Monday, February 13, 2012

Ahhh, Food!

As I write, I'm digging into a bowl of colcannon. This is the kale/ham/mashed taters version, with some leeks and chives for zing, a nice hot, filling dish for a cold evening. (Here's an Official Recipe and I'll even give you hint: that's about 2 pounds of potatoes.)

It's a bit more heart-healthy than the usual sort, as the market had feck-all for cream; but 1% milk and plenty of Irish butter does well enough. I steamed the kale and leeks, then steamed the cold diced ham, too, yesterday's honeybaked spiral-cut ham sold at a discount. Mash the tatties and stir it all together, serve with a dollop of butter and the chives on top.

Washing it down with blackberry soda, a lower-sugar version with plenty of flavor. Ahh!

(H'mm, finish off the colcannon tonight or save it to take in to work for lunch tomorrow? Decisions!)

4 comments:

Stretch said...

Sounds like a dish worth singing about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGRnE2Y3e0

Home on the Range said...

Yumm. One of my favorite dishes. I had a similar version when I was in college and my roomate was from a family of farmer immigrants from the Netherlands. They did the mashed potatoe, butter, cabbage thing but added in chunks of home cured bacon.

Rob K said...

Roberta, the diet-heart hypothesis has been pretty thoroughly busted. If anything was bad for your heart in that recipe, it wasn't the cream or the butter.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/07/diet-heart-hypothesis-stuck-at-starting.html

Wally said...

To Roberta and Brigid: Is there a secret to cooking kale? I've tried about every combination I can think of or find in a cookbook, and it turns out either completely flavorless or soggy.

Last attempt was saute veggies for a few minutes in a little olive oil with a very light sprinkle of salt and freshly ground pepper, add crushed bacon, then added the kale for a couple of minutes. It came close, but most of the leaves were slightly soggy.

Any suggestions?