Stella's Place

This ^^^ is what I am eating on St. Patrick’s Day! The traditional favorite is accompanied by root veggies and cabbage. My mother called that a “boiled dinner”, and she also made it with ham, as well as corned beef. I think I will serve mine with brussels sprouts and carrots, and maybe I’ll ‘cheat’ and have some potato.

There are many dishes that the Irish eat which I enjoyed as a child growing up, even though we never considered them to be Irish. Most of them contained potatoes in some form or another. Potatoes and beets. Potatoes and beets and corned beef (red flannel hash). Potatoes and cabbage and/or onions (colcannon). Potatoes are probably my favorite food. Did you ever wonder what the Irish ate before they had potatoes which, after all, came from the New World?

The potato was introduced in Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589. He brought them back from the Americas and planted them on his estate near Youghal, County Cork.

What was Irish food like for the 1500 years between Patrick and potatoes?

Continue reading →