RECIPES: Savor the spirit of Ireland
Several years ago, while researching her family tree, Judith McLoughlin made a startling discovery. A hundred years before she and her husband, Gary, left Northern Ireland for Boston, her great-grandparents made the same journey.
In 1896, Etta McGarvey set sail from County Donegal at age 21 in search of a better life. Soon after, John McNeill, the youngest child of eleven on a hardscrabble farm, took a similar gamble. They both wound up in New England, and met in the elegant home where Etta worked as a maid, and John was a carpenter. Eventually they married, settled in Boston, and started a family.
But unlike other poor Irish who’d weathered so much hardship to reach their dream, the McNeills returned to Ireland in 1900 thanks to an unexpected land inheritance. They passed down the spirit of refined hospitality they’d acquired overseas to their progeny.
McLoughlin, a chef and cookbook author who now lives in Roswell, was among the recipients of that tradition. She tells how her grandparents’ story shaped her own in the newly published “A Return to Ireland: A Culinary Journey from America to Ireland” (Hatherleigh, $30).
McLoughlin grew up on a farm in County Armagh, and learned to cook in her grandmother’s bed and breakfast alongside her mother and two sisters. “My dad raised primarily sheep and some beef cattle,” she said in a phone interview. “Our neighbors grew all kinds of fresh vegetables — carrots and leeks and such. We would have so many beautiful varieties of potatoes, each with unique flavors particular to the regions where they were grown.”
After college, McLoughlin’s sisters founded a restaurant with outside catering in an old schoolhouse, and McLoughlin pitched in. She married the son of a local baker in a small 18th-century chapel nearby, and in 1996 the couple moved to Boston for career opportunities. They planted roots in metro Atlanta the following year.
To ease their homesickness through the transitions, McLoughlin cooked the dishes they missed from Ireland, sometimes blending them with flavors they’d come to embrace in the modern American South and shared them with new friends and neighbors.
That passion eventually led her to start a catering business, The Shamrock and Peach, and offer cooking classes around the city and beyond. Gary, meanwhile, developed his photography skills, and in 2011 they produced a coffee table cookbook by the same name, with Gary’s sweeping Irish landscapes accompanying his wife’s traditional and cross-cultural creations such as Irish Stout Braised Short Ribs with Georgia Peanuts, Shallots, and Champ and Banoffee Pie with a Southern Pecan Crust.
McLoughlin traveled the country promoting the book, sometimes cooking alongside top chefs, and now leads cultural tours through Ireland, such as the ones she has planned in May and June through the southern peninsula and along the entire coastline (visit shamrockandpeach.com for details.)
These experiences led her to delve deeper into her own roots and and write a follow-up volume with more recipes and photos that paint a fuller picture of the immigrant experience, and bring the flavors of the old country to the present. If she’s in town for St. Patrick’s Day, she’ll likely celebrate the holiday as she usually does, by having some neighbors over for storytelling and a feast that takes her back home.
RECIPES
Here are some ideas for a St. Patrick’s Day menu you can easily execute at home, with recipes adapted from “A Return to Ireland: A Culinary Journey from America to Ireland” by chef, cookbook author and Roswell resident Judith McLoughlin (Hatherleigh, $30).
Black Velvet Cocktail
Instead of a mug, elevate the classic brew of Ireland in a flute with bubbly and a splash of black currant liqueur.
- 4 ounces champagne
- 4 ounces Guinness Irish stout
- 1 tablespoon creme de cassis
- Pour the champagne into a tall, chilled champagne flute. Slowly pour the Guinness on top of the champagne. The Guinness should float on top. Garnish with the creme de cassis.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per serving: 204 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), 1 gram protein, 14 grams carbohydrates, no fiber, trace total fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 11 milligrams sodium.
Dublin Coddle with Bangers and Bacon
Practically every Irish kitchen has some version of this one-dish meal of sausages, potatoes, onions and bacon, says Judith McLoughlin. Though her mother often served it as a spontaneous family meal, it also makes for an easy-to-assemble company dish, especially with a garnish of quick-fried and salted sage leaves.
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 slices thick-cut bacon, sliced in ¼-inch strips
- 1 pound (4-6) fresh bratwurst or other mild pork link sausages, cut in thirds
- 2 medium red onions, sliced into strips
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 ¾ cups chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
- 1 ½ pounds Yukon Gold or red-skinned potatoes, thinly sliced
- Coarse sea salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Handful of fresh sage leaves
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and fry until crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the bacon on a paper-towel-lined plate.
- Add the sausages to the skillet and brown on all sides over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes. Remove the sausages to a plate and set aside.
- Pour and discard all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the skillet, add the onions, and saute until they begin to caramelize, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and cook 1 minute longer. Add the vinegar and chicken stock to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the browned bits, and cook for a few minutes until slightly reduced.
- Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan with the butter, then add the potatoes in an even layer. Season with salt and pepper. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sauteed onions and garlic mixture to the pan and spread over the potatoes. Lay the sausage pieces over the onions. Pour the stock remaining in the skillet over the dish.
- Bake, uncovered, for 50 minutes until potatoes are soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Prepare the garnish: In a small pan, heat the olive oil over high heat, add the sage leaves for just a few seconds, and transfer the sage with a slotted spoon to the plate with the bacon. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Distribute the mixture over the top of the dish, rewarming the dish in the oven for a few minutes before serving if necessary.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per serving, based on 4: 720 calories (percent of calories from fat, 61), 27 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 49 grams total fat (16 grams saturated), 90 milligrams cholesterol, 1,766 milligrams sodium.
Armagh Orchard Salad with Apple Thyme Vinaigrette
Apple trees dot the countryside of the county of Armagh where Judith McLoughlin was raised. This salad is a celebration of that beloved ingredient.
- For the vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cold-pressed apple juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- For the salad:
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¾ cup walnut halves
- Pinch of sea salt
- 6 cups tender mixed greens, such as baby spinach and arugula
- 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 Pink Lady red apple, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 ounces (1/4 cup) crumbled blue cheese
- Prepare the vinaigrette: In a blender or the bowl of a food processor, combine the vinegar, apple juice, honey, mustard and shallot. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. When emulsified, blend in the thyme, salt and pepper. (Alternatively, place all ingredients in a jar, seal and shake until emulsified.)
- Prepare the salad: In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the walnuts and salt, shaking the pan gently for 2 to 5 minutes or until the walnuts are golden brown and aromatic. Set aside to cool, then coarsely chop.
- To assemble the salad, place the greens, apples, blue cheese and nuts in a large bowl. Just before serving, toss with about half the vinaigrette. Reserve some of the vinaigrette to serve on the side should your guests prefer to pour a little extra on their salad.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per serving, based on 4, with half the vinaigrette: 620 calories (percent of calories from fat, 67), 15 grams protein, 40 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams fiber, 48 grams total fat (9 grams saturated), 18 milligrams cholesterol, 681 milligrams sodium.
Coconut Oat Truffles
Judith McLoughlin developed these easy, energizing treats using staple Irish ingredients for classes she teaches several times a year for the Thomas F. Chapman Family Cancer Wellness program at Piedmont Hospital. While these truffles are great for teatime or after-meal treats, she also likes to make them to pack up for trail hikes with her husband, Gary.
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 ½ cups unsweetened coconut flakes, divided
- ¾ cup mini dark chocolate chips
- 1 cup natural nut butter (almond, cashew or peanut)
- ¼ cup raw honey, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the oats on a large baking sheet and place in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the oats are lightly toasted and fragrant. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Place ½ cup of the coconut flakes in a small bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a chopping blade, combine the remaining 2 cups of coconut flakes with the cooled oats, chocolate chips, nut butter, ¼ cup honey, vanilla and salt.
- Pulse until the mixture is well-blended. Pinch off some of the mixture and squeeze it into a ball with your hands. If it’s too dry to hold together, add a little more honey and give it a few more pulses.
- Roll the mixture into 1 ½-inch balls, then roll each ball in reserved coconut flakes to coat. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for several months.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per truffle, based on 2 1/2 dozen: 147 calories (percent of calories from fat, 54), 3 grams protein, 14 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 9 grams total fat (3 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 26 milligrams sodium.Sign up for the AJC Food and Dining Newsletter
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