Recommended St. Patrick’s day recipes

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Irene LaBombarde photo
Geraldine Kelly used real Irish flour to make this traditional Irish soda bread. Milled differently than American flour, it is closer in texture to oatmeal than processed flour.

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Irish stew

Jamie Oliver’s original recipe, which the McAllister family has tweaked by topping with mashed potatoes rather than pastry:

5 pounds stewing beef, diced

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 heaping tbsp. flour

Olive oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

4 sticks celery, washed and chopped

2 parsnips, peeled and chopped

1 handful of mixed fresh herbs (ie., rosemary, thyme, bay)

1 pint Guinness beer

2 15-oz. cans chopped tomatoes

1 pack of puff pastry

1 egg beaten

1. Season beef generously with salt and pepper, sprinkle in flour and toss until coated. Heat 2-3 glugs of olive oil in a large pan and fry meat until golden brown.

2. Add the onion and fry another minute, then add carrot, parsnips, celery and herbs. Fry for a further 4 minutes and then add Guinness and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for two hours or until meat is tender. Season to taste.

3. At this point, you can move the stew to the fridge until ready to serve. This will intensify the flavor.

4. To make pies, preheat the oven to 375F. Put meat filling into individual dishes (or one large dish, if making one pie). Cut pastry to circles about 1 inch bigger than the top of the dishes. Brush the rims with beaten egg, place the pastry on top and squash the excess down the sides to secure.

Lightly score the top in a criss-cross pattern and brush with remaining beaten egg. Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Serves 6.

Soda bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cup raisins

2 tbsp. melted butter

2 cups buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients, stir in raisins.

Combine buttermilk and melted butter and add to dry ingredients and blend till moistened. (Will be a sticky type of dough)

Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 350 for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Remove and cool on a rack. This bread is great toasted.