I can't help starting with a couple of Irish food jokes.
Q: What does an Irishman get after eating Italian food?
A: Gaelic breath.
Q: What do you need to make an Irish 7 course meal?
A: A 6 pack and a potato.
When you talk about Irish food, it seems you just can't get away from potatoes. Potatoes were first domesticated in South America between 8,000 and 5,000 years BCE. They were brought to Europe by the Spanish and found their way to Ireland at the end of the 16th century. Prior to the introduction of the potato, common folk survived on a diet of milk, butter, cheese and offal, meat being reseved exclusively for the landed gentry and nobility. This diet was often supplimented with oats and barley. The practice of bleeding cattle and mixing the blood with butter and milk led to the modern-day Irish breakfast favorite, black pudding (blood, grain and seasoning). Give me bamboo shoots under my fingernails anytime.
Eventually, the potato became the main food source for the poor. Unfortunately, overdependence on one crop can lead to disaster. So it is that when a potato blight struck Ireland in the mid-19th century, the Great Irish Famine resulted in 1 million deaths by starvation and forced another million Irishmen to emigrate.
And lets not forget Guinness. I'm not a beer drinker but the Guinness I had in a pub in Dublin was outstanding.
So, it's Irish night and here's what's on the menu:
Irish Stew
Irish Soda Bread (served with Kerrygold Irish Butter)
Kerrygold Aged Irish Cheddar
Irish Tea Cake
Here's what Oxford has to say about Irish Stew:
"Irish stew is a celebrated Irish dish, yet its composition is a matter of dispute. Purists maintain that the only acceptable and traditional ingredients are neck mutton chops or kid, potatoes, onions, and water. Others would add such items as carrots, turnips, and pearl barley; but the purists maintain that they spoil the true flavour of the dish. The ingredients are boiled and simmered slowly for up to two hours. Mutton was the dominant ingredient because the economic importance of sheep lay in their wool and milk produce and this ensured that only old or economically non-viable animals ended up in the cooking pot, where they needed hours of slow boiling. Irish stew is the product of a culinary tradition that relied almost exclusively on cooking over an open fire. It seems that Irish stew was recognized as early as about 1800..."
—Davidson, Alan. (2006). Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p. 409).
Josée's Irish Stew preparation:
In a large frying pan, brown the lamb cubes, add potatoes, onion, leeks, carrots, cabbage leaves, salt and peper. Simmer in beef stock for 2 hours. Serve piping hot. Don't forget the Guiness.
Irish soda bread: flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk and caraway seeds. This bread is so named because of the use of baking soda as the leavening agent. The use of buttermilk is essential as its acidity combined with the baking powder produces the bubbles that make the bread rise. Perfect with the aged cheddar.
The tea cake is a sweeter and denser version of the soda bread. It includes more sugar, eggs and buttermilk and cream sheese is added to make the cake moist.
Way too much for a week-night.
Joseph Froncioni
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