Ease into a comfortable booth in an Irish pub. Settle your pint on the seasoned table in front of you, in mellow surroundings among antique bric-a-brac. Order some traditional Irish food to warm the damp out of your bones. It’s only March, and St. Patrick’s Day can be chilly.
On the other hand, you could stay home, browse through “The Irish Pub Cookbook” by Margaret M. Johnson ($24.95), inhale the ambiance and cook up convincingly good pub grub in your own kitchen from any of the 80 or so recipes in her selection.
The book is a culinary celebration of pubs, a beloved national institution.
“These licensed premises – part clubhouse, part town hall, part church – have served for years as venues for social events, sporting news, local gossips, music sessions, literary soirees, real estate deals, political debates, revolutionary plots, and, lest we forget, for knocking back a pint of Guinness or a ‘ball of malt,’ also known as a glass of whiskey,” she writes.
Pub styles range from medieval to newly established, from Victorian Dublin with mahogany and mirrors to thatched country cottages. They are, Johnson says, “perhaps the best expressions of Irish life and culture and are true keepers of the spirit of the land.” To say nothing of serving what has long been considered quintessential Irish food.
Johnson includes plenty of background and history along with her focus on the food. There’s a sidebar on literary and musical pub crawls in Dublin, and profiles of individual pubs – and, of course, of the people who run them: Durty Nelly and Dame Alice, among other famous publicans.
Along with other recent commentators on the scene, Johnson confirms that you’ll still find traditional country-style cooking in Ireland’s pubs – but also gastronomic surprises, some tasty changes, more cause for the high praise Irish food in general earns these days.
“I started to notice these changes a few years ago, especially in pubs in Dublin and the real ‘foodie’ areas around Cork,” Johnson said in an e-mail exchange.
Johnson, food writer and author of “The New Irish Table” and “The Irish Heritage Cookbook” among other cookbooks, lives in New York City when she isn’t visiting her ancestral home of Ireland.
This new book, illustrated with scene-setting color photographs shot by the author, and food photos made by Leigh Beish, samples a wide range of what you might find on current pub menus, from starters to desserts.
There’s traditional fare: recipes for shepherd’s pie and ploughman’s lunch, Dublin coddle (a pork, potato and sausage stew), bacon-potato cakes. And there’s finer fare: smoked salmon pate; caramelized onion and nettle tarts; white chocolate terrine.
Johnson suggested a cider-braised chicken and cabbage dish for readers to try.
It’s cooked coq-au-vin style in a dry cider with a lively, crisp taste. The recipe was developed by Bulmers, the Irish hard-cider maker, for restaurants and pubs. Cider has long been a popular ingredient in European cuisines, especially among Celts, Bretons and Normans, Johnson points out. “Irish chefs love to use it, often as a substitute for wine, because of the unique flavor it imparts to sauces, meat, and poultry.”
“I think it’s kind of a surprise in that it has many traditional ingredients (carrots, cabbage, onion) but gets a new spin with the cider,” she said. “The raisins also add an unexpected sweetness.
“I also like this dish because it’s easy to prepare in advance and bake later.”
For dessert, bread and butter pudding is one of the most popular desserts served in Ireland, Johnson says. But recipes vary widely, and the whiskey-flavored one that follows is her personal favorite.
“The hot whiskey sauce is a welcome alternative to the traditional custard sauce,” she said.
Do diners drink cider with the chicken dish?
“You certainly could,” Johnson said, “although your readers would probably prefer a nice dry red or white wine with it.”
She didn’t think serving two drink-touched dishes at the same meal would be too much of a problem, since they don’t contain large quantities of cider or whiskey, and in cooked dishes, they add flavor but evaporate.
Either or both would be fine, she said, “for a bit of St. Patrick’s celebrating.”
1/3cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
65- to 6-ounce bone-in chicken breast halves, skin on
1/4cup olive oil
4-5cloves garlic
3carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
1large onion, thickly sliced
3bay leaves
1/2cup golden raisins
2tablespoons minced fresh flatleaf parsley
2tablespoons fresh rosemary
2cups shredded Savoy cabbage
1cup homemade chicken stock (recipe follows), or canned low-sodium chicken broth, or 1 chicken bouillon cube mixed with 1 cup boiling water
1cup dry Irish cider
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl and dredge the chicken in it, shaking off the excess.
In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the chicken in batches and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned. Transfer the chicken to a large ovenproof baking dish.
Tuck the garlic, carrots, onions and bay leaves in between the chicken pieces. Sprinkle with the raisins, parsley and rosemary. Place the cabbage on top, season with salt and pepper, and pour the stock or broth and cider over the meat and vegetables. Cover with foil and bake for 11/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the chicken is tender.
To serve, place a chicken breast in the center of each of 6 plates, and spoon the vegetables and sauce over the top.
Makes 6 servings.
1 1/2pounds chicken pieces (a combination of backs, wings and necks) and bones
6cups cold water
1onion, chopped
1leek (white part only), washed and chopped
1carrot, peeled and chopped
1celery stalk, chopped
1teaspoon salt
1teaspoon black peppercorns
1bouquet garni (a cheesecloth bag containing 3 sprigs fresh flatleaf parsley, 1 sprig fresh thyme, and 1 bay leaf)
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, combine the chicken pieces and bones and water. Bring to a boil and skim any foam that rises to the top. Reduce the heat to medium-low, skim again, and add the onion, leek, carrot, celery, salt, peppercorns and bouquet garni. Simmer, skimming occasionally, for 2 to 21/2 hours. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and let cool. Refrigerate for several hours, remove the congealed fat, then cover and refrigerate for up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Makes about 5 cups.
Bread and butter pudding with hot whiskey sauce
1/2cup raisins
1/2cup Irish whiskey
5large eggs
2cups heavy (whipping) cream
1cup sugar
1/2teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4teaspoon ground nutmeg
1teaspoon vanilla extract
8ounces (8 to 9 slices) firm white bread, crust left on
4tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
For the hot whiskey sauce:
1/2cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1cup sugar
6tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream
1/4cup Irish whiskey
In a small bowl, combine the raisins and whiskey and let soak for 1 hour. Butter a 9-inch square nonreactive baking dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Spread one side of each slice of bread with butter. Cut the slices in half diagonally and arrange half the bread in the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping the slices. Drain the raisins and sprinkle half over the bread. Repeat with the remaining bread and raisins. Pour the egg-cream custard mixture over the bread and let it soak for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the baking dish in a large baking pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the pudding is set and the top is golden. Remove the baking dish from the water bath and let cool slightly on a wire rack.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar, cream and whiskey. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Serve the pudding warm with the whiskey sauce spooned over each portion.
Makes 6 to 8 servings; about 1 cup of sauce.
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