Thursday, June 19, 2008

An Irish supper



Tom is out tonight at a retirement party for fellow teachers, and this is what I made for supper. Both are new (to me) recipes. The bread comes from Les' cooking blog, and the soup from an old Saveur magazine article on Irish foods. The soup is quite like Gladys Taber's Leek and Potato Soup (scroll down on the page), just using scallions rather than leeks. Being Irish myself, I could just about live on bread and potatoes! You might think it strange to have soup and warm bread for supper on the last night of spring, but it is cloudy and cool, and I have a little fire going in the woodstove. It is really much like an Irish evening.

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda.
Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture.
Mix until just moistened.
Stir in melted butter.
Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 65-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes outs clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.

My notes: I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white.
I put a little lemon juice in a 2-cup measure, and added milk.
I baked it in an 8 x 8 pan.
Part way through I turned the heat up to 350º.


Irish Potato and Spring Onion Soup

Chop an onion and scallions.
I picked 7 scallions, and used both the white and green parts.
Saute in 2 T. olive oil.
Chop four cups potatoes and cook in four cups water.
Add onion/scallion mix, and then put the whole thing through a food mill (or blender or food processor).

I couldn't have been more pleased with this meal. Both soup and bread were perfectly delicious.

9 comments:

  1. This is one of my very favorite meals! I even got my husband (who is the real cook in our family) hooked on the soup when we went to Ireland a few years ago. Now, whenever we have a big family party, he makes a HUGE stockpot full of that soup. We make it a bit heartier though, with lots of sausage and ham in it.

    I'm glad you enjoyed your meal ... I might have to get hubby to make US some this week. :)

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  2. Your evening with the woodstove going and the soup and bread just sounds serene.
    I want to try that recipe.
    Mim

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  3. How soon they forget! Just last March you proclaimed my soda bread the best you'd ever tasted! Sigh...

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  4. There is no milk or cream in the soup. Does that make it lower in fat or calories? (always looking for something to help). I love potato soup so this would be perfect.

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  5. Heather, I honestly had never heard of this before the magazine article. Great it's a fave of yours.
    Mim, the evening was very nice, and to top it off I read afterwards.
    Now, Mary Lois, did I say anywhere in the blog entry that this was 'the best?' Nope. And it wasn't as good as your recipe, though it was still delicious. I wanted to try a new bread along with a new soup, so I found this recipe I had saved for a while. :<)
    Janet, I never put milk or cream in soup. Sometimes Tom will add it after I've made corn chowder and taken out my own portion. I'm a little queasy (Mr Monk-ish?!) about hot milk.

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  6. Thanks to your blog, I was able to show a traditional soup and bread for my powerpoint for college. THANKS AGAIN!

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  7. Wow, Rebecca, that's just great!! Thanks for telling me.

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  8. we always laugh when we are in Ireland. You go into a pub or a restaurant and you ask what the soup of the day is and it is always 'vegetable'. they take a base of onions and stock..add what ever veggies they have,some herbs, cook it all and then puree. it can be green or orange or white or yellow...but it is always vegetable!

    we just ask to amuse ourselves..lol

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  9. Caite, that's a great story! It must be the Irish in me that makes me love these plain and simple kinds of soups!

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