by Meeta Khurana from What’s For Lunch, Honey?

St. Patrick’s Day being just around the corner it’s high time to start thinking about a festive green Irish party. But before we dive into some traditional Irish food I thought it might be handy to brush up our history know-how on this Holiday. 

St. Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated on March 17, is a religious feast day and the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years.

On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

Which brings us back to the food, feast and drink.

While many people automatically consider corned beef and cabbage as the traditional meal on this day in actual fact, according to Irish Culture and Customs, people of Ireland do not often eat this dish. Beef is a delicacy in Ireland and not always readily available. A more traditional entrée is boiled cabbage and bacon.

However, nowadays corned beef and cabbage is very popular amongst the Irish/American community across the USA and is often served on St. Patrick’s Day as it conjures up thoughts and memories of Ireland. There are several interesting variations and I found a few great ideas for this dish.

First up is Peter who serves the classical and delicious version of corned beef and cabbage cooked in a slow cooker for moist and juicy flavor. Over at Fat Free Vegan, Susan prepares a fantastic Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage served with roasted potatoes and soda bread. Extremely unique is the Cupcake Project serving corned beef and cabbage cupcakes for a eye-catcher at any party. Should you have any corned beef and cabbages leftovers, Recipe Girl shows us how to re-cycle them and create a lovely parsnip soup with corned beef and cabbage.

If you are doing beef then here are a few rather grand hearty stew and ragout recipes I found that really work fantastically for a St. Patrick’s day feast. My flavorful melt-in-your mouth beef ragout is incredibly intense, the meat is unbelievably soft, the sauce deliciously rich and together it melts in your mouth in perfect harmony. Gif’s version of a beef stew is equally aromatic and is a wonderful recipe from the mother! The Kitchen Sink provides us with a beef stew recipe that promises to be full of ultimate comfort and deliciously hearty!

As we are on the subject of stews nothing comes close to a traditional Irish stew. Here too I was able to find a few recipes that are really worth bookmarking. There are several varieties some using lamb and others using beef, and I am sure many will argue which is used in a real Irish stew. I went in search of both! The Good Mood Food Blog uses beef in his so called simple Irish beef stew. The recipe is indeed simple but the flavors are wonderfully complex. Pepsakoy adds pearl barley and lamb to her version of Irish lamb stew, while Kevin adds a good shot of Guinness to his Irish Stew.

If you like serving lamb you will really like my spiced lamb pumpkin stew. The lamb, infused with the aromatic spices, is succulent and the gravy was thick and rich.

Irish soda bread is the traditional bread eaten not only on St. Patrick’s day but has become a staple of the Irish diet and is used as an accompaniment to any meal. Myamii makes a lovely moist looking soda bread and CakeSpy goes green with her green soda bread.

Another traditional dish typically enjoyed during St. Patrick’s day is Shepherd’s pie, something I personally really enjoy. The key to a good Shepherd’s pie is lamb! Not beef! That is my belief, but you will find both type of meats used in this dish. Whatever, your fancy lamb or beef I find nothing more comforting that ground meat, vegetables in a thick gravy all covered with a good helping of mashed potatoes. The District Domestic makes a really great looking Shepherd’s pie spiced with a touch of Ras El hanout! Just Eat Food uses beef and serves the lovely dish of meat and potatoes in individual bowls. Vegetarian’s can enjoy a vegetarian version of Shepherd’s pie and Karina’s Kitchen shares a gorgeous vvegetarian Shepherd’s pie recipe, using cabbage, squash and carrots and cumin to add flavor.

Inspired by the Shepherd’s pie I used veal in my creamy veal and mushroom pie and FoodMayhem.com likes to add a crust to make a real PIE out of the Shepherd’s pie. Both might not be traditional but they do make great alternatives and add a touch of change. 

Of course St. Patrick’s Day is green and your feast would just not be complete if you did not have some "green food" on the table! I do not mean baby greens and leaves, I am thinking about the kind of dishes that will have your guests green with envy when they see these creations.

The Noble Pic makes cute green key lime cupcakes and My Sweetest Dreams makes a moist mint chocolate brownie, both perfect for a sweet treat on St. Patrick’s Day. I just love these elegant green tea shortbread shamrocks from She Who Eats. They are unique, original and would make great little gifts for friends and guests. So do the matcha white chocolate and pistachio pralines, incredibly fluffy and light with a delicate flavor of matcha. If you like ice cream Elinluv’s Tidbits Corner has a creamy green tea ice cream uses fragrant Japanese green tea powder to give the ice cream not only color but a lovely aroma.

To everyone celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this week, I wish you a green day and hope you enjoy the roundup!

The Foodie View Recipe Search Engine will provide you with several other great recipes for your St. Patrick’s Day meal too. Make sure you check it out!

Meeta is a passionate food writer, cook and photographer. She experiments in her kitchen and presents her flavor combinations in exciting new dishes. Her blog What’s For Lunch, Honey? was recently selected as one of the Top 50 Best Food Blogs by Times Online and offers over 400 recipes all peppered with a good dose of life.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 2:01 pm 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.