Dublin Coddle

I think this would have been better if I had spent more time planning it, but I didn't think of some obvious things until it was almost done: i.e. cooking sausage and bacon in ham stock makes a very flavorful and fatty broth. Since I cooked some storebought beer brats and tempeh in a mild veggie broth, this ended up being pretty bland. Next time I would probably add some more flavor to the broth, like garlic, maybe some lemon zest, etc.

This recipe isn't anything special, but I think it's a good base for others to go off from. I didn't use homemade sausages because I was in a hurry, and I forgot to make tempeh bacon so I just used tempeh and liquid smoke. This added to the blandness. If you make fakin' bacon yourself, I recommend cooking it before starting the dish because this locks in the smoke flavor. I also added cabbage because I'm so sick of 'meat and potatoes' it's ridiculous.

So, here's the recipe.

Dublin Coddle
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 1 1b. faux sausages, homemade or storebought
• 8 oz. fakin' bacon
• 1 c. stock
• 6 med. potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. thick slices
• 1 med. onions, chopped
• 2 c. cabbage, chopped
• salt and pepper

Begin to heat the vegetable stock over medium heat. Cut the tempeh and sausages into bite size pieces and simmer in the stock for five minutes or so. Reserve the stock and remove the "meat."
In a larger pot, begin to layer everything. I recommend sprinkling a little salt and pepper over each layer of potatoes. It should go like this:

Potatoes
Cabbage
Onions
Meat
Potatoes
Cabbage
Onions
Meat
Potatoes

Pour the reserved stock over top, cover with a lid, and simmer for an hour.
And serve! This is a good cold midnight snack, too.

One more Irish meal, and then it's on to something else...

Irish Parsnip and Apple Soup

I'm back! You didn't even know I was gone, but I've been in NYC for the last few days visiting my sister. So much for Irish week-- we didn't cook once. It was a nice treat, though, as she lives near my favorite bagel place ever. It's called Absolute Bagels and they have great bagels and flavored Tofutti. So Thursday afternoon I got to wolf down a bagel with olive Tofutti-- you can't beat it!

Before I left I made some soup. It was totally different and delicious. I am a little skeptical that it's a traditional Irish soup, but it may be a modern interpretation of a traditional soup (the curry makes me a little suspicious). It sure was tasty, though, and it didn't involve any potatoes! I also hardly had to change anything, so it wasn't very creative. But it was a nice way to eat some apples.

I didn't have cardamom, so I subbed 1/4 tsp. mace and 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon. They aren't the same (obviosuly) but do similar things.

Irish Parsnip and Apple Soup
Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 lb parnsips, thinly sliced
• 1 lb apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom seeds
• 1-2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 1/2 c. vegetable broth
• 2/3 c. soymilk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped chives or parsley

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the parnsips, apples and onions and cook until soft, but do not brown. Add the spices and continue to cook for a few more minutes, stirring well.
Add the broth, stir well, and cover. Lower the heat and simmer for half an hour.
Blend with an immersion blender (you can also strain it but thats not fun), food processor, or blender. Add the soymilk and cook on low heat for a few more minutes. Thin with water if desired.
Garnish with parsley or chives and enjoy!


I also made that whole wheat bread again, and this time I used leftover potato water. It was definitely lighter this time. Yum! Phil and Sean loved it. I will keep making this bread, for sure.

Bangers and Mash

Ugh. That's a good 'ugh', not a bad one. Day two of Irish week and I'm stuffed! Phil's brother Sean just arrived from San Diego this morning, so I got to include him in tonights feast. I'm not sure if I could take potatoes another day in a row, but I think we're going to have soup tomorrow, so hopefully I won't have to.

For the bangers I used tempeh, and it worked really well. Phil and Sean are both omni's and seemed to like it. The gravy I used wasn't anything special, so if you have a favorite gravy recipe, use that. However, I will include mine if you don't have one!

I already had the bangers steaming before I realized I hadn't planned a 'vegetable dish'. I like vegetables. But a salad wasn't very exciting, so I made use of the ginormous bag of carrots we have and made some roasted carrots in lemon-butter. The recipe is at the very bottom!

One more note. We recently received an awesome spice rack from Phil's dad and stepmom, and it's chock full of spices I never would have known existed. Because of this, for the first time I can actually accurately use the spices a recipe calls for. Before this, however, I got spices from the bulk section in my local health food store (Whole Foods sells some spices at bulk prices, but the selection is pretty lame). All I can say is that the spices used in most Irish cuisine are generally the same from dish to dish and are really important! So invest in a little mace in you can. You'll probably find other uses for it, too.

Bangers and Mash
Serves 3-4
Ingredients:

Bangers:

• 1 8-0z. packpage tempeh, grated
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 c. vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 c. bread crumbs
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. mace
• 1/8 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/8 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 c. soymilk
• 1/2 tsp. paprika

Mashed Potatoes:

• 5 medium potatoes, washed and cubed
• 3/4 c. soymilk
• 1 tsp. salt
• black pepper to taste

To make bangers:
In a large bowl, combine grated tempeh, soy sauce and lemon zest until well mixed. In a medium bowl, combine vital wheat gluten, breadcrumbs, sugar, salt and remaining herbs and spices. Mix the dry mix into the tempeh mixture so that the tempeh is mixed in evenly amongst everything else. Stir in the soymilk with a fork, then knead once it's too stiff to stir. You may need to add another Tbsp. or two of vital wheat gluten if the mixture is too moist. Knead for about five minutes or until it begins to draw in to itself.
Around now you can begin to heat the water in your steamer. Divide the dough into six parts and roll them into sausage shapes. Then tightly roll each sausage in tin foil and twist the ends shut, like a tootsie roll. Once they are all wrapped, place them in the steamer and steam for 30-40 minutes.
Let cool a bit before handling-- they hold that hot water for a while. Unwrap and brown in a skillet for a few minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy!

For mashed potatoes:
Plop the taters in some cold water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes. Drain. Mash with soymilk and salt. Pepper to taste. Add more soymilk or water to make it more creamy!

Want gravy? Okay.

Basic Gravy
Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. oil or margarine
• 3 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 c. soymilk
• 1/8 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning (i have something called 'seasoning for meat' that works for this stuff)
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce

IF you need it: 1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 tsp. water

Note: I've found that, when making a roux, it's best to add the flour to the oil before it gets too hot. So keep an eye on it.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add the soymilk slowly, still stirring, and stir some more, and a little more, until it thickens. (Now you can stop stirring, but you still have to every now and then to keep the bottom from burning). Lower the heat and stir in the spices and the soy sauce. Add water in you want to thin it. Once it reaches your desired consistency, remove from heat.

Finally, the carrots. This was a nice little contrast of flavors, being slightly sweet but still very savory. Here's a slightly better picture of them:


Roasted Carrots in Lemon Butter
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

• 5 carrots, quartered long-ways
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. margarine, melted
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp. rosemary
• 1/8 tsp. thyme
• black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Combine margarine, lemon juice, and spices. Spread carrots on a baking dish so that they are all touching the bottom and pour margarine over top. Use your hands to coat the carrots evenly. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Yum!

Shepherd's Pie

You are right-- Shepherd's Pie is not Irish. It's actually Scottish, then English, and can really be found by different names all over the world. It's also not on the menu I came up with... 3 hours ago. But guess what? I don't care. I was going to make bangers but I wanted to finish my leftover chickpea stuff before making another batch of seitan. So I made this, and you know what? They probably eat it in Ireland, too. Meat + potatoes. Can't go wrong.

So I used the four remaining pieces of 'chickpea-en' (worst name ever, see!) from the other day, but you can also use 8 oz. of tempeh, crumbled, or 8 oz. seitan, chopped into little itty pieces. My mom used to make vegetarian Shepherd's Pie when I was younger (and non-veg when I was real young, that's what hooked me!) but I learned to make it myself from a recipe in the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook by Carole Raymond. I modified it slightly and make it from memory now, so I'll post it here. I hope that's okay, Carole!

One more note. Apparently I eat too much salt, which is not surprising at all because I do eat huge amounts, so I am working on adjusting my palate to a less sodium-demanding one. If you are not, you can add more salt, but I think this tasted just fine (plus 1 tsp. is still a lot. I have a long way to go).

Shepherd's Pie
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:

• 3 medium russet potatoes, washed and cubed (I don't peel them)
• 1/2 c. soymilk
• salt and pepper to taste

• 8 oz. tempeh or seitan
  
• 2 carrots, chopped small
• 1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 c. frozen or fresh peas
• 1 c. reserved potato water
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/4 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
• 1/8 tsp. mace
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• Paprika

1. Place the potatoes in a 2 qt. saucepan and fill 3/4 of the way with water. Bring to a boil, lower to medium-low heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain, being sure to save the water for later. Add the soymilk and mash until creamy, flavoring with salt and pepper. Then, preheat your oven to 375 degrees!
2. Heat oil in your skillet over medium heat (I sauteed in water as per the Happy Herbivore's suggestion). Throw in your onions and cook until soft. Add the seitan, carrots and peas and saute for a few more minutes.
3. Add your spices, stir, then add the 1 c. potato water and cornstarch mixture. Stir over medium heat until it thickens. Lower the heat to a (low) simmer, cover, and let cook for aout 10 more minutes.
4. Spoon the seitan mixture into medium sized, oiled casserole dish. Cover with the mashed potatoes, and for extra color, sprinkle generously with paprika. Stick in the oven and bake until golden! (20 minutes or so).

Irish Stew and Mashed Potatoes

Sometimes (a lot) I want some Irish comfort food. So on Monday I made this. Picture by Phil out the goodness in his heart!

Sadly, the recipe (another from VT) is not available online, but it's not difficult to recreate. By using these basic ingredients:

-bottle of porter, lager or stoudt
-carrots
-tempeh or seitan
-fresh thyme
-leeks
-vegetable broth

...you can have an awesome Irish-inspired stew in no time at all. Serve with your favorite mashed potatoes recipe, and you have a feast!