Irish Pride!

at only 1/8th Irish and growing up in California I dont really know much about Irish cuisine . . .but it turns out most of my american friends dont know much beyond meat and potatoes either so I felt pretty comfortable making up a meal based on the family tradition (sans corn beef).  

I am still being lazy in terms of making posts but this is a pretty easy meal.  

boiled potatoes with carrots and cabbage

garlic barley

Irish soda bread

steamed cauliflower

spinach salad 

garlic Earth Balance

Potatoes and Carrots and Cabbage:

This is the old staple and in my family it was always made with a mix of spices which are pretty close to pickling spice.  I used vegetable stock picking spice, a bit of oil, a few bay leaves, half an onion and 4-20 cloves of garlic (I used somewhere around 8 but lost count).  The potatoes carrots go in as soon as the broth is made and the cabbage goes on top 20 minutes after with a lid to make it so everything steams together.  Put the heat on low and just let it simmer for about 35 minutes.  It can go longer but be careful or the potatoes will just fall apart.

There were about 5 lbs of potatoes and 2 lbs of carrots and a full head of cabbage with the core cut out.  Not much of a recipe but it is really that easy and comes out very tasty, just make sure your broth has a good flavor and all of the vegetables will have a good flavor!  ( keep the broth after cooking so you can make soup later)

Garlic Barley:

Barley cooks at 2:1 and I made 3 cups of barley with 6 cups of water (a bit of stock to make it extra savory).  Barley is a funny grain, something in the process of preparing it makes it so it come out dusty so make sure you rinse the barley before cooking it.  I tossed in some thyme, black pepper and salt; it cooks for 40 to 60 minutes and gets 4-500 cloves of raw garlic grated into it  (I used 5 cloves) and tossed the barley with about 1/8 cup olive oil and served it hot! 

Steamed Cauliflower:

Dice it into chunks toss in a steam basket in a pot with a few inches of water and steam for 15 min.  Season it as you like but I do Tarragon, black pepper and salt.  It doesn't have much going on but it goes great with a bit of garlic 'butter' is easy to make and in season ( so it is cheap right now)

Irish Soda Bread:

made it out of 'joy of cooking' using soy milk whisked with vinegar to make 'buttermilk' and Energy brand egg re-placer to bind it.  I was surprised that this simple recipe was so delicious!  I made a double recipe making sure to follow the directions of preparing the west separate from the dry.  The double batch made to very thin loaves (only an inch or two thick) but I think that is part of how it is suppose to be.  

Garlic Earth Balance:

this stuff really brings the meal together.  every dish made (yes even the salad!  ok not the salad) can have a dollop of garlic earth balance on top to add that oily/salty/garlicy awesomeness that made it so we didnt have as many left overs as I was hoping!  

I used a pot with boiling water poured into it to heat up a jar of earth balance until it was liquid.  Grated 3 cloves of garlic (into a half cup of EB) and then took it out of the hot water.  Giving the EB time to cool also gives it time to take on the flavor and for serving 8 people 1/2 cup was just enough . ..but dont worry about making too much it keeps well and can be used in almost any savory recipe that calls for oil or a spread! 

I served it with yellow mustard and garlic 'butter' often wrapping the potatoes and carrots up in a cabbage leaf.  The above plate is missing the barley but it was also delicious and even at 5-7 cups yield it was all gone by the end of the night! Using 3 medium heads of cauliflower made it so there was only a little left over by the end (which was eaten with breakfast in the morning). The Irish soda bread had two pieces left at the end of the meal which were happily eaten rather than put away (not to self  . .. triple recipe for Irish soda bread).