Month: March 2018

REPOST Dublin Coddle – For St Patrick’s Day

Isn’t Dublin Coddle the most adorable name for anything ever?

It sounds like a cuddle and that is exactly what you are going to get from this hearty and warming mix of sausages, cabbage, bacon and potatoes.

Dublin Coddle

I don’t seem to have the best of luck with Irish recipes (remember the corned beef potato salad?)

I had planned to make a totally safe homemade Irish Cream because hot damn do I love a little bit of Bailey’s!Β  However what they don’t tell you in most recipes for it is that, because it contains fresh cream, homemade Irish cream has a fairly limited lifespan.Β  As I am trying to moderate my diet and alcohol intake at the moment drinking a whole bottle of whiskey and a shit ton of cream over the space of about 5 five days did not seem like a viable option.

Fun…just not a viable diet option!

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So Dublin Coddle it was.Β  And whilst this was nowhere near as awful as the debacle that was the potato salad,Β  the recipe I used for Dublin Coddle (sorry I cannot remember from whence it came) was not without problems.

It asked that you layer thinly sliced potatoes into the bottom of a baking dish then piled your sauteed cabbage, onion and bacon on top and topped that with sausages.Β  Then you added stockΒ to the dish.Dublin Coddle 2

And therein lay the problem.Β  Even though I cooked this for absolutely AGES, the potatoes at the bottom didn’t cook at that well and were totally soggy.Β  And, as viewers of the British Bake Off know all too well, no one likes a soggy bottom!

 

Dublin Coddle 3

This was good but I wonder how much better it would have been if the potatoes had gone on the top and gone all crispy and delicious?

Dublin Coddle 4

I will actually make it that way next time and update you on how it turns out!Β  The good thing about this recipe is that it was traditionally made from leftovers so you can play around with ingredients and cooking techniques as much as you like!

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Here’s the recipe!

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Dublin Coddle

A delicious hearty meal, perfect for St Patrick’s Day

Ingredients

Scale
  • 8 sausages – the recipe said pork, I used beef
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 2 rashers of bacon, sliced
  • 2 cups of cabbage, sliced
  • stock or water (I used vegetable stock)
  • Oil
  • salt and pepper
  • parsley
  • Dijon mustard

Instructions

  1. Heat a little oil in a large pan and brown the sausages. You may have to do this in two lots.
  2. Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside.
  3. Add a little more oil if required and brown the bacon and onions.
  4. Toss the cabbage through the bacon and onion mix and cook for a few minutes.
  5. Layer the potatoes in a lightly oiled casserole or baking dish.
  6. Top with the cabbage and bacon mix. Season well and almost cover with the stock.
  7. Top with the sausages.
  8. Bake at 190C until the potatoes are tender.
  9. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with mustard.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4

Meantime, enjoy your St Patrick’s Day!!!!

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Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad – Repost from October 2018

Regular readers will know what a fan I am of the serendipitousΒ find.Β  So, imagine my joy when, in the middle of writing the post on Johnny Cash’s Chili, sorting through a huge pile of recipes I had collected over the last year or so, I found a recipe from hisΒ daughterΒ Rosanne Cash for Potato Salad.

I felt that finding it was either a sign from the universe to make some potato salad or that the Cash family were stalking me in a really weird way.

I decided to make potato salad.

Rosanne Cash Potato Salad

Have I ever told you how much I love potato salad?

Like LOVE it.  😍

I have CRIED when I have tasted a potato salad that looked gorgeous onlyΒ to find the potato was half raw.Β  Or the dressing was watery

That’s how much I love potato salad.

And I have incredibly high standards.Β  So far in my life, the only ‘tatie salad that even comes close to my mum’s is my best friendΒ Monica’s.Β  It’s one of the reasons I adore her.

Maybe THAT’s how much I love potato salad…

Good potato salad?Β Β Friend.Β  For. Life.

Bad potato salad?Β Never darken my door again!

Rosanne Cash Potato Salad

And Rosanne Cash’s had all the hallmarks of being a GOOD potato salad.Β  Or the one.Β  Which is the inclusion .Β of hard-boiled eggs.Β Seriously.Β  Mum’s potato salad has them.Β  Monica’s potatoΒ salad has them.Β  And this one has them.Β  And, spoiler alert. We are now talking my top-three potato salads.

Because Rosanne Cash’s potato salad is AWESOME.

https://i0.wp.com/www.retrofoodformoderntimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Rosanne-Cash-Potato-Salad-7.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1

The only problem with the Rosanne Cash Potato Salad?

There was not enough of it!

Basic user error.Β  Before makingΒ anything check your ingredients.Β  ALWAYS check your ingredients.Β  All of them.Β  Even the ones where you think “Oh I always have plenty of that / those / them”

Especially those ones. Otherwise, you will go to the shops to buy celery and pickles.Β  And come home to discover you only have three tiny potatoes.Β  But it’s getting late and if you want to be eating this delicious sounding potato salad any time before midnight then you don’t have time to go all the way back to the store to buy more potatoes.

So…a tiny potato salad it was…

Tiny Potato

You can also do the thing….cos here’s the recipe.Β  Just make sure you have potatoes a plenty!

Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad

And here is he of the chilli and she of the potato salad way back in 1956!

johnny_rosanne_cash01-280x336

Have a great week!

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REPOST: All The Z’s – Part 5 – Zurich Mushroom Tartlets

Hello, and welcome to the fifth and final post of the Food that starts with Z mini-series…We’re heading to Switzerland for some Zurich Mushroom Tartlets.Β  And I have a new book to cook from!Β  Pack your passports friends, we are taking a trip around the world via Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery from 1972.

The book promises

  • 222 illustrations, 48 inΒ  full colour
  • 672 pages
  • 2316 recipes from all over the world

Good Housekeeping World Cookery 1972

The World in 1972

So what was this world of 1972 that we are about to enter into? What was the zeitgeist that spawned this tome?

www.thepeoplehistory.com tells us that

1972Β This year is marked as a black year in history due to the use of terrorism entering sport with the massacre of 11 Israel Athletes by Arab Gunman. Also this is the beginning of the biggest political scandal in modern times and the start of the Watergate Scandal. On the other side of the Atlantic a worsening of the problems between the IRA and the British government see wrongs from both sides and innocent lives are lost.Β 

Hmm…cheerful.

But who knew years were colour-coded?Β  Who has that job?Β  And can I have it when you’re done?

On a happierΒ note, in 1972 you could buy these awesome shoes for just $9.97.

And this wig was a bargain at $20. The resting bitch face is possibly a sign of the troubled times…

1972 wig

Or maybe she was just worried about getting her wig wet.Β  Problem solved by this umbrella for a mere fiver.Β Look how much happier thisΒ woman is now she doesn’t have to worry about wet hair.

1972 umbrella

 

Switzerland 1972

So in the midst of all this trial and trib, what was going on in the notoriously neutral country of Switzerland?Β  Well,Β hold onto your hats because while chaos and panic were overtaking the rest of the world?Β  The Swiss wereΒ creating an International Convention on Safe Containers.

The Swiss are an orderly, well-mannered, and meticulous people.Β  This is why you could probably take your safe container and join a group of Swiss people mushroom foraging around Zurich without fear of dying from some fungi-induced poisoning.

Which brings us back to do…oh…oh..ohΒ  (If ANY of you thought we were going to get through a post on SwitzerlandΒ WITHOUT a Sound Of Music reference, then you don’t know me at all do you?).

ZURICH MUSHROOM TARTLETS

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets1

Let’s start with the recipe. It’s a very good place to start…(Refer paragraph above re The Sound of Music) And let’s hope that it isn’t an omen of things to come…

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets - Recipe

Hmmmm….make the pastry it saysΒ  Without actually telling you how to do that.Β  So, If they’re not going to tell you?

I will.Β  Here’s what you do.

Put your flour back in the cupboard, your egg and butter back in the fridge and tip your salted water down the sink.Β  Then you get in your car and drive to the nearest supermarket and by some ready-made pastry shells.

Because if they can’t be bothered, why should you?

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets3

I used a mix of mushrooms for my tartlets and added some herbs from the garden into the mix.

Zurich Mushroom Tarts4IΒ  pan-fried the small fancy mushrooms in so they could be artfully strewn over the top of the tarts whilst I cooked the regular ones as per the recipe.

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets5

IWhile the mushrooms were cooking, I warmed the shells in the oven, then tipped the filling into them.

A sprinkle of parsley and some smoked paprika and these were good to go!

And they were delicious!Β  Creamy and earthy with a lovely crisp and light pastry.

Despite the initial setback with the pastry, the Zurich Mushroom Tartlets were a good start to this book.Β  Easy to make, quick, and tasty!Β  Best eaten in front of the telly watching The Sound of Music,Β  Or wearing your best curtains.Β  Or both.

 

Have a great week!

 

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