Irish Classics Updated

 Saint Patrick's Day is Friday and with that comes an array of Gaelic dishes . They are classic recipes  yet can be updated for a zingy and fun holiday meal. 

One of the easiest and tastiest is colcannon. This is taking either fresh or leftover mashed potatoes and adding veggies to them. Green onions are added along with butter and cream. Many home chefs use left over green cabbage  but for a more buttery flavor try Savoy cabbage instead.This is a rich yellow colored one  that doesn't have a strong flavor like the greey variety. Another update is adding kale and spinach for a deeper jewel color along with adding more nutrients. You could also add sauteed yellow onions or scallions.If you want it to be vegan, then add almond milk and Melt butter to it.Irish stew is another Gaelic treat. It's usually made with lamb but you can vary it with beef and even vegan beef crumbles.It has carrots parsnips and turnips however you can easily switch ip up to sweet potatoes and onions.Tomato paste is also put in but you can used roasted tomatoes as well for a smokier taste.It's flavored also with a good stout but you could experiment with pale ales or other brews.

Of course one of the most famous Irish recipes is Irish soda bread . This is a quick bread that receives its' leavening from baking soda instead of yeast. The other ingredients are pretty simple and classic, buttermilk, raisins , a pinch fo sugar and a pinch of salt. To change it up a bit use Craisins , drired cranberries for a sweeter , tangier flavor or currents. Some home bakers use thinned yogurt instead of the buttermilk or kefir - a fermented milk drink for a tarter flavor. For a sweeter one  think  chocolate chips, yes chocolate chips. You can also add rolled oats ( a staple in an Irish breakfast) along with brown sugar. This would be the perfecr bread to have on St Patricks' day morning with a steaming cup of coffee or tea as you watch the parade. A hip dessert served by many home and professional bakers is stout cupcakes. These are a heady and rich mix of the thick foamy ale with cocoa powder  and chocolate chips. These can be served without icing or a buttercream one laced with Bailey's Irish Cream or coffee .

Celebrate St Patrick's Day with updated recipes. You can still have your soda bread and Irish stew. Just zing it up a bit for some flavor and fun.

A St Paddy's Special Home Corned Beef

St Patrick's Day is next week and it's a day of corned beef accompanied by boiled potatoes and of course, green tinted beer. It's a traditional meal but not necessarily a tasty one.Thanks to bad cuts of beef and nasty corning methods, it would come out as a gummy, overly salty slab.That's changing, thanks to both professional and home chefs salting it themselves.

Sam Sifton wrote about this classic Irish -American dish in yesterday's New York Times Food section.The best corned beef comes from New York's Jewish delis where it shines. The meat is a ruddy pink, perfectly salted and fatty. Home chefs now can have this delicious version  According to Bryan Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman, authors of "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing" the process is easy , and will turn ordinary beef into something extraordinary.The process is an old one, starting in the 1800's, in where else - Ireland.The process is named after the large grains of salts that resembled corn kernels.  Curing and.packing plants throughout the Emerald Isle used them to cure slabs of beef that eventually went into barrels and then cans and onto ships to feed others.Someone , either in Boston or the Bahamas,  over boiled either a beef neck or brisket with a head of cabbage and called it dinner. That's the corned beef and cabbage we all grew up on.

That version of it will change with home brining and curing. The only reason home corned beef never caught on was the scarcity of the corns, These are sodium nitrate, that turns the meat that tender shade of pink.They can be found on Amazon under the name Prague powder or curing salt. Originally it was used for forestalling the growth of bacteria but it also gave plain beef a better taste. For those worried about ingesting nitrate, have no fear. Mr. Ruhlman  says ingesting a small amount is harmless, noting that we ingest nitrates when we eat vegetables which draw nitrogen from the surrounding soil. It's then creating a brine with it and whatever spices are desirable.. Home chefs could try coriander, mustard seed and black peppercorns,. Allspice will give it a zippy, smoky flavor as well ground ginger and cinnamon. Bay leaves are good too. The recipe Mr. Sifton gives has pickling spices, which is all those spices aforementioned along with garlic cloves and sugar. A four to five pound  brisket is used and is brined for four to five days. It is then cooked in a blend of beer and ginger beer.A novel idea is turning it into Irish tacos with shredded cabbage that have a jolt of jalapeno. - which is a whole lot better than having a slab of it with a boiled potato.

Home cured corned beef is the perfect treat for Saint Patrick's Day. Brine it the right way and it's a salty pink delight , perfect in a sandwich or as a taco. Enjoy it with a good stout or Guinness for the holiday.

Cooking With Guinness

If you want to bring out the flavor of red meat or even chocolate then think about adding a traditional Irish ingredient.  Think Guinness stout in for heartier stews and more flavorful burgers. It doesn't create a boozy  type of meal but one that gives richness and complexity to even the simplest of dishes.Even just half a cup of the brew can do wonders, even in cake batter.

Guiness' rich taste comes from the fact that it's made with barley since its' inception in1759. Also the roasted malt and hops also bring something to the flavor as well. The ale works best in tandem with red meat. Use it in shepherd's pie to create a rich earthy taste  that will bring out the literal beefiness. This works well with the traditional crisp potato crust and even sweetens up the pie's carrots and peas.Another idea is the famed Guinness burger where half a cup s added to ground meat along with a dash of Tabasco and chopped onion. Again the stout will bring out the meat's flavor, creating one of the best burgers ever.

Can Guinness be used as a marinade? Yes! In fact it's; excellent for any kind of steak or even kabob.A good recipe includes two cans of stout along with molasses  for thickness and sweetness. (the recipe comes from The Food Network) For added bite, toss in red pepper flakes and garlic (although I'd nix these). There is a simpler recipe that calls for onion along with garlic. I would maybe just use brown sugar , molasses and Guinness and leave the meat soaking in it  for two to three hours. You can finish with the latest cupcake flavor Guinness, The stout is also used in creating a boozy mini cake , usually with a chocolate or devil's food base.

Guinness is a great drink on it's own . However it;' also best used for bringing out the flavor of beef and even cakes. Use it to create a great summer dish full of flavor.

Raise A Pint Of Guinness

Today is St Patrick's Day and the world over is hoisting a glass of stout this amazing saint and his amazing life. What will everyone be drinking? Hopefully Guinness , that wonderful brew that's more of a meal than a thirst quencher.

Guinness is one of the world's oldest breweries. It was started by Sir Arthur Guinness in 1759 in County Kildare, in a village known as Leixlip. It later moved to Dublin where it's been brewing a dry stout ever since. Stout itself has been around longer than that, first making its' appearance in the 1670' in Ireland. Irish immigrant brought it over and Guiness is now a staple of many American St paddy's Day celebration.

However you like it, don't over do it. Remember you still have to drive home and work tomorrow. Enjoy your pint of the dark stuff but in moderation.