By Jules Clancy Of Stonesoup

As a a girl with a surname like Clancy, whose paternal ancestors managed to survive the treacherous voyage from The Emerald Isle to the sunburnt country many moons ago, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for St Patrick’s Day. But as a girl who has been lucky enough to recently start kissing a cute Irish boy, the feast day of Ireland’s favourite saint is taking on a lot more significance to me this year.

With March 17^th, just around the corner it is the perfect time to celebrate Irish food. The family is at the heart of Irish culture and their food is all about bringing people together. And it is this strength of family that has seen the passing down of many classic Irish dishes over the generations. So why not bring the family together this St Patrick’s Day with an Irish classic or two.

To start the day or even the meal, what better than a home baked cob of Irish soda bread, still warm from the oven and slathered with a slick of perfectly salted butter. I haven’t decided which recipe I’ll be trying this year but there are plenty of options from this one over at baking sheet to Peter’s mums version at European Cuisines or even over at Tea & Cookies.

As much as drinking Guinness or other stouts is quintessentially Irish on most days of the year, it is of course on St Patricks Day that it really comes to the fore. But there’s so much more you can do with Guinness than just drink it. For a Lamb Shank and Guinness pie just pop on over to stonesoup and substitute in two cups of Guinness for the chicken stock when cooking your shanks and you’ll be in for a treat.

If a pie seems like a little too much trouble, there’s always Irish stew. While traditionally all you need is lamb or mutton, potatoes and some onion. You could mix things up a little and throw in some barley for a stew with a difference. Or then you could always put an Irish spin on the classic French 5-hour Baked Leg of Lamb by cooking it with your favourite Irish brew in stead of wine.

And then we have potatoes. It’s hard to go past a good serve of mash and I’ve certainly spent some time trying to figure out how to get the best results. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous though, you could mix a bunch of finely chopped spring onions or scallions through your mash and call it Champ as they like to in the North. Or then there’s always the other classic build on mash, Colcannon: cabbage or curly kale cooked and chopped and stirred through the squashed spuds.

If mash isn’t your thing then you could try a potato salad, either as a traditional version or a slightly more Spanish but still very tasty option in the form of a Smoky Paprika Potato Salad. For something a bit more creative there are pretty pretty potato ‘flowers’ or if you’re feeling like less fuss there’s always a good old potato bake.

You could save your Guinness fix until dessert and whip up a batch of the dreamy sounding Guinness ice cream from the Irish ice cream Maestro Keiran Murphy over at Ice Cream Ireland. Or from the stonesoup archives there is Fig & Whiskey Bread & Butter Pudding made with Irish whiskey or course. Or if dessert seems like too much effort there’s always Irish coffee made with the freshest of cream. But if caffeine in the evenings isn’t your thing, a generous pour of Baileys on ice can satisfy the urge for a nightcap and something sweet all in one…. the perfect thing to share with a loved one, be they Irish or not.

You can also find lots o’ Irish recipes on FoodieView for your St. Patricks Day feast.

stonesoup follows the culinary adventures of a Sydney-based food and wine lover.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.