The ever popular Corned Beef & Cabbage!

There’s only 4 days left until St. Paddy’s Day. Are you gearing up for a tipple or two to celebrate us lovely Irish people?
As you know I’ve been showcasing Irish food all week (new & recycled recipes) and to be fair, I didn’t think I could shove any more Irish food in one week’s blog but they just keep appearing! Today’s recipes are two stellar Irish classics, Cottage & Shepherd’s Pie (left) and one mighty fine adapted version, Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie (right).

So far I’ve covered some really traditional Irish fare but one veg that doesn’t get a lot of attention in the States is the parsnip.
Here are two videos I did nearly 2 years ago (boy I’ve changed!) which show off this great veg. Since I was still getting used to the video stuff I may have left out my ‘healthified’ tips so here goes:
Olive Oil vs. Butter: it’s true parsnips love butter but your arteries and arse may not appreciate it as much. Olive oil contains the “good fats” and works just fine on those taste buds.
Honey vs. Sugar: parsnips are also partial to sugar but as we all now that’s a no-no as much as possible. Lean towards honey, agave, or even pure maple syrup to get the effect but without using refined sugars. Parsnips tend to be sweet on their own so you’ll be amazed how easy it will be not to use sugar.
Curry Powder: bloody good stuff on ‘em!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

Continuing on with my Irish recipe round up…..Yep, it’s another Irish beef stew. I can’t help it–it’s in my DNA!
You’re probably familiar with my Beef & Guinness version and you may remember I made an Autumn Stew this past year. What’s the difference besides the obvious use of Guinness? Subtle differences like using more types of root veg, pearl onions and no potatoes in the stew itself (I saved those for the delicious mash!) are the main differences, which goes to show that you can take the same idea and make it different and seasonal.

RECIPE:
Serves 4

Preheat oven 380°F

2 1/2 lbs organic/grass-fed chuck steak – 1″ cubes
1 leek – white part only, halved lengthwise, 1/4″ slices, washed
8 oz pearl onions
2 garlic cloves – minced
1 cup red wine (use what you’re drinking!)
1 turnip – peeled, halved, 1/2″ slices
1 rutabaga – peeled, halved, 1/2″ slices
2 parsnips – peeled, halved lengthwise, 1/2″ slices
1 bunch (10 approx) baby carrots – washed
8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
8 cups organic beef broth
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaves, rosemary)
olive oil
1 cup all purpose flour (omit if Paleo)
S&P
scallions for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat large non-stick skillet on medium high meat.

Add the beef to a large mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup white flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Toss the beef around in the flour. Drizzle 2 tbsp olive oil in pan and add the coated beef in batches. Shake off any excess flour before searing meat.

NOTE: If following Paleo diet just brown meat without dredging in flour and continue directions there after.

NOTE: It’s best to brown the beef in 3 batches adding in  just enough beef to fill the bottom of the pan without over-crowding.

After each batch, using a kitchen towel wipe out any excess oil and add another tbsp olive oil to sear next batch. Once all meat has been browned remove to a large deep roasting tray.
Again wipe out the same pan and add another tbsp olive oil. Saute leeks, onions, mushrooms and garlic for 5-6 minutes stirring. Add wine and de-glaze pan. Cook for 1 minute and add mixture to beef along with everything else i.e., raw vegetables, stock and bouquet garni.
Cover with foil and pop in oven for 1 1/4 hours or until the meat is fork tender.
Taste sauce and season with S&P if needed.

Serve with:

Horseradish Mash Recipe:
You’ll need potatoes, fresh horseradish, chicken broth, S&P, scallions

I assume everyone knows how to make mash potatoes (and I don’t mean out of a box!) but just in case you don’t, here’s the quick version: Peel potatoes. Halve or quarter them. Boil them in salted water until they’re soft (pierce them with a knife or fork and if it goes in easily they’re ready). Drain. Mash (there’s a mashing tool you should have in your drawer). To flavour my mash I add low-sodium chicken broth instead of butter to make it creamy. Delicious & healthy. Season with S&P.
For this version, simply add some chopped scallions and grated horseradish to your mash potatoes to suit your taste. Season to taste. I love the kickeen from the horseradish!

Want another way to liven up your mash? Here’s another Irish recipe I learned from in cooking school from the lovely, Darina Allen: Roast Black Cod with Ulster Champ, which is mash made with fresh peas and parsley. Delish!

Even more Irish recipes to come tomorrow!!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

The countdown continues–7 days until St. Paddy’s Day!
(I wasn’t joking when I said yesterday that I had more Irish recipes in the bag!)

Here are some classic Irish soups: Rustic Potato Cabbage Soup (containing two of Ireland’s finest veg!)
and
Leek & Potato Soup.

Popular and super easy St. Paddy’s Day sides are Colcannon and delicious Parsnip & Carrot Mash. The business!

That should keep you busy for a while. Click here for more and keep checking back!

Cheers!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

One week until St. Paddy’s Day and everyone is gearing up for the celebration, myself included! If you’re planning on throwing a bash you’ll definitely need some Irish food and I’ve got you covered. Of course all of my dishes are made the healthy way but that’s so you have room for the drink (I’m always thinking ahead!)

Kicking off our countdown is one of my favourites, Irish Stew. Traditionally Irish foods use simple, basic and cheap ingredients and tend to be very simple and rustic. Though there are many versions of Irish stew out there, it is only a traditional “Irish stew” if using lamb or mutton (a lamb over 1½ years old). Using other meats such as beef is not considered a traditional Irish stew. Bet you didn’t know that did you? Although I have kept the original ingredients I have put my own spin on the style and presentation of the dish. Believe me though the flavour is all there.

RECIPE
Serves 4

3 lbs. grass fed Lamb shoulder
3 large parsnips – peeled & sliced in ¼” rounds
½ lb. baby carrots
3 garlic cloves – peeled
1 lb. mini potatoes – halved
1 Bouquet garni – rosemary, thyme, bay leaf
1 cup white wine (whatever you’re drinking will work)
7 cups organic beef broth
olive oil
S&P

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Begin by preheating a heavy bottomed sauté pan on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add 2 tbsp olive oil. Season each lamb chop with S&P and sear in hot pan for 3-4 minutes each side until golden brown. Remove to large roasting tray. De-glaze sauté pan with white wine for 1 minute and scrape all carmelised bits from bottom. Add to lamb along with bouquet garni, garlic and broth. Cover with foil and place in oven for 1 ½ hrs. Reduce oven to 375°F. After initial cooking time add vegetables (baby carrots, parsnips and mini potatoes). Cover and return to oven for additional hour or until veg are fully cooked and meat begins to fall off the bone. That’s how tender it should be! Taste and season to desired taste.

NOTE: Never season your gravy before braising meat. The saltiness of the dish will intensify too much over the long cooking period. Always best to season just before serving.

In addition to this one I’ve got a couple more new Irish recipes I’m working on but I already have a ton of recipes out there so this will be the start of the Irish recipe round up. Looks like it will end up being in several posts so keep checking back all week for great ideas. Nobody does healthy Irish food like yours truly (at least that’s what I keep telling myself!)

Starting off the round up is an all time Irish favourite, Beef & Guinness Stew. This is brilliant party grub since it can be made it big batches and it’s pretty easy to do. Even now I wish I had this in front of me to tuck into! Hard to imagine this video is nearly two years old. (Notice I’m rockin’ the Topo tee?)

Though this stew is brilliant on its own, having some brown soda bread and a good ol’ pint would get you into Heaven (plus the soda bread is good soakage!) It’s super easy–watch me make it in record time!

If you’re whipping up a batch of soda bread you might as well slap some Irish Smoked Salmon on top! It’s a brilliant easy appetizer.

This is just the beginning. More Irish classics to come!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

There are a few dishes that are well known Irish dishes: bacon & cabbage, Irish stew and the old reliable potato (in any form). This soup has one of those staples and is probably one of the easiest soups to make. I had all the ingredients in my CSA box and I promise, making this soup with recently picked fresh ingredients makes it really delicious. The earthiness of the thyme works a treat here and if you’re still looking for a quick appetizer for Santa Day, look no further.

RECIPE:
Makes about 4 cups

2 large leeks – whites only, sliced & rinsed (But keep the greens for your homemade stock)
2 white potatoes – peeled, chopped
1 tbsp thyme
1 quart low-sodium veg broth or even better, homemade stock
2 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat soup pot on medium heat for 30 seconds. Add olive oil and leeks and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add thyme and potatoes and combine with sauteed leeks.

Add broth and stir. Partially cover with lid. Bring to a boil and once boiling reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

Puree in food processor in batches.

NOTE: Do not fill your blender above half way with hot liquid. Hot liquids expand when pureed so be careful. Place a kitchen towel on the lid when blending so you don’t burn yourself when the liquid expands.

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible

This is a very special day for us, the Irish–on both sides of the pond, including the 30 million plus Irish-Americans. In honor of our national holiday I wanted to thank the Irish Voice for featuring yours truly in the St. Paddy’s Day issue out this past week. With distributions in main cities such as New York, Boston, San Fran, Chicago and Philly, I’m excited to meet and connect with fellow Irishmen/women from these areas. So if yourself is one of them, contact me!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Enjoy yourselves. Slainte!

Beef & Guinness Stew is my #1 searched recipe no matter what time of year. It was one of the recipes featured in The Irish Voice newspaper this week and for good reason if I do say so myself. Paired with homemade brown soda bread and a pint, the business!

Need the recipe?

Slainte!

GRILLED STEAK WITH TWICE BAKED CHAMP

The Irish don’t mess around with the poor misunderstood spud. We mean business when it comes to eating potatoes and since it’s almost St. Paddy’s Day, you bet I’m showcasing them! Only this traditional Irish dish has my own spin on it–twice baked and healthy.
Champ is just as authentic as it’s more famous relative, Colcannon. The main difference is the substitution of scallions or other greens for the kale or cabbage. Ask any Paddy what their favorite comfort food is and hands down Champ is in the top 5. I can remember many nights with a full belly of this brilliant inexpensive concoction. Gotta love that don’t you?
Potatoes have a bad rap for being a fat magnate but in fact, it’s just the opposite.  Continue reading Meat & Potatoes – Irish Style on Health Habits

I love March for many reasons. It’s the beginning of Spring, I’ll be turning 27 again and the ultimate reason—St. Paddy’s Day arrives! Most people will be drinking their meals that day but just in case you get peckish I’ve got you covered.

One of the advantages to growing up on the west coast of Ireland was having the access to fresh seafood and I’m talking just plucked from the ocean, fresh. Of course then they’d smother it in some sort of butter sauce as the Irish do, but you always knew it was fresh. Ah, the good ol’ days.

When we were back home for a holiday last September, we visited a little fishing town called Dingle, in County Kerry. Known for the fresh seafood we even spotted the fishermen bringing bags of mussels up to a restaurant. Guess where we ate that night?

Here’s my interpretation of that brilliant meal.

Continue reading “Steamed Mussels and Clams” on Dancing Spoon»

To me, March should be dedicated to the Irish. The start of the month is about the countdown to St. Paddy’s Day, then there’s the big day itself and afterward its about recovering from all the festivities. An entire month just for us wild & crazy Paddies. But this year, St. Patrick’s Day is not only Ireland’s National Holiday its also the day the All-Ireland Club Finals (the Gaelic football and hurling senior club championships) are being played. For some this will be the highlight of their sporting year. The fact that it’s the 125th year anniversary of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) is just an added bonus making the celebrations more meaningful. Talk about March Madness! Don’t fancy that headache the next morning!

Sticking to tradition of the countdown, I thought I’d highlight an article I saw when I was home last from the Sunday Tribune magazine aptly titled, Food That Only The Irish Eat (Apparently). Thank you Derek O’Conner for such an enlightening & amusing read. Read on to see O’Conner’s take as he explores the nation’s dining habits to find the food that only “we” can stomach. Not so much me in that we, though it seems we Irish do eat more than potatoes & cabbage, lamb & Guinness. But spiceburgers and boxty? I’m asking my fellow Irishmen here–am I the only one who has never eaten those?

Coddle

CODDLE
Coddle – Ah Jaysus! C’mere and give us a coddle, love! Namechecked by Jonathan Swift and Sean O’Casey as their favourite dish, coddle couldn’t be more synonymous with the nation’s capital; the fact that Dubliners have rejected it in favour of kebabs and takeaway pizza is a searing indictment of their moral and spiritual decay. That said, coddle ain’t for sissies, consisting as it does of a pungent melée of bacon produce swimming in a swamp of spuds ‘n’ onions; its origins date back to Famine times, when anything to hand, save your nearest and dearest, got thrown into the pot. It’s the fuel of the proletariat, the lifeblood of the common man – and a heart attack in a bowl. Less a meal than a veritable Proustian dining reverie, there’s eating AND drinking to be had in a bowl of coddle, especially if – as recommended – you flavour it with an auld drop or two of Guinness.

Spiceburgers

SPICEBURGERS
As a naïve young vegetarian, the author once had an extended and sincere conversation with a local chip shop owner, whereupon he was assured, beyond a doubt, that there was no meat whatsoever in spiceburgers; thusly, he spent his formative years unwittingly betraying everything that his idol Morrissey believed in. Ah, well. We bet Morrissey eats them, too. If Meat Is Murder, then a spiceburger is a slow, pleasurable death, an exotic, enigmatic creation revered and reviled in equal quantities by hardcore takeaway connoisseurs. What is a spiceburger? It’s a pivotal question that has already provoked spurious debate on the interweb, offering little by way of concrete conclusion. Even the people who make them don’t know what’s in them. These two simple things we hold as self-evident truths: (a) shop-bought spiceburgers never, ever taste as good as ones from the chipper. As WB Yeats once said, there’s nothing quite as tragic as a soggy spiceburger. No, wait, it was our Dad that said that. And (b) you can’t get spiceburgers in Donegal. We’ve tried. NB: Don’t attempt a spiceburger without a scoop of chips. Seriously. Really.

Red Lemonade

RED LEMONADE
Lemonade you can get anywhere in the world, but red lemonade….Now that’s a different kettle of coddle altogether. One of the many great mysteries surrounding Irish culture is how and when we decided, en masse, to refer to the most artificial beverages imaginable as ‘minerals’ – as in “and a mineral and a packet of Tayto for the little fella, cheers.” Indeed, a long-standing urban myth suggests that the only reason red lemonade is only available in this country is due to its innumerable side-effects, which can include rampant giddiness, an ongoing sense of ennui and the ability to talk shite for days on end. This is a lie. Red lemonade is the greatest Irish invention ever, with the possible exception of hurling. Frequently mentioned in top-10 lists of things that Irish ex-pats miss about The Auld Sod, the current government has drawn up plans to convert 50% of Irish motorcars to run on red lemonade within the next decade. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is already kicking up a fuss. He’s more of a Cream Soda man, see.

Boxty

BOXTY
Seriously? The only people we know who’ve ever actually eaten boxty were punters at Dublin’s ever-popular Irish theme restaurant Gallagher’s Boxty House, a place where Actual Irish People dine for solely ironic purposes. In essence, boxty is a seriously hardcore starchfest, a potato pancake much loved in and around the border counties – the word boxty is a derivative of ‘bacstai’, referring to the traditional method of grilling the absolute shite out of anything that couldn’t be boiled over an open fire. No matter how much we might try to suggest otherwise, what with our finely-honed Celtic Tiger palettes and everything, the Irish have always been about the spuds, and considering that the country’s going to/gone to hell, and we’re all broke-assed losers again, it’s time to re-embrace the auld práta. Or fata, if you’re from Connemara. A traditional rhyme goes thusly: Boxty on the griddle/Boxty in the pan/If you can’t make boxty/ You’ll never get a man. Truer words never spoken; several female friends of our acquaintance are destined to die alone and unloved, due to their stubborn refusal to master the fine art of boxty making. There’s a band called Boxty, too. They’re from France. Don’t ask. Read the rest of this entry »