This easy and tasty recipe is a perfect comfort food or back pocket recipe that can be made on busy weeknights. A traditional Irish dish, this can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes. It is sure to satisfy even the most picky eaters!
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Back pocket recipes,what a great concept. I recently read this term and realized I needed some of my own. These are recipes that are simple to make with a short list of ingredients.
The type of recipes that you can pop in the market and and buy the ingredients without a shopping list, not because your are lazy but because it’s been one of those days. A simple, homemade, unfussy recipe that will satisfy your insides and your pocket book.
I have ‘back pocket frozen TV dinners’but not recipes. I don’t like reaching for those convenience foods or stopping at a restaurant for a take home dinner. I always regret it, too unhealthy or too expensive, or both!
Of course I am trying to eat healthier, it’s the beginning of the new year and recovery time from the holidays. Home cooking is a must. With home cooking, you can control what goes in your meals and know exactly what you are consuming, which can help you make better decisions while trying to feed yourself and your family.
Substitutions are easy, milk for cream as an example. Reducing the amount of bad ingredients while increasing the amount of good ingredients is simple and smart.
Cooking everyday can be hard, especially if everybody is working outside of the home so back pocket recipes are a great idea. Even if you are a full time domestic engineer, you still have those days. Being mom’s taxi is time constraining. Right when you should be starting to prepare for dinner, the soft ball game goes into extra-innings. Then there is homework, bath time etc. Evenings can be hard.
Irish Colcannon fits the back pocket recipe requirements, simple, easy and easy to remember ingredients. Most people have butter and salt & pepper already, so if you can remember potatoes, cabbage and sour cream, you are golden. I like to use Mexican Creama instead of sour cream. It tastes richer and is already salted. Try this if you haven’t already, I dare you.
What Is Irish Colcannon?
Colcannon is an easy traditional Irish smashed potato recipe with cabbage, or kale, butter, cream, salt & pepper. I have substituted Mexican Crema for milk and used a slaw mix for the cabbage.
I have also added green onions or ‘scallions’ for additional flavor. White onions could work too. Some people add garlic.
In the U.S. we have already shredded cabbage for ‘slaw’, sold in smaller portions than a whole head of cabbage. It also usually has some purple cabbage or carrots in it which is a bonus for color. I have a hard time using a whole head of cabbage, does this every happen to you?
Leave a comment and let us know what you do with the leftover cabbage, I need to know. I hate wasting food.
More Irish Recipes
Traditional Irish Stew
Irish Soda Bread
Boxty
Champ
Irish Coddle
Beef and Guinness Pie
Now on to the pretty pictures…
Bonus tip
I have learned with this recipe that caramelizing cabbage in butter brings out a distinctive flavor in cabbage, slightly sweet. I have heard Christopher Kimball from America’s Test Kitchen talk about this, now I know what he meant.
Lightly smash the potatoes, you want it to be chunky, not creamy.
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Easy Traditional Irish Colcannon Recipe
Yield: 6 Cups
A traditional, easy Irish Colcannon recipe. Your whole family will love!
Ingredients
4 cups of russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups of shredded cabbage (I used pre-packaged slaw)
4 green onions, chopped
4 Tbs salted butter, divided
1 cup of sour cream (I used Mexican sour cream)
Instructions
Boil potatoes in salted water until fork tender, drain and return to same pan.
Add sour cream (orMexican Crema) to potatoes, pepper and 2 Tbs of butter, mashing gently to allow for a chunky texture.
While potatoes are cooking, sauté cabbage and green onions in 2 Tbs butter over medium heat untilcabbage is soft and starting to char. Add to smashed potatoes and stir.
Check for seasoning, adding salt as needed.
Notes
Make a small well in center of mound, add a pat of butter. Entree serving suggestions include sausage, steak, chicken or by itself!
Colcannon is an Irish dish that's made of mashed potatoes, shredded cabbage or kale, green onions and tons of butter and whole milk. Sometimes crumbled bacon is added for an extra-succulent, salty flavor.
What's the Difference Between Champ and Colcannon? Champ and colcannon are both favorite Irish mashed potato dishes. They're very similar, though champ recipes tend to feature spring onions (scallions) alone, while colcannon adds cabbage, kale, or leeks.
Colcannon is mashed potatoes and chopped cabbage and usually chopped ham or bacon. Bubble and squeak is mashed leftover potatoes and chopped cabbage mixed up and fried as single round cake, and then sliced and served usually at breakfast.
The first syllable 'col' is likely to be derived from the Irish 'cál' meaning cabbage.The second syllable may derive from 'ceann-fhionn' meaning a white head (i.e. 'a white head of cabbage') – this usage is also found in the Irish name for a coot, a white-headed bird known as 'cearc cheannan', or 'white-head hen'.
Colcannon is a mixture of cooked and shredded cabbage and mashed potatoes. The word colcannon is derived from the Gaelic term cal ceannann, which means "white-headed cabbage" — the vegetable most commonly mixed with potatoes in this dish.
We love the traditions of Ireland, especially when it comes to the food! Colcannon is a hearty dish that has been eaten on Halloween night for years. Traditionally, a ring was hidden in the dish, and whoever was to find it would be likely to marry in the upcoming year!
Boxty is a thick pancake of mashed and shredded potatoes, flour, baking soda, and buttermilk fried in butter or lard. These are traditionally formed into a circle and cut into quarters or triangles and are usually served as a side dish or appetizer. These are a great way to use up any leftover mashed potatoes.
The name comes from the Gaelic phrase “cal ceannan,” which means “white-headed cabbage”. One of the earliest written references to colcannon comes from the diary of William Bulkeley, who wrote on October 31, 1735 while on a visit to Dublin: “Dined at Coz. Wm.
Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American, Canadian and Australian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a side dish to meat or vegetables.
Bubble and Squeak (or Potato Cakes) is a British classic, and an easy and flexible recipe. You can make it from scratch OR use up leftover veggies. Flavorful, colorful, fluffy, creamy and so so good. Perfect as a breakfast or brunch recipe!
Bubble & Squeak is mashed up potatoes mixed with cabbage and fried in a pan. You can make little rounds first then fry it if you like. Colcannon is potatoes and cabbage mashed together with butter - not even a hint of a frying pan.
We can't talk about Irish slang without mentioning potatoes! “Spuds” is another word for potatoes. Speaking of spuds, “Grá” means “love” in the Irish language. A lot of Irish people still use this word even when speaking in English.
The Irish immigrants also realized that cabbage was a more readily available vegetable in America than in Ireland, where it was traditionally a fall and winter vegetable. So they combined the corned beef with cabbage to create a hearty, filling meal that was reminiscent of their homeland.
While Ireland produced large amounts of corned beef, it was nearly all for trade. Corned beef was considered a luxury, and largely much too expensive for the Irish to consume. Instead, they relied on dairy and pork, especially salt pork, a relative to bacon.
Before the introduction of potatoes, the main staple food in Ireland was grains, particularly oats. Irish people also relied on vegetables such as turnips, cabbage, and onions, as well as dairy products like butter and cheese, and meat from cows, pigs, and sheep.
The Skib by Joe Hogan is a traditional Irish basket used for straining and serving potatoes. After use it was washed and hung on the kitchen wall to dry and in this way began to be seen as a decorative object.
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