Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Today I tried the Irish Soda Bread recipe. Very few ingredients and super simple to throw together. The good thing about quick bread recipes is that they’re just that, quick! No need for yeast, and letting the dough rise, just mix, knead, form and put it in the oven to bake. I needed to use a bit more buttermilk than the recipe called for, but other than that, everything was exact. Once it was done, I tried a slice with the Honey Cinnamon butter I picked up for them on a whim.
So, I strayed and made some other things for St. Patrick’s day. I picked up a small packet of corned beef from Kroger and roasted according to the package. I also wanted to try Colcannon – I’ve seen the recipe in many different forms over the years, for this version, I just picked one – the recipe was featured on Tyler’s Ultimate – the Potato Dish episode – courtesy of Christabel Rossiter www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/colcannon-recipe. I also really wanted to make the Cheddar & Chive Guinness Bread (The Kitchn – thekitchn.com/recipe-cheddar-guinness-beer-bread) recipe I discovered in 2012.
Needless to say, I was ready to cook/bake and EAT! I made the Guinness Bread after the Irish Soda Bread – super simple recipe – I didn’t have any Irish cheddar cheese, so I used what I had – the Irish stuff is tasty but what I had worked just fine. The corned beef, wrapped in foil, went in the oven at 2:00 PM – low temp for a long time yielded an extremely tender cut of meat. The colcannon was quite a bit more involved – I followed the recipe as it was written with the exception of the ham (I didn’t have any nor did Kroger – bacon grease worked in place) – boy, do I have some feedback and recommendations to save a bit of time.
The end result of our meal was pretty tasty!
But I gotta tell ya, the leftovers the next day were even better! Check this out!! I shredded the corned beef, sauteed up some sauerkraut in bacon grease with green bell peppers, onion, and celery (that cajun mirepoix I love from the freezer section at Kroger), and sliced the Guinness bread. I toasted the bread, topped with the corned beef, sauerkraut, and shredded mozzarella, then placed the toasts under the broiler until the cheese was bubbly and starting to brown. OMGEEEEEEEE!!!! This was Awesome!! I served these delicacies with the colcannon (which is way better the second day) – not a crumb was left on our plates!
