Dublin Coddle and other Irish Staples

Well, it is that time of year again – Saint Patrick’s Day – March 17 – and for those who don’t know, Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, who, it is believed, brought the Christian faith to the far flung western isle 1,588 years ago.

Celebrating everything Irish all over the world with parades, music and food, this year the Irish Government has formally cancelled all parades and public gatherings in the interest of public health and safety due to the coronavirus pandemic. A similar thing happened nineteen years ago when the annual parade was cancelled due to the outbreak of the highly infectious foot and mouth disease.

As usual, St. Patrick’s Day occurs halfway through the Christian Lenten period before Easter – a time traditionally when many practising Christians would voluntarily give up something – as kids it might have been lollies, sweets and candies, later as adults, cigarettes, milk in the tea or coffee,  alcohol and so on. But then along comes St. Patrick’s Day (yippee!) and all bets are off. Recognised by the church as a holy day of obligation, the feast day had a special dispensatory clause which allowed all fasting people to resume their ‘vice’ for that day only – hence the widespread popularity of the day which led to widespread drunkeness and debauchery in some cases! Not that I know anything about that, of course.

Anyway, in honour of my country’s patron saint, I have decided to cook some traditional Irish food – Dublin Coddle and Irish Soda Bread which, when eaten together and washed down with a Guinness is about as Irish as I can get in this scary, pandemic time.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2020 to everyone!

Dublin Coddle

Ingredients

I kg. Good pork sausages	2 Tbsp. Of oil	450 g bacon rashers, roughly chopped
2 large onions sliced thickly	2 cloves of garlic, crushed	2 carrots sliced thickly
4 large potatoes, sliced thickly	Black pepper to taste	Chopped parsley
Bunch of fresh herbs – rosemary, thyme, sage	375 (at least) ml dry cider	3 Tbsp. plain flour

Method

• Put the flour into a strong plastic bag and season with salt and pepper.  Cut the sausages into thirds and then dip into the seasoned flour.
• Heat the oil in a thick-based pan and quickly seal the floured sausages in the hot oil for about three minutes.  Remove and set aside.
• Soften the onions and crushed garlic in the oil for a further 5 minutes.
• Put the sausages, chopped bacon, onion and garlic in a large pot with the sliced potatoes and carrots.  Tie the herbs together (use any herbs available or in, desperation, use ½ tsp. of mixed, dried herbs) and cover the lot with the dry cider.
• Bring to a point of boiling and then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer for at least an hour, or until the vegetables are cooked but not mushy.
• Serve in deep bowls and garnish with chopped parsley.  Accompany with draught Guinness and homemade soda bread.

(serves 6)

Irish Soda Bread

Spread generously with butter and thick strawberry jam, Irish Soda bread evokes childhood memories of summer when the weather was so hot that the tar on the road would bubble.  We’d put used ice-pop sticks into the tar and then chase each other around, trying to smear the tar on each other, knowing that whoever got smeared would be in trouble with their mum that night.  Anyway, I digress…

Ingredients – Basically divided into two types – Wet and Dry ingredients.

Dry

3 cups of wholegrain flour	1 cup of plain flour	1 level tsp. of Bicarb of Soda
½ tsp. of Salt	1 tsp. of wheat germ*	1 tsp. of crushed bran

WET

1½ cups of buttermilk (500 ml)

2 Tbsp. Of oil.

1 egg

Method

• Sieve together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Go easy on the Bicarb of Soda – less is more in this instance! By sieving the ingredients, a finer mix is achieved as well as adding air to the mixture. * I didn’y haver any wheat germ so I used two teaspoons of chia seeds instead.
• In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients.
• Add the wet to the dry. The mixture should be fairly sticky, so mix using a a flat bladed knife or a wooden spoon initially and then use your hands to make a smooth dough.
• Turn it into a greased baking tin to get a loaf shape, or more traditionally, shape the dough into a flattish round shape and then make a deep cross cut in the dough.  Sprinkle with a handful of plain flour and put in the middle tray of the oven (gas 200) for about 55 minutes.
• Turn out onto a wire rack to cook.  Eat while still warm if possible.

(serves 6)