Three course Irish dinner.

Micky Dolenz

Hey,

Looking to have some friends over for dinner soon and want to make it as Irish as I can, I live in Italy. Any suggestions please for starter, main and dessert?

Many thanks.

Marcusm

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Hey,

Looking to have some friends over for dinner soon and want to make it as Irish as I can, I live in Italy. Any suggestions please for starter, main and dessert?

Many thanks.

Smoked salmon with brown bread

Boiled ham and cabbage (plus very buttery mash/champ); parsley sauce perhaps

Trifle

All of these made to a high standard could work very well. Substitute cavalo Nero for the more traditional Savoy cabbage and don't overlook it.

Ponster

It's worth making the brown bread. It's fast and easy and the recipe is fairly forgiving.

Micky Dolenz

Yeah, I may have to, they don't really do our type of brown bread here really. I will also struggle to find ham that is suitable to boil, I've looked for it before but not too hard. They do love their ham here but it's very different.

A lamb stew may be another option. Would the starter still suit?

Ponster

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

A lamb stew may be another option. Would the starter still suit?

I reckon that it would suit almost all Irish main courses.

Irish stew should be fairly easy. Take a look at this thread.

Whispered

Do two desserts, trifle and apple tart! Or blackberry and apple crumble with brown sugar and oats in the topping. Mmmmm

Day Lewin

Or Beef'n'Guinness stew, very warming in winter.

Mushroom soup as a starter?

challengemaster

Bruschetta, Spaghetti Bolognese and Tiramisu for dessert? :pac:

http://www.donalskehan.com/2014/03/my-top-10-traditional-irish-recipes/

Chowder + leg of lamb + apple crumble would be my vote. Because I hate stew, and bacon and cabbage is bland tbh.

katemarch wrote: »

Or Beef'n'Guinness stew, very warming in winter.

Mushroom soup as a starter?

Soup and stew? o.O

NiallBoo

Is bacon and cabbage actually an Irish thing? I always though it was an Americans-think-it's-Irish-thing?

I'd never heard of it until I was about 20, have never had it and have only seen it for sale in tourist-traps.

OP, are you're visiting friends Irish? They'd probably much prefer Italian food.

Whispered

Was a common meal in my house growing up rural Ireland lates 80's anyway.

Ponster

NiallBoo wrote: »

Is bacon and cabbage actually an Irish thing? I always though it was an Americans-think-it's-Irish-thing?

Nope. certainly in the 80's it was a weekly occurrence. The American thing that never really existed is corn-beef and cabbage, not bacon

L'prof

NiallBoo wrote: »

Is bacon and cabbage actually an Irish thing? I always though it was an Americans-think-it's-Irish-thing?

I'd never heard of it until I was about 20, have never had it and have only seen it for sale in tourist-traps.

OP, are you're visiting friends Irish? They'd probably much prefer Italian food.

80s/90s kid here and it was a weekly occurance in my house. Called home yesterday and it was on the menu too. Love it every time! We'd have it with Colman's mustard though rather than parsley sauce. Delish!!!

Kovu

Bacon/ribs and cabbage is one of my favourite dinners to this day. Nothing beats a pointed head cabbage from the garden either.
(Chef brown sauce with the bacon too )

We never really do starters so not much help there, our Irish dinners in this house would be lamb stew, shepherds pie, a big feck off fry with spudbread, colcannon and lamb chops.

Dessert has to be apple tart and cream or a crumble.

The only thing I can think of for a starter would be something with some freshmade soda bread or black pudding.

endacl

Whispered wrote: »

Do two desserts, trifle and apple tart! Or blackberry and apple crumble with brown sugar and oats in the topping. Mmmmm

Jelly and ice cream ftw.

the beer revolu

Always had bacon and cabbage growing up - not parsley sauce, though.
Had corned beef and cabbage too.
Urban Ireland 70s and 80s.
I still cook bacon and cabbage but I do make parsley sauce now.

Micky Dolenz

NiallBoo wrote: »

Is bacon and cabbage actually an Irish thing? I always though it was an Americans-think-it's-Irish-thing?

I'd never heard of it until I was about 20, have never had it and have only seen it for sale in tourist-traps.

OP, are you're visiting friends Irish? They'd probably much prefer Italian food.

They are Italain, I'm Irish. They want something different and authentic.

The Hill Billy

If it is going to be authentic - ingredients will be key, then it is a matter of putting them together in an Irish style.

I'm sure that you can get lamb easily enough out there. Carrots, spuds, turnips & onions too. So how about an Irish Stew?

Merkin

I think I'd go with seafood chowder, a leg of lamb with all the trimmings and then a fruit crumble followed by Irish coffees.

Micky Dolenz

Yeah, lamb is readily available in a natural state.

Diamond Doll

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Yeah, lamb is readily available in a natural state.

Shepherds Pie so, waaaaay nicer than stew!

For starters, how about making bruschetta but on traditional homemade Irish soda bread? Sort of an Italian-Irish fusion?

Dodge

If it's to be authentic Irish, then you won't have a starter. No starters in Ireland until the foreign food came in

According to a taxi man I got one night anyway. My "most Irish dish" possible would be colcannon (long before kale became a superfood!) with pork chops

Loads of recipes here btw
http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/recipes/pages/default.aspx

Nice idea for your friends btw

Micky Dolenz

I do like shepherds pie.

When I was growing up, it was odd things like pigs trotters, cows tongue, packet and tripe. We weren't overly poor, most of the time but my old man had weird tastes.

I think no Irish dish can be complete without some overcooked rubbery liver and some black pudding

The Hill Billy

Liver with champ or colcannon?
Baileys cheesecake for dessert?

Alternatively, a few bottles of whiskey - they'll forget about Irish food & just order a pizza. :pac:

pawrick

I'd avoid the bacon and cabbage and stick to lamb as others have suggested. Having lived with Italians for years none were ever keen on Irish style bacon. Generally I cooked fish when ever I cooked for them and everyone brought some of their own dishes along to share out.

Neyite

I was going to suggest a black pudding starter, but it might be difficult getting something that is authentic enough. Apple crumble would be lovely and traditional and easy enough to source the ingredients for.

Bacon and cabbage can be lovely if cooked right. The old way of boiling the cabbage for days make it limp and tasteless. Darina Allen nearly caused auld Arthur's mailbag to combust in her early 80's cookery show with this method:
Finely shred savoy cabbage - try to keep it as even as possible. A cm of water with a knob of butter and a good bit of pepper in the bottom of the pan, with a tightly fitting lid giving it a good shake every so often. Cook for about 10-15 mins.

I also do a quick sauce that goes lovely with ham:
finely slice a couple of shallots and soften in a small knob of butter. Lower heat to the lowest. Add in a heaped tablespoon of wholegrain mustard, half teaspoon turamic and a tub of crème fraiche.

Serve with fluffy mash.

allandanyways

Keep in mind that a lot of "traditional" Irish food caters to somewhat bland palates and can be very salty to non-Irish natives (my mother still doesn't think food needs anything other than salt and pepper and butter - true to some extent depending on the dish, but overall, can still be bland). I've a good friend from Rimini who's been living here for 10 years and he still gives out yards about the chicken fillet roll and the general amount of beige food we eat here.

I've cooked for him and some of my Spanish friends before and they really value good food made from traditional ingredients, over "traditional" dishes as a whole (think about how much flavour the Spanish pack into their simple foods - tapas for example!).

Get a leg of lamb, slow cook it with garlic and rosemary in a rich stock and then shred it, and make a shepherd's pie with it. The meat is delicious, you can par-cook the veg (peas, carrots and whatever else you want), make a gravy with the cooking juices and then do a gorgeous layer of fluffy mash (although spuds in Italy can be hit or miss) with loads of butter and a bit of cheddar and it will look great on the table and pack a whole load of flavor. Ooh, cook onions with the lamb and they'll be fab and caramelised when the lamb is finished... NOM.

katydid

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

I do like shepherds pie.

When I was growing up, it was odd things like pigs trotters, cows tongue, packet and tripe. We weren't overly poor, most of the time but my old man had weird tastes.

I think no Irish dish can be complete without some overcooked rubbery liver and some black pudding

Don't diss black pudding...

Day Lewin

The garlic and rosemary on lamb is delicious, but not particularly local to these islands.

Mint sauce is the thing: (don't know about Italy, but the French don't like it at all, LOL) and peas or cucumber are the classic accompaniment, or redcurrant jelly - which might be hard to find!

Day Lewin

Oh, and for dessert - Brown Bread ice cream! Or Christmas pudding! Or BOTH!!

Neyite

Brown Bread Ice cream in Brandy Baskets is gorgeous, and looks like a lot more effort went into it than it actually did. A tangy mint coulis on the side with it is perfect too.

Lissavane

The following are just my suggestions based on might be described as traditionally Irish, among rural farm families in the western half of Ireland and perhaps elsewhere and dating back to 1900 and earlier.

Starters were not the norm, even at Christmas. I'd suggest food that was eaten at other meals. Black pudding, brown bread, herring or mackerel (not salmon smoked or otherwise), maybe a chicken-carcass based soup. Traditionally, chicken was eaten when it had become a wornout hen and it was boiled, rather than roasted.

Main course should be Irish Stew or Bacon and Cabbage with floury potatoes.

Traditional Irish Stew is made with mutton, which is hard to find, but far superior in flavour to the substitute, lamb.

For bacon and cabbage, I'd suggest back bacon but any ham would be good. Cabbage should be added to the same pot as the bacon until it's cooked to your satisfaction. Over-boiled cabbage has become a cliché. Bad cooks over and under cook vegetables.

The traditional Irish dessert should probably be apple-tart and cream. It wouldn't be my favourite but I don't care much for desserts. More recent alternatives are sherry trifle (my favourite) and jelly and icecream.

The quality of potatoes served with the main course is important. Floury dry potatoes were traditionally preferred. I wouldn't use anything else. Google the variety to see how they rate on the dryness scale.