M.P. is proud of his French and Irish descent, so St. Pat's is always a festive occasion here. We actually celebrated twice, once on Friday night and again on Sunday.
Our Irish pub dinner on Friday was memorable for M.P.'s whimsical use of paper napkins to give a subdued lighting effect to the kitchen and breakfast bar.
In the pic above, you can see a tray of just-baked pasties on the counter; at the far left is a pan of delicious rarebit sauce (one of M.P.'s specialties) and a little pot of parsley sauce, yum. Both were used for dipping or spreading.
Below is a platter of hot, fresh jambons, which M.P. has discovered are all the rage in Dublin these days: they are made with pastry dough and a mixture of ham and cheese filling with bechamel sauce. (Sort of a croque monsieur.) Scrumptious! Of course, we each had a rare bottle of Guinness to wash it all down with.
Buttered toast points, left, and homemade French fries, right.
Some of everything.
The pub dinner was all finger foods, but Sunday dinner was rather more formal, starting with the place settings.
M.P. likes to use the gravy boat to make a centerpiece, if it's not needed for gravy.
Tasty Irish soda bread, hot out of the oven. Smells good too.
Roses were on sale at the grocery store, and M.P.'s favorite dining-room colors are green and white, so it all worked out beautifully. However, I must confess that these roses are actually a very pale green, which doesn't show up in the photograph.
The bamboo plates are a bone china set from the 1930s or 40s that M.P. found online years ago and snagged at a bargain price. They do lend a bit of old-time glamour to the table, we think.
The oversized cups were for the soup course: Dublin Coddle. Diced potatoes, leeks, bacon, ham, and sausage. Poor man's food but mighty tasty, and perfect on a cold night.
The entree was corned beef, of course, with some sliced potatoes and baby carrots, all cooked together in the crock pot from noon to midnight. At top right, a bowl of homemade mustard sauce (mostly mustard and a lot of brown sugar, with a drop of Louisiana Hot Sauce™) that goes perfectly with the meat. At bottom right, a bowl of M.P.'s famous Truckstop Cabbage, the perfect complement: it's cabbage, carrots, red onions, and bacon cooked together till everything is tender and delicious.
M.P. says white beans and carrots are a traditional Irish dish. Okay.
Determine the area of a quarter-section of one-quarter of a circle: geometry at work in the kitchen.
Wish I could hand all you boys a plate of this mighty fine eatin'!
Dessert was a Guinness Cake - the body contains Guinness and cocoa, and the frosting is cream cheese, mostly.
Dee-licious!
-----
%20Huile%20sur%20toile,%20162%20x%20114%20cm,%201952-1953,%20centre%20Pompidou,%20Paris..jpg)
4 comments:
Pretty spectacular, Russ and the floral tribute to your "wild Irish rose" are most thoughtful.
Thanks, Davis. It was quite a lovely evening. Took two days to clean up all the dishes, pots, and pans, but well worth it.
I cannot compete with MP. When Leon got home from work we had the old stand-by: corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, on a plate,no frills, eat it, clean up, watch TV, go to bed by 9:15. Corned beef ani't what it used to be...when I worked in the grocery store back in the 60s they made the corned beef in house, in huge vats of brine. The briskets were always a bit fatty, tender and delicious. Now they seal the meat in vacuum-pac plastic. Any how your feasts ALWAYS look so scrumptious and festive.
Thanks, Frank. It's all due to M.P.'s cookery and artistry. I'm just the scullery man, toiling away with pots and pans and dirty dishes in the wee hours long after M.P. has gone to bed. (Or maybe the next day.) But I'm glad to be the beneficiary of all that deliciousness! A real blessing.
BTW, M.P. has cured his own corned beef on occasion - this was a frozen one he found on sale some tume back. Took 12 or 13 hours in the crock pot to get tender - he may go back to cooking them in the oven, where it gets hotter and takes less time.
Post a Comment