We made Colcannon and roast ham for Tea ("Dinner, Supper"....) last night. Cal ceannan is Irish for white cabbage", apparently. The potatoes are in abundance in the vegetable plot at the moment. We are eating them every night and we try to find new and more interesting recipes for them.
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Here's a bowl (old Kenwood Chef mixer bowl bought for a pound from a car boot sale in England) of newly dug and washed 'new' potatoes.
Spring onions grown in the poly tunnel from seed.
Get eight ounces of diced potatoes and a diced leek. We used spring onions. Pour five table spoons of milk into the saucepan Throw them in a saucepan and bring them to the boil. Remove from full heat and let them simmer until they are soft enough for you to stick a fork in them. Shred and remove the spine of 8 ounces of cabbage. Or if you are like me. Two journeys backwards and forwards to the veg plot because I didn't pick enough cabbage leaves. Cook the cabbage for 7 minutes in sea salt and water and strain it.
Mash the potatoes, leek (spring onions) and stir in the cabbage together and add a pinch of freshly grated Nutmeg. Then serve immediately. Here it is served with roast ham and a port and orange sauce.
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A cabbage grown from seed in the poly-tunnel and raised in the veg plot.
Get eight ounces of diced potatoes and a diced leek. We used spring onions. Pour five table spoons of milk into the saucepan Throw them in a saucepan and bring them to the boil. Remove from full heat and let them simmer until they are soft enough for you to stick a fork in them. Shred and remove the spine of 8 ounces of cabbage. Or if you are like me. Two journeys backwards and forwards to the veg plot because I didn't pick enough cabbage leaves. Cook the cabbage for 7 minutes in sea salt and water and strain it. Mash the potatoes, leek (spring onions) and stir in the cabbage together and add a pinch of freshly grated Nutmeg. Then serve immediately. Here it is served with roast ham and a port and orange sauce.
The meal went down very well (clean plates)and it was really different to just bacon, cabbage and potatoes. My grandparents use to eat this meal every day (or so it seemed) when we use to visit them on holiday in Ireland during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. Back in the days when we piked hay by hand onto the hay cart and my grandmother and my mother would bring us currant cakes (no sheep or rabbits provided the ingredients , think about it!) and we would drink cold tea (incredibly refreshing) from a bottle kept in a sock.
Colcannon....... My favourite dinner ( and a lovely accompyment to a scotch egg)
ReplyDeleteYes John I was surprised how good the Colcannon was. Have you ever made scotch eggs?
ReplyDeleteSounds different, never heard of this one, must give it a try.
ReplyDeleteHi Cumbrian. It brings all the ingredients instead of boring individual tastes. You would like the port and redcurrant sauce that goes with the meat. We think that you could make mashed potatoes and just add cabbage and milk to it to make things a lot easier. Suppose you could make the Colcannon into 'bubble and squeak'. You put it in a frying pan with hot oil and turn it over and place upside down on a plate when cooked on one side. Then add more oil and return the uncooked side down in the frying pan.
ReplyDeleteMizzle today. New calves eating straw inside cow box in the field. Big cattle lay down in field chewing their cud. Not very good weather for next few days.
Thanks!
Looks tasty. Nice as a warming tea.
ReplyDeleteHi Kev. It really is a different variation on potatoes and cabbage. British and Irish food is often thought to be be bland and boring. Yet there are so many really good dishes. Don't they say (who are "they?") variety is the spice of life? Thanks!
ReplyDelete