Poor man’s dish but fit for a King!
In honor of my husbands family tree I decided to make this potato dish this week for St. Patrick’s Day to go along with some corn beef.
Back before the Irish Potato famine the average Irishman ate 5.5 lbs. of potatoes each day. Potatoes were a staple diet for rich and poor and with dwellings being so small, there was not a lot of room for kitchens like we have today for storage of food. A meal of potatoes need only to be dug, washed and either boiled or roasted. Potatoes Colcannon is an Irish dish similar to the British dish Bubbles and Squeak and potatoes contain almost all the vitamins we need. We just can’t eat too much of a good thing.
Back when my husband was in college at the University of Missouri – Rolla, St. Pat’s weekend was one of the biggest party weekends of the year. The main street would be painted with a green stripe down the center and all the fraternities would work on these elaborate mechanical floats (this was an engineering school) for the St. Patty’s Day parade and like I said in an earlier post, they dyed everything green. If the guys didn’t have a nice beard grown by St. Pat’s, they would get a green beard painted on their faces. So, whenever St. Pat’s rolls around each year, it brings back memories of party weekends I attended while he was at school.
My sister gave me this recipe a few years ago. I love cabbage, I love mashed potatoes, and combine the two along with some milk, butter, onions, and cheese you have a wonderful side dish to your evening meal.
1″ pieces of cabbages gets sauteed a few minutes.
The potatoes, cabbage, onions and cheese gets all mixed together.
Put in individual ramekins or casserole dish.
Potatoes Colcannon
Ingredients
- 4-5 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
- 2 c. green cabbage coarsely chopped
- 6 green onions chopped
- 1/2 c. white or yellow onion chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic chopped fine
- 1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
- 1 Tbsp. parsley
- 1 stick butter
- milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In 1-2 tablespoons oil, saute the cabbage, garlic, and white/yellow onion for a few minutes until the cabbage starts to get tender. Set aside. Boil the potatoes until fork tender. Drain and mash with 1/2-1 stick butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Add enough milk to mash to desired consistency. Into the mashed potatoes, fold in the cabbage/onion mixture. Add in the cheese (reserve a little for top) and the green onions (add a few for sprinkling on top).
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March 17, 2015 at 5:02 am[…] FROM THE PAST: Potatoes Colcannon is another Irish dish that I serve often on St. Patrick’s day or any other time. If you […]