Colm O'Gorman: How to make a classic Dublin coddle

It's a hug in a bowl - from right here, at home, in Ireland

Colm O'Gorman's coddle

One of the very many things I love about food is the way that it brings us together. 

There is little more friendly and open-hearted than inviting another to your table. 

If you want to get to know someone, to find out who they are and where they are from, ask them about the food that they love to eat. 

If you want to bring comfort to someone, prepare them the food that they love to eat.

In doing so you won’t just find out about the other; you will also reveal yourself to them. 

It is impossible to talk to someone about the food they love, about their memories of family dishes cooked across generations, without being drawn in and sharing your own story. 

Food brings sustenance, comfort, care, and connection. 

I love those conversations, not least because of the ‘connection’ part. 

In talking about our food traditions and culture, we usually discover lots of commonality with other cultures. 

We discover that while we may seem very, very different, we are in fact, in so many ways the same.

Over the past four weeks here in this column, I have shared a series of recipes for stews from around the world that really underpin that point. 

Four apparently very different dishes:

• Dakdoritang, a lovely spicy chicken stew from Korea
• Pork and Beans from the Southern USA
• Mbaazi, a vegan stew of beans and coconut from Kenya
• and today, the last in this short series, Coddle from right here at home in Ireland.

Pretty much every world cuisine features stews or casseroles of some kind. 

Recipes that have their origins in times that were tough, when food had to be made with very basic ingredients. 

Protein and root vegetables or beans, cooked low and slow, and served steaming hot, with some sort of bread to mop up the juices. Comfort food at its very best. A hug in a bowl.

When I cook these recipes for my family, I know I'm cooking food that millions of others have cooked for theirs, with the same intent and purpose. Food full of sustenance and flavour, but also full of love.

Coddle is a Dublin dish, a stew made with sausages and bacon. It is a white stew, which can make it perhaps less appealing to those who are unfamiliar with its charms. 

Let’s just say that a whole-boiled sausage is not a thing of beauty. For that reason alone, I brown the sausages in my Coddle. 

I also favour a loin of bacon that is boiled and then shredded into bite-sized chunks over the traditional rashers. I think it gives both a better flavour and texture.

The end result tastes wonderful, a classic stew, another hug in a bowl.

Coddle

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Coddle is a Dublin dish, a stew made with sausages and bacon. It is a white stew, which can make it perhaps less appealing to those who are unfamiliar with its charms.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 30 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 500g unsmoked bacon loin

• A splash of olive oil

• 450g good quality sausages

• 2 large onions

• 1 bay leaf

• A few sprigs of fresh thyme

• 3 carrots

• 3 parsnips

• 1 kg potatoes

• 500ml beef or chicken stock

• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

• A generous grind of black pepper

• If required: 1 tbsp cornflour and 2 tbsp water

Method

1. Pop the bacon into a large pot of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for fifty minutes, before removing it from the pan and setting aside to cool just a little. Retain the cooking water as you will add some to the pot of Coddle later.

2. Wash and peel the potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. Cut the potatoes into quarters, and the other vegetables into 3cm chunks. Peel and thickly slice the onions.

3. Warm a large casserole dish or Dutch oven over a high heat. Add a splash of olive oil, reduce the heat to medium and fry the sausages until they are nicely browned all over, just a few minutes should do it. When they are browned, remove them from the pot and set aside.

4. Add the sliced onions to the same pot, reduce the heat to low and cook until soft and translucent. Take care not to brown them too much, a coddle is traditionally a white stew, so just fry them four to five minutes stirring them regularly. Add a bay leaf and a few sprigs of fresh thyme to the pan once the onions are softened.

5. Cut the cooked bacon into thick slices and use two forks to tear the meat into bite sized pieces. Cut the sausage into quarters, again, aim for bite sized pieces.

6. Add the sausages and bacon to the pan along with the carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. Pour over 500ml of stock, and a few ladles of the cooking water from the bacon. Stir to mix the contents of the pot and bring it to the boil. Once it is bubbling away, reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes until the vegetables and potatoes are cooked through. To see if they are done, just slide a knife into some of the potatoes and carrots. The potatoes should be soft and just beginning to fall apart, but still retaining their shape. The carrots and parsnips should be perfectly soft, with the knife sliding though easily.

7. The potatoes will have helped to thicken the Coddle, but if you think it needs to be a little thicker, mix a tablespoon of cornflour and two tablespoons of water into a slurry. Add that to the Coddle and stir through. Simmer the pot for another minute or two to thicken the stew and cook out the flavour of the cornflour.

8. Wash and roughly chop a few tablespoons of parsley and stir it into the Coddle. Add a generous grind of black pepper and taste. Add more pepper if required. Serve the stew in warm bowls with a little more chopped parsley scattered on top.

9. Serve with some freshly baked soda bread on the side.