Are You Irish?

In less than a week, is St Patrick’s Day. The one day out of the year where anyone can claim, they are Irish. Through researching my family tree, I was able to find, I am able to claim to Irish blood the other 364 days of the year. This came as a surprise, since Irish was not a known nationality to my family.

I thought I would share with you a few Irish recipes I have found at a website called Irish Abroad. The first is the typical corn beef and cabbage that most people associate with St Paddy’s.  If you have ever bought corned beef, you know it comes with a seasoning packet. I would suggest you toss the seasoning packet and use the spices in this recipe for an authentic Irish corned beef.

The next recipe is for an apple crumble. Here in the states we know it as a Brown Betty or a Cobbler. So what makes this one so special? Well besides the use of Irish oats (which can be substituted), this lovely crumble has a whiskey cream sauce made with Irish whiskey. What better way is there to finish a St Patrick’s Day meal than with an Irish dessert? The recipe is from Margaret Johnson. Ms Johnson is the author of 5 Irish cookbooks, has authored more than 200 food and travel articles in a number of publications, including the "Irish Echo," "Irish America Magazine," the "Los Angeles Times Syndicate," "Newsday," and Dublin's "Food and Wine" magazine.

 Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients:
 5 lb Corned-Beef brisket
 2 Whole cloves
 2 Bay Leaves
 8 Medium Potatoes, pared

Please Click Here For The Complete Recipe!

Shrimp Creole…

Do you save your left over bacon grease? Do you save those last little bits of left over chopped onions, celery and green peppers?

Save bacon grease.  I pour it into a jar and store in the refrigerator. Bacon grease has many uses, I use it grease my pan when I make meatloaf, and fry chicken in it. Some of my other uses for bacon grease is making gravy or a golden roux.

Since onions are not meant to be saved in a refrigerator after slicing, and you can’t leave them out without stinking up the house. Do you throw them away? Nope! I take leftover celery, onions and green peppers and chop them up. I have a zipper freezer bag, I keep in the freezer; I toss the “leftovers” into. This provides me a ready supply of seasoning blend for soups, stews, gumbo and other dishes that need this blend.

Since I already had a seasoning blend stored in the freezer, the only ingredient I had to purchase was the shrimp. If you watch the grocery adds, sometimes you can get bagged shrimp that have already been cleaned, on sale buy one get one free. I found one of these sales; I only spent $5.00 to make this dish.  

Ingredients:

2/3 cup fat (bacon drippings)

¾ cup flour, sifted

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper (you can do a mix of red and green bell peppers)

Click Here For The Complete Recipe!