I’ve been tutting, sighing and doing some serious eye-rolling at any number of blogs and American’s version of ‘Irish’ over the last few days.  I even had a friend tell me that someone told her that her dinner of cabbage, corned beef and potatoes wasn’t traditionally Irish…

I was going to try and rise above it this year, and just turn a blind eye, but after the Houston St. Patrick’s day parade (being, as my hubby endearingly termed it, a ‘travesty’) I decided screw it, time to get my ‘rant’ on!

Food bloggers are making dishes, throwing in some Guinness, or some Magners, or, heck, even just plain old potatoes and calling it ‘Irish’.  This bugs me, I mean, I love people playing with food, I love experimentation and more often than not, I’ll love the finished product, it’s just for the record – in no way ”Traditionally” Irish.

More like Stereotypical!

People think all we do is drink Guinness, ride on horses and pee outside in out-houses…I can confirm, here and now that these are merely that, stereotypes!  Ok, we most definitely eat a lot of potatoes, but just adding potatoes, does not an Irish dish make!

While I’m thrilled and flattered that y’all have taken such a keen interest in my country for one week of the year, but please, get it right, don’t brand the most convoluted bread you’ve ever created as ‘typically Irish’.  Ireland is a poor country, we cook whatever is in the ground or grows on trees.  It’s plain, yes, that is true, but not everything needs beaten to death with flavours.

The key components to ‘proper’ Irish food, are plain, simple and most of all, CHEAP!

I remember, whilst growing up, my dad always left the meat on his plate til last – pretty much at every meal.  When I asked him why, he said that meat was a rarity when he was growing up and that he liked to savour it (though, I have to say, it wasn’t frequently ”savoured” because by the time we all got to the end of dinner and spotted he still had meat on his plate, it made him a prime target for the rest of us!)

As a child, we were very much a ”meat and two veg” kind of family, I was well into my teens before I’d ever tried pasta and any kind of ethnic dish – the most ethnic food I’d had was a ‘curry chip’ (which, so happens to be my favourite food EVER!)

Like I said, Irish food is plain, very, very, plain – if you even sit next to my dad and eat ketchup, he’ll move, ask you to move, or ask you how you eat ‘that muck’.  Basic is ”best” on the Emerald Isle!

So, as such, I’ve decided to share a few ‘real’ recipes that are traditional in both my house and in many houses across Ireland throughout the decades.

Champ

• 1 pounds potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/4 cup milk (max)
• 1/2 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 2 tbsp butter (+1tbsp to serve)
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place potatoes in a large pot.  Cover with water and boil for 20-30 minutes, (until potatoes slide off a knife with ease).

Once cooked, drain potatoes thoroughly, mash together with salt, pepper and 2tbsp butter, add milk a little at a time until potatoes are creamy and light – don’t add too much milk, nothing worse than runny spuds!

Add onions and mix well, serve with a dollop of butter on top.

Bacon and cabbage

Yes, it’s as dull and boring as it sounds, you take some cabbage, boil it up with some bacon and call it good.  Some people dislike the boiled, wet kind of consistency and, instead, fry it off with a little butter, salt and pepper – much less ‘earthy’.

Irish Stew

This is the most simple, basic and low maintenance recipe EVER.  It’s also based highly on taste, I don’t add onion as I think it’s an overpowering flavour, my dad doesn’t add too many carrots cause he thinks it’s too sweet, some people like it watery, me? I like to let it slow cook for hours and hours, mash it up with a masher and turn it in to mush, as opposed to just having meat and veg in a broth-type thing.  I love potatoes and carrots – so I load up!

I tend to use beef stew chunks instead of lamb, as lamb is hard to find here, and expensive.  One ‘regular’ pack of beef stewing meat, throw in a few potatoes, a few carrots, an onion into a crock pot or soup pot, salt and pepper, add 1-2 beef bullion cubes (Oxo is the best I’ve found, I bring it from home) add enough water to cover everything in the pot, give it a stir and leave to cook on low for 6-8hours.

Around 3 hours in, I usually take a masher to it and mush everything up so it turns stew-like and drain off a little fluid as I always put too much in.  Some parts of the country even add sausages to the stew as well!

These are just a few of the type of basic recipes that are traditional in my country, it’s nothing fancy, but, like the title of this post suggests, Ireland was/is a ‘meat and two veg’ kinda place!