18 March Saturday

There it is, the full dinner. The corned beef was delicious, the colcannon was amazing, the soda bread was heavenly.

BTW, I use Marion Cunningham´s recipe for Soda bread, which is unusual because it is only flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. It is not kneaded really at all, it is a shaggy ball when you put it in the dish. When it comes out of the over, and i don´t know how else to say this, it looks Irish, craggy and weather-beaten. The lack of kneading makes for a very moist sponge, the opposite of a lot of soda bread.

Colcannon, what a dish. After a series of accidents late in 2022, my food mill finally gave up the ghost, making the best mashed potatoes impossible. I had to get a new food mill. The new food mill, a Foley, instantly performed significantly better than the old food mill which I had for seventeen years. The mashed potatoes were so so smooth, and the leeks, scallions, and cream disappeared completely into the potatoes, which were the slightest tint of pale green.

Irish butter on the menu!!

The beef benefited from the few extra days in the fridge, the brine had gone all the way through.

Now, I´ve eaten a few leftovers, I´m ¨watching¨ March Madness sports contest on TV, and furiously planning my next culinary adventure.