Places everybody. Parade coming through. A veritable feast of food and drink inspired by that most Irish of holidays, St. Patrick’s Day, is coming your way.
Yes, you’ll find a heap of soda bread amongst the parade participants and, yes, you’ll also see a distinct fondness for the combination of beef and Guinness (in fact, Guinness plus just about anything), but there are a few less-than-traditional surprises in there too – coconut faux-tatoes anybody?
Click on the links below to jump straight to your favourite parade floats or just browse the lot while sipping a cup of tea or perhaps a pint of the black stuff, given the day that’s in it. The running order includes:
– A Drinks float to kick things off.
– A jam-packed Soda Bread float.
– Potatoes, who, naturally, get a float all to themselves.
– A float with Starters and Side Dishes, mainly featuring the use of green vegetables.
– There’s a dedicated Beef and Guinness float.
– Quickly followed by a float which hosts plenty of non-beefy ideas for The Main Course.
– There is, of course, a float chock-a-block with Sweet Stuff for afters.
– And we round things off with a Cheese float.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated. As is a Spud’s wont, I have been humbled by the response. Now, if you’re sitting comfortably, let the parade begin!
If you’re looking for an alternative to Guinness when toasting St. Patrick this year, check out this glorious Irish Creamsicle cocktail from The Diva on a Diet (who, bless her, undertook a whole week of Irish-themed posts).
Phoo-D sent over this Loaded Leprechaun – she reckons that the combination of Jameson whiskey, Starbucks coffee liquor, and Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream will make you feel very lucky (or possibly very tipsy if you have a few Leprechauns too many!)
English Mum reckons that you can’t get much more Irish than a nice slab of soda bread with a thick layer of Kerrygold, naturally.
Nora The Kitchen ‘Splorer dropped in with her fine-looking wholemeal Irish soda bread, always good with smoked salmon.
Martha from Seaside Simplicity has even more Irish Brown Bread for us. Hope you still have room!
Joie de Vivre, who I was very happy to see back writing at Joie de vivre: An amateur gourmet’s guide made some lovely currant-filled Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread.
Biren from Roti n Rice sent over her Irish Soda Bread and Irish Breakfast Tea, which is just as well, because there’s nothing quite like having a nice cup of tea with a gorgeous hunk of soda bread.
If you prefer to have your soda bread in the form of individual scones, then The Diva on a Diet has some Basic Brown Scones for you.
Or perhaps you’d prefer some Sweet Irish Scones from The Crazy Apron.
Mangocheeks from Allotment2Kitchen baked some Shamrock Brown Scones and, even though you can’t see it, the scones are filled with green whipped cream, so they are.
Last, but by no means least on the soda bread float, we find Phyllis from me HUNGRY!, who made sure that vegans weren’t left out of the soda bread fun with her Vegan Irish Soda Scones – nice job Phyllis!
Let’s start off with some Traditional Irish Champ from my good self, then, shall we?
Followed by some some fine looking colcannon from Lori at Recipe Girl.
There’s more colcannon on offer from Kirsten of From Kirsten’s Kitchen to Yours, who made Colcannon with Mâche. Mâche is a new-to-me green vegetable, though she says she also makes colcannon with spinach, kale or the traditional cabbage.
The traditional potato fare continues with The Diva on a Diet, who gives us her tasty take on boxty.
Catofstripes from The Stripey Cat, meanwhile, sent along tales of her attempt at making the traditional Cavan speciality of Boiled Boxty. I’ll be returning to this whenever I finally attempt to make boiled boxty myself!
Hmm, doesn’t much look like potato, does it? That’s ‘cos it’s a yeasty Irish Potato Brown Bread from Debbie and Gary at Dining With Debbie, part of a whole slew of Irish food posts planned over there this week.
Over on this float, we kick things off with Braised Mustard Greens with Mustard Seeds from Greg at Sippity Sup, who hopes this is green enough for the parade (and I believe the answer is that it’s plenty green enough, Greg!)
Zerrin from Give Recipe sends us a Turkish dish with Irish colours, in the form of some fabulous Stuffed Green Peppers. She says that these are generally served as an appetizer or may also accompany a drink of Turkish raki – though perhaps on Paddy’s Day, you might have a drop of something Irish instead.
If you’re after some tasty nibbles, then Oz from Kitchen Butterfly has some spinachy Arancini for your delectation. A plate of these more-ish little balls of rice and cheese wouldn’t last long in my house, I can tell you!
Irish Beef and Guinness Stew – well, it’s just a classic combination isn’t it? Here’s some that Joanne of Eats Well With Others made earlier.
When I saw that Kid Diva from The Sugar Bar had some Guinness Beef Stew with Bitter Chocolate on the go over at her place, I knew that it would have to make its way into the parade. She says that you should cook it with about half a bottle of Guinness and drink the rest whilst waiting for it to be done – sounds like a good plan to me.
If it’s something more akin to pot roast that you’re after, then you’re in luck, because The Diva on a Diet has provided us with her winning formula for Crock-Pot Beef and Guinness.
And how could we not have some corned beef? While it’s much more American-Irish than Irish, it is synonymous with the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in the US. New York resident Marc from No Recipes gives us his twist on the classic with Corned Beef in Stout with Mustard Chutney.
Kristy from The Wicked Noodle, too, has some wicked-looking, stout-infused Guinness Corned Beef and Cabbage going a-begging over at her place.
Confused by the first entry in this float? Well don’t be. This isn’t beef but, rather, some wonderfully spiced Corned Bison from Chrystal and Amir at The Duo Dishes. With plenty of cabbage and carrots, too, as you can see.
Donal from The Good Mood Food Blog – Irish food blogger, cookbook author, pop star and you-name-it – explored good auld Bacon And Cabbage in his usual droolworthy way, as you can see below.
Reeni from Cinnamon, Spice and Everything Nice (aka the Queen Of All Things Pasta) combined her love of noodles with some traditional Irish ingredients and came up with some delectable Cabbage, Sausage & Bacon Noodles In Cheddar-Mustard Sauce.
Also seeking an alternative to the usual bacon, cabbage and potatoes, new Irish food blogger Joanna from Smorgasblog chimed in with this tasty Bacon, Leek & Potato Hot Pot which she says is great for heating up for lunch – that’s if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers in the first place!
And how’s about this for a modern spin on a very traditional dish – Natasha from 5 Star Foodie spent 3 days recreating Michelin-starred chef Kevin Thornton’s Bacon and Cabbage Terrine and a very fine job she made of it too.
I, on the other hand, went the decidedly non-traditional route with some Paddy’s Day raclette, complete with spuds, green vegetables and fabulous St. Gall cheese from Fermoy.
For something a bit lighter than cheese-laden raclette, you could do worse than check out this Simple Potato Salad and Lime-Pepita Salmon from Sweetlife of sweetlifebake.com, who used spuds and a little bit o’ green in the form of lime and pepitas for that Paddy’s Day touch.
Also combining fish and a bit o’ the green – in a late inclusion, but one I couldn’t miss – is this Miso Chilean Sea Bass over Collard Greens from Chef E of Cook Appeal: Food, Wine, Fun. With a proudly Irish family background, she says that, because her family made collard greens often, she always considered them an Irish thing.
Perhaps, though, when all is said and done, you should just go for broke and have a Traditional Ulster Fry, like this one from Janmary of Welcome to my world. She lets us know that potato farls, soda farls and wheaten farls – all traditional griddle-cooked breads – are essential for this.
Sometimes, a little jam is all you need to sweeten things up, in which case the amazingly green Pandan Jam from The Cooking Ninja is just the ticket.
If, however, you feel the need for cake, then we can do cake, starting with local Irish duo Lola and Lu from Lola-Lu’s Kitchen, who present their lovely Jameson Whiskey Cake, which has a definite emphasis on the whiskey!
There are other boozy baked goods on offer from Lori at Recipe Girl – you might like a slice or three of this Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake, for instance.
Of course I couldn’t resist including my own Whiskey Apple Pudding in the parade. It has Paddy’s Day written all over it.
Carol from Simply…Gluten-free whipped up some Gluten Free Irish Coffee Cupcakes – she says that they are light, whimsical and, yes, a bit boozy – just like a good Irishman.
Demonstrating that you don’t actually have to use alcohol in your Paddy’s Day dessert, Caroline from Bibliocook, one of the longest-running Irish food blogs around, intrigued me no end with her Potato Apple Tart. This is definitely going on my list to try.
And what can I say about Tangled Noodle, who knocked my socks off with her combination of Filipino and Irish staples in the form of Potato-Coconut Candy, two ways. Her wonderfully named Coconut Faux-tatoes and chocolate-coated Coconut-Tater Truffles are surely the sweetest spuds of the day.
Last, but not least, I thought I’d round the parade off with a tasty (and occasionally stinky) Irish cheeseboard.
To go with that little lot, you will, of course, need some farmhouse cheddar cheese biscuits. These come from the recipe archive of An Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board), and if, by some miracle, you’re still not fully sated by what you’ve seen here, they have a whole assortment of other St. Patrick’s Day recipes for you to drool over.
And with that, folks, the parade is over. I can’t resist sneaking a peek over my shoulder, though, to see if I can catch one last glimpse of the magnificent floats. I hope you’ve had as much fun watching the parade roll past as I had putting it all together. Care to join me again next year?
Wahoo! Thanks for including our corned beef (ahem…bison)! Hope you had a lovely St. Patrick’s Day. Wish we could’ve been in Ireland…
Some wonderful Irish recipes on this page. Some made with slight variations than I usually make. I just made the coconut-tater truffles. I put almond in mine instead of the liqueur but I look forward to trying the liqueur next time.
The coffee cupcake is very simple, creative. Love it.