage as a traditional Irish meal is a total myth, yet somehow, every year, Americans insist on eating this concoction on Saint Patrick’s Day. Now, don’t get me wrong — if corned beef and cabbage is your jam, you do you, but ever since I became a Real Live Grown-Up, I’ve been boycotting this meal every single year.
READ: Lucky Charms for Saint Patrick’s Day That Put Four-Leaf Clovers to Shame
So, what is traditional Irish food to make instead? Well, in Ireland, there’s a big emphasis on fish and seafood, which isn’t so surprising when you remember that Ireland is a gigantic island. Other traditional foods are soda bread, lamb, colcannon, and shepherd’s pie, to name a few. For us this year, I’ve got a pretty exciting menu set: an Irish lamb stew, soda bread, and apple cake. I didn’t want to use recipes from American bloggers (sorry, guys), so I went with some trusty finds on BBC Good Food. Also, quick note: if you aren’t already using Kerrygold butter — which happens to be Irish, thankyouverymuch — then Saint Patrick’s Day is a perfect time to start using it. And then never stop using it, because I promise, it will change your life.
Jump to: Irish Lamb Stew – Soda Bread – Apple Cake
Irish Lamb Stew
This recipe for Irish Stew is pretty simple: it’s a one-pot dish that you cook low and slow. Perfect for busy moms with kiddos who don’t want to spend all day slaving over the stove!
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 0.5 lbs of smoked bacon
- 2 lbs of lamb, cut into chunks
- 5 medium onions
- 5 carrots
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 small bunch of thyme
- 0.25 lbs of pearl barley
- 28 oz lamb stock (substitute chicken or vegetable instead if needed)
- 6 medium potatoes
- Kerrygold butter
- 3 spring onions, sliced
Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Using a Dutch oven, heat the oil on the stove, and cook bacon until crisp. Then, add the lamb and cook until brown. Remove the meat, and saute the onions, carrots, and herbs until soft. Return meat to the pan, and stir in the pearl barley. Add stock, and bring to a simmer. Stir in potatoes, cover, and braise in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until the potatoes are soft and the meat is tender. When it’s done, dot the potatoes with butter, and stir in spring onions.
Soda Bread
Soda bread recipes are intensely individual, so I went with a basic recipe — again from BBC Good Food. This is a simple, no-frills recipe, but you can always jazz it up by stirring in extras like raisins, carraway seeds, currants, cheese and herbs, and more. Use your imagination! And don’t be intimidated if you haven’t made a ton of bread before. Soda bread is known to be an easy, no-fuss recipe.
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- 1-1/2 cups wholemeal flour
- 1/2 cup porridge oats
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cold butter
- 2 cups buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 390 degrees. Dust a baking sheet with flour. Mix together the dry ingredients, and then add in the butter. Pour in the buttermilk, and mix it with a table knife. Bring the dough together gently with your fingertips, and shape it into a round, flat loaf. Put the loaf on the baking sheet, and cut a cross into the top — traditionally, this was said to let the fairies out! Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the bottom of the loaf feels hollow when tapped. Transfer to a wire rack, drape with a clean towel, and let cool. Serve slathered with Kerrygold!
Apple Cake
A lot — and I mean, a lot — of the dessert recipes I looked up had alcohol in them. It was tons of Guinness, or Irish cream, or whiskey… and even if being cooked means the alcohol itself is gone, I still felt like that wouldn’t be a very kid-friendly dessert. But who knows? In any case, I decided to go with this Apple Cake, this time from The Kitchen McCabe. Their recipe says to serve it with a custard sauce, but I’m thinking a caramel drizzle sounds like an amazing option for us.
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 6 oz. cold butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 large Granny Smith apples
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 tbsp sugar (for sprinkling on top of cake)
FOR THE CUSTARD:
- 6 large egg yolks
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 1-1/2 cup milk
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
Grease and flour an 8″ or 9″ round springform pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients together, using a very large bowl to allow room for the apples to be folded in. Cut the butter into the flour using your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the sugar to the flour mixture and mix in.
Peel the apples and slice them into uniform pieces. Toss the apples into the flour mixture and combine them thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add to the apples and flour, and mix in with a large spatula until just combined. Batter will be thick and dough-like. Transfer the dough into the prepared cake pan and flatten the top surface using the back of your spatula. Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the cake.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Test the center for doneness. The top of the cake should be golden brown. Serve slices with custard sauce.
FOR THE CUSTARD SAUCE:
Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale yellow, 2-3 minutes. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and bring just to a boil. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens, about 4 minutes. Custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Mix in the vanilla. Transfer to bowl or serving saucer.
Serve warm or cold over apple cake.
What are you cooking for Saint Patrick’s Day?
