Just In Time For St. Patrick’s Day!

I know it’s getting right down to the wire, but at first I wasn’t planning on doing a St. Patrick’s day recipe, then I thought “What the hell? I have to post about something!” I just had to decide what Irish dish I could prepare in the pressure cooker.

I guess the reason I wasn’t that excited about a St. Patrick’s recipe is that I didn’t want to make the same old corned beef and cabbage (a meal that has most Irish people I know scratching their heads and thinking “what does that have to do with Irish food?” Nor did I want to take something that is not normally green and make it green, thereby proclaiming it “Irish”.

I started doing a little research on Irish food, and came across ”Coddle”, also known as “Dublin Coddle”. Coddle is, like many things I come across, one of those things where everybody’s mom made it different, and everyone’s mom made it the best. It also seems to be one of those things where the memory is fonder than the actual thing. Mention Coddle to some and they have unpleasant flashbacks to a mushy grey mass plopped on a plate that they were forced to eat in their youth. Much like meatloaf in the U.S., to some it is the ultimate comfort food, to others,they run screaming just at the mere mention of meatloaf, with visions of a grey slab of mystery meat, swimming in matching grey gravy alongside lumpy mashed potatoes.

So this morning, after deciding to make pressure cooker coddle, it was off to the Saturday farmer’s market to find the ingredients, or as many as I could find at the farmer’s market. I used local ingredients, so I didn’t use authentic Irish Bacon or Sausage. Irish bacon is closer to ham than it is to American bacon anyway, so I substituted ham for the bacon and some fresh pork bratwurst for the sausage. Any potatoes should work, but I bought a mix of purple and red ones, mainly because I thought they looked cool, and to take some of the “greyness” away from the dish. And because I didn’t want to be labled a heretic for making a green-free Saint Paddy’s dish, I decided to top it with flat-leaf parsley, and threw in a leek for good measure.





Pressure Cooker Dublin Coddle Print Recipe type: Entree Cuisine: Irish Author: Michael Rushlow Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 1 hour Serves: 8 A take on the traditional Irish favorite Ingredients 1 tablespoon oil

1 lb. ham, cut into 1-inch chunks

1 lb. pork sausage, cut into chunks after browning

1 large onion, thinly sliced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 leek, thinly sliced

2 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks

5 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

2 bay leaves

1 pint hard cider (regular cider, beer or broth should work fine as well)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped Instructions Heat oil over high heat Brown ham and sausage, then remove to plate Lower heat to medium-high and sauté onions until they start to soften Add garlic and leek, and continue to saute for another minute Add next 6 ingredients Add ham and sausage (after cutting in chunks) back in Raise heat to high and put cover on pressure cooker When high pressure is reached, lower heat to maintain high pressure and set timer for 15 minutes When time is up, remove from heat and let pressure come down naturally Remove lid and add salt and pepper to taste (you may not need any salt because of the ham and sausage) Stir in half the parsley and use the rest to sprinkle on top of individual bowls 3.2.1753