Balnamoon Skink ; Irish food

Fancy food it isn't but delicious it is. I was brought up on this  sort of Irish food. I am just giving a few examples .

Here are some basic foodstuffs ;-

Mutton

Potatoes

Baking soda

Cabbage

Bacon

Fresh herbs,

Scallions

Freshly caught fish.

Buttermilk ( liquid left over from when the butter is made )

Wild fruit from the hedges

Wild Garlic

Balnamoon Skink ( a Scottish sounding soup is indeed found in Ireland. )

Balnamoon Skink

3 lb diced Chicken
4pts salted stock
1 stick of Celery, chopped
1 Leek, sliced
 1 lb carrots  Carrot, sliced
 8 oz peas
2 Egg yolks
 splash of  cream
 

Boil up the vegetables and chicken in a pan until cooked . Mix the yolks and cream together and add at the end of cooking . Heat through.

Coddle ,Colcannon and Boxty

Dublin Coddle

450 g (1 lb) good-quality butcher’s sausages
200 g smoked streaky bacon or rashers, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 onions, sliced
450 g (1 lb) baby potatoes, halved
500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Quickly fry the bacon,  sausages and onions and transfer to a pot containing stock . Simmer on top of the cooker until the potatoes are soft . Serve with soda bread

Colcannon

This is made using left over mashed potatoes and left over cabbage.

Fry over some onions and add to the left over mash and cabbage mixture. Add them to a dish with a little warmed milk. Serve with a little butter on top.

Boxty

A boxty is a potato pancake, add mashed potato to a buttermilk pancake mixture and fry over in the usual way.

Barm Brack  Traditional Irish fruit bread

225g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
375g packet of dried fruit mix
250ml cold tea
50ml of whiskey
125g light brown sugar
1 large egg

Mix all the ingredients together and put into a large loaf  tin . Bake for 1 hour on about 170C

Castleconnel cake.          C/o TheOldentimes.com

My dad's family were from Castleconnel Limerick so this is special to me.

Two cups of flour, one cup of sifted sugar, three eggs, scant one-half cup milk, four ounces of butter, one cup of currants, one teaspoon baking powder, one teaspoon of mixed spice, one-half cup sultanas, two ounces of candied peel (can be omitted).

Rub the butter into the flour, sprinkle the baking powder over this, add all the rest of hte dry ingredients, mix with the beaten yolks of the eggs thinned with the milk, and then fold in lightly the well-whisked whites. Put in a cake tin well-greased and lined with paper and bake in a moderate oven an hour or more. Try at the end of an hour, but it may not be done for fifteen minutes longer. This only one, a good one, of the many currant cakes so popular in the British Isles. The recipe of which this is an adaptation used two ounces of lard and two of butter.

Kerry Apple Cake

 6oz butter
 6oz caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
 8oz self-raising flour
2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1tsp lemon rind finely chopped ( or use zest )
2tbsp demerara sugar
spice to taste

Preheat oven to gas 180 C, and grease and line a cake tin. Cream butter and sugar. Gradually add eggs and flour. Stir in apples and lemon rind. Pour into the tin and sprinkle with demerara sugar 

Bake for 1- 1 1/2 hours.

The" Ulster FRY" or "Full Irish " are the names used for a massive cooked breakfast although in Ulster ( N Ireland )  it can be eaten throughout the day.

The Full Irish would consist of bacon, fried eggs, fried sausages, white pudding, black pudding, tomatoes. mushrooms, beans soda bread and hash browns.

In the Ulster Fry it would be similar to the Full Irish but it would be served with soda farls shallow fried and no black pudding.

I

I am always looking for new Irish recipes and these look delicious.

Beacan Bruithe ( Baked mushrooms ) ( pronounced  back-on briha )

 12 large field mushrooms

3 ozs chopped onion

3 oz bread crumbs

4 ozs minced pork

2 ozs butter

crushed juniper berries

....................................................

Remove mushroom stalks and chop finely

Soften the onions in melted butter

Add chopped stalks and all other ingredients and cook gently in melted butter

Divide the mixture between the mushrooms and bake in a shallow dish in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

This is a new one to me but I shall be giving it a try. Oats are very healthy food.  This is a traditional chunky soup but could be blended if you want it smooth.

Ingredients

1/2 pint  milk

1 1/2 pints  vegetable/chicken stock

4 ozs Irish oatmeal

2 ozs Irish butter

4 chopped leeks

salt and pepper to taste

8 ozs chopped spinach

8 ozs peeled sliced potatoes

1 tbsp. cream  (optional)

Method

Heat stock and milk and add oatmeal.  Simmer gently.

Fry the leeks gently in the butter .

Add the leeks and potatoes to the oatmeal mix and stir.

Cook for 20  minutes, stirring occasionally but don’t boil .

Just before serving add the chopped spinach and stir .

Season with salt and  pepper and serve with a swirl of cream if desired.  

My Ulsterman nephew in law David gave me this recipe for an Ulster Warm Potato Salad so I have added it here for you.

It is very healthy as it contains no mayo !

McKeever Ulster Warm Potato Salad

1lb baby new potatoes

2 rashers of bacon finely chopped and quickly grilled over

2 tbs olive oil

lemon juice

1tsp wholegrain mustard

2 chopped spring onions/scallions

......................................................................................................................

Scrub the potatoes and do not peel them. Boil them in water for about 20 mins.

Grill bacon and chop in to small pieces

Chop spring onions/ scallions

mix oil , mustard and lemon juice and pour over warm potatoes, bacon and chopped scallions

My favourite potato salad.

This is very good if you can't stomach yeast.

170g/6oz self-raising wholemeal flour

170g/6oz plain  white flour

½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda  
• 290ml/½ pint buttermilk  

Mix all the ingredients together

Make a dome shape and slash a cross over the top so it cooks evenly inside

Cook in a hot oven for about 30 minutes

This is a recipe by Irish TV chef, Rachel Allan, my favourite Irish chef . I have adapted it to work with Apples

Gentleman genius Frank Beswick very kindly found a recipe for N Irish wheaten bread and mailed it to me for inclusion on this page.  It is by a writer whose pen name is Ploshkin

Thank you Frank.

8oz wholemeal flour (you don't need strong flour)
4oz plain white flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
2ozs sugar
1/2 pint of buttermilk (or half and half plain yoghurt and water)
1 egg
1 tablespoon of oil

Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the liquid and mix well.
put in a well greased 2 lb loaf tin. It will just fit into a 1 lb deep loaf tin.

Cook in a hot oven (200c) for 15 mins.
Turn down to 150c and cook for a further 25 minutes."

I had this today at a fantastic little pub in Glossop, Derbyshire, " Hare and Hounds " . It is delicious. This is my take on it and not the marvellous chef's recipe. It takes less than ten minutes.

Wexford Beef  is prime strips of beef, in red wine, onion,  multi-coloured peppercorns and cream.

Wexford Beef

Cut 1lb of best quality beef steaks into strips. Season them with salt and fry them over quickly in some oil with the sliced onions.

Add red wine and peppercorns to the pan and bubble the mixture for 2 minutes. Turn heat down , stir and add the cream. Heat through but don't boil.  Serve immediately.  

This is a very popular cake in Ireland and there are many variations of it. 

Irish whiskey cake 

• juice of an orange 
• 125 ml  Irish whiskey
• 6oz sultanas
• 6oz  soft butter
• 5oz caster sugar
• 3 eggs beaten
• 9oz self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method 

Soak the fruit in whiskey and orange juice over night so the fruit swells up. 

Next morning , cream butter and sugar together, add beaten eggs  and then flour and baking powder. Mix together, add the soaked fruit 

Put the mixture in a cake tin and  cover with paper . Bake for about one and a quarter hours on 350F/180C/Gas4.

Bacon Broth is popular all over Ireland but this one is a take on my favourite Irish chef 's Rachel Allen 's recipe. The woman is a star!

The bacon or ham is diced in this recipe. It is a meal in itself. 

Cork Bacon  Broth

10 ozs bacon diced 

2tbsp oil

5 ozs peeled diced potatoes 

1 onion 

2 sticks of celery 

2 cloves of garlic 

1 tin of tomatoes 

1tsp sugar

pepper to taste 

1 and 1/2 pts chicken stock 

2 ozs shredded cabbage

………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 

Fry potatoes, bacon , onion, celery

Add to the pan with tomatoes and chicken stock . Season to taste. add sugar and cook slowly until the veg is soft 

Stir in the cabbage just before serving.  Serve with chunks of soda bread. 

American tour groups at my hotel this morning saw the breakfast bar and said " Oh my! I LOVE this country " 

One American lady ate the potato bread and said she wants to know how to make it.

This is the best potato bread I have tasted- EVER. And you get it at Europa Hotel Belfast. 

So here it is. 

NORTHERN IRISH POTATO BREAD

1 lb of  mashed potatoes

3 ounces of butter 

1 tsp of salt 

black pepper to your taste

enough all-purpose flour to bind it together 

Method 

Add 2 ounces of butter to the warm mashed potato. Season and mix. 

Add enough flour to just bind it together smoothly.

Flour a breadboard and roll the potato dough into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.

Put it into a frying pan. 

Carefully turn it when it is cooked on one side and cook on the other side. It will look uneven .

Cook for a few minutes either side. 

To serve, cut into wedges and put bits of butter on top. Eat hot. 

DELICIOUS

Bruitin ( I would say Bru -teen )  

Bruitin or CHAMP is a very popular, easy  Irish recipe of Mashed potatoes, Spring Onions, ( scallions ) milk and butter. 

This is a traditional recipe for CHAMP

8  large potatoes

6 Spring onions ( scallions ) chiopped

4 ounces of  Irish butter

1/3 pint of milk 

Black pepper 

Salt  

Method 

Peel and boil the potatoes, drain well and mash them.
Meanwhile, soften the scallions by cooking them in milk for a few minutes.
Add the scallions, seasoning and a bit of butter to the mashed potatoes and mix. Use just enough milk to soften and cream the potatoes.
Place hot in a serving dish. Make a well in the centre and pour melted butter into the well.

Dip your spoonful of Champ into the well of Irish butter.

Look at the size of this portion of Irish stew. Made with mutton and packed with different size vegetables, onion, leek, carrots, parsnips and potatoes. Scrumptious ! I was half way through the portion when I took the photo. 

Especially for our lovely Derdriu. Although Frank Beswick would scoff this down too! Traditionally 2 different types of potatoes are used and cut into different sizes.

Irish stew  

4lbs of diced lamb or beef ( lamb is more traditional. ) 

1.5 lbs of waxy potatoes  ( e.g. Yukon Gold )  cut in large chunks 

1.5lbs of floury potatoes  (e.g.  Desiree, Maris Piper) cut into smaller chunks. 

2lbs of vegetables ( carrots, celery, onion ) cut into different sizes 

stock/ water to cover 

seasoning to taste 

thyme to taste 

Method

Add the diced meat, seasoning, stock, etc   to a large pan and simmer gently for about 1 hour 

Add the chopped vegetables and potatoes and simmer gently for about 2.5 hours. Check the water level as it cooks. 

Serve with soda bread. 

 There are so many types of apple cakes in Ireland, and last week i discovered this one and I made it for the church BBQ last Saturday. It was a huge success. 

It consists of an ordinary apple cake but with a Crumble  topping 

Mayo Apple cake 

For the cake 

8ozs of self raising flour 

8 ozs soft butter

8 ozs fine sugar 

4 eggs beaten

4 Chopped apples 

For the topping 

8 ozs flour

4 ozs hard  butter  chopped into cubes

4 ozs demarara sugar 

Method

Mix the butter and sugar together and add the flour and beaten eggs 

Stir in 2 chopped apples 

Place this mixture in a cake tin and make the topping 

Put the flour and sugar in a bowl and mix 

Rub in the butter  until you have a fine crumb 

Place another layer of apples on top of the cake mixture and top with the crumble topping.

Bake on Elec 180C for 40 / 45 minutes.

I cooked this for St Patrick's Day this week.

Irish Pork Coddle 

Ingredients

2 pork shoulder steaks 

2 carrots sliced 

1.5 lbs of potatoes ,chopped into different sizes  

Wild garlic 

1 chopped onion

Apple juice  and  stock enough to cover the food 

1 swede or turnip chopped .

Stock pot or cube . salt/  pepper 

Method 

1. Heat the oven 325 F , 160C Gas 3

2. Brown the pork steaks and add to an ovenproof pot 

3. Add all the ingredients to the pots on top of the pork steaks 

4. Cover with enough stock and cider/apple juice to cover the food 

5, Season to taste 

6. Place the pot into the oven and cook gently for 2.5  hours or until cooked 

7. I served this with colcannon 

Delicious . The different sized potato pieces are important as the smaller ones reduce down and thicken the sauce