Irish Food for St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's day is on March 17th. This day is celebrated by the Irish and those who have a place for Ireland in their heart. There are street parades in cities like Belfast and Dublin in Ireland, and also further afield in New York. Chicago go the extra mile and dye their river green to celebrate the occasion.

I believe the reason that Americans like to celebrate St Patrick's day is because many of them are descendants of Irish who emigrated to America over the years. One occasion where there was significant emigration from Ireland to America was during the difficult years of the Potato Famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852.

However, you don't have to be Irish or of Irish descent to join in the celebrations. The more the merrier. In fact this day is celebrated right across the Globe in Ireland, UK, America, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Montserrat.

St Patrick (AD 387-461) is a patron saint of Ireland.  He was born in England but at the age of 16 was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave.  He was believed to have had a dream from God, where he was told escape and head to the coast.  Here he caught a boat and returned to England where he went on to become a priest. 

Later Patrick felt drawn to return back to Ireland to teach Christianity to the Irish.  It is believed that he used a Shamrock to explain The Trinity.  Nearly 30 years later, Patrick died on the 17th March, explaining why St Patrick's day falls on this particular day. 

If you're looking for something 'Irish' to do on St Patrick's day, why not try making some traditional, typical Irish food to share with your family and friends. I've listed a few to get you started and also some links to recipes if you need them.

Irish Breakfast

Start the day with a hearty Irish Breakfast, enjoyed in particular by the farming community who enjoy "a good feed" to give them energy to get through the manual labour of the day. This is usually a fried dish consisting of egg, sausage, bacon, fried tomato, black and white pudding, potato farls, beans and mushrooms. Not everyone likes all of the above so people tend to chose as much or as little from the list as they desire. If you want to be a 'little' healthier, you could grill instead of frying the food.

http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=2300

Irish Stew

Signature ingredients used in Ireland are potato and beef. From this we have a popular Irish dish called Irish Stew. It's made from chunks of beef, potato and carrots, 'stewed' together.

http://www.realirishfood-recipes.com/irish-beef-stew-recipe.html

Boxty

Boxty is a type of potato pancake.

http://www.eparenting.co.uk/food/boxty_recipe.shtml

Champ

This is a traditional Irish potato side, not an entire meal, but would be eaten as a replacement to fries (or chips as they're called in Ireland). It's easy to make and is basically boiled potato mashed together with spring onions, butter and mik. Salt and pepper can be added for seasoning. I tend to add a substantial amount of ground black pepper.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/5155/irish-champ.aspx

Irish Breads

Maybe you don't want to cook an entire Irish meal, instead you could consider making some Irish bread. Chose from soda or wheaten bread.

http://www.europeancuisines.com/Peters-Mums-Soda-Bread-Recipe

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/5346/perfectly-moist-irish-wheaten-bread.aspx

Here are some suggestions of typical Irish beverages to wash the food down.

Irish Breakfast Tea

This is a black tea, often enjoyed with milk.

Brown Lemonade

This tastes slightly different from white lemonade, but the two are similar. Coloring is used to give it its brown appearance. In my opinion, this is tastier than white lemonade. This drink is sold in Northern Ireland. Legends tells that shipbuilders from Harland and Wolff in Belfast (where the Titanic was built) weren't allowed to drink alcohol on their lunch break (understandably) and they didn't want to drink 'feminine' soft drinks, so brown lemonade was developed which could be drunk from a pint glass and looked like ale.

Irish Cream Liqueur

This is a cream liqueur made from Irish Whisky and cream. A recognised brand in Ireland is Baileys.

Guinness

I don't believe that this needs any introduction.