An Irish Dinner Menu, Irish Recipes for Dinner

• Sorrel Soup – Starter

• Crusty Roast Lamb (Uaineoil faoi chrusta) – Main Course

• Baked Parsnips Irish Style – Vegetable

• Kale with Cream – Vegetable

• Irish Coffee Pudding – Dessert

Sorrel Soup

1 pound sorrel 3 ounces butter 1 large onion, chopped 2 tablespoons flour 2-1/2 cups chicken stock 2 tablespoons bread crumbs 2 egg yolks 1/2 cup cream salt and freshly ground pepper

Wash the sorrel well and chop it up. Heat the butter in a saucepan and just soften the sorrel and onion in it. Shake the flour over the vegetables and mix well. Let cook for about 1 minute. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil, then add to the pan. Add the bread crumbs, season to taste, and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 1 hour, covered. (It can be liquefied at this point but doesn’t need to be.) Beat the egg yolks with the cream and add a little of the hot soup to the mixture, stirring well; then add gradually to the soup pot, stirring well, over the heat, but being careful not to let it boil.

Note: If you can’t find sorrel, use spinach, collards, or mustard greens.

Main Course

Crusty Roast Lamb (Uaineoil faoi chrusta)

1 (4-lb.) shoulder of lamb 1 cup fresh bread crumbs pinch of mixed herbs 2 tablespoons butter, softened salt and freshly ground pepper 1-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 large onion, diced 1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored, and sliced

Wipe the lamb over, and cut criss-cross slits around top. Mix together the bread crumbs, herbs, butter, salt, and pepper. Rub the mixture onto top of the meat, pressing down well so that it sticks. Fill the bottom of the roasting pan with the vegetables and apple, mixing them and the seasoning well. Put the meat on top, then pour the stock into the pan, but not over the meat. Cover loosely with a piece of foil and bake at 400° for half an hour. then lower the heat to 350°, and cook for a further 20-25 minutes to the pound. Take off the foil for the final half hour, and check that the vegetables are nearly cooked. Finish the cooking without the foil, to let the top get brown and crusty.

Vegetable

Baked Parsnips Irish Style

2-1/2 pounds parsnips 2 ounces butter or bacon fat 3 tablespoons stock salt and freshly ground pepper pinch of nutmeg

Peel parsnips, quarter, and remove any woody core. Parboil for 15 minutes. Place in an ovenproof dish. Add stock and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Dot with butter and bake for 30 minutes on a low shelf in a moderate oven. (Generally parsnips are baked in the same oven as the main meat dish, whose cooking temperature governs that of the parsnips.)

Vegetable

Kale with Cream

1-3/4 pounds kale 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream pinch nutmeg salt and freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons stock

Wash the kale and strip the leaves from the stalks, then plunge into briskly boiling salted water and cook until tender, 20-30 minutes. Drain well and chop finely. In a saucepan combine the butter, cream, nutmeg, salt, and pepper; then add the kale and the stock. Mix well and cook until well heated and the sauce is slightly reduced.

Dessert

Irish Coffee Pudding

6 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup very strong coffee 1-1/2 ounces powdered gelatin 1/3 cup Irish whiskey 10 ounces heavy whipping cream 3 ounces crushed walnuts sweetened whipped cream

Separate the yolks from the whites of eggs. In a bowl, cream yolks with sugar. Heat the coffee until hot but not boiling; add the gelatin and dissolve it in the coffee. Add this mixture to the yolks and sugar. Beat well and put the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Continue beating until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and when the bowl has cooled a little, place it over cracked ice and continue stirring. When the mixture is on the point of setting, whip the cream and fold it in. Add the whiskey. Lastly, fold in the well-beaten egg whites. Pour into a soufflé dish that has a double thickness of parchment paper tied around it; the paper should come up 3 inches above the top of the soufflé dish. Oil a jar or bottle and press it down into the center of the pudding. Leave to set. Remove the paper collar by easing around the circumference with a knife dipped in hot water. Remove the jar, and fill the center with sweetened whipped. Decorate the sides of pudding with the walnuts, pressing them in with the palm of your hand.