St. Patrick's Day | I Can Cook That

Dubliner Cheese Toasties with Prosciutto and Tomato

Note: I was sent a coupon for a Kerrygold Product through Cooking Light Bloggers’ Connection. Opinions are mine alone.

We’ve had a rainy few days around Philly. Whenever there is crummy weather, there is only one meal that will suffice: Grilled Cheese!

Kerrygold has a nicely upgraded version of grilled cheese on their website (adorably named “toasties“) made with their Dubliner Cheese, an aged cow’s milk similar to cheddar. These Dubliner Cheese Toasties with Prosciutto and Tomato are topped with prosciutto, arugula, and tomato slices, yum!

Kerrygold products are a favorite of mine, you can always find a bit of gold shimmering from my butter dish. Their cheese is also amazing! The Kerrygold brand is a line of all-natural, grass-fed cheeses and butters crafted at dairy farms throughout Ireland. The hormone-free cheese and butters are available around the world but still come from milk supplied from independent dairy farmers within the Emerald Isle. (I’ve used Kerrygold’s Garlic and Herb Butter and my trusty Dubliner Cheese before in this post for Spinach-Chive Potato Bites.)

Ingredients (makes one sandwich):

2 slices marble rye
2 1/2 ounces Dubliner Cheese, thinly sliced
1/2 ounce thinly sliced prosciutto
1/4 cup arugula leaves
2 to 3 slices tomato
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons Kerrygold Irish Salted Butter, at room temperature

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Spinach-Chive Potato Bites with Kerrygold Cheese and Butter

You can always find the signature gold wrapping with green logo in my fridge. Kerrygold is my go-to butter brand for when butter quality is key. My favorite way to use it though is just on a slice of toasted Rosemary Olive Oil Bread, yum!

The Kerrygold brand is a line of all-natural, grass-fed cheeses and butters crafted at dairy farms throughout Ireland. The hormone-free cheese and butters are available around the world but still come from milk supplied from independent dairy farmers within the Emerald Isle. My relatives in Ireland actually own some dairy farms so this concept is pretty close to my heart.

Needless to say, I was so excited to make a recipe using both Kerrygold Butter and Cheese. Through Cooking Light Bloggers’ Connection, I was sent coupons to buy and use some yummy Kerrygold products. I decided to adapt a recipe from the Kerrygold website.

Ingredients:

Potatoes:

15 small yellow, white or red potatoes (about 2 pounds)
1/2 package (3.5 ounces) Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese, shredded, divided
2 tablespoons Kerrygold Garlic and Herb Butter
3 tablespoons milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Filling:

1 tablespoon Kerrygold Garlic and Herb Butter
1 cup spinach leaves, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped

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Clover Cocktail

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have already shared an Irish-themed main meal, bread, baked good, and sweet treat so I thought this time around a drink was in order, this Clover Cocktail!

Fine Wine & Good Spirits sent me this really yummy spin on an Irish coffee called the Clover Cocktail, which is frozen instead of hot.

Ingredients (makes 1 serving; multiply as needed):

1 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. Baileys Irish Cream
1 oz. Kahlúa
1 oz. espresso
1 cup ice (~6 ice cubes)
whipped cream
chocolate shavings

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Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! One of my favorite memories growing up was my mom making Irish Soda bread during March. It is a fairly straightforward bread and is really quite easy.

The bread uses baking soda instead of yeast as its leavening agent. Irish Soda Bread is also made with buttermilk that reacts with the baking soda to make it rise. Soda bread is a mostly savory bread, but it usually has some kind of dried fruit in it (raisins, currants, etc) that add a bit of sweetness.

My mom’s version has caraway seeds in it that add a little bit of an anise flavor to it (caraway seeds are typically found in rye bread) and I just love it. I wanted to make this with currants but couldn’t find any, so I used raisins. Feel free to substitute golden raisins or currants.

Ingredients:

3 cups coarse wholemeal flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons butter, chilled
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 cup raisins or other dried fruit
2 cups buttermilk, or more if needed

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Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, which means Americans nationwide are gearing up for a corned beef and cabbage feast. Despite being Irish-American myself, I’ve never eaten this St. Patrick’s Day staple before. My boyfriend, a huge corned beef fan, was really looking forward to having some, so I finally decided it was time to try to make it. I choose to adapt this recipe from Food Network for Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage so that I could use my slow cooker and not have to watch over it for hours.

Ingredients:

4 pounds raw corned beef brisket
Pickling Spice (included with brisket)
1 medium rutabaga, halved, peeled and cut into wedges
5 large carrots, cut into 4-inch pieces
1 bag red potatoes
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 leek, white and light-green parts only, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, roughly chopped
1/3 cup Dijon mustard with horseradish
1/3 cup crème fraiche or sour cream

Irish Potato Candy

I am Irish, on my father’s side. So, more appropriately, I’m Irish American (among other things). Even more specifically, I am Irish Philadelphian. (Yes, I may have made that phrase up. But there are a bunch of us so I think the phrase should exist.)

Now I’m sure you were very interested in what my heritage is, but there is a reason I’m telling you this. Philadelphia has this… candy? dessert? … we will go with “treat”… called an Irish Potato Candy.

Irish Potato Candy is a mixture of cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and coconut rolled into a little ball and coated in cinnamon. So it ends up looking kind of like a potato, hence the name.

I’m under the impression Irish Potato Candy is essentially a Philadelphia-only thing. Friends from New York and D.C. both look at me like I’m crazy when I bring these up. But they are delicious and an integral part of every St. Patrick’s Day for me, so I needed to share them!

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
2 cups sweetened coconut, lightly packed
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Black and Tan Brownies

I mentioned these delicious brownies in my “A Taste of Ireland” post over the weekend. They were so yummy that I thought they deserved their own post. Also, because it’s technically two brownie recipes together, I thought step-by-step photos might prove helpful. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Tan Brownies:

6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Cooking spray

Black Brownies:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Guinness Stout
4 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt

A Taste of Ireland

With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching I have been thinking back to my trip to Ireland quite a bit. I had such a great time that I wanted to relive a little piece of it, through food of course! I was chosen to be a part of Foodbuzz’s 24×24 for March so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make some Irish treats. I invited my Dad, boyfriend and Aunt who all came on the trip with me to Ireland as well as my grandpa, who grew up in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and my mom, who didn’t get to do the trip with us. I honestly was a bit nervous about this undertaking, I didn’t want to disappoint my grandpa or mess up a traditional meal!

We began with a mini traditional Irish breakfast for an appetizer. An Irish breakfast consists of black and white pudding, bangers (sausage), rashers (bacon), a fried egg, baked beans, and a fried tomato. Because this was just an appetizer, I used quail eggs instead of traditional eggs. I found the black and white pudding, bangers and rashers on foodireland.com, a great website for Irish food products.

A traditional Irish breakfast is quite the meal. In my grandfather’s words “you should eat a good breakfast, because you don’t know when you’ll eat again.” My appetizer version still included all parts of an Irish breakfast in much smaller portions. I personally am not a fan of black pudding or bangers, but I love the rest of an Irish breakfast and was so happy to have this as an appetizer.

The main course was a beef stew. I used my Irish stew recipe I made last year, but substituted beef instead of lamb and omitted the peas.

The Guinness adds such a nice flavor to this stew. I suggest making this ahead of time and freezing it. Stew always tastes better when the broth has had time to thicken.

I also made some Brown Soda Bread to eat with the Irish breakfast and the stew. Soda bread contains flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, butter and buttermilk. My version also had raisins and caraway seeds for extra flavor.

Soda bread is traditionally served with Irish butter and/or jam (I’m a fan of black currant jam, yum!)

We were pretty darn full from the stew and Irish breakfast but there was still dessert to be had. I went off of the traditional for dessert, making a Black and Tan brownie based off of a Cooking Light recipe, but made them in a 9×9 pan and cooked them for 45 minutes. I also cut them into huge pieces, making 9 total.

They were served with a scoop of ice cream and some Irish coffee and tea. The phrase Black and Tan comes from the nickname given to English soldiers that came to Ireland to suppress the 1916 Easter Rising, which eventually became the name of a half Guinness and half Bass beer in America. Black and Tans really aren’t popular in Ireland, but they still make a cute idea for a brownie! (I decided these yummy brownies needed their own post. Check it out here)

My family seemed to really enjoy the meal. The Irish breakfast was a big hit but I think the Irish soda bread was the real star of the night. My grandpa even requested to take some home with him. I am glad we were given the chance to sit down, enjoy some Irish food, and talk about Ireland again. Now, to plan our next trip over there…

Irish Stew

I joined a food swap, and the first swap is coming up next week, so I decided to make Irish Stew.

While researching Irish Stew, I couldn’t find a recipe I liked, so I decided to wing it.

I also have yet to attempt to use my slow cooker, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to do so. Here’s hoping it turns out ok…

Ingredients:

3 medium-size onions, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon garlic powder, or 3 garlic cloves, minced
4 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into chunks (can substitute in beef)
7 carrots, chopped
3 leeks, chopped
3 tablespoons pearl barley
5 cups beef stock
1 bottle of Guinness
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1 bouquet of parsley, thyme, and bay leaves, plus more parsley for garnish
6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped (leave this to prep last)
1 cup frozen peas

the ingredients took up my entire counter

Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting

With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to test out my recipe for Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting before the big day to make sure it didn’t need any tweaking.

Guinness cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes that use a dark stout to enhance the flavor.

To keep with the theme, I decided to also make Bailey’s frosting.

Ingredients (makes 24 cupcakes)

Guinness Cupcakes:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz bottle of Guinness (or any other dark stout) – if your bottle is more than this, just measure out 12 oz
1 (4 oz) stick of butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

Baileys Frosting:

2 (4 oz) sticks of butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
1/4 tsp salt
8 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar

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