Luck o' the Irish

Not to leave my daughter’s Irish heritage out of the mix (approximately 3/16, as estimated from my husband’s limited knowledge of his own ancestry), I recently made a “traditional” Irish meal for St. Patrick’s Day.  “Traditional” is in quotations because I basically took the Internet and the Joy of Cooking’s word for it.  On the menu: “Beef” and Guinness Stew, colcannon, Irish soda bread, and apple barley pudding.

Here’s the link to the stew recipe. 

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/soupssalads/r/GuinnessStew.htm

A few notes.  You’ll see from comments on the website that there is some controversy over whether Guinness is actually vegetarian.  I guess there’s fish intestine that is somehow used in the finishing process—only in some breweries but not others.  Well, this was news to me and, as a stout lover, this dubious information might not necessarily stop me from imbibing in the future.  In any case, I did use Murphy’s Irish Stout instead because it happened to be $.50 cheaper than Guinness at the store.  The recipe comments also note that the overall taste of the stew turns out quite bitter.  Even though I followed suggestions to reduce the stout and increase the vegetable stock to try to reduce the bitterness, I still found it rather bitter and wasn’t sure my three-year old (or invited guests) would like it.  I doctored it up by adding touches of brown sugar, honey, and even a trickle of molasses and I thought the overall product was quite yummy.  Perhaps not surprisingly, my husband, who had a stout to drink with his meal, didn’t think it tasted bitter at all.

The colcannon was delightful—drawn from the Joy of Cooking. 

The Joy of Cooking also supplied the recipe for Irish soda bread.  I had made Irish soda bread before using other recipes and it never has really wow-ed me.  There never seemed to be much flavor.  This time, however, I used the “tea bread” version in the cookbook, which basically adds a touch more sugar, buttermilk, and calls for it to be baked in a loaf pan rather than in the round.  I also added raisins and caraway seeds and, wow, was this tasty. 

The dessert, apple barley pudding, was borrowed from the Internet.  Reading the history of how a dessert like this came about was really interesting, and something that was fun to talk about during dinner. 

http://www.europeancuisines.com/Ireland-Desserts-Irish-Apple-Barley-Pudding

As my daughter gets older, I hope she’ll be proud and knowledgeable about both her Chinese side as well as her “butt” side (as she very jokingly called it after earlier hearing her father referring to himself and his heritage as a “mutt”). 

Gung Hay Fat Choi

Moving away from home, living in areas with less than 2% Asian representation, and starting my own family have all inspired me to carry on certain cultural traditions (or at least try to).  One of these traditions involves making dumplings to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Dumplings are believed to signify wealth and prosperity in that each morsel is made to resemble a pouch of money.  My sister has written about my father’s infamous dumplings, which he learned to make from his grandmother.  See how every “money bag” is perfectly shaped and practically identical?  

http://www.greenishthumb.net/2010/02/growing-buying-cooking-napa-cabbage.html

The dumplings that I make, while fairly decent tasting, are not nearly as good-looking or delicious as my father’s.  There is just something about his technique and his filling that is difficult to replicate.  In any case, I have observed his method over the years, asked for tutorials, and have come up with a process that allows us carry on the tradition as best we can. 

The dough is “simply” flour and cold water.  The quotation marks are used because I have made many a batch where the dumpling wrappers turn out tough and/or gummy.  Each time I make them, I pray that they’ll be at least edible.  Fortunately, the kitchen gods have been good to us for the last several years. 

The filling that I make changes each time based on what I have in the pantry.  I’ve found that the vegetarian ham that can be purchased in most Asian grocery stores (even the ones found in NC) does really well and, when whirled in the food processor, even slightly mimics the raw meat (whether it be fish, pork, or beef) texture of my father’s filling.  Sort of.  I’ve also put in Chinese chives, shitake and/or wood ear mushrooms, shredded scrambled eggs, edamame, lily flowers…the possible variations are endless.  I typically bind the ingredients together with some soy sauce and sesame oil. 

Hmm, as I’m finally getting around to writing this entry months after Chinese New Year, I’m feeling like I shouldn’t necessarily wait another year to make another batch!