Recipes from Cooking with Doyle Moore on Focus 580

March 1, 2000:  Irish Cooking

IRISH POTATO/ LEEK SOUP

• 4 Tbsps. butter

• 2 medium onions, peeled and sliced

• 2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and sliced

• 3 cups milk

• 5½ cups chicken stock

• ¼ cup fresh chives

• ½ tsp. celery seed

• ¼ tsp. dried thyme

• 1 cup light cream

• salt and pepper to taste

Heat a 6 or 8 quart stock pot. Add butter and onion; cook gently. Do not let the onion brown.

Add potatoes, milk, and stock, then the herbs.

Cover and cook gently for about an hour.

Making the Roux

Melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in some flour. Let the flour and butter mix.  Simmer for 2 minutes on medium low heat, stirring constantly.

Thicken the soup with the roux.  Wisk carefully to avoid lumps.  Cook the new mixture for ten minutes.

Purée the soup in a food processor.  Add the cream and gently reheat, but do not boil.

Serve with chopped fresh chives and bacon as garnishes.

This soup can also be made with the chopped white part of 5-6 leeks.

COLCANNON (1)

• 6 green onions

• 2/3 c. milk

• 4 c. mashed potatoes

• 4 c. cabbage, cooked and chopped into small pieces and boiled a bit

• salt and pepper

• butter

Finely chop onions.

Bring milk to just a boiling point.

Mix potatoes and cabbage in mixing bowl.

Pour milk and scallions over it.

Pour into baking dish.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

COLCANNON (2)

Colcannon should correctly be made with kale, but is more often made with cabbage.

• 1 lb. kale or cabbage

• 1 lb. potatoes

• 2 small leeks or green onion tops

• 1 c. milk or cream

• ½ c. butter

• salt and pepper

• pinch of mace

Have kale or cabbage cooked, warm, and well chopped up while the potatoes are cooking.

Chop up the leeks or onion tops, green as well as white, and simmer them in milk or cream until they are soft.

Drain the potatoes, season, and beat them well.

Add cooked leeks and milk.

Blend in the kale, beating until it is a pale green fluff.  Do this over a low flame and pile it into a deep warmed dish.

Make a well in the center and pour in enough melted butter to fill up the cavity.  The vegetables are served with spoonfuls of the melted butter.

Leftovers can be fried in bacon grease until crisp or brown on both sides.

BARM BRACK

also called Bara Brith

• 8 oz. mixed fruit (sultanas, currants, and raisins)

• 2 c. self-rising flour

• ½ c. sugar

• 1 pt. strong cold tea

• 1 egg

Soak the fruit in tea overnight.

Mix flour, sugar, and beaten egg into soaked fruit.

Blend well then bake in small buttered pan at 375° for 50 minutes.

Served at “tea time”.

BOXTY

• 4 c. peeled and grated potatoes

• 1 1/3 c. flour

• 2 tsp. salt

• 6 Tbsp. milk

• 3 Tbsp. butter

• ¼ c. brown sugar

• 4 Tbsp. melted butter

Squeeze grated potatoes as dry as possible in a linen or terrycloth tea towel.

In a bowl, blend potatoes, flour, and salt.

Stir in the milk gradually, using just enough to make mixture hold together.

Let the mixture stand for one hour.

Heat 9-10 inch heavy skillet until very hot.

Drop in butter and let melt.

Pat the potato mixture into the skillet with a spatula; distribute evenly.

Cook over medium heat until underside is golden brown.

Slide pancake out onto a plate and invert it back into the skillet; brown the other side.

Serve pancake straight from the pan with brown sugar and melted butter.