Darina Allen: Barmbrack, bodice and meringue púcas for Hallowe'en

Halloween púca meringues.

The spooky excitement continues to build and build. The hype around Halloween, love it or loathe it, is fast becoming as relentless as Christmas and just as commercial.

Children from our local schools have helped to harvest the pumpkins, a poor enough crop this year, but enough for my grandchildren and their friends to carve into lanterns and to make the scooped out innards into soup (don’t forget to add lots of finely chopped herbs or spices to bump up the flavour). 

Then we’ll toast the seeds for a crunchy snack or topping and save some to plant next year’s pumpkin crop.

All round the country, shop windows are packed with tempting scary masks, ghoulish costumes and witches' hats for Halloween parties and trick-or-treat forays around the neighbourhood.

In the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, Halloween costume swap shops are popping up and booming everywhere and the call to #SwapnotShop is gathering momentum, while still ever more elaborate and exciting Púca and Samhain festivals celebrating the myth, music, food and folklore of Halloween are popping up around the country.

Halloween apparently has its origins in the ancient druid festival of Samhain, a pagan religious festival celebrated over 2,000 years ago by the Celts around the 1st of November. 

Halloween apparently took root in the US sometime around the 19th century when the Irish emigrated to America bringing their superstitions and traditions with them which were by all accounts enthusiastically embraced by Americans.

But for me, one of the most exciting places to celebrate Halloween is definitely in Mexico where families welcome back their loved ones from the other world on November 1st, the Day of the Dead. 

They cook their favourite foods and bring a picnic to the local graveyard.

Here in Ireland, we simply must have a barmbrack. Sadly, many of the famous barmbracks we looked forward to from our local bakeries have long since lost their quality in an effort to keep the price unrealistically low. 

Please, please let’s make the original barmbrack again and give us a choice to look forward to. 

The Halloween version was always richer with the symbolic ring, stick, a pea and a rag hidden inside. 

Remember the excitement, as the brack was sliced…if you got the ring, you would be married within the year even if you were only six. 

The stick meant that your husband would beat you, a pea indicated that you would be facing hungry times, whilst the rag indicated a life of poverty.

How many of you remember the original Bewley’s barmbrack? Crotty’s in Kilkenny made a delicious fruity brack too and of course Thompson’s, now long gone. 

Many of you will have had other favourites that you remember fondly.

The few places that kept up the quality like Nuala Hickey’s Bakery in Clonmel are inundated with orders.

Here’s the recipe for the Ballymaloe tea brack, delicious, but not at all the same as a yeasted Halloween brack from a good bakery. Contact us if you know of a really good traditional Halloween brack.

We also love to serve bacon ribs and colcannon on Halloween. It’s become a bit of a tradition in our house. Make a trip to the English Market in Cork city, you’ll find lots of juicy ribs at Noonan’s butcher stall and several others also.

Here's a recipe for meringue púcas to make with the children, they love making spooky shapes and decorating them with their friends. Don’t fret about the mess, this is what memories are made of - perfect gifts for the trick or treaters also!

Happy Halloween.

Ballymaloe Irish Tea Barmbrack

recipe by:Darina Allen

A Halloween favourite, but one that takes a bit of overnight preparation - makes 1 large loaf or 3 small ones.

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 40 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 10 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 110g sultanas

• 110g raisins

• 110g currants

• 50g natural glacé cherries, halved or quartered

• 300ml hot strong tea or 225ml tea plus 50ml Irish whiskey

• 225g self-raising flour

• 175g soft brown sugar

• 50g candied peel

• 1 level tsp mixed spice

• 1 egg, whisked

• For the bun wash:

• 150ml water

• 110g granulated sugar

Method

1. Put the dried fruit and cherries in a bowl. Cover with the hot strong tea (or the tea and whiskey) and leave to plump up overnight.

2. The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Line a 13cm × 20cm (450g) loaf tin or three small loaf tins (14.6cm × 7.6cm) with parchment paper.

3. Add the flour, soft brown sugar, candied peel, mixed spice and whisked egg to the fruit and tea mixture. Stir well, then put the mixture into the lined loaf tin(s).

4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1½ hours, until a skewer comes out clean.

5. Make the bun wash by boiling the water and granulated sugar for 5 minutes.

6. Remove the brack from oven and brush immediately with the bun wash to give it a sweet, sticky glaze. Cool on a wire rack. This keeps very well in an airtight tin.

Bide Bodice or Salted Ribs with Champ or Colcannon

recipe by:Darina Allen

Salted pork ribs, bought and often cooked in a sheet, are a great Cork speciality, known as 'bodice'. This follows the Cork tradition of naming various bits of offal after items of women's clothing. We also eat skirts!

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the bodice:

• 1 bodice, about 11 bacon ribs

• For the champ:

• 1.5kg unpeeled 'old' potatoes e.g. Golden Wonders or Kerr’s Pinks

• 110g chopped scallions or spring onions (use the bulb and green stem) or 45g chopped chives

• 350ml milk

• 50-110g butter

• salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

1. For the bodice:

2. Cover in cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or more until soft and juicy.

3. Eat using your fingers with English mustard. Mashed potatoes, carrots or swede turnips are often served with bodice, but we love champ or colcannon, our most traditional potato dishes and the ones that are always associated with Halloween.

4. For the champ:

5. Scrub the potatoes and boil them in their jackets.

6. Chop finely the scallions or spring onions or chopped chives. Cover with cold milk and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for about 3-4 minutes, turn off the heat and leave to infuse. Peel and mash the freshly boiled potatoes and while hot, mix with the boiling milk and onions, beat in the butter. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve in 1 large or 6 individual bowls with a knob of butter melting in the centre.

7. Scallion mash may be put aside and reheated later in a moderate oven, 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

8. Note: Cover with parchment paper while it reheats so that it doesn’t get a skin and add the lump of butter just before serving.

Spooky Meringue Púcas

recipe by:Darina Allen

Light, fluffy and... an-scanrúil ar fad!

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 30 mins

Cooking Time

 4 hours 0 mins

Total Time

 4 hours 30 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites

• 110g caster sugar

• éclair pipe - No. 9 and piping bag

Method

1. Beat whites until stiff but not yet dry. Fold in half the sugar. Beat again until the mixture will stand in a firm dry peak. Fold the remaining sugar in carefully. Fill into a piping bag. Cover a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. Pipe a small blob of the meringue onto the paper pulling the piping bag upwards quickly to create a willowy point.

2. Bake in a very low oven, 100°C/Gas Mark ¼ for 4 hours approx.

3. Allow to cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, melt some chocolate and fill into a paper piping bag. Decorate the meringues by piping little dots for eyes and a little oval for a scary mouth. Arrange on an appropriate plate.

5. Serve with a bowl of softly whipped cream.

Seasonal Journal

Samhain Festival of Food and Culture with Sheridan’s Irish Food Fair (November 7-10 November 2024)

Samhain Festival of Food and Culture has joined forces with Sheridan’s Irish Food Fair and will take place this autumn from November 7-10. 

The festival includes cookery demonstrations, storytelling, cultural performances, workshops and much more. 

I will be giving a cookery demonstration on Saturday afternoon (November 9) on the versatility of the humble egg!

• Keep an eye on foodcultureireland.ie for festival programme and ticket updates.

Listowel Food Fair (November 7-11)

Now in its 29th year and one of Ireland’s longest running festivals, the Listowel Food Fair will once again take place from the 7th – 11th November 2024 in the North Kerry culinary and literary town of Listowel.

• listowelfoodfair.ie

Plan Ahead

Now is the time to think about planting garlic and beans for an early harvest next year. 

Separate a head of organic garlic into cloves, plant the root end down into a clean seed bed.

Sow broad beans in a sheltered spot for a delicious crop of fresh pods in June.

• Check out Michal Kelly’s GIY, FOOD MATTERS podcast for brilliant food-growing tips.