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Traditional Irish recipes
In celebration of St Patrick's Day, we're donning our aprons and trying our hand at some traditional Irish recipes. From hearty, Guinness-infused savoury dishes to moreish, melt-in-the-mouth desserts, these Emerald Isle favourites will certainly get your taste buds going!
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Savoury recipes
Colcannon
Serves 5
Ingredients
- 450g potatoes
- 450g cabbage
- 110g butter
- 225ml milk
- 2 medium leeks (chopped)
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- Ground mace (to taste)
Method
- Boil potatoes then scoop out, add cabbage and boil for 5 minutes or until soft.
- Simmer the leeks in a separate pot with milk until soft.
- Season and mash potatoes, and add them to the leeks and milk. Stir in the cabbage and heat through. Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter. Mix well.
Beef Guinness casserole
Serves as many as the meat allows
Ingredients
- 1 piece of brisket or shin beef
- 1 can/bottle of Guinness or stout
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- 1 potato (just to cook down and make lovely gravy
Method
- Chop up vegetables and place around the meat in a large casserole dish with lid.
- Cook for at least 4-5 hours, basting frequently with the Guinness or stout.
Potato cakes
Serves 5 to 6 (2 per person)
Ingredients
- 40g butter or low fat spread
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 700g hot mashed potato
- 25g flour
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Seasoned potato flour for dusting
Method
- Mix butter, egg and hot potato. Add flour, salt and pepper, and beat until smooth and free of lumps.
- Allow to cool, then divide into 10 or 12 portions.
- Sprinkle work surface with potato flour and shape portions into squares about 10cm x 10cm.
- Make indentation across diagonal but do not cut all way through.
- Either cook on griddle, shallow fry in butter or oil for 4-5 minutes until golden or cook on oiled baking sheet in oven 180°C/350F/gas mark 4 for 15-20 minutes.
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Sweet recipes
Bailey's chocolate cheesecake
Serves 8
Ingredients
- ½ pack reduced fat digestive biscuits (crushed)
- 2 packs light soft cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
- 100g low fat unsalted butter
- 100ml icing sugar
- 300ml light double cream
- 25ml Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur
- 100g grated chocolate
Method
- Melt butter and add the crushed biscuits. Put the mixture in a 18cm (7") greased tin and leave to set for about an hour.
- Whip the soft cheese and mix in the Baileys and sieved icing sugar. Fold in the whipped cream and grated chocolate (reserving a little for sprinkling on the top).
- Put the mix onto the cooled biscuits and leave to set in the fridge for approx 2 hours; sprinkle on some more chocolate when you serve.
Irish Stout fruit bread
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 1 mug cold tea
- 225g mixed dried fruit
- 225g self raising flour
- 125g golden caster sugar
- 1 beaten egg
- 2tbs marmalade
Method
- Soak the mixed fruit in the cold tea overnight or until it rises.
- Mix the flour, sugar, egg & marmalade in a bowl, then add the wet fruit. Mix well & put in greased 900g (2lb) loaf tin & bake for an hour at 180°C/Gas 4. Serve sliced.
Perfect apple pie
Serves 10
Ingredients
- 6 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
- 250g unsalted butter or margarine
- 350g plain flour
- 250g icing sugar
- 2tsp vanilla sugar
- 3tsp baking powder
- 1kg apples
- Cinnamon (to taste)
Method
- To make the pastry, mix flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and butter (ideally, all will be at room temp) After pastry starts to form, add 6 yolks, 1 at a time. Mix together, form ball, cover with cling film and put into the fridge.
- Peel all apples, use grater to shred into small pieces. Once ready, put into sieve to get rid of excess juice.
- Take flat baking form - roasting tin can be used if needed - and spread some butter into it.
- Split your pastry ¼ and ¾ - ¼ leave in the fridge for now; take ¾ part, roll flat and placed at the bottom of your baking tin.
- Once ready, fill with apples (make sure that they are not very wet and juicy). Sprinkle cinnamon onto the apples.
- For the meringues, mix 6 egg whites in a mixing bowl until firm (around 5 minutes), then add icing sugar. When firm enough, place on top of cinnamon apples.
- Lastly, take ¼ leftover pastry, split into tiny pieces and put crumbles on top of the meringues. Bake at 220°C for about 30 minutes, reducing the temperature to 180°C after 10 minutes.
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