Irish

This recipe was given to me by Jean Dix from Howth, Co. Dublin. She devised it for her daughter Sophie's birthday, who was the critical taster. It's a brilliant one to do with children, as there is no cooking involved. Unlike many other chocolate biscuit cake recipes, it cuts beautifully even straight out of the fridge and keeps well wrapped in clingfilm for at least 2 weeks.

This is an interesting twist on our beautiful soda bread. Look for dried cranberries in the larger supermarkets or any health food shop should stock them. This is my favourite bread that we serve as part of our bread selection in the evening.

Editor's Note: Serve this sauce with Cathal Armstrong's Corned Beef

The beef has to be started 17 days before you want to eat it. Once it's cooked, you can store it refrigerated in its cooking liquid for up to 3 days and reheat it by simmering it in water until it's warm all the way through, about 20 minutes.

This is a lovely crunchy and tangy accompaniment to cold meats and salads. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator and use within a few days.

Mary Fitzgerald, Wexford: Gardener and internet enthusiast Three generations of my family have eaten this dish: we used to make it to use up my father's seasonal harvest of spinach. I now grow spinach in my own garden, along with everything from sorrel and runner-beans to beetroot and rhubarb, and make this pie regularly.

This comforting broth has the flavour of home at Easter for me. You'll need brisket or silverside for this recipe, and the cooking process is long and slow, but it makes the meat tender and juicy.

Maureen Butler, Meath: Bridge-playing mother of four As a child growing up in Dublin, we always had this served to us at the end of the week when all that was left were rashers, sausages and potatoes. Everything was put into the one pot and cooked. It was delicious, particularly on a cold winter's day.

Connie McEvoy, Louth: Retired farmer and craft expert As the eldest of ten, from the age of 12 I would make several cakes of this wheaten bread every Saturday based on my grandmother's recipe. We always mixed it by hand and I still measure it by hand, using four large fistfuls of wholemeal flour and two smaller fistfuls of plain flour.

In the melting pot of New Orleans culture, our Irish heritage is one of the lesser-known components. However, the Irish played a pivotal role in the history and development of this great city. Lauren's ancestors' landing here can be traced to the year 1825. Today, many Irish pubs are scattered around town, and we refer to the area where many immigrants settled as the Irish Channel. Every year, in addition to attending local St. Patrick's Day parades and festivities, we like to celebrate the Irish by making this recipe.

This traditional Irish cake uses a porter, such as Guinness, Beamish, or Murphy's, and is a deliciously rich and moist fruit cake. Make it a few days in advance of the celebratory event (it's perfect for St Patrick's Day) if you like, and it will improve even more!

Guinness is considered by its many aficionados to be extremely creamy, but when you add it to Champagne or prosecco, its fruitiness emerges as well. The proportions are roughly two parts bubbly to one part Guinness, but you can mix it to taste. It's a bit of a novelty drink, but, like Irish Coffee, it's found all over Ireland. Black Velvet is a terrific party drink. It's Irish, you can mix it to order as guests arrive, it's delicious—and it stretches your Champagne farther!

Boxty are traditional potato pancakes that are particularly loved in the Northern counties. They can be served as a potato side dish rather than mashed or boiled potatoes or as part of an Irish Breakfast . This is my husband Isaac's take on boxty, he uses cream and not too much flour so they're good and rich.

People—not just the Irish—have been eating blood puddings for centuries, in cultures all around the world. No Irish fry is truly complete without at least a slice of black and a slice of white pudding. And it's not just for breakfast anymore. Talented Irish chefs have found ways to incorporate it into salads and main dishes. Black pudding recipe vary wildly throughout Ireland; some include barley, breadcrumbs, and flour, but oatmeal is the old-fashioned thickener. Be sure it's steel-cut or pinhead oatmeal, and cook it until just tender. Individual nubs of oats should be visible in the final product. Store-bought versions will always be made in sausage casings, unlike this recipe, packed into a loaf pan.
It is far easier to buy black pudding ready-made, and there are lots of artisan producers making truly worthy black versions. But if you're able to come into possession of fresh pig's blood, you'll be all set to make this recipe. And if not—well, you'll know precisely what a good black pudding should contain.

"Real" shortbread is typically made with a little rice flour, which gives it that dry and delicate crunch. Instead of seeking rice flour, you can get an excellent result by using cornstarch to help achieve the classic texture. Sprinkle on a little green sanding sugar to celebrate "the day that's in it," as the Irish say.

Joellyn Sullivan is co-proprietor of the famous Silky O'Sullivan's on Beale Street in Memphis, where pizza, oysters, barbecue sandwiches, Cajun sandwiches, po' boys, barbecue ribs, and other foods are consumed indoors and outdoors to the tunes of guest musicians in a yearlong St. Patrick's Day scene. Her husband and co-proprietor, Silky, is an international barbecue rock star. They are longtime friends and Barbecue Royalty. Joellyn was kind enough to share this recipe with us, a variation on the recipe she gave to Chef Paul for leg of lamb at the World Cup Barbecue Championship years ago in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland, where she took home the blue ribbon for lamb in 1989.

This traditional Irish potato dish can be assembled up to 2 hours ahead and then browned just before serving.

This Irish condiment, sold in jars under the name Patum Peperium, was created in 1828 and is still made by only one company, from a secret blend of anchovy, butter, herbs, and spices. The story goes that the man who created it presumed that ladies’ taste buds were too delicate for this hearty anchovy spread. As my version demonstrates, I disagree.

Since both my parents worked full-time, when I was 2 weeks old they hired a seemingly proper English lady to take care of me. But Ammie was not the mild mannered woman she appeared to be. In fact, she turned out to be the quirkiest third parent you could ever imagine. She fed us forbidden chocolate (despite her belief that chocolate actually “made your blood boil”), and she let us watch TV when my parents were out of town (very illegal). Ammie was nothing if not opinionated. She displayed the nationalist zeal of an expatriate and was completely obsessed with the royal family. She was so pro-British and anti-Irish that every March 17 she would thumb her nose at her enemy by sending my sister and me off to school dressed completely in orange, in honor of the British monarchy. Needless to say, corned beef and cabbage was not a food ritual in our household. I didn’t discover it until I moved back east to college, where I sampled it at the homes of many of my Irish-American friends. The Lucques version is an updated rendition of that classic one-pot Irish meal. Traditionally, the vegetables are cooked alongside the meat for hours, producing dull, mushy carrots and sad, gray turnips. To keep the vegetables bright, I cook them separately in the beef broth. The parsley-mustard sauce (great for sandwiches the next day) cuts the richness of the corned beef and perks up the entire dish.

One year while researching ideas for our St. Patrick’s Sunday supper, I discovered that the Irish obsession with potatoes is not a myth. Page after page of old Irish “cookery books” reveal numerous formulas for the tuber, with whimsical names for each. I fell for champ, an Irish version of mashed potatoes flavored with a handful of finely sliced scallions. Since it was spring, I skipped the scallions and used lots of sliced green garlic instead. But the Irish don’t live on potatoes alone; seafood is actually the backbone of their diet. So I decided to celebrate their patron saint with something from the sea. I found lots of recipes for fish as well as tiny clams known as cockles. Trying to bring these Irish specialties together, I steamed the cockles with white wine and butter and then spooned them over the creamy green garlic champ. And what more Irish way to sop up those briny juices than with a savory brown scone?

At the shop we think all holidays deserve their own meatball. In New York City, Saint Patrick’s Day is a big deal, celebrated with a major parade, and so of course a meatball was born. These are a clever twist on the usual corned beef and cabbage pairing, and they were so popular that now we serve them throughout the year. We’re not fans of artificial coloring but we suppose you could even dye them green if you wanted to. We love to serve them with Mashed Potatoes (page 79) and Mushroom Gravy (page 63).