Dublin Coddle and Irish Soda Bread

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would make some traditional Irish fair. I didn’t want to go the corned beef and cabbage route, so I looked around for some interesting sounding dishes that were different. Now, the one, the Irish Soda Bread, is pretty traditional. I found one that used oatmeal in the recipe, so I figured that was good enough for the different category. The other dish I found looking up one of the “100 Greatest Irish Dishes” lists. Got past all of the corned beef this and cabbage that recipes and settled upon the Dublin Coddle. The original recipe is here. Surprisingly, didn’t stray too far from the recipe on this one. LOL

Dublin Coddle – Irish Sausage, Bacon, Onion and Potato Hotpot

5 lb bag of potatoes

2 large onions, peeled and sliced thickly

1 lb of good quality pork sausages

1 lb of thick cut bacon

2 cups of water

1 ham (beef or chicken) stock cube

3 – 4 T fresh parsley, chopped

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Directions:

The potatoes need to be peeled and cut into 2 -4 chunks depending upon how big they are. The small ones can just remain whole.

The onions need to be sliced thickly and set aside

The 1 lb of pork sausage and 1 lb of bacon are to be cooked long enough to give them color. They will be sitting in a pot for hours in the oven, so giving them a hint of color to begin with will suffice.

The stock cube is put into the 2 cups of water to dissolve, and the water is brought to a boil.

There is the choice to leave the sausage whole or cut them up. I choose to cut the sausages into thirds, and just cut the bacon in half.

I also did not drain the sausages or the bacon in the traditional sense…..I put the bacon and sausage fat in the pot.

The oven is preheated to 300 degrees. In a large heavy pot (that can go on the stove and in the oven) you start layering the ingredients: onions, bacon, sausage, potato, parsley, salt and pepper then repeat. This layering continues until all of the ingredients are used up. Then the stock water that you made is poured on top, and the water is brought to a boil on the stove. From here you put the lid on the pot and place it in the oven. I chose instead just to cover the top of the pot tightly with foil. This worked fine.

It is supposed to cook for 3 hours with a check on the water level after 2 hours. More water should be added to make sure that there is a minimum of 1 inch of water in the pot.

I used a small can of beef broth instead of the stock cube, and there was never a need to add more water to the pot.

What to do during the hours of cooking?

Hey, how did THAT picture get in there?

Additionally, I only cooked mine for about an hour and a half and when I checked everything it was done. So at that point I took it out and let it sit on the stove for a short while before tasting.

And this cooking faster let me make the soda bread quicker.

Irish Oatmeal Soda Bread

This recipe is pretty straightforward with ingredients and execution.

Ingredients:

4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ¾ cups well-shaken buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

The oven is heated to 375 degrees and instead of a bread pan; this bread is cooked on a parchment lined cookie sheet. I did not have parchment paper, so I greased and floured a round portion of cookie sheet. The bread did not stick.

The flour is combined with the oats, baking soda, sugar and salt. The butter is cut into this with your hands, making sure that any large lumps are gone.

The egg is lightly beaten and combined with the buttermilk.

The dry ingredients are mixed with the wet, and the mixture is formed into a round-ish ball. It is a free-form loaf, so you can shape how you want. This is then placed on the parchment lined baking sheet, and placed in the oven for 50 min.You cut an X into the top of the loaf before it bakes. It is recommended to let it cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

When I made the bread, I looked to see if it still had a wet look about it, when it looked dry was when I took it out.

Sadly, there was no Guinness to be had with this meal, but it was a good choice all the same.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Breakfast Lasagna – My Style

I think I have come to the conclusion that I could be Betty Crackpot when it comes to cooking. (Did you get the reference above?) Anyway, saw a recipe for Breakfast Lasagna and wanted to make it. Really it was the bacon in the photo that got me :-). So I went to the store with the recipe. Okay, I forgot the recipe I was going to bring, so found it on my phone when I remembered that I forgot it. Anyway, not important…..let’s move on…..

So looked at the ingredients:

Maple Bacon Sauce

1 lb of bacon (had that)

¼ c of flour (had that)

1 c maple syrup (had that)

½ c heavy cream (needed that) *

* Yeah, that turned into just using milk that I already had

Sausage Gravy (did not make this so needed none)

Pancakes (I used a mix so just needed to add water)

Scrambled Eggs **

** I only used the eggs of that recipe, didn’t even use salt.

Then I decided that I wanted to add hash browns to the recipe, so I picked up a 20 oz  package of shredded potatoes.

For the cheese the recipe called for, instead of 1 lb of shredded, I got an 8 oz pkg of Co-Jack slices. I also didn’t put it in the eggs like the recipe said. Such a hellion!

So I decided to figure out what to do first – seemed best to follow some of the recipe (LOL). So I put the bacon in first at 400⁰, and let it cook for 20 min. I just put it straight on the cookie sheet.

While that cooked, I turned to the pancakes. As stated earlier, I used the “just add water” kind and made the 12-14 pancakes recipe. I figured that it should make 9 or so “noodles”. Pulled out the griddle and proceeded to figure out how to shape them.

I found that I needed to turn them with two spatulas to make sure they didn’t break.

                        

When that finished, I kept the griddle going and made the hash browns.

                      

I halved the potatoes and cooked them in two batches. I figured there would be two or three layers, so it would be best to break them up.

After the hash browns, I made the eggs. Instead of cooking 12 at once, I made 6 and then 6.

                       

Once those were done I switched out the bacon with more bacon, and poured the bacon grease in a mug. Then when all of the bacon was done cooking, I poured all the grease in a saucepan.

I stirred in the flour, then added the syrup and finally the milk. It thickened up like when making a box of cooked pudding.

                           

Now time to assemble.

                           

I put the four “noodles” in the bottom and realized I had more room then I thought, and the bottom layer was not going to be “touching” like the recipe said. Added the syrup mix next and then the eggs.

Now, this is where I was going to put the first layer of cheese, but I forgot and put the hash browns on next. D’OH!

                         

I will remember for next layer.

I also realized that there would be only two layers like the recipe stated. I thought my “noodles” would have been longer, but they fit perfectly the way I placed them. So I put the cheese on the hash brown, and proceeded to put another layer of “noodles”, syrup, eggs, and then I did it AGAIN! I put the hash browns on the eggs instead of the cheese. Placed the cheese, in the wrong place AGAIN, and then put the bacon across the top.

I noticed that my before and after cooking photos looked pretty much the same. I cooked it in the 400⁰ oven for 15 minutes.

Then I actually let it sit for a bit, while I made myself do something else, so that it could actually sit for a bit.

After waiting, I cut a piece.

                              

The verdict is that it was delicious! I liked how after it cooked you could see the different layers, and the hash browns were still crunchy and the bacon was cooked to perfection.

Definitely making this again….probably after many, many hours of exercise!