St. Patrick Day's Recipes: Dishes You Can Drink And Dine To

The Huffington Post Canada  |  By Brian Vinh Tien Trinh Posted: 03/15/2012 6:15 pm

Ask people what St. Patrick's Day means to them in this era and you're bound to get a response that involves some sort of alcohol. But that's just a tiny fraction of how people celebrate on March 17th. There's also the charm, lore, and certainly the food behind the widely celebrated Irish holiday -- after all, there's more to St. Paddy's Day than drinking, green beer, and close calls with alcohol poisoning. Legend has it that Patrick was the saint responsible for building monasteries and schools in Ireland after being blessed by the Pope. Rumour also has it that he was the one responsible for driving out the hoards of poisonous snakes that plagued the emerald isle thousands of years ago.

St. Patrick died on March the 17th, AD 461. The Irish, grateful that their land was now snake-free and appreciating his years of religious work, decided that every March 17th would be used to commemorate his death with plenty of energy and food. Some common ingredients used back then were pork, root vegetables and seafood and represented what little the Irish had to make do with during times of hardship. Today, you can still find those ingredients today, but used in more gourmet dishes such as the fish cakes, stews and pot roasts below:

Cashel & Kilkenny Cheese Dip
1  of  11
PLAY
FULLSCREEN
ZOOM
SHARE THIS SLIDE 
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:
½ cup of butter
¼ cup of all purpose flour
2 cups of 2% Milk
¾ cup of Cashel blue cheese, crumbled
¾ cup of aged white cheddar, grated
¾ cup of mashed potato
1 cup of cream cheese, softened
1 ¼ cup of Kilkenny beer
½ tbsp of Dijon mustard
6 tbsp of panko breadcrumbs
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1¼ tsp of Tabasco
½ tsp of salt and pepper

Garnish:
48 pcs baguette cut into coin shape
½ cup olive oil
½ cup bacon, cooked, chopped
¼ cup red peppers, diced
¼ cup Cashel blue cheese, crumbled
¼ cup green onions, chopped

To prepare the dip:
1. Place butter in pot and melt (medium heat).
2. Add flour and mix well. Cook for 2 min.
3. Add all the milk at once and bring to a simmer, whisking continuously for 5 min.
4. Remove from stove and transfer to stainless steel bowl.
5. Add remaining ingredients, mix well.
6. Portion into 4 oven proof dishes and reserve.
7. Toss baguette coins with olive oil. Olace on hot grill for 15 seconds per side.
8. Top cheese dip with bacon, red peppers and Cashel cheese.
9. Place under broiler until melted. Garnish with green onions.
10. Place cheese dip on doily lined round plate. Arrange baguette coins around the dish.

Recipe courtesy of Chef Niels Kjeldsen, Executive Chef of Prime Pubs.

FOLLOW CANADA LIVING

Ask people what St. Patrick's Day means to them in this era and you're bound to get a response that involves some sort of alcohol. But that's just a tiny fraction of how people celebrate on March 17th...
Ask people what St. Patrick's Day means to them in this era and you're bound to get a response that involves some sort of alcohol. But that's just a tiny fraction of how people celebrate on March 17th...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 4
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
View All
Recency  | 
Popularity
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
03:06 PM on 03/16/2012
It is so interesting that all of these green recipes
are here in the article..
this morning
as I took time to ponder
a religious way to
mark Saint Patricks Day...
broccoli and brussel sprouts came to mind...
green koolaid did also..but a sugar high..
is still a high...

the more of those we eat..
the more likely
we are
to
go to grass...

When my grandmother said that
"Go to grass"
she always meant..
'get lost'
but maybe
it can
mean something
more connected to the earth...

get found.

Stop acting like that
and clean yourself up..
clean yourself out.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
03:02 PM on 03/16/2012
The CASHEL cheese dip looks good..

I was just reading that Cashel is an anglicised form of the word CAISEAL
which is an Irish word which means STONE RINGFORT...

The Rock of Cashel is also known as Saint Patrick's rock...
from what I was reading
the rock is said to have landed
in Cashel, Tipperary...

when it rolled there
after
Saint Patrick
drove Satan out of a cave
in the Devil's Bit?

Rocks are
very steeped
in religious
prophecy..
it seems.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
04:42 PM on 03/16/2012
As I was playing majhong..
I got to thinking about families
and good and evil..
and Nazareth..
and our roots..
and how when you marry someone
today..
Often you do not consider their roots
EVEN THEIR RELIGION
or lack of...
you are just married..
situationally..
and then when something goes wrong..
or the world reaches a spiritual turning
point...
with the dead in the living
and around the living
and needing to be considered...
you realise that you can only really
assess your own family...

Then I thought about God
and who would protect us
from sin and evil
if God came down out of the heavens..?

spritual leaders
from time..?

If they turn their back..
to deal with someone else..
not having been omnipotent
..
or practiced and adept in omnipotency...

even if they are multitaskers..

who will be made to slide
who will be let go and have to suffer?

the quiet lambs...?

If evil works to block one or two
of God's children from God
and he cannot get down to save them..

might he not come down to take them
home
as he may have
for Jesus in the tomb..

Would
Satan not
go back
throughout time
throughout space
looking for the soul of Jesus
and like souls
and for a fight
with God

in caves
everywhere?
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
02:55 PM on 03/16/2012
Every once and a while
I look up at the sky
and I see
a white cloud of smoke
tailing upwards

like a snake
sent to heaven...

and I think

'Great job, Saint Patrick,
thank-you."