Celebrating St Patrick's Day with an Irish Dish!

Many neighbours are asking me how I am planning to celebrate St Patrick's Day. Well the days of heading to a busy pub in Dublin or London or attending a rainy tractor parade in County Clare  have long since gone but I do intend to cook a very green dish and might be tempted to enjoy a few drinks and some lively  music at my tiny local Breton bar!

It is absolutely amazing how the Irish Saint managed to get himself celebrated throughout the world even in the remotest of places! From Jewell in Kansas to St Goueno in Brittany there are plans to do something special and not at all religious! The festival usually centres around people getting together and enjoying a drink but not necessarily just drinking. Here in France there are concerts and ceílí's (Paris ) and cinema screenings of Irish films (one of our local towns Guingamp is showing Ken Loach's "The Wind that Shakes the Barley"). In Cannes they are lighting up their town hall green!

So what am I planning to cook? Nettle Pottage! There is a long history of nettles being used in Ireland not just in soups but in oat cakes and Colcannon. Nettles are a healthy vegetable full of iron. Listed in the famous 15th century Irish manuscript "Leabhar Mhíc Cárthaig Riabhaígh" at Lismore Castle is an incident which took place way back in 540AD where St Colm Cille meets a woman harvesting nettles for her pottage! She goes on to explain that this is her diet until her cow calved when she would have milk, cream, butter and cheese again! One wonders if the Saint stayed to sample the dish or whether he used one of his miracles to enhance the taste of absent butter! The story certainly stood the test of time! All good chefs know what a miracle product butter is!!

Ingredients:

45g butter
Dash of vegetable oil
275g chopped potatoes (praties)
100g chopped onions
100g chopped leeks
3 cloves garlic
150g chopped nettles (previously blanched)
1 litre chicken stock
150g milk
salt and pepper to taste
Knob of extra butter to serve

Method

Melt butter in a pot with a dash of vegetable oil. Add the onions, garlic and leeks stirring frequently. Add the chopped praties along with the stock and cook for ten minutes. Add the nettles and two minutes later add the milk or cream and season to taste. Don't overcook as you will ruin the lovely colour of the pottage. Serve immediately with a knob of butter (or some sour cream or cremé fraiche). Enjoy St Patrick's Day whatever you eat or drink!