Alison Doyle brought a breath of fresh Irish air to Sweden whilst she was here. Her St Patrick’s day parties in Ystad were legendary, with Vatten Teknik in the kommun lighting up the water towers green for the occasion, Irish dancing to the fantastic band, Molly på Rymmen, and just great craic. But of course, it was also about the gorgeous Irish food; boxty with crispy bacon, loads of brown bread with slices of smoked salmon with a lemony creme fraiche dressing, a huge pot of stew, bacon and cabbage, gur cake, guinness cake and porter cake. So I’m very excited that Alison has decided to share some of her recipes with your living city for March; the month of St Patrick’s Day! Bain taitneamh as!!
BOXTY
Boxty is a national phenomenom in Ireland; it’s name in Irish is arán bocht tí, or ‘poor man’s bread’. This traditional Irish potato pancake has even inspired folk rhymes:
Boxty on the griddle,
boxty on the pan,
If you can’t bake boxty
sure you’ll never get a man
Lucky that Alison has given us a recipe, eh?
Ingredients
300g of left over mashed potato
300g grated raw potato
300g plain flour
Splash of milk
A finely chopped onion (optional – it can be eaten as a sweet without the onion)
salt and pepper.
Directions
- Mix together the first three ingredients with some milk just to bind, add the onion and seasonings.
- Fry gently until golden, turn and repeat.
CHAMP
Champ is an Irish dish of mashed potatoes, made with milk and butter and spring onions through it. It is similar to another Irish dish, colcannon, which uses curly kale or cabbage in place of spring onions, but champ is eaten around this time, since kale isn’t readily available in spring.. At Alison’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations, she would serve this with salmon fillets to get the green white and orange flag effect!
Ingredients
100g spring onions , cut into rings
150ml full-fat milk
900g mashing potatoes, such as King Edward, peeled and boiled
100g butter
extra butter , for serving
Directions
- Mash the potatoes with the butter until no lumps are left.
- Heat the milk and the spring onions, then gradually beat this into the potatoes, mixing well with a wooden spoon to make the potatoes fluffy.
- Season well and serve with extra butter.
Want more fantastic recipes? Check out our Expat Cookbook!
Recipe: Alison Doyle
Photo Credit: The Irish Food Board and flickr/reb
