St. Paddy's favorites!

Bless my lucky charms - St. Paddy's day is this weekend! I wanted to share some perfect recipes for St. Patrick's day with enough time for you to make them!


Irish Soda Bread
I love the mix of sharp caraway seeds with all their herbaceous goodness, blended with soft golden raisins in a vehicle for good butter! This bread has been a tradition in our house since I was a little girl. As a child, irish soda bread wwas often formed into a snake shape with raisin eyes, sometimes tinted green. I make the loaves now but if you had little ones they might enjoy the snake shape. FYI St. Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick


http://eatthinkblogwoman.blogspot.com/2010/03/irish-soda-bread.html

Guiness Stout Pudding
This pudding is creamy and smooth - everything you want in a pudding with a hint of earthy goodness of Guiness. A layer of whipped cream on top makes it look like a pint glass of stout! Perfect served in a traditional pint glass - if you can eat a  pint of pudding! I just put it into a pretty glass.
http://eatthinkblogwoman.blogspot.com/2011/03/waiter-theres-beer-in-my-pudding.html

Best Corned Beef Ever!
If you never cared for corned beef before this may change you mind - my mother-in-law's corned beef glaze. My family loves this so much that I double this every year. It transforms boiled meat into something magical. I can't wait to make mine this weekend. I don't have a picture because I haven't made it yet this year but I wanted you to have the recipe in advance. 

Here's what I do:. I boil my corned beef the day before St. Pat's. I do mine in a pressure cooker but you could just follow the package directions. On the day I want to serve I take the beef out of the fridge. I trim any nasty bits off the corned beef, place it in an oven safe pan and bath it in the sauce. I place the dish in a 350 oven for about 40 minutes until the meat is hot. Halfway through if I notice some of the glaze is coming off I slather some more on. When hot, I remove the beef from the oven and place on a cutting board. I slice it in thin slices and platter it. I serve the remaining sauce on the side. And for some reason there is never any left over for sandwiches no matter how big a corned beef I do!


Ann's Corned beef with Glaze

Glaze:
10 tablespoons ketchup
6 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons butter

5 pounds corned beef brisket
2 pounds potatoes
1 cabbage head

Melt butter. Add other glaze ingredients. Cook for 5 minutes on stove. 

Place 4 cups water and corned beef in pressure cooker. Add seasoning packet. Cook on high pressure for 65 minutes. Remove corn beef. Reserve liquid. Cook cabbage and potatoes in liquid on high for 6-7 minutes.

Let corned beef come to room temp. Pour glaze on cooked corn beef. Reserve some for table side. Bake for 40 minutes. Slice and serve.
NOTE: I am not a big fan of the cabbage and potatoes but my husband makes me do this. I think it is part of the Irish tradition to serve something boiled beyond recognition.

Irish Soda Bread

If you grew up eating Irish Soda Bread on St. Pat's day apparently your version may be nothing like mine. My Irish Soda Bread has to have golden raisins and caraway seeds in it. I don't make it in the shape of snake with raisin eyes like I had when I was little and I never saw the need to dye everything green like in my childhood. But that doesn't mean I don't get a childish pleasure out of making a loaf and serving it on St. Pat's.

You can still make some to celebrate St. Pat's in a more family friendly way today than serving your kids a green beer. One of those really easy breads - no yeast. You should have most of the ingredients at home and you can cheat on the buttermilk if you don't want to stop at the store.

Irish Soda Bread

2 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 stick cold butter cut into pieces
1 cup golden raisins (or regular raisins)
2 T. caraway seeds (optional but one of my favorite parts)
2/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? look below)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, baking soda, caraway seeds, salt and sugar. Put butter pieces on top of flour mixture.

Whenever I make something where the butter needs to be "cut in" I usually slice the cold stick of butter (or half a stick in this case) into 3 long slices then turn the stick a quarter and cut into 3 slices. You should now have 9 long bars of butter still in a stick shape. Slice on the short end of the stick to produce pea sized squares of cold butter. If you do this before you are ready to use - throw the cubes back in the fridge to stay cold while you gather up everything else.

Add the butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Measure 2/3 cup buttermilk into a one cup container or bowl. Add the egg to the buttermilk; beat together. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Pulse till it comes together.

Place a small amount of flour on the counter. Turn dough out onto the counter and work in the raisins until incorporated. Don’t overwork the dough though or it will be tough.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a parchment lined pan to form a large disk of dough. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross over the top of the bread. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden on top. Slice and serve with Irish butter.

To make a substitute for buttermilk add a tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of whole milk. The milk will curdle. Measure out the amount you need.

If you want to go authentic Andrew McCarthy wrote a story on it in March, Bon Appetit.