Fogarty's Cod Fish Pie - A Lenten Casserole

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I've had this "pie" at least a hundred times since I was a little girl. It's one of those dishes that people try to relegate to the back burner, but it always manages to push its way back to the front of the stove. Fish pie is great Lenten fare, and it usually ends up on the tables of the observant at least once during the Lenten season. Those of you who are not familiar with fish pies have probably had their kissin' cousin, Shepherd's Pie. Here, instead of ground lamb or beef, it's fish that is sauced and top with a thick blanket of mashed potatoes. Like many cooks, I enrich the sauce in which the fish cooks with cheese, despite  injunctions from food Nazi's who insist fish and cheese should not be served together. I also go all out and make a very rich potato topping for the pie. As a matter of fact, I make Champ, a potato dish that's much loved in Ireland, to cover the casserole. Champ looks like colcannon, another  potato dish that is native to the Northern Ireland. It's made by blending scallions or green onions into a base of rich and creamy mashed potatoes, and while it is great on its own, angel's sing when Champ is used to top a fish pie. It's also great with Italian sausage, but I'll save that discussion for another day. When I was quite young, my grandmother, the very Irish Maude, would add a handful of shrimp or chopped sea scallops to the white fish she used to make the pie. Back in the day, white fish, usually perch or cod could be bought at the supermarket in a frozen block for less than a dollar a pound, so Maude lived large when she made fish pie and added more expensive fish with abandon. She and my mother also shared a love of Finnan Haddie, so we often found that smoky addition in our pies as well. Now, I must be honest. There are those among you who will not like the pie even if it's made with lobster, and I suspect that most of you would not want to eat this on a daily basis, but it is good basic food and great for an occasional meatless meal. Good Friday is coming and that's a perfect day to give the pie a try. Here is how it's made.

"Emigrant" Soda Bread + The Real Deal

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I wasn't going to talk about soda bread this year. Recipes for it abound as St. Patrick's Day approaches, and there's not really much to add to those that already exist. I've obviously changed my mind, but I've done so for a reason. Most of the recipes I've seen are for a loaf that bears no resemblance to true Irish Soda Bread. The ingredients in the real deal are limited to flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. The versions we make here are called Emigrant Soda Bread in Ireland, because they contain ingredients that were not found in Irish peasant kitchens. Raisins and caraway seeds are English additions to the simple load, and what we call Irish Soda Bread should actually be called Spotted Dog. That being said, I set out to find the best soda bread I could, and I found an outstanding one in Ina Garten's cookbook The Barefoot Contessa at Home. Hers is the first recipe I'm sharing with you tonight. The second comes from the kitchens of Ballymaloe in Ireland and it is the best approximation of true Irish Soda Bread that I could find.

Now for the bread itself. The Irish began to use baking soda in the mid 1800's. Bread was made mostly in the summer months when potato stores had been exhausted and grains were needed to carry the poor through to the next harvest. They called the summer months "meal months" . Irish peasants lived, for the most part, on a diet of potatoes, grains and milk. Eggs, butter, zests, currants and nuts appeared only in the breads of English landholders or successful Irish emigres. True soda bread was cooked in a bastible, a lidded cast-iron pot, that was put right into the coals or on a turf fire. In the Southern part of the country, the bread was shaped into a round loaf that was scored with a cross that was made to "let the devil out" as the bread cooked. In Northern Ireland, the bread was baked in a flat circle called a farl. We'll get to those but let's first take a look at the Emigrant version of the bread.

Irish Potato Pancakes - Boxty

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is a reprise of a recipe I featured in 2009. It was part of a series that featured foods associated with festival of light celebrations that occur in December. I'm still not sure how boxty, Irish potato pancakes, ended up in that arc, but these pictures are undeniable proof they did. Here is how I saw the connection back then.

The winter solstice is nearly here and since recorded time we've tried to beat back its darkness with celebrations of light and fire. We adorn our trees and windows with lights and flickering tapers fill our homes with an artificial warmth and glow. The Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, begins next week and I realized I had posted no recipes for those who enjoy this wonderful celebration. I don't have many, but the ones I do have should be shared with others. My plan was to post recipes for latkes and tzimmes. Then, in what my Mother would call a flight of fancy, I started thinking of my paternal grandmother. Grandma Maude was Irish and more Catholic than the pope. I've mentioned in other posts that she spent her year traveling to the homes of her many children. She managed to rotate the dates so we all got to enjoy her company for one holiday or another. Well, today, in the middle of solstice preparations, memories of Lent with Grandma Maude came flowing back. Very old school, she was into what we, years ago, called the Black Fast. The particulars of that practice are best left to those of us who lived through it, but memories of Maude and days of fast and abstinence were triggered by, of all things, latkes. Grandma Maude had a very Irish recipe that she was convinced would carry the most egregious heathen through the Lenten season. Her weapon was boxty, an Irish potato cake that is far more dense than a latke. I'll tell you up front that it is delicious, but the only thing it has in common with a latke is its main ingredient, the potato. I learned to make latkes in the German and Scandinavian kitchens of my childhood. The goal was always a lacy, thin creation that when held to the air would allow the passage of light and not bend. Sounds easy, but it's not. My knuckles were regularly rapped until I perfected the technique. Maude's pancakes were thick and heavy and more likely to break a toe than emit light. The thing was, they were delicious, and as good in their own way, as the lacy cakes that came from the kitchens of others.

So, I have retrieved the recipe for boxty from my archives in hopes that you will make these clunky, but delicious, cakes part of your St. Patrick's Day celebration. Here is how they are made.

Colcannon for All Hollow's Eve - Away A While Recipe Favorites

Colcannon for All Hollow's Eve

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Back in the day, this was a perennial favorite on my Halloween table. Colcannon, a traditional Irish dish associated with Halloween, is made with potatoes and savoy cabbage and served with a well of butter in its center. It's simple and delicious and comes with folklore that's sure to please the curious or superstitious. The tale, as told to me, concerns the fate of unmarried women who would put the first and last spoonfuls of Halloween colcannon into a stocking and hang it on their doors. Their shared belief was that the first man who walked through the door would become their husband. Immigration statistics and the birth rate, all those years ago, lead me to believe this didn't work real well. Back then, the ingredients used to make colcannon could be found in any Irish country garden. The second bit of blarney revolved around the selection of a cabbage from that garden by a blindfolded, unmarried woman. The cabbage she selected would be used to make a colcannon into which a ring was hidden. Of course, the person who found the ring would be the next to marry. I must warn you that my recipe for colcannon uses classic ingredients but techniques that my grandmother would frown upon. There are two or three steps to assembling any colcannon. The meat, if used, should be cooked before the potatoes and the cabbage are started. I use a slab of bacon to make mine. Ham can also be used. I simmer it in water for about 45 minutes before dicing it. My potatoes are conventional enough, though I do steam rather than boil them. I prefer to cook my cabbage in a wok. It's the easiest way I know to assure crisp tender greens that aren't water logged. When it all is assembled it looks like a traditional colcannon, but there will be a hint of smoke to play against crisp cabbage. The recipe can be found here.

                    

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