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Book: 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List by Mimi Sheraton
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Authors: Mimi Sheraton
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extraordinary, white, fine-textured bread (on the supermarket level, a safe choice would be Pepperidge Farm’s Original loaf). Then slowly and carefully fry the bacon strips in a skillet that can hold as many bread slices as you want to fry. Four slices of bacon should give you enough rendered fat for four slices of bread. Remove the cooked bacon from the skillet and reserve it for whatever use you care to make of it, the wisest choice being to consume it at once, while it is still hot and crisp.
Over low heat and with the rendered fat at a low sizzle, add the bread slices. After about two minutes, press lightly with a spatula for a minute or two, or until the first side is a light golden brown. Flip the bread over and repeat on the other side until it, too, is golden brown. Remove the fried bread slices and drain them on paper towels for a minute or two. Then, while the slices are still hot and, hopefully, crisp, sprinkle them with coarse salt—a touch undoubtedly not added by Angela McCourt. Another enhancement would be a fried or poached egg with a runny yolk, especially if the fried bacon strips are crumbled over it all.
Where:
In New York
, Myers of Keswick, tel 212-691-4194, myersofkeswick.com . Mail order: The British Food Depot, britishfooddepot.com (search winston irish style bacon). Further information:
Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt (1996).
WHERE THE DARK ARTS MEET COMFORT
----
Colcannon and Champ
Irish, Welsh
There is a wistful Irish folk song, “Colcannon.”
The soul-soothing potato dish colcannon is best described by its simple recipe: Cooked, chopped cabbage and sliced scallions are folded into a pile of softly mashed potatoes, all to be mounded in a bowl with a well of hot, melted butter and a haze of black pepper in the center. To consume it, work your way slowly around the edges of that well, so butter glosses each forkful of this humble country fare.
Though it brings comfort to any cold night, the dish is traditionally served on All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), with coins or charms hidden in it. In Victorian times, the colcannon itself was the charm: Unmarried girls would hang socks holding a lump of the stuff on their door handles; the first man to enter was said to be their future husband.
Even more elemental, and much loved in both Ireland and Wales, is champ. For this, potatoes are mashed with warm, sharply tangy buttermilk just before butter and chopped scallions are stirred in.
Either way, a sprinkling of minced parsley adds a dose of welcome freshness.
Further information and recipes:
The Country Cooking of Ireland
by Colman Andrews (2009); theguardian.com (search colman andrews colcannon); food52.com (search buttermilk mashed potatoes). Tip: For best results, use old, starchy potatoes. Look for russets, aka Idaho baking potatoes. Kale is often substituted for cabbage for a lustier result.
EVEN IF IT’S NOT MARCH 17
----
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Irish
Billions of pounds are consumed every March 17.
Call it fusion or coincidence: Preserved (or corned) beef, slowly simmered then teamed with cabbage cooked in the same broth, is as much a fixture in Ireland as in the Eastern European Jewish kitchen, and for much the same reasons.Before reliable refrigeration, both areas traditionally relied heavily on salt-preserved meats during the cold months, and cabbage was available throughout the winter. (Ireland produced a significant amount of corned beef from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, although beef was considered a luxury for the vast majority of its people.)
It’s a meal that is both humble and succulent, at its meltingly tender best when the corned beef is cut from softly fatty brisket; in Ireland, leaner silverside is a good alternative. Onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, and a sprig of thyme season the rose-red meat and the earthy cabbage for a heartwarming combination.
Whether in Ireland or in any large American city, the day to look for corned beef and cabbage is St.
Over low heat and with the rendered fat at a low sizzle, add the bread slices. After about two minutes, press lightly with a spatula for a minute or two, or until the first side is a light golden brown. Flip the bread over and repeat on the other side until it, too, is golden brown. Remove the fried bread slices and drain them on paper towels for a minute or two. Then, while the slices are still hot and, hopefully, crisp, sprinkle them with coarse salt—a touch undoubtedly not added by Angela McCourt. Another enhancement would be a fried or poached egg with a runny yolk, especially if the fried bacon strips are crumbled over it all.
Where:
In New York
, Myers of Keswick, tel 212-691-4194, myersofkeswick.com . Mail order: The British Food Depot, britishfooddepot.com (search winston irish style bacon). Further information:
Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt (1996).
WHERE THE DARK ARTS MEET COMFORT
----
Colcannon and Champ
Irish, Welsh
There is a wistful Irish folk song, “Colcannon.”
The soul-soothing potato dish colcannon is best described by its simple recipe: Cooked, chopped cabbage and sliced scallions are folded into a pile of softly mashed potatoes, all to be mounded in a bowl with a well of hot, melted butter and a haze of black pepper in the center. To consume it, work your way slowly around the edges of that well, so butter glosses each forkful of this humble country fare.
Though it brings comfort to any cold night, the dish is traditionally served on All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), with coins or charms hidden in it. In Victorian times, the colcannon itself was the charm: Unmarried girls would hang socks holding a lump of the stuff on their door handles; the first man to enter was said to be their future husband.
Even more elemental, and much loved in both Ireland and Wales, is champ. For this, potatoes are mashed with warm, sharply tangy buttermilk just before butter and chopped scallions are stirred in.
Either way, a sprinkling of minced parsley adds a dose of welcome freshness.
Further information and recipes:
The Country Cooking of Ireland
by Colman Andrews (2009); theguardian.com (search colman andrews colcannon); food52.com (search buttermilk mashed potatoes). Tip: For best results, use old, starchy potatoes. Look for russets, aka Idaho baking potatoes. Kale is often substituted for cabbage for a lustier result.
EVEN IF IT’S NOT MARCH 17
----
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Irish
Billions of pounds are consumed every March 17.
Call it fusion or coincidence: Preserved (or corned) beef, slowly simmered then teamed with cabbage cooked in the same broth, is as much a fixture in Ireland as in the Eastern European Jewish kitchen, and for much the same reasons.Before reliable refrigeration, both areas traditionally relied heavily on salt-preserved meats during the cold months, and cabbage was available throughout the winter. (Ireland produced a significant amount of corned beef from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, although beef was considered a luxury for the vast majority of its people.)
It’s a meal that is both humble and succulent, at its meltingly tender best when the corned beef is cut from softly fatty brisket; in Ireland, leaner silverside is a good alternative. Onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, and a sprig of thyme season the rose-red meat and the earthy cabbage for a heartwarming combination.
Whether in Ireland or in any large American city, the day to look for corned beef and cabbage is St.
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