Irish Colcannon and Onion Gravy

Being St Patricks Day yesterday, and being half Irish, whilst listening to Irish music in the kitchen I made sure to have a hearty Irish dinner. There are so many to choose from but I fancied Colcannon.

Now Colcannon is from the South of Ireland and its mashed potatoes with cabbage - but there is also Champ from the North of Ireland which is mashed potatoes mixed with spring onions (scallions). I decided to do a mix of both. With lashings of home made onion gravy. And a couple of Irish sausages.

Here I have the recipe for the colcannon and the gravy. No doubt my next challenge will be buying a sausage casing machine so I can make my own sausages too. First - the colcannon:

Ingredients:  (Enough for 3-4)

3 large potatoes, cut into small pieces
1/2 small savoy cabbage, chopped
6 spring onions, chopped
butter
milk
salt & pepper

Method:

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes until soft, drain. Boil or steam the cabbage for 10 minutes, drain & put into a bowl with the spring onions. Mash the potatoes with butter and a splash of milk and combine with the cabbage and spring onions. Cover and keep warm until serving.

For the Onion Gravy:

2 medium onions, peeled and cut into rings
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
25g butter
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
400ml strong beef stock (2 stock cubes if using)
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp dried thyme
splash white wine (optional)

Heat the oil and the butter and fry the onions on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Then add the sugar to the onions, cover and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until beginning to brown. Add the flour and mix in well with the butter. Let that cook on a low heat for 2 minutes then add a little of the hot stock, mixing well. Slowly add the rest of the stock, continually stirring, then turn up the heat to high and add the wine (if using), the bay leaves, thyme and Worcestershire sauce. Cook on high for 4-5 minutes. Then turn the heat to medium and cook until thickened.

Chocolate & Black Cherry Cookies

I was talking to a friend in Ireland about the blog the other day and one of the comments I recall from him was, 'not enough sweet things!' He is probably right. I tend to cook and write recipes for things that I personally like - and I am not much of a fan of sugar. But I do sometimes have the odd indulge in cookies.

I had a tin of black cherries in the cupboard and some dark chocolate, so I made these chocolate cookies with a juicy imbedded cherry and a drizzle of chocolate on top. I had eaten two before they had even cooled down!

Chocolate & Black Cherry Cookies

Ingredients:     (Makes about 20)

50g butter, soft
200g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla essence
200g all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
60g cocoa powder
pinch of salt.
200g black cherries
100g plain chocolate

Method

Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy. Add the egg, sour cream and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Using a hand mixer (or with a wooden spoon) incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet, a little at a time. The mixture will look quite dry but as you bring it together to form a dough it will be fudgy. Cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Drain the cherries from any syrup and dry a little with kitchen paper.

Set the oven to 180 C. Taking the dough, pull off pieces to make a ball about an inch and a half. Press your thumb into the middle of the ball and put a cherry in the hole you have made. Set it on an non stick but ungreased baking tray and continue until all of the dough has been used up, setting the cookies about an inch apart on the tray.

Cook for 8 minutes and leave to cool on the tray. Melt the chocolate either in the microwave (stirring often to prevent burning) or in a bowl set over water and either pipe the chocolate over the cookies with a piping bag or use a fork to dip and drizzle. Place on a plate or tray and put in the fridge for the chocolate to set.

If you can do all this without eating even one of them, you're a better person than me! Enjoy!