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Potluck of the Irish: Celebrating St. Patty’s Day with Irish Fare
POTLUCK OF THE IRISH:
Celebrating St. Patty’s Day with Irish Fare
By Michelle A. Nicholson
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in New Orleans, like all of our celebrations, center around food and libations. Irish coffee, pints of Guinness, green beer—the holiday’s signature adult beverages are easy to whip up wherever you may be. And if the usual spots for St. Patty’s seasonal dishes, such as the Irish Channel Block party, Fahy’s, and Pat O’Brien’s, are out of the question this year, you might find that serving up St. Patty’s Day fare at home makes for a pretty lucky day. It might even be something you want to do all year.
IRISH SODA BREAD
Perfect for every meal, this loaf is a quick bread, similar to a large biscuit. Salt, baking soda, and all-purpose flour (wheat or gluten-free) combine with melted butter, buttermilk, and an egg to form a crispy yet chewy loaf. You can add dried fruit—raisins are traditional—or make it vegan by replacing the egg and dairy with your favorite nut or seed milk and an acid, such as vinegar or lemon juice.
IRISH STEW
What makes St. Patrick’s Day parades so special are the special throws: cabbage, potatoes, onions, and carrots—the basic ingredients that you need to make an Irish stew. Traditionally cooked with mutton or lamb, Irish stew is just as often made with beef, if that’s what’s on hand. Seared meat and sautéed onions slow-roast with veggies and some Guinness. Rather than a roux, this stew is thickened with pearl barley. Serve it with buttered soda bread.
CODDLE
Because it’s concocted at the week’s end with whatever tidbits are in the kitchen, coddle is an Irish version of jambalaya, sans rice. Unlike the aforementioned mutton stew, coddle is usually made by slow-roasting alternating layers of meat (usually sausage and bacon) and root veggies (potatoes, onions, carrots) in Guinness, cider, or broth. This is a great choice for entry-level cooks and busy people. Throw what you’ve got into a crockpot, and you are good to go. If you didn’t make soda bread, pair your coddle with biscuits (aka, scones).
CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE BOIL
Possibly the most famous Irish dish, a corned beef and cabbage boil is also the easiest dish to prepare. Corned beef briskets are sold brined for your convenience, ready to throw into a big boil pot, along with the included seasoning packet, to simmer for a few hours. Potatoes, carrots, and cabbage get added at the end and get to hang out, soaking up the flavor, while the corned beef rests for 15 minutes. Strain the veggies, reserving some broth for topping individual bowls. Slice the corned beef across the grain and serve with mustard and horseradish, or even honey.
ROASTED CORNED BEEF BRISKET
Pre-brined corned beef, with its unique shade of sodium-nitrate pink, may be on some folks’ list of foods to avoid. Luckily, brining your own beef brisket is super-easy. Using a large casserole dish or pot, keep the brisket in the fridge, submerged in water, kosher salt, and pickling spices, for five to seven days. Flip it every day. It won’t have that pink color, but it will be nitrate-free. Add a couple of beets to the boil, for aesthetics. Or treat this corned beef brisket like any other brisket—roasted or braised in the oven, with a crusty, caramelized finish. No roasting pan? Use a lidded pot and a layer of onion slices as a rack instead.
BOXTY
So much tastiness is possible when mashed potatoes, flour, and eggs combine, and boxty covers the full range. Boil the dough like dumplings or gnocchi. Bake it in the oven like a loaf. Form little cakes and fry them in a pan. Some versions add half-grated raw potatoes, like hash browns, to the mix. Other versions add more milk to form a batter or something more like a crepe or pancake, ready to be topped or stuffed.
FRIED CABBAGE
Smothered, braised, sautéed—there are lots of ways to enjoy this nutritious Irish staple as a side dish or a meal in itself. At high heat, stir-fry shredded or chopped cabbage (and onion and garlic, if you love them) with the Cajun seasoning blend of your choice until the cabbage begins to caramelize. Finish with a dab of butter or coconut oil. Serve with potatoes, rice, or boxty. For a complete meal, up the protein by adding quinoa, bacon, or sausage.
EASY CHAMP AND COLCANNON
Champ is simply mashed potatoes with green onions. Generally, colcannon is mashed potatoes with cabbage, but there are many variations of colcannon. Use other winter greens, such as leeks or kale. Add bacon, ham, or sausage. Make it vegan with coconut oil and soy milk. Use leftovers from your cabbage boil. This recipe is easily prepared with a pressure cooker, too. Serve it with Irish stew or coddle. Serve it like hash with a fried egg or two. Boxty can also be made with champ or colcannon rather than with plain mashed potatoes.
CHOCOLATE AND STOUT
Enjoying any of these dishes with a Guinness might be an obvious suggestion, but mixing up your favorite chocolate dessert with such a stout beer is also highly recommended. From cream cheese-frosted Devil’s food cake to ganache-covered brownies and even an ice cream float, however you want to pair them, chocolate and Guinness go together like cabbage and potatoes, as far as Irish cuisine is concerned. Stout not your thing? Try shortbread cookies instead.
Charlie’s Restaurant is a Cajun-Creole Experience! By Emily Hingle
~ Chad Blanchard, Owner, Charlie's Restaurant and Catering
satisfy Chad, who soon took to competitions to prove his culinary abilities. “My first competition was in 1995 at the Los Islenos Festival, a gumbo contest. I was 25 years old and everyone else was much older and lived down the bayou. I took 1st Place. I did another one in Florida the following year and took 2nd. In 2009, I did the United Way’s Got Gumbo Cook-Off. There were serious chefs at this one; multiple Brennan restaurant head chefs,
The award-winning Charlie’s Restaurant located in Violet, Louisiana, has been feeding southern Louisianians for over 20 years. Owner and operator Chad Blanchard grew up around food on a Creole tomato farm in a rural community where cooking was a serious family business.
“Being from a Cajun family, all our gatherings were 30 deep and food was everywhere. From biscuits to gumbo, they loved food, and cooking was competitive; there were arguments over who did this and who's tasted better,” Blanchard explains. He started cooking on his own at the age of 8, which began a lifelong passion. He soon progressed from his own kitchen to a larger audience. “I taught myself with books and TV; I would create things at a very young age. I was cooking on parade routes in high school selling jambalaya on my own. Spring break, I would have cooking equipment and a stocked ice chest cooking in rooms with no kitchen, so it definitely was something I knew was for me,” Blanchard says. Life brought Blanchard many new endeavors after graduating. “A month after high school, I found I was going to be a dad and got married, and I was applying for the Air Force but was on the fence. My father knew how I liked to cook so he found this little place close to home and asked me if I was interested in running it. I said yes, and we opened Charlie's Diner in 1992. We sat 22 people; my first menu was done with a Sharpie. I happen to still have it, too!” Within two years, they remodeled to accommodate twice as many diners and then bought a larger location they had aspired to own 10 years later.
Owning his dream restaurant wasn’t quite enough to and also Desire restaurant, just to mention a few. I took 1st place in Seafood, 2nd place in Exotic and 3rd place in traditional. I was so stoked! It truly woke me up out of my own mind,” Blanchard says. He continued entering and placing highly in cuisine contests. “I’ve won 16 awards in seven years, that’s pretty awesome. Everyone goes nuts for them at Charlie’s.”
Being such a prestigious chef of Cajun cuisine, Blanchard knows all the tricks of the Cajun food trade. “Making a roux is time consuming, constantly stirring and getting that right color. Roux should vary in color and nuttiness depending on type of gumbo you are preparing. Gumbo is one of my best dishes, but I do so many dishes. I'd have to say my jambalaya is amazing, but my crawfish dishes are epic. Everyone just goes nuts for them! Catfish Crawfish with Crawfish Mashed Potatoes. My Crazy Crab Pasta dish is a local favorite. Fried Soft Shell over angel hair pasta topped with our awesome crawfish cream sauce and cubed paneed eggplant. Our menu is eight pages long. We take pride in our cuisine here at Charlie's Restaurant and Catering, and it shows.”
Being located on the river on the way to the Gulf, this Louisiana gem has a job to spread the word about coastal restoration. “It is so important for us to protect our coast and make it what it used to be other than just letting it rot. I am strong on this. Caernarvon Diversion took out 42 square miles and half of St. Bernard’s public oyster beds. We pay more for seafood today directly because of this. We need to help stop and rebuild our coastlines for the future of Louisiana’s communities. Seafood is what makes us Louisiana proud.” And Charlie’s Restaurant makes proud Louisiana cuisine.
