Cookery From Across The Pond

If I was talking to you right now instead of writing to you, you would think me rude, crass, manner-less; a git. That is because I am eating a plate-full of ‘Bubble n’ Squeak’. Yeah. That’s right - ‘Bubble n’ Squeak’. I'm typing with my mouth full. When I was married to Paul, the original Brit, way back in another era, I learned how to make this. My understanding of Bubble and Squeak is that it’s a delicious mix of leftovers. But it has to be just the right leftovers, and I don’t always have that right combination. Well, howdy, I had the proper combination today. Ohh, mghy, thish izh delischoush.

Yesterday was March 17th, St Patrick’s Day. As does any Good American, I wanted to celebrate this important holiday in proper fashion. But no green beer for me, noohoohoo. I decided to cook up an Irish dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Only I didn’t know anything about how to do this, so of course I Googled it. Funnily enough, I came across a great article (http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/2Kitch/aCBeefCabge.html) that said the Irish never did have this as a staple meal. Apparently they still don’t. Some pubs in Ireland do serve it, but it is for the tourists. According to the above mentioned article, one person said, “Pints. I eat pints.” Sounds pretty Irish to me.

Well, I wanted this to be authentic, so what did the Irish eat? Seems that they ate more pork, even bacon – if they could afford meat. I looked up some recipes. I did find a recipe for an Irish boiled dinner, but it called for beef. I decided to use the recipe for basic guidelines and make up my own recipe, using bacon or pork. Actually, when I cook, or rather, when I used to cook, it was almost impossible for me to follow the recipe exactly. I almost always ‘tweak’ it, and almost always have great results. So for this Irish-minded holiday I decided to include potatoes, carrots, turnips, and of course cabbage. I invited my mother and my sister Roni. This was gonna be fun, right? (I don’t have any pictures of the meal, but it's just as well).

I got almost two pounds of thick-sliced bacon, along with some pieces and ends. It was beautiful bacon, with a good amount of actual meat, well marbled with fat. I also got some pork just to add volume. I was afraid that all bacon would be too rich, especially for my mother’s 93-year-old digestion. I sautéed the bacon, then added it to a large pot with some water. Well, it said ‘boiled’ and that is how you boil. You have to have water. I sautéed 3 cloves of garlic and 1 ½ sliced onions and added that to the pot, along with the pork pieces. I thought of adding a tich of rosemary, (there I go again – fighting even following my own made-up recipe) but decided against it because rosemary originated in the middle east; not very Irish. I took some nice, narrow and long carrots and scrubbed them and cut them in two-inch pieces; I quartered 2 turnips, and quartered 4 medium potatoes with their jackets on. I seasoned with salt and pepper. I also prepared 1 head of cabbage to add later. I cut the cabbage into 6 wedges and ‘fixed’ each wedge with toothpicks, and set the wedges aside.

Then I boiled the hell out of the bacon/pork/potato and vegetable mixture. It looked to me like there wasn’t enough water, so I added about a pond of water. I boiled it at medium high heat for 3 ½ hours. Remember that original recipe I found? It said to do this, so I did. About the last hour, I salted the cabbage wedges and added them to the top of the pot and replaced the lid. I also made Irish Soda Bread. It is not leavened with yeast, but with – surprise – soda, but you still have to knead it quite a bit. I don’t know what I did wrong, but there was not enough flour and too much buttermilk so it wouldn’t form up into a ‘rough ball’; it was more like slurpy soup. So, in addition to adding handfuls of flour, I kneaded it and kneaded it and kneaded it until I decided I didn’t need it no more! No, actually, I did keep with it. It said to bake it in a cast iron skillet. I love looking for any reason to cook or bake in cast iron. Even the recipe for the Boiled Dinner said to use a cast iron Dutch Oven, but alas, I don’t have one.

For a drink, I got white grape juice and added a hint of food color to make a light green drink. And dessert was Apple Crisp, from the ancient Betty Crocker Cookbook that I gave Shawn so many years ago. Yes, I did alter this recipe, too. I reduced the amount of brown sugar from 2/3 C to barely ½ C, and barely ½ C of butter. (I only use real butter. If I’m going to eat something decadent, the flavor better be dang worth it).

Guests arrived and soon it was time to serve our dinner. I served it ‘blue plate’ style – I served up each individual plate from the pot on the stove. It looked funky, except the bread, which I served warm, with – yep, butter. The food was bland. So much for ‘turning out great almost every time.' I think I used too much water. I’ve heard jokes about Irish food, how there is a darn good reason there are no Irish restaurants. Everyone was nice about it, but I was just honest – I said, “I don’t like it much. It’s ok if you don’t either.” Roni said, “Well, it’s about trying to be Irish for a day, so it’s fun!” I replied, “If this is what it’s supposed to taste like, then I guess I’m a pretty good Irish cook.”

So today, I had lots of potatoes and carrots and onions left, along with some very soupy bacon and pork. I cooked the bacon and pork down so now it was like a thick sauce covering the meat. Then I chopped up the potatoes and vegetables, except the cabbage, and threw it all together into a large cast iron skillet for Bubble and Squeak. It had the flavor of the potatoes and vegetables and the smoky bacon. I thought it was delicious! Google it – you would not believe the wide variety of ingredients included in various recipes. It was great fun, after all! Love you all. Victoria J Mecham