St. Patrick's Day

I'll take another break from my trip re-cap to post a little about Irish cuisine. My family is Scotch-Irish and Irish, so I grew up with some Americanized versions of homeland favorites. I most fondly recall my mother's potato soup (which is nothing like what O'Charley's would have you believe is authentic Irish potato soup--mom's is potatoes, milk, flour, salt, and a little butter--that's it) and potato cakes (also known as boxty, though we use mashed potatoes instead of shredded raw potatoes). I recall with no fondness at all my mom's love of boiled cabbage. As with a lot of vegetables, she inevitably overcooked it so that it smelled of sulfur (as did the whole house). Just the remembrance of that smell makes me want to hurl.

So it was with some trepidation that I decided to set forth in making colcannon for an Irish potluck dinner last night. Colcannon is simply mashed potatoes with cabbage. Why someone would want to ruin a perfectly good batch of mashed potatoes with cabbage, I'll never know but perhaps it was to stretch out the amount of potatoes or to make cabbage more palatable. I mean, certainly there aren't people who like boiled cabbage? Except my mother, that is.

But after reviewing many (many) recipes for colcannon, I came up with something that worked.

Colcannon
Six medium russet potatoes
One small/medium head of green cabbage (or kale)
Three large leeks
3/4 cup milk (can use unflavored soy milk)
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley (garnish)

Peel (optional) and cube the potatoes. Set in a large pan, cover with water, add about half a tablespoon of salt and boil for 20 minutes or until tender. Core and shred or finely chop cabbage. Boil in plenty of water for 15 minutes (do not overboil). When done, pour into a collander and fully drain. Thinly slice leeks and cook in milk over low heat for 15 minutes. When potatoes are done, place in a large bowl and mash with butter, milk and leek mixture, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Stir in cabbage and add sprigs of parsley.

A few helpful hints:
1. I use russet potatoes for mashed potatoes because they mash best, in my opinion. For the sake of presentation, I peeled my potatoes, but most of the nutrients are in the skins, so leave them on if you can stand to look at them.
2. If you're preparing this for a potluck or party or some other event where presentation is important, note that green cabbage isn't very green when cooked. Using kale will yield a greener dish. But adding the parsley will make it green and pretty, too.
3. Do not, not, NOT overboil your cabbage. Overboiling is what causes the sulfur smell. Also, I use only the outermost layers of the cabbage (after removing the top layer). Cabbage cores aren't very tasty (nor are they terribly nutritious). Using lots of water in a big pan also helps. As does using a stainless or nonstick pot (instead of aluminum). Don't want to mess with chopping and boiling cabbage at all? Buy a bag of cole slaw mix and saute it in olive oil until tender instead.
4. Choose leeks that have a lot of white area because you only want to use the white and very palest green sections for your cooking. To prepare leeks, slice off the rooty end and the leaves (just above where it begins to turn green) and wash the layers thoroughly under running water to remove any grit..
5. The traditional way to present the colcannon for the table is to put in a serving dish and make a well in the middle for a big ol' pat of butter. I skipped this step, though.

So, how'd it taste? Well, like mashed potatoes with cabbage and leeks. Or "pretty good" in other words. I guess this is one way to make mashed potatoes a little more nutritious and substantial. The really good news is that only about half this big batch of colcannon was eaten last night (there were three stews and tons of other food), so I'm about to head in the kitchen to make some potato cakes of them.

Slainte!