Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

[osprey_archer]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In honor of the holiday I broke out my favorite Irish cookbook, and made:

Sausage rolls, made from sausages wrapped in puff pastry. Not as delicious as the sausage rolls I remember from Great Britain; the grease from the sausages soaked through the puff pastry on the bottom, which detracted from the eating experience. I wonder if the problem may have been from my sausage choice, though? I used bangers from Trader Joe’s, on the grounds that they were Irish, but maybe they’re too greasy for this sort of thing.

Mashed potato pancakes, which I had originally intended to keep for a St. Patrick’s Day food, but I loved them so much that I’ve been making them all year. Mix two parts leftover mashed potatoes to one part flour and a little bit of salt; cook them on a medium-high griddle in butter, two minutes per side (or however long it takes to get them as golden brown and delicious as you like), top with sour cream, nom. They would be good with chives.

Guinness stew, which is delicious, and unlike potato pancakes fiddly enough that I might successfully save it for a once-a-year St. Patrick’s Day treat. I really like the idea of having special foods for holidays, although so far the only tradition I’ve successfully implemented is making & decorating sugar cookies at Christmas. But if it’s difficult that only makes it more glorious if I succeed, right?

Comments

[legionseagle]

Did you keep the skins on the sausages or not? I always use sausage meat with a grated (not chopped) onion, a lot of ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp of dry (hot) mustard powder to every 300g of meat. The grease does soak but it caramelises, perhaps as a result of the sugar in the onion, and so it re-crisps.

[asakiyume]

**mouth waters**

[osprey_archer]

I kept the skins on, but it did occur to me as I was trying to eat them that taking the sausage casings off would improve the experience - the meat and the puff pastry might stop behaving as if they hadn't been properly introduced if there weren't the casing keeping htem apart.

[legionseagle]

Yes, that's probably it. It's a pain if you can't get sausage meat but snipping through the casings and squeezing or scraping it out makes a real difference, even if it puts a few minutes onto the prep time. Apart from anything else, I think it changes the pace of the ooze.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, I was just going to say that while I've never made sausage rolls from scratch (you can buy them ready made & frozen in bags here), you don't usually use sausages in them, you use sausage meat.

[osprey_archer]

If I could find nice frozen sausage rolls here I would snap them up in a heartbeat. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough...

[marycatelli]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I went to my parents, where my mother had made corned beef, cooked with potatoes and carrots and cabbage, which is the Irish-American dish for the day.

[osprey_archer]

I've never been fond of corned beef, but cabbage can be delicious depending how it's cooked.

[asakiyume]

That is a *very* good point about fiddliness being linked to once-a-year-ness. It's hard to resist making things at other times of year if they're easy to make.

... Also, this entry makes me hungry.

[osprey_archer]

I suppose eating something more times a year than just the one holiday doesn't necessarily ruin its holiday tradition bona fides: I have a fruit salad I like to make for the Fourth of July, with blueberries, bananas, and either raspberries or strawberries (or both), which is still festive even though I do sometimes make it at other times.

But a food is *more* festive if it's a once-a-year kind of thing.

[brigdh]

I LOVE mashed potato pancakes! When I was a kid, my grandmother used to make them as a snack for me all year round, so I support your choice to let them escape St Patrick's Day.

[osprey_archer]

They're so delicious and easy! The perfect side dish for just about anything that needs a side dish.