Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdAu1318S7o]

The above YouTube video is of The Corrs (my favourite band) performing Paddy McCarthy live, lovely piece of music don’t you think?

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all! Yes alright I know I’m a couple of days nearly a week late but cooking and working have gotten in the way of posting; I’m sorry.

Saint Patrick’s day is not only celebrated in Ireland but in many countries across the world, this I discussed at length last year and the post can be found here. 

This year I actually managed to cook my Saint Patrick’s Day meal on the 17th March! Such an unusual event for me as I’m usually working or out doing something else. It’s a Feast Day and oh did we have a feast I was going to go for something like ham hocks or boiled bacon but tradition got the better of me and I stuck to beef & guinness stew albeit a different recipe to last years (which you can find here) and I served that with champ and soda bread, my stomach is rumbling at the thought, yum! This years recipe came from The Avoca Cookbook (Hugo Arnold & Georgia Glynn) which is a true delight of a book; despite visiting Ireland many times I’ve yet to eat at Avoca so I must put it on my list of things to do.

Champ is basically mashed potatoes mixed with spring onions which have been softened in milk, it is a true delight and for me at least true comfort food. What would we do without the humble spud? I don’t know how I’d cope, to be truthful I’d rather go without meat than my spuds. A recipe for champ can be found here, although I admit I don’t really use one and just go by eye.

There was an old woman,

Who lived in a lamp,

She had no room,

To beetle her champ,

She’s up with her beetle,

And broke the lamp,

And then she had room To beetle her champ.

The above is an old Irish rhyme about champ, the history of these rhymes just goes to show what a huge place the potato has to the Irish, it is somewhat the national vegetable, and that is no surprise given how big a role it has played in their history.

The soda bread recipe was that of Richard Corrigan, with a slight wee adaptation in that I used brown soda bread flour from Shipton Mill rather than the wholemeal flour Richard suggests, it gave a lighter bread but still it was delicious, the best I’ve ever made so my family tell me – what a compliment!

Soda bread came long after St. Patrick in the mid 1840′s when bicarbonate of soda (Bread Soda) as a leavening agent was used in Ireland to work with the “soft” wheat grown there.

In 1837 The Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania and Mechanics’ Register on page 71 had the following.

A correspondent of the Newry Telegraph (a newspaper in Northern Ireland) gives the following receipt for making “soda bread,” stating 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.”  He says, “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 a 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 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.  This he concludes, when somewhat cooled and moderatey buttered, is as wholesome as ever entered man’s stomach.

It’s no wonder soda bread has kept it’s popularity, not only is is delicious to eat either cold or toasted but it’s so easy to make. The key to success is being gentle and not over working the dough, you do not want to knead it, just gently bring the flour and liquid together to form a dough.

I’m entering the bread to YeastSpotting too.

Succulent, tender beef in a thick Guinness based gravy is a fabulous food, another of my favourites, if I had to pick a last meal it would be this – you can keep all the fancy delights thank you very much. Guinness is a stout beer and not only adds a delicious malty flavour to the stew but helps tenderise the meat too.  I used chuck steak but shin beef would also be perfect here and although the recipe said to cook for a couple of hours I left it in the slow oven compartment of my range for around seven hours and it was pure gorgeousness on a plate.  I also added a roughly diced swede to the pot alongside the carrots as I’d one in my vegetable box and it seemed a shame not to use it up.

Do note the Bewleys cup in the background, I love the ambiance of Bewleys and I love their tea too so I always make a point of bringing a good few boxes home with me when I get the chance to visit. If you’re ever in Dublin do not miss out, if you do you’re missing something really special, a place at the true heart of old Dublin.

I did of course enjoy a glass of the black stuff later in the evening, how could I not? I had to enter into the spirit didn’t I and I could also claim I did it for  my health too as it’s so full of iron (or so it’s claimed and I’d like to believe them, however naive that is). 

Slainte!

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