By Marj Watkins
Feast yoursel’s, friends, on the foods of dear old Ireland. A blessing ’tis, too, that they’re mostly cheap, easy to make, and tasty they are with … butter!
I believe in butter. Sure, it’s got saturated fat in it, but never mind that. It’s Omega 3 fat, an essential to provide skin for the cells of your brain and lot of other good things for your body. For the good Lord’s sake, don’t even think of substituting margarine. That stuff’s full of wicked trans fats. You know that because it says hydrogenated fats right on the box. And it doesn’t even taste good. My mother, God rest her soul, used to mix yellow food coloring with the white margarine as a thrift measure (nowadays the yellow food coloring comes already mixed in). It was awful! Stick with good-tasting, good-for-you butter.
Don’t think you can’t afford it. When I lived in a French village, my neighbors, though they could only afford to buy one stick at a time, bought real butter. And the grocer sold butter by the pound, or by the stick.
Cabbage and potatoes figured large in old-style Irish home cooking. Colcannon, which contains both, is a favorite of my second daughter, Jeannie. She takes after her Scot great-grandmother, Jane Ann Macbeath, who was descended from the Scoti who migrated from Ireland to Scotland centuries ago.
Colcannon
4 servings
½ pound finely chopped cabbage
3 large or 4 not-so-large potatoes
4 or 5 green onions, chopped, green part included
¼ cup cream
½ cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4 tbsp butter
Minced parsley (optional)
Steam, boil, or microwave the potatoes until fork-tender. In my microwave, which is not very high-powered, this takes 6 minutes for one potato plus an additional minute or two for additional potatoes. Cool enough to handle. Peel and mash. Cook cabbage in a little water until just tender.
Wash the onions, chop them, and cook them in the milk for 5 minutes. Beat into the potatoes. Drain the cabbage and stir that in too. Put the butter into the mixture, and pat to put on top of the colcannon.
Garnish with minced parsley. Serve hot, on Monday the 17th, St Pat’s Day.
Good foods to serve with colcannon would be roast lamb or sauteed lamb shoulder chops, and extra butter for diners to put on each serving. Accompany with peas cooked with a little water, salt, and a pat of butter. Beverage: Guinness, of course.
Reprinted from The Vashon Loop, 2012 or 2016
