Sunday, March 22, 2020

Irish Feast Week 2020

2020 has had it's challenges.  For the first time ever I planned an "Irish feast week" which started the Sunday before St. Patrick's day and lasted thru the end of Winter. 

It was a challenge only because we didn't have folks to share it with us at our dining room table.  Instead, every day we shared the nightly meal on social platforms -doing a virtual feast of the eyes to our friends and family.   

If you need a good cook book to read, I would totally suggest The Farmette Cookbook.  I used the Patsy's Pies pie crust recipe and it was voted the BEST!



Irish Feast week Preparation

In planning our meals, we wanted to use items more than once, to  utilize leftovers and limit single use ingredients if we could.   We wanted to show that American Irish food was about adapting, using what you have, and being appreciative of simple ingredients.

Our shopping list entailed things such as (not in any order)
corned beef
yellow potatoes
orange carrots
head of cabbage
garlic
green onions
Kerry Gold butter
flour
heavy cream
whole grain mustard
dry mustard powder
dijon mustard
Guinness beer
plain beef brisket
beef stock
chicken stock
bay leaf
parsely, fresh
dried herbs like oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, parsley, sage
eggs
rye bread
mushrooms
bangers
irish sharp cheese
sharp regular cheddar
puff pastry
ground pork
sour cream
chocolate
more chocolate
"leprechaun dust"
dark chocolate cocoa powder
whiskey
ice
more beer
ice pack for my foot
laughter
patience


Our Menu comprised of a Prep Nigh.  I needed to make sure we had all the items as proprotionate before we started.   The plan was to start with a lot, and use leftovers thru the week, ending the week with a flourish and good memories!

Day 1
     Corned Beef, steamed cabbage & carrots, Mashed potatoes, champ, Irish Sausage rolls, craggy cheddar and green onion drop biscuits plus Guinness mustard
** Everything was made with a little extra in mind **

Day 2
    Irish Bangers, mashed potatoes, with grilled onion gravy and parsley carrots
** using leftover mashed potatoes, adding dried parsley to the steamed carrots and microwaving with a pat of KerryGold butter, using up some leftover grilled onions and beef broth to make the gravy**


Day 3
  St. Patrick's day Irish stew with brisket
** using whatever carrots were left, plus more, adding potatoes, a new brisket, mushrooms, onions, in a white broth plus trimmed brisket (not corned) plus a cup of the strained corned beef jous and of course some beer.

For dessert we dined on the beautiful Chocolate Stout cake in the "mini donut form".  I am going to call these super chocolate bombs, and they were good!!!!!!



Day 4
     Leftover Corned beef hash with cabbage, breakfast style; aka with over medium eggs and rye toast!
** the remainder of the corned beef, plus the steamed cabbage, and mashed potatoes, plus half an onion and a clove of garlic made use of most of the leftovers.


Day 5
   The last meal of Winter - Irish Stew Pie
Using a homemade crust (best one i've ever made), we used all the leftovers from the St. Patrick's stew, added flour as a thickener and baked as a pie.   It was devine and so filling!



This was a fun week of meals to plan.  I'm only sorry that more people couldn't be here to taste each one.

As usual, I don't post the recipes for St. Patrick's Day.  I should, but that would make this post really long!  Maybe next year I'll post them as i go along.  If you want to recreate anything I have pictured here, just ask!   Most of these are just an "as you go" recipe meaning that there isn't one way to make them and they change based on what you have available.

My dream is that one day to host a St. Pats Party, with ALL of these dishes for sampling.   My what a feast that would be!!  

But for now we' re shifting into Spring mode.  That means plantingand planning and using the freezer and canned stores to make room for this year's horde.  Looking forward to seeing what i will do with all my  apple sauce and pickled asparagus!!  We have a great garden planned and should see some greens and radish in just a few weeks.   

Peace and blessings from our house to yours. 

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