Recipes: March 2010 Archives

The Suburban Banshee comes to the defense of corned beef-and-cabbage against the Authenticity Police -- and shares the secret history of Irish cowboys! Who knew?

Of course corned beef and cabbage is primarily an American Irish dish. What do you think the Irish were eating in Ireland back in the 1840’s, before they had to immigrate?

1. Nothing, once the Great Famine started. The potatoes were all blighted, a lot of other crops got too much rain to thrive, and the price of all other foodstuffs went up drastically.

2. Potatoes and cabbage, before the Great Famine started.

As for me, I skip the CB&C, not because it's Insufficiently Irish but because I just can't stand the stuff. I made the Guinness Beef Stew this year. Yum yum!

Deal Seeking Mom brings news of a free download of a cookbook by Rachel Allen ("one of the hottest TV chefs in Ireland", per Harper Collins) (and it's really an abridged version with recipes "selected by Kerrygold", but it's still free.)

The coupon code is KGLD-0319-2010-RACB and is good for the first 10,000 downloads. (Well, only 9,999 at most; I've already downloaded my copy.)

From the prosaic (baking mix, baking powder, mayonnaise) to the esoteric (mascarpone cheese, marshmallows, Kahlua): ingredients you can make at home

The recipe says that chicken planks are "Kinda like Chicken Fingers, ONLY BETTER." Not being a connoisseur of chicken fingers, I couldn't say if these are better, but they are positively GOOD. My husband loved them.

The recipe's here. I tweaked it by marinating the chicken in salted buttermilk and adding a dollop of reserved bacon grease to the frying oil.

YUM. YUM. I might make them for myself for lunch tomorrow.

Feminine Genius Allison posts a terrific recipe for Beef and Guinness Stew. I predict big points from my husband when I make this.