Pumpkin Rice Noodles / Roasted Figs with Sage in Red Wine / Irish Ale Battered Fish & Chickpea Chips

Blog Post & Recipe: Pumpkin Rice Noodles

This pumpkin noodles with minced pork is one of my favorite noodle recipes. I love to order this at my favorite Taiwanese noodle house.

Blog Post & Recipe: Roasted Figs with Sage in Red Wine

To add to the earthy bite of roasted figs we snipped some fresh sage to the recipe. Wonderful, fragrant sage rounded off the roasted figs beautifully and the addition of some red wine really finished off the recipe perfectly.

Blog Post & Recipe: Irish Ale Battered Fish + Chickpea Chips

These chips are somewhat time-consuming upfront, but well worth the trouble. Totally delicious and marginally more healthy than potatoes because chickpeas are protein packed. In fact, you could make a meal out of the chickpea chips alone.

Hamburger Blog. Bourbon Cough Syrup. Colcannon Puffs.

Recipe: Colcannon Puffs

I had a bunch of kale in the fridge that I needed to use up, so my thoughts immediately went to colcannon, the traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale. Then a conversation about potato pancakes got me thinking of the ones my mother used to make with leftover potatoes, and soon I was contemplating colcannon pancakes.

Sometime between cooking the potatoes and adding the seasonings I decided to try baking the colcannon in small balls.

Recipe: Bourbon Cough Syrup for Grownups

It's basically hot bourbon and lemon juice, with a heaping helping of honey. I cut it with a bit of water, too, but that's optional. It's an easy nightcap, steaming and warm, with a stiff shot of booze to put you to sleep, lemon for Vitamin C, and all that sweet honey to make it go down easy.

Blog: A Hamburger Today

A US hamburger blog.

Adam of GrubGrade gives a favorable review of the elk burger from Burger Bar in Roy, Utah: "This was not a dry burger despite my worry, and it had a good 'beefy' taste despite not being beef." Related: Dear AHT: Should I Make Burgers with My Elk Meat?

St. Patrick's Day. Seasoning.

Recipes: St Patrick's Day

A collection of "editor's favourite" Irish-Australian St. Patrick's Day recipes.

Beef and Guinness stew ... Boxties with creme fraiche & smoked trout ... Colcannon with Guinness stew ... Irish coffee ... Irish soda bread ... Colcannon ... Treacle tart ... Beef & Guinness pasties ... Layered potato cake ... Mini Baileys cheesecakes ... Bitter chocolate tart with Irish Cream ... Pea & mint mash ... Steak & kidney tartlets ... Nutty Irishman ... Potato pancakes with smoked salmon ... Sauteed brussels sprouts with bacon ... Beef, stout & potato pies ... Baileys rocky road fudge ... Minted pea soup with smoked salmon and cream cheese toasts ... Baileys chocolate fudge

Article: A splash of seasoning can be better than a shake

When most cooks read "season to taste," they automatically reach for the salt shaker. That's not a bad start: A judicious sprinkling with salt will awaken many a dull dish. But if you stop there, many times you'll be missing a key ingredient. Because just as a little salt unlocks flavor, so can a few drops of acidity.

...

Though the results may be similar, salt and acidity work slightly differently. Salt is a flavor potentiator -- in other words, it works chemically to make other flavors taste more of themselves. Acidity works as seasoning by giving a dish backbone or structure, which allows other flavors to stand out and shine.

Some Irish Recipes

Recipe: Soda Bread

Recipe: Boxty (Potato Griddle Cakes) Recipe

Recipe: Colcannon

A mashed potato side dish, Colcannon was traditionally served, with coins hidden inside, at Halloween. Ours has cream, instead.

Recipe: Barmbrack

An authentic recipe for the classic Irish fruit bread.

Recipe: Drisheen

2 pt Milk
1 pt Water
2 pt Sheep's blood
1/4 lb Breadcrumbs
1 lb Mutton suet
2 ts Salt

Recipe: Dublin Coddle

It consists of layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and rashers (thinly sliced, somewhat fatty back bacon) with sliced potatoes, and onions. Traditionally, it can also include optional barley.

Recipe: Champ

Colcannon is made in much the same way as champ, but with the addition of cabbage. In parts of the country white cabbage is always used. In any case, shred and chop a small cabbage (discard the stump) and cook until tender. Beat into the potato mixture and serve as above.

... and some Irish-Americana posing as "authentic Irish dishes" --

Recipes: St. Patrick's Day recipes

Smoked salmon with arugula salad and citrus-cilantro dressing


Beef tenderloin with roasted mushrooms, champ and rosemary-whiskey gravy


Chicken breasts with wild mushrooms, potato cake, thyme butter and herb jus


Sticky toffee pudding with bushmills toffee sauce


Date Bread and Butter Pudding with Boozy Toffee Sauce


Colcannon


Ploughman's Sandwich

Irish soda bread. Lentils.

Recipe: Irish soda bread: a year-round treat!

Article/Recipe: A craving for lentil comfort.

Two lentil recipes: comfort soup and lentil salad.