July 20, 2021

The Republic of Ireland: Dublin Coddle, Smashed Turnips with Sage Brown Butter and Soda Bread

Ruggedly beautiful and steeped in legend, the island of Ireland sits at the western edge of Europe in the North Atlantic Ocean. This is an island of rolling green hills, ancient myths and crumbling castles. The Republic of Ireland is an independent country covering five-sixths of its Mother island and it shares its only land border with Northern Ireland (which is part of the United Kingdom). The heart-warming and earthy cuisine that Ireland is famous for today is founded upon abundant fresh seafood drawn from the surrounding wild, pristine seas and a rich farming tradition of dairying, raising crops and animals.

Tragically, Ireland’s abundance led to poverty for the Irish people in the 17th century when England overthrew Ireland and ‘commercialised’ their food resources. For the next 100 years the English shipped every scrap of food of worth off the island to feed their own ‘Empire’, leaving the kitchen cupboards of the Irish people bare. They took everything from honey to rabbits, grain, butter, livestock, fish, peas and beans. By the 1900’s the humble potato was almost the only food that most Irish people could afford. Then the potato crops failed leading to the ‘Great Hunger’, whilst the rich food resources of the country were being shipped away. The subsequent Potato Famine of 1845-1849 is still regarded as one of Ireland’s most prominent times of struggle.

Our

Irish

menu included

Dublin Coddle

Smashed Turnips with Sage Brown Butter

and

Soda Bread

DUBLIN CODDLE

This slow cooked one-pot-wonder is comfort food for the cold weather.

INGREDIENTS:

· 500 gm pork sausage

· 500gm thick cut bacon, cut up into slices 3 cm wide

· 1 ½ kg potatoes, washed and peeled roughly, just cut every second strip off

· 2 tsp olive oil

· 2 large yellow onions, peeled and sliced

· 3 tbs chopped fresh parsley

· 1 tsp salt

· ¼ tsp cracked black pepper

· 3 bay leaves

· 8 stems fresh thyme

· 3 tbs all purpose flour (optional)

· 4 cloves garlic, minced

· 440 ml Guinness

· I cup chicken broth

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius

2. Cut potatoes into chunks. Small ones can stay whole, Medium ones cut in 1/4s, Big ones in 1/8^thso that they are all about the same size and will cook at about the same rate

3. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch Oven Pot on top of the stove

4. Sauté’ the bacon in the pan for about 5 minutes then remove from the pot and put aside on a plate

5. Brown the sausages in the pan then set aside to cool

6. When sausages are cool cut them in quarters

7. Note: in many traditional recipes the bacon and sausages are not browned

8. Remove pot from the heat and deglaze with a little bit of Guinness stirring the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to capture all the crisp bits from bottom of pan

9. At this point it is optional to thicken the sauce with flour. If you prefer more of a broth than sauce with the coddle omit this step

10. Put the pot back on a low heat, whisk in the flour and cook for 1-2 mins then whisk in the remaining Guinness to form a gravy and turn heat off

11. Now build layers of the ingredients into the pot. Start with the onions, top that with the bacon followed by sausages and potato seasoning each layer liberally with pepper, parsley and a sprinkle of salt, a bay leaf or two and a few sprigs of thyme

12. Bring stock and garlic to boil in a separate small pot and pour this over the coddle

13. Bring the coddle pot to the boil on top of the stove then cover with a well fitting lid and cook in the oven for 2 hours

14. Remove from the oven, carefully take the lid off so as not to burn yourself and check to see how the coddle is going. If the liquid/gravy seems to be drying up add a little extra stock/water

15. Return coddle to the oven and cook for a further ½ to 1 hour until potatoes are tender

16. Gently fold all the ingredients together before serving hot with Soda Bread

This is a Q-Zine original recipe informed by several found at:

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/dublin-coddle-51224810

https://www.simplyscratch.com/2015/02/dublin-coddle.html

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/traditional-irish-coddle-recipe

https://themccallumsshamrockpatch.com/2015/02/24/irish-dublin-coddle/

https://wholefully.com/dublin-coddle-7/

SMASHED TURNIPS WITH SAGE BROWN BUTTER

INGREDIENTS:

· 4 medium turnips (aka Neeps, Navets or Rutabaga in other countries)

· 3 tbs butter

· ½ stick cinnamon

· 2 tsp brown sugar

· salt and white pepper

· a little grated nutmeg

· extra salt for boiling water

METHOD:

1. Peel and cut the turnips into cubes

2. Put turnips in a medium sized pot, cover with cold water, add some salt and bring to the boil

3. Turn heat back to simmer, cover pot with a lid and cook for about 40 minutes until turnips are fork tender

4. When the turnips are almost ready (about 30 mins), begin making the Sage Brown Butter

5. Heat butter in a small deep-sided fry pan

6. Add the sage and cinnamon stick to the butter as it is melting

7. Cook over medium heat for about 3 mins until butter begins to foam and turn brown

8. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the butter to cool and infuse with the cinnamon and sage

9. When the turnips are cooked drain off the boiling water and put turnips back into the hot pot

10. Put pot back onto a low heat and stir the turnips with a wooden spoon for about a minute to dry the water out of them

11. Mash the turnips then add the salt, sugar, white pepper and nutmeg

12. Strain the butter over the turnips and fold everything together

13. The turnips are ready to serve

This is a Q-Zine original recipe informed by several found at:

you-say-swede-we-say-turnip-let-s-call-it-rutabaga-1.3751144

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/mashed-turnips-with-sage-brown-butter-1.4342908

https://www.irishamericanmom.com/how-to-cook-rutabaga-or-turnip-irish-style/

IRISH SODA BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

· 2 cups whole wheat flour (fine or coarsely ground)

· 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

· 1 tsp salt

· 1 ½ tsp baking soda

· 1 tbs butter - soft

· 1 cup buttermilk/sour milk – notes below

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C

2. Mix together the flours, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl

3. Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles bread crumbs

4. Whisk the egg and buttermilk together in a jug

5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid slowly into the flour mixture using an open hand to bring the flour and liquid together to a loose dough

6. The dough should be quite soft, but not too sticky so add more flour or liquid to get the right consistency

7. Turn the dough onto a floured board/bench and gently bring the dough together into a round bread shape

8. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet and with the palm of your hand flatten out into a circle 4/5 cm thick

9. Now ‘score’ the bread - use a knife dipped in flour to make a deep cross through the centre of the bread

10. The scoring of the bread has purpose: traditionally it is said to’ bless’ the bread and also to let the fairies out (I love this)

11. From a culinary perspective the scoring helps the bread to cook through and ensures the loaf will easily break into quarters when it is baked.

12. Glaze the bread with the leftover bit of buttermilk in your jug and dust the top with flour

13. Bake for 45 minutes

14. Transfer to a wire rack, cover with a clean tea towel (this keeps the crust nice and soft)

This is a Q-Zine original recipe informed by several found at:

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/irish-soda-bread/

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/irish-brown-bread-recipeo

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/irish-soda-bread

Notes on Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a must in the ingredients for Irish Soda Bread and can’t be replaced with regular milk. The main reason is that the buttermilk chemically reacts with the baking soda to make the bread rise. The buttermilk adds a lovely flavour to the bread too. Don’t have buttermilk? No worries here is a recipe for you to make your own

Home-made Buttermilk Recipe

Ingredients

· 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice or white vinegar

· 1 Cup (8oz / 224g) milk (full or low fat)

Instructions

· Measure the milk into a jug

· Stir in lemon juice or vinegar into the milk. Stir to combine. Let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature until the milk begins to curdle and becomes acidic.

· Use in place of buttermilk in the recipe as it calls for. And if you don’t use it straight away store it in the fridge for up to 3 days

recipe sourced from: https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/homemade-buttermilk/

Note: Photo used under Fair Use Laws from:

https://www.simplyscratch.com/2015/02/dublin-coddle.html