Anyone want to share St. Patty's Day reviews?

[tholbrook]

I didn't see a thread on this already... if you made anything special for St. Patrick's Day, I'd love to see what you made - never too early to start collecting recipes/ideas for next year! :D

Not necessarily authentic Irish fare, but fun nevertheless:

Irish Cheddar and Stout Fondue (Bon Appétit, March 2006) I used an Oatmeal Stout from TJ's and was surprised that the fondue didn't turn out bitter (I usually don't like strong, dark beer). The beer flavor was actually subtle. Like most fondues, it was simple to make, and we loved it. Served with steamed broccoli, asparagus, baby potatoes, carrots, and cubed soda bread. My only complaint was that the Irish Cheddar is not the best melting cheese out there - seemed just a wee bit grainy to me.
Brown Butter Soda Bread (Bon Appétit, February 2006) Another one that was probably easy to make, although I almost messed it up by halving the recipe and still adding entire amount of liquid. I had to go back and add more dry ingredients. Then I took it out too early because it seemed done but it was still doughy in the middle. We just cut around the doughy parts and ate it anyway, dipping it in the fondue. I omitted the rosemary in the recipe.
Chocolate-Whiskey Soufflè Tarts (Bon Appétit, March 1999) Good thing I didn't look at the calories before I made this! I scaled it back to 2 servings and it worked perfectly. Very chocolate-y with just a hint of whiskey. I'm glad I only made one for each of us, because I probably would have eaten a second one, they were so good.

[Laurielee]

Tammyk that menu looks yummy especially those souffles.

This is my first time doing a st paddys day dinner.

I made theC L crockpot corned beef recipe. DH said it was the best he has ever tasted and he is not a fan of corned beef.

I also amde the soda bread recipe post here on thread someone was looking for a soda bread recipe, I think she said it was her grandmother recipe. Very good, it tasted like scones. I wonder why they call it a soda bread though when it only has a tsp os soda.

and just boiled some potatoes and carrtos to go with it

Laurie

[MISSINDI]

That fondue sounds amazing, Tholbrook - I'll definitely be looking it up. No cooking here, but we got Irish take-out for lunch and dinner. ;)

[zackaboo]

Good thread idea Tammy. Wish I could participate but we were out of town on SPD so nothing cooking here. I will look for some ideas for next year though!

[jtoepfert100]

Tammyk that menu looks yummy especially those souffles.

This is my first time doing a st paddys day dinner.

I made theC L crockpot corned beef recipe. DH said it was the best he has ever tasted and he is not a fan of corned beef.

I also amde the soda bread recipe post here on thread someone was looking for a soda bread recipe, I think she said it was her grandmother recipe. Very good, it tasted like scones. I wonder why they call it a soda bread though when it only has a tsp os soda.

and just boiled some potatoes and carrtos to go with it

Laurie

Sounds like we had just about the same meal. :D Problem was, last time I made the Guiness Braised Corned Beef it was amazing. This time, not so much. I don't know if it was my cut of beef or the different crockpot, but this time the meat was really dry. Last time I used lean corned beef and this time I just regular so you would think the opposite would have occurred. My crockpot did seem to be running really high but I'm not sure. I also made sneezles' grandma's soda bread recipe and DH really liked it. I had some cooking issues with it though. It got really brown really early so I cooked it less than the alloted time. I think it was slightly undercooked.

I also made the CL Cabbage Gratin, which was our favorite of the evening, and CL's Garlic Red Mashed Potaoes, which we didn't care for at all. They were really dry and we've had much better mashed potato recipes.

[Laurielee]

"Last time I used lean corned beef and this time I just regular so you would think the opposite would have occurred. My crockpot did seem to be running really high but I'm not sure. "

I bought just a regular corned beef cut, by the time I cut the fat off of it it was about 2 1/2 # not 3# the recipe called for. I asked Dh to turn it off when he got home, which it had then cooked for 9 hours on hgih. instead he just turned it to low, and it then cooked another hour and half :eek: :eek: . It was was fall apart juicy and tender.

Laurie

[Anne]

I used the CL Guinness braised corned beef recipe (March 03?) too, with a few modifications. I did it on the stove top (I think I remember it being a crock pot recipe). I served it with beer bread (Joy of Cooking), a green salad (everything green I had on hand), and shortbread. Most everything came out fine except the yellow mustard I made came out runny - the brown coarse and the horseradish came out fine so I don't know what I goofed on the yellow. My big disaster was one of the shortbreads - I left one plain and tried to coat the other with chocolate from a candy bar that I had been saving for something. The chocolate would not melt on top of the shortbread when it was in the oven - so I tried the broiler. Bad mistake - I didn't think I had it in there for more than a minute but it was definitely much too long - the chocolate burned but still did not melt.

[Wendy w]

Irish Cheddar and Stout Fondue (Bon Appétit, March 2006) I used an Oatmeal Stout from TJ's and was surprised that the fondue didn't turn out bitter (I usually don't like strong, dark beer). The beer flavor was actually subtle. Like most fondues, it was simple to make, and we loved it. Served with steamed broccoli, asparagus, baby potatoes, carrots, and cubed soda bread. My only complaint was that the Irish Cheddar is not the best melting cheese out there - seemed just a wee bit grainy to me.


I made this too, also with the Oatmeal stout from TJ's as I was not going to pay $7.00 from Von's. :mad: I couldn't find Irish Cheddar so I used white, it worked just fine. I followed the recipe and served it with brussels sprouts, apples, potatoes, and cauliflower. The brussels sprouts and cauliflower were the best and the apples competed with the apple juice in the fondue. Next time, I will use broccoli, asparagus, and carrots, in addition to the potatoes, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. The white cheddar melted just fine.

[jtoepfert100]

"Last time I used lean corned beef and this time I just regular so you would think the opposite would have occurred. My crockpot did seem to be running really high but I'm not sure. "

I bought just a regular corned beef cut, by the time I cut the fat off of it it was about 2 1/2 # not 3# the recipe called for. I asked Dh to turn it off when he got home, which it had then cooked for 9 hours on hgih. instead he just turned it to low, and it then cooked another hour and half :eek: :eek: . It was was fall apart juicy and tender.

Laurie

Same with our cut regarding trimming. DH put it on around 2:00 p.m. When I got home around 8:00, not remembering the recipe, I freaked out when I saw that it was cooking on high but he reminded me that was what the recipe stated. However, my crockpot was boiling rapidly and around 9:00 (we eat late), I turned it to low because I was beginning to think it was cooking at too high a temperature. So, I cooked it for the alloted 8 hours but one of the hours was on low. At first when it was dry and stringy, I thought it was overcooked but maybe I undercooked it? :confused:

[helios7]

Oh my gosh - tholbrook and Wendy! Great minds really must think alike. We made the same fondue.

We made it on Saturday night as part of a fondue party (did the traditional Swiss with gruyere and emmental, with the Irish cheddar to try something new). We used some kind of stout that I found at the grocery, don't remember what kind, and a block of Cabot reserve from Costco. Well, half a block. I did find the texture to be slightly (ever so slightly) grainy, but I thought there was too much apple concentrate. I think 2-3 T would have sufficed for me, enough to provide a hint of appley sweetness without overtly tasting APPLE.

Served with steamed brussel sprouts, apple slices, cauliflower and of course bread. :)

[tholbrook]

...I did find the texture to be slightly (ever so slightly) grainy, but I thought there was too much apple concentrate. I think 2-3 T would have sufficed for me, enough to provide a hint of appley sweetness without overtly tasting APPLE...
...the apples competed with the apple juice in the fondue...I completely forgot until you guys reminded me... it just so happens that I did not have apple juice concentrate on hand (freezer door got left open and it thawed out ... and leaked all over the inside of the freezer! :mad: ) So I used regular apple juice, figuring the extra water would evaporate anyway. I could taste a tiny bit of apple flavor - just enough for a hint of sweetness - but it wasn't overpowering. So apparently this worked out well and the apple juice incident was fate! :D

[Middydd]

We just did our usual, Maple Leaf brand Corned Beef, steamed potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions. I seasoned the vegetables with a little butter after steaming and sprinkled with parsley.

The corned beef was braised in its wrapper in the oven for 4 hours at 300, then I took it out of the wrapper, slathered it in mustard and put it in a 350 degree oven while finishing up the preparation for dinner. It came out very tender and flavourful.

I also mixed up a bit of sour cream horseradish sauce and offered 3 different kinds of mustard.

[NMG]

Hi! We did an Irish theme for our cooking club last Thurs and everything was wonderful! Our menu included Colcannon (I believe a Tyler Florence recipe), Soda Bread with raisins, Irish Beef Stew topped with horseradish (Bon Appetit), salad and an Irish Whiskey-Coffee cheesecake with a thinmint crust (I don't even like cheesecake and thought this was very good!!). Plus with the cheesecake was served a hot chocolate with an Irish Cream mixture with whip cream and shaved chocolate!

[CompassRose]

Everybody already saw the Chocolate Guinness Cake thread, right?
:D :D :D

[tholbrook]

Everybody already saw the Chocolate Guinness Cake thread, right?
:D :D :DSure did! I have to say, it's probably a recipe I would have passed up if it hadn't been for all the glowing reviews. But now it sounds so good, I may have to make it long before the next St. Patty's Day!

The link is here (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=87898) if anyone would like to see the cake recipe.