Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheesecake drizzled with chocolate is a delicious way to top a St. Patrick’s Day meal.
If St. Patrick’s Day is here, can spring be far behind?
“When after the Winter alarmin',
The Spring steps in so charmin',
So fresh and arch
In the middle of March,
Wid her hand St. Patrick's arm on...”
~Alfred Percival Graves (Irish poet)
When Graves penned that verse, he may well have been experiencing a winter much like this one that has roamed ferociously over parts of the United States. In any event, he sounds as pleased about the arrival of spring as most of us probably feel about it now. As he so eloquently expressed it, St. Patrick’s Day heralds the arrival of Spring and after the unusual cold we’ve had here in the not-so-sunny South, I’m sure many of us are prayng his predictions hold true this year!
Along with Spring and St. Patrick’s Day comes parades, festivals, images of leprechauns, pots of gold, shamrocks and green. Lots and lots of green. Green beer, green food, green clothes. Chicagoans even dye their river bright green every year.
Green has been associated with St. Patrick's day and Ireland for many years, but the truth of the matter is that it was once considered the color most treasured by the faerie folk; and parents wouldn't dare dress their children in green on St. Patty's day, for fear of having them stolen by these supernatural creatures. Today, it is one of the three colors of the Irish flag, and is worn with great pride.
St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion in Ireland and Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17 until the 1970s. In 1995, the government there began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. The multi-day St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions and fireworks shows, attracted nearly 1,000,000 celebrants last year.
Irish food is not usually lauded as special but it has been an integral part of American cuisine for many years. In fact, Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration dinner menu included Corned Beef served with cabbage and parsley potatoes as the main entrée while the traditional Saint Patrick's Day meal is corned beef, boiled potatoes, and mashed cabbage served with Guiness of course. Lincoln’s dinner differed in that it opened with Mock Turtle Soup and ended with Blackberry Cobbler. No Guiness for this repast though. Just coffee.
Today, there are new additions to Irish menus as well as modern versions of most old recipes but many prefer the more traditional methods. A mixture of both is included here for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration. NOTE: I’ve tried to leave Irish spellings and terminology intact as much as possible and inserted some clarifications and conversions for convenience sake.
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Irish Lamb Stew
2 lbs. cubed, boneless leg of lamb
2 medium onions, chopped
2 T. flour
1 t. salt
1/4 t. rosemary
1 lb. potatoes, cut into pieces
2 small rutabagas, cubed
1/4 c. frozen onions
3 T.oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 c. beef stock
Black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
6 carrots sliced
1 lb. frozen peas
Cut lamb into cubes. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan, add lamb and cook until lightly browned, remove from pan. Add onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add flour and stir, heat until mixture browns. Gradually add stock while stirring.
Return meat to saucepan. Add salt, pepper, rosemary and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until meat is almost tender. Add potatoes, carrots and turnips. Cook 30 minutes longer. Add peas and onions and continue cooking until peas are tender, about 10-15 minutes.
Fadge
2 lb. unpeeled "old" potatoes (cured)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 stick (4 T.) butter
3 T. flour
1-1/2 T. chopped parsley
1-1/2 T. chopped chives
1-1/2 T. chopped lemon thyme (these three herbs mixed, opt)
Creamy milk
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Seasoned flour
Bacon fat or butter for frying
Boil the potatoes in their jackets, pull off the skins and mash straight away. Add the egg, butter, flour and herbs (if using) and mix well. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, adding a few drops of creamy milk (whole milk) if the mixture is too stiff.
Shape into a 1" round and then cut into eight pieces. Dip in seasoned flour. Bake on a griddle over an open fire or fry in bacon fat or melted butter on a gentle heat. Cook the fadge until crusty and golden on one side, then flip over and cook on the other side (about 4-5 minutes on each side). Serve on its own on hot plates with a blob of butter melting on top
Colcannon
4 cups mashed potatoes (Real Irish spuds only please)
1-1/2 cups cabbage, cooked and chopped fine
1/2 cup butter (real butter is best)
1/2 c. evaporated milk or cream
3/4 cup leeks or onion, chopped very fine
Few strips bacon/or bacon grease
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
A thimble
A button
A ring
A coin
In large cooking pan, fry bacon; add onion and sauté. Discard bacon and grease. Add all of the above ingredients, except the cabbage and play pretties, and cook over low heat while blending together. Turn the heat to medium and add the chopped cabbage. The mixture will have a pale green cast. Stir occasionally until the mixture is warm enough to eat. Put in the pretties and eat very cautiously. Serves about 6 healthy eaters.
Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake
250g (8-3/4 oz.) choc-chip biscuits (cookies)
75g (2-2/3 oz.) butter, melted
3 t. (1 T.) gelatine (gelatin)
1/4 c. (60ml) water
2 x 250g (2 8-oz. pkg.) packets cream cheese
3/4 c. (165g) caster sugar
300ml (10-1/2 oz.) thickened cream
1/3 cup (80ml) Baileys Irish Cream liqueur
2 egg whites
Blend or process biscuits until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Transfer to a large bowl; add butter, stir to combine. Press biscuit mixture evenly over the base of a 24cm springform tin (inside top measurement 23cm); refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
Sprinkle gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug; stand the jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until the gelatine dissolves; cool for 5 minutes.
Beat cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the cream; beat until thick. Stir in gelatine mixture and liqueur. Beat egg whites in a clean small bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; fold into cheese mixture. Pour mixture over base in the prepared tin. Cover, refrigerate for about 4 hours or until set. Serve cheesecake with chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Sauce
200g (7 oz.) dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup (250ml) thickened cream
2 T. Irish Cream liqueur
Combine the chocolate and cream in a small heavy-based saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Stir in the liqueur.
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A little Irish trivia for your amusement:
Questions:
1. Where is it claimed that leprechauns bury their pots of gold?
2. Where did the faeries keep kidnapped brides and babies?
3. In St. Patrick’s time, who ranked as high as kings?
4. What was St. Patrick rumored to have removed from Ireland?
5. St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in what American city?
6. What two rivers are dyed green every year on St. Patrick’s Day in the United States?
7. A popular Irish dish of shredded cabbage, minced onions and melted butter is known as?
8. What is an Irish shillegah?
9. What was the birth name of St. Patrick?
10. How long did St. Patrick serve as a missionary?
11. Who began the custom of pinching those who don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?
12. Is it true or false that all lent restrictions are dropped on St. Patrick’s Day?
13. How did St. Patrick drive all the snakes out of Ireland?
14. Was it really snakes that St. Patrick drove from Ireland?
15. Where was St. Patrick born?
16. Which city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade garners the largest viewing audience?
17. What did St. Patrick consider himself to be at the age of 16?
18. St. Patrick was canonized by which pope?
19. Which group established the St. Patrick’s Festival?
20. Which service for fairies are leprechauns said to perform?
21. What was St. Patrick’s Latin name?
22. What was St. Patrick’s father’s occupation?
23. Why is St. Patrick’s Day celebrated on March 17th?
24. In what year did St. Patrick’s Day become a public holiday in Ireland?
25. What color, other than green, was once associated with St. Patrick’s Day?
26. The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs in which city each year?
27. The largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the UK is held in which city?
28. In what year did New York City celebrate its first St. Patrick’s Day parade?
29. What symbol is most commonly associated with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations?
30. The circle in the middle of a Celtic Cross represents what?
Answers:
1. At the end of the rainbow
2. In fairy mounds for up to 100 years. Some farmers still will not disturb small lumpy hills on their land because they believe spirits are in them.
3. Poets. St. Patrick was so taken with Irish poet Caoilte that he declared all Irish tales be told “where every third word have melody.”
4. Snakes
5. Boston in 1737
6. The Chicago River and the San Antonio River
7. Colcannon
8. A big walking stick.
9. Maewyn Succat
10. 30 years
11. Children
12. True
13. By pounding on drums
14. Snakes are not indigenous to Ireland and it is commonly believed that serpents were likely a metaphor for druidic religions which steadily disappeared from Ireland in the centuries after St. Patrick planted the seeds of Christianity on the island.
15. Wales
16. New York
17. A pagan
18. None. He was never formally canonized
19. The Irish Government
20. Making their shoes
21. Patricius
22. He was an alderman
23. It is the day St. Patrick was said to have died
24. 1903
25. Blue
26. Montreal
27. Birmingham, England
28. 1762. The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. In 1848, several Irish Aid societies united to form one gigantic NYC St. Paddy’s parade. With 150,000 participants, it holds the distinction of being the largest civilian parade in the USA. Nearly 3,000,000 watchers line a 1.5-mile route to watch the procession that takes more than five hours to pass by.
29. Shamrocks
30. The sun
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