St Patrick's Day

Meal Plan Occasions 3: Even More Special Occasions

Occasion 1 · St Patrick's Day

Welcome to Even More Special Occasions. This third collection has seven more celebrations, each with a main meal and a dessert, mostly written for 4 people. Healthy rules are still relaxed here. We start with St Patrick's Day on 17 March: a simple, warming Irish meal of sausages, bacon and potatoes in a savoury broth, with fresh soda bread that needs no yeast and no kneading. The coddle simmers while the bread bakes. Quantities are for the whole table, in metric with UK names.

Main meal

Main meal · Serves 4 · Irish

Irish Coddle with Irish Soda Bread

Prep: 25 minutesCooking: about 1 hour 15 minutesAbout 40 minutes of hands-on workServes 4

Ingredients (4 portions)

  • 8 good-quality pork sausages
  • 8 rashers thick back bacon, cut into 3 cm pieces
  • 1 kg floury potatoes (such as Maris Piper), peeled and cut into 1 cm slices
  • 3 large onions, sliced
  • 1 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
  • 1 cube chicken stock cube
  • 600 ml hot water for the stock
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, to serve
  • 1 pinch black pepper
  • 450 g plain flour, for the soda bread, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 400 ml buttermilk (or 400 ml of milk mixed with 1 tbsp of lemon juice, left for 10 minutes)
What is a coddle?
Dublin coddle is a traditional Irish dish, a stew of sausages, bacon, potatoes and onions, simmered gently in stock until everything is soft and the broth thickens. It was famously eaten on a Thursday night in Dublin, and is cheap, filling and relaxed to make. It is not meant to look fancy.
Make it ahead
The coddle is even better the day after. Make it the day before, cool, chill and reheat it gently. The soda bread is best on the day it is made, but keeps for 2 days wrapped in a tea towel.

Method

  1. The soda bread first: heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan) and dust a baking tray with flour. In a large bowl mix the 450 g of flour, the bicarbonate of soda and the salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in the buttermilk. Mix quickly with a fork, then with your hand, just until it comes together as a soft, sticky dough. Do not knead it.
  2. Tip it onto a floured surface, shape it quickly into a round about 5 cm thick, and put it on the tray. Cut a deep cross in the top, almost through the loaf. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200°C (180°C fan) and bake for another 20 minutes, until golden and it sounds hollow when you tap the base. Cool on a wire rack.
  3. The coddle: heat the oil in a large, heavy casserole dish with a lid over a medium-high heat. Brown the sausages for 6 to 8 minutes, turning, and lift them onto a plate. Fry the bacon for 3 minutes and lift it out too.
  4. Dissolve the stock cube in 600 ml of boiling water. Layer half the onions and half the potatoes in the dish, season with pepper and thyme, then add the sausages and bacon, then the rest of the onions and potatoes. Pour in the stock.
  5. Bring to a gentle simmer, put the lid on and cook on a low heat for 45 to 50 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft and the stock has become a thick, savoury broth. Alternatively, cook in a 160°C (140°C fan) oven for 1 hour.
  6. Scatter with the parsley and serve in wide bowls, with thick slices of the soda bread and butter to mop up the broth.
Sausages and bacon must be cooked through
Sausages must be cooked until there is no pink in the middle and the juices run clear. Chill leftovers within 2 hours and eat them within 2 days, reheated once until steaming hot.

Swaps

A few carrots or a handful of cabbage in the coddle. Wholemeal flour for half of the soda bread. A spoonful of wholegrain mustard stirred in at the end.

Shopping list for this recipe

Dessert

Dessert · Serves 4 to 6

Irish Apple Cake with Custard

Prep: 25 minutesOven: 55 minutesAbout 30 minutes of hands-on workServes 4 to 6

Ingredients (4 portions)

  • 450 g Bramley or other cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar, for the apples
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 225 g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 100 g cold butter, cubed, plus a little for the tin
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 100 ml milk
  • 1 tbsp demerara sugar, for the top
  • 500 g fresh chilled custard (shop-bought), or home-made custard
Make it ahead
Bake the cake the day before and warm it for 10 minutes at 160°C before serving. It keeps for 2 days in an airtight tin. Heat the custard gently just before serving.

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease and line the base of a 20 cm round tin (or a deep pie dish) with baking paper.
  2. Toss the sliced apples with the 2 tbsp of sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl, and leave for 10 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, rub the cold butter into the flour and baking powder with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the 100 g of sugar.
  4. Stir in the egg and milk to make a soft dough, a bit like a thick scone mixture.
  5. Press about half the dough into the base of the tin. Pile the apples on top, spreading them to the edges, and spoon over any juice. Dot the rest of the dough over the apples in small pieces (it will spread as it bakes). Sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
  6. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until the top is golden and the apples feel soft when you push a skewer in. Leave for 10 minutes in the tin.
  7. Cut into wedges and serve warm, with hot custard poured over.

Swaps

Cloves or a little mixed spice with the apples. Cream or vanilla ice cream in place of the custard. Sultanas or blackberries mixed in with the apples.

Shopping list for this recipe
Coming up next
Occasion 2 is Father's Day, with slow-cooked sticky BBQ pork ribs, corn and coleslaw, followed by a strawberry Eton mess.