Fresh comfort: A new approach to Irish food

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - Trouble is nothing new to Ireland, with centuries of invasion, war and strife, oppression and crushing poverty, famine and mass migration. No wonder Irish food is so hearty and comforting. It's designed to satisfy all the various hungers a weary body might have.

Perfect food, then, for these troubled times in the United States.

Just don't be thinking Irish food today means soft soggy vegetables, leathery corned beef or potato after potato after endless potato. There's a more urbane, creative feel to today's Irish cooking on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Irish cooking is a style of cooking that uses local ingredients and is based on traditional dishes," writes Margaret M. Johnson in her "The New Irish Table" cookbook. "New Irish chefs came to recognize that there was nothing wrong with the basic ingredients of their cooking ... but that they had to learn to broaden their tastes and apply more sophisticated, international cooking techniques to the marvelous bounty of their homeland."

Johnson, a resident of Westhampton, N.Y., has a new cookbook, "Tea & Crumpets," to be released in May. She first began visiting Ireland in 1984. She has been back more than 50 times since. The biggest change, she said, had been immigration _ people moving to Ireland from around the world to seek better opportunities. They have helped give Irish food a more global stamp, she said.

"In the smallest Irish village you'll likely find a Chinese take-away," she said.

While Johnson said she hasn't personally encountered the same sort of global aspect to Irish cooking here _ finding a Buffalo chicken wing on an "Irish" pub menu in America drives her crazy _ there are American restaurants seeking to expand the definition of Irish food.

Take the work of James O'Shea, who for nearly 19 years has been drawing New Yorkers to his clubby West Street Grill in Litchfield, Conn. O'Shea, born in County Kerry, Ireland, has long been an advocate for the new Irish cooking, yet he stressed the key to the cuisine remains locally sourced, fresh foods.

"They're using local ingredients from as close as possible to where they live," he said. "There are more farmers markets, more people growing vegetables. It's all about local, sustainable and the environment."

Freshness is vital too. O'Shea recalls his grandmother turning up her nose in the afternoon at an egg laid that morning. Too old for her. Nor was his mother fooled when O'Shea tried to switch a piece of farmed salmon for Irish wild salmon.

"I wrapped it in seaweed and slowly steamed it. She said it was very good but not the real thing," he said. "People know the lineage of taste. ....People know where these things are from. Everyone needs to know where their ingredients come from."

One of executive chef Jeanne Carlson's challenges is convincing customers at the Chicago restaurant Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro that their misconceptions of Irish food belong in the past.

"Contemporary Irish is not that different (from) contemporary American," said Carlson, who is of Swedish descent. "We're using traditional Irish ingredients and techniques in a new way."

So buttermilk mashed potatoes, a traditional dish, might get jazzed up with Japanese wasabi root, Dijon mustard or black olives, she said. Lamb shanks are dosed with stout and bedded on roast garlic and parsnip puree.

"Irish food is changing. ... It's gone through such a revolution," Carlson said.

Some may think there has been too much of a revolution.

Chef Dirk Flanigan of The Gage restaurant in Chicago chuckled as he recalled some sons of the Old Sod balking at the changes he has made to their familiar dishes.

"A lot of the Irish won't eat garlic or lots of spices," said the chef, whose grandfather hailed from County Donegal. "The guys who come over don't think of it as Irish."

And that's understandable to an extent.

"The Irish have a tradition with food," O'Shea added. "Traditional foods are local and simple, but there is perfection in the ingredients."

Author Johnson agreed.

"They want it as fresh as they can get it," she said. "It's all about local, local, local besides organic and free-range. They like to eat food from within a 50-mile radius of where they're dining."

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HADDOCK FILLETS IN CIDER

Prep: 12 minutes

Cook: 25 minutes

Makes: 4 servings

This recipe is from Margaret M. Johnson's "The New Irish Table." Cod fillets may be substituted for the haddock. Hard Irish cider is available at liquor and wine shops. If you can't find hard cider, substitute a wheat beer.

2 tablespoons flour

˝ teaspoon salt

Ľ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

4 haddock or other white fish fillets, 6 ounces each

4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, minced

1 shallot, minced

Fennel fronds, coarsely chopped

4 slices lemon

1 Ľ cups Irish cider

1 tablespoon butter

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Coat the fish in the seasoned flour; place in greased baking dish. Sprinkle with parsley, shallot and fennel fronds. Place the lemon slices on top of the fish. Pour cider over the fish; dot with butter. Cover pan with foil.

2. Bake until the sauce is bubbling, 20-25 minutes. Remove dish from oven; heat the broiler. Remove the foil; pour off 1 cup of the sauce for serving. Place fish under the broiler about 4 inches from heat source. Broil until fish is lightly browned, 4-5 minutes. Place a fish fillet on each plate; spoon reserved sauce over the top.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 195 calories, 20 percent of calories from fat, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 106 mg cholesterol, 5 g carbohydrates, 33 g protein, 414 mg sodium, 0 g fiber

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WHISKEY-BRAISED PORK WITH COLCANNON

Prep: 40 minutes

Cook: 3 hours, 35 minutes

Makes: 6 servings

This recipe comes from chef Dirk Flanigan of The Gage restaurant in Chicago. Have your butcher bone and tie the pork shoulder for braising. Flanigan uses Jameson whiskey in this dish. Colcannon is a traditional Irish potato and cabbage dish.

1 pork shoulder (3-4 pounds), boned, tied

2 teaspoons salt

1 ˝ teaspoons freshly ground pepper plus more to taste

Ľ cup vegetable oil

1 each, chopped: yellow onion, carrot

3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1 bay leaf

˝ teaspoon dry mustard

1 Ľ cups whiskey

2 quarts chicken broth

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Ľ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Colcannon:

1˝ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cooked, peeled

ľ cup whipping cream

1 stick (˝ cup) butter

2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

˝ teaspoon salt

1 small savoy cabbage, very thinly sliced

2 leeks, sliced

1 yellow onion, diced

10 sprigs parsley, chopped

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add meat; brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove meat to plate. Add onion and carrot to the Dutch oven. Cook until vegetables are lightly caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, garlic, bay leaf and dry mustard; cook 1 minute. Add whiskey; cook, stirring up browned bits, until liquid reduces by half, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, brown sugar, nutmeg and black pepper to taste. Add meat; cover. Roast until the meat is tender, about 3 hours.

2. Meanwhile, for colcannon, mash potatoes in a large bowl. Mix in the cream and half of the butter. Season with pepper and salt; set aside. Melt the remaining butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add cabbage, leeks and onion. Cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Fold vegetables into potatoes; stir in the chopped parsley. Keep warm.

3. Remove braised pork from oven; cool 10 minutes. Transfer meat to cutting board. Strain liquid into a fat separator (or skim off fat); return liquid to pan. Cook over medium-high heat until reduced by three-quarters, about 15-20 minutes; set aside. Cut pork shoulder into thick slices. Spoon colcannon onto dinner plates. Place pork slices on the colcannon; spoon reduced juices around the plate.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 898 calories, 55 percent of calories from fat, 54 g fat, 24 g saturated fat, 228 mg cholesterol, 37 g carbohydrates, 62 g protein, 2,161 mg sodium, 5 g fiber

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STOUT-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 3 hours

Makes: 6 servings

This recipe was developed by executive chef Jeanne Carlson from Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro in Chicago. She prefers to make the dish with Guinness stout and serves it with roast garlic and parsnip puree (see accompanying recipe). Mashed potatoes would work as well.

6 lamb shanks, about 1 pound each

1 teaspoon each: salt, freshly ground pepper

1 cup flour

Ľ cup vegetable oil

6 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon caraway seed

2 cups stout beer

3 cans (14 ounces each) beef broth

1 cup tomato paste

˝ cup golden raisins

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1. Season lamb with ˝ teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Pour flour in a shallow pan; coat lamb in the flour, shaking to remove any excess. Heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven. Cook lamb shanks, in batches, until well-browned on all sides, 6-8 minutes per batch. Transfer shanks to a platter.

2. Add the carrots and onion to the Dutch oven; cook, stirring, until caramelized around the edges, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and caraway seed; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the stout; heat to a boil over high heat, stirring up browned bits. Cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in the beef broth, tomato paste, raisins, thyme and remaining ˝ teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Add reserved shanks and any juices to pan; heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer; cover tightly. Cook, turning the meat occasionally, until the meat is tender and falling from the bone, 2 hours. Remove shanks to the platter. Cook sauce to thicken slightly, about 15 minutes. Remove sprigs of thyme; serve sauce over shanks.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 536 calories, 30 percent of calories from fat, 18 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 147 mg cholesterol, 41 g carbohydrates, 51 g protein, 1,603 mg sodium, 6 g fiber

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ROASTED GARLIC AND PARSNIP PUREE

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 35 minutes

Makes: 8 servings

A recipe from Jeanne Carlson, executive chef at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro in Chicago. Serve in place of potatoes.

1 head garlic, top third cut off

1 teaspoon olive oil

4 pounds parsnips, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 ˝ teaspoons salt

˝ stick (Ľ cup) unsalted butter, softened

ľ cup whipping cream

˝ teaspoon white or black pepper

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place the garlic on a square of aluminum foil; drizzle top with the olive oil. Wrap in the foil; bake until soft, 30-40 minutes. Unwrap the garlic; cool. Squeeze cloves into small bowl.

2. Meanwhile, put parsnips in a large saucepan; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Cover with water. Heat to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.

3. Place parsnips in a food processor with roasted garlic, butter and cream, in batches if necessary; puree. Add parsnip cooking liquid, if needed, to make the puree smooth. Season with remaining ˝ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 285 calories, 46 percent of calories from fat, 15 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 46 mg cholesterol, 37 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 465 mg sodium, 10 g fiber

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© 2009, Chicago Tribune.