Irish meal Ideas

Corned beef is the most traditional

The most common Irish meal would be corned beef and cabbage served with wads of Guinness. I would actually skip the meal part and just go directly to the Guinness

As posters above, corned beef comes to mind. But don't forget good 'ole Irish stew! There are also Irish fries! Here are a couple of websites for you!!! The first one is really nice as it has lots of history and other things that you can share with your childre. Enjoy! p.s. great idea for teaching children!!!

http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/culture/recipes/index.shtm
http://www.yourirish.com/irish-food.htm

I love this idea, International nights!

I think I will do this with my 12 year old. I want to start her to learning meal planning - and this would be a great way of going about it. We could incorporate it in with school plans.

We could choose a country a month to read up on the culinary delights of the region and perhaps a spark of its history.

Then maybe once a week choose a full meal to prepare in honor of that country... so 4 new ethnic experiences a month - wow! what fun.
thanks for posting!

I don't know much about cooking. But just wanted to make a comment, would you be having Indian food as well someday? Because Indian food is quite spicy and hot and I don't know if westerners can find it comfortable.

You just gave me a great idea for homeschooling. Thanks.
(ooh I can expand this to include regional foods across America - cool)

Irish cuisine can be divided into two main categories – traditional, mainly simple dishes, and more modern dishes, as served in restaurants and hotels.

Many traditional Irish dishes involve potatoes. Colcannon is a dish made of potato and one of wild garlic (the earliest form), cabbage or curly kale, (compare bubble and squeak). Champ consists of mashed potato into which chopped scallions (spring onions) are mixed.

Other examples of simple Irish meals are Irish stew, and also bacon and cabbage (boiled together in water). Boxty, a type of potato pancake, is another traditional dish. A dish mostly particular to Dublin is coddle, which involves boiled pork sausages. Ireland is famous for the Irish breakfast, a fried meal generally comprising of bacon, egg, sausage, fried tomato and which may also include fried potato farls or fried potato slices.

While seafood has always been consumed by Irish people, shellfish dishes have increased in popularity in recent times, especially due to the high quality of shellfish available from Ireland's coastline, e.g. Dublin Bay Prawns, Oysters (many oyster festivals are held annually around the coast where oysters are often served with Guinness, the most notable being held in Galway every September ) as well as other crustaceans. Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish used.

Traditional Irish breads include soda bread, wheaten bread, soda farls, and blaa, a doughy white bread roll particular to Waterford.

As for the recipes, here are the Irish meal recipes that you could try:

Irish Stew Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter
2 cubed lamb, shoulder or leg
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups water (or beef stock)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
6-8 medium potatoes, quartered
3-4 carrots, cut horizontally into 2"" pieces (optional, as this is not true Irish tradition, I've heard

Directions:

Brown lamb slowly in butter. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Add water or stock, salt and pepper, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots (I like the flavor that the carrots add). Cook 45 minutes.


Leek-Mushroom Shepard's Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

2 Baking potatoes
3 Large Leeks
5-6 green onions
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 carrot
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon soy margarine

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Rub the bottom of a casserole dish with soy margarine.

Peel and chop the potatoes. Put them in boiling water and boil until soft, about 15 minutes. Chop off the green leaves of the leeks and green onions. Chop off the front part of the leeks, then chop each leek in half. Rinse thoroughly under running water, getting out any dirt on the inside of the leeks. Then chop up the leeks (as you would cabbage), the green onions, and the mushrooms. Slice the carrot into fine slices.

Heat the wine in a saucepan and add all the vegetables. Sauté over medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, and season with salt and pepper. Put the sautéed vegetables in the bottom of the casserole dish.

Transfer the cooked potatoes to a bowl. Add soy milk and margarine, then mash into mashed potatoes, adding more soy milk if needed. Season with pepper. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the leek mixture in the casserole dish.

Bake about 30 minutes, until potatoes are browned on top.


Irish Colcannon Recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb/450 g kale or cabbage, finely chopped
7-8 fl oz/200-225 ml milk or cream
2 small leeks or green spring onion tops, chopped
2 lb/900 g potatoes, preferably Irish, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of ground mace
4 tbsp butter melted

Directions:
Cook the kale or cabbage in a large pan of boiling water until very tender, then drain and keep warm. Put the milk or cream in a small pan with the leeks or spring onions and simmer until soft. In another saucepan, cook the potatoes until tender, then drain and mash them.

Mix in the leeks or onion tops and enough milk or cream to give a creamy consistency. Add the kale or cabbage and season with salt, pepper and mace. Drizzle with the melted butter and serve immediately. This recipe serves 4 persons.

Anyway, have a nice day!

Corned beef!! omg i love that stuff