Darina Allen: My traditional soda bread, bacon and cabbage, and potato bread recipes

Recipes to celebrate St Patrick's Day

Making a loaf of soda bread is a simple life skill that everyone should know.

Here comes St Patrick’s Day. Traditionally, it was a day to take a break from Lenten fasting, an opportunity to celebrate, maybe even have a drink or two or three!

How many of you in the midst of these crazy times even remember the excitement and the buildup to the feast day of our legendary patron saint who drove all the snakes out of Ireland and showed us the meaning of the Trinity using the little three-leafed shamrock that he found growing at his feet.

Originally, children used to make their own St Patrick’s Day badges and rosettes to wear on coat lapels and hats going to the morning mass. Later, we could buy shiny green and gold badges with harps and shamrocks in our local village shops.

Speaking of which, if you have time to pop into the National Museum in Dublin, you’ll find several examples of the charming little badges, handmade from little scraps of coloured paper and wisps of material.

On another subject, I bet there was a mixture of relief and apprehension in diplomatic circles when the invite eventually arrived for the Taoiseach to visit the White House on St Patrick’s Day.

I’ve always loved the idea of our prime minister presenting a bowl of shamrock to the president of the United States – I wonder who thought of that brilliant idea originally and who has the responsibility of transporting it, so it arrives fresh and perky at Washington. Does it come all the way from Ireland?

Many times, I’ve actually bought a little pot of shamrock in the US where I have spent many a St Patrick’s Day, happily promoting Ireland and teaching nostalgic Irish and their friends how to make an authentic Irish soda bread.

Much depends on these St Patrick’s Day meetings, a coveted opportunity to remind countries around the world (more than 50 this year) of Ireland’s attributes, to promote trade, connect and celebrate with the global Irish diaspora.

This year, St Patrick’s Day marks 100 years of Ireland in the world, a whole century of our country’s engagement as an active member of the international promotion of democracy, peace and security.

No doubt Micheál Martin will work his charm once again in promoting Ireland as a great place to invest and trade with, to live, visit, work and study in.

We’ve got 14 nationalities here at the Ballymaloe Cookery School at present; we’ll encourage them all to go foraging for shamrock on Tuesday next and to wear a splash of green. Then we’ll tuck into a feast of corned beef and cabbage and the first rhubarb tart of the year and, of course, some soda bread and our favourite Spotted Dog which for the purpose of this column has been renamed St Patrick’s Day Soda Bread.

Do please have a go, it’s super easy, and you can’t imagine how delicious it is cut into thick slices, slathered with butter and a cup of, you know whose tea!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

Traditional Irish White Soda Bread

recipe by:Darina Allen

Soda bread only takes 2 or 3 minutes to make and 30 - 40 minutes to bake, scones will be ready in just 10 minutes. It is certainly another of my 'great convertibles'. We have had the greatest fun experimenting with different additions and uses.

Servings

1

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 45 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 450g plain white flour

• 1 level tsp salt

• 1 level tsp bread soda sour milk or buttermilk to mix – 350-400ml approx.

Method

1. First fully preheat your oven to 230ºC/Gas Mark 8.

2. Sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour most of the milk in at once. Using just one hand to mix with your fingers stiff and outstretched, like a claw, mix in a full, circular movement from the centre to the outside of the bowl, adding more milk if necessary. The dough should be softish, not too wet and sticky.

3. When it all comes together, turn it out onto a well-floured work surface. WASH AND DRY YOUR HANDS.

4. Then with floured hands, tidy it up and flip over gently. Pat the dough into a round, about 4cm deep and cut a cross on it (the traditional blessing), then prick in the four corners to let the fairies out of the bread, otherwise they will jinx it!

5. Transfer to a baking tray.

6. Bake in a hot oven, 230ºC/Gas Mark 8 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200ºC/Gas Mark 6 for 30 minutes or until cooked. If you are in doubt, tap the bottom of the bread, when it is cooked it will sound hollow.

7. Cool on a wire rack.

Fadge or Potato Bread

recipe by:Darina Allen

In Ulster, people are passionate about fadge or potato bread. It can be cooked on a griddle, in a frying pan or in the oven. A little leftover mashed potato can be, and often was, added to soda bread.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 900g unpeeled ‘old’ potatoes eg Golden Wonders or Kerr’s Pinks

• 1 egg, beaten

• 25-50g butter, diced

• 40g plain flour

• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Creamy milk

• Bacon fat, clarified butter of olive oil for frying

Method

1. Bake or boil the potatoes in their jackets until soft, then pull off the skins and mash right away. Add the beaten egg, butter and flour. Season with lots of salt and freshly ground black pepper, adding a few drops of creamy milk if the mixture is too stiff. Taste and correct the seasoning.

2. Tip out onto a floured surface and shape into an 18cm round that’s 2.5cm thick, then cut into eight wedges. Dip in seasoned flour.

3. Heat some bacon fat, melted clarified butter or olive oil in a cast iron or griddle pan on a gentle heat. Add the wedges to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the fadge is crusty and golden on one side. Flip it over and cook the other side for 4-5 minutes more, until crusty and golden.

4. Alternatively, arrange the wedges on a baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 180˚C/Gas Mark 4 for 15-20 minutes. Serve with an Ulster fry or just on its own on hot plates with a blob of butter melting on top.

5. Variation: Once again, one can do lots of riffs on potato bread. Add chopped chives, wild garlic, thyme leaves or seaweed.

Bacon & Cabbage

recipe by:Darina Allen

Without question Ireland’s national dish – less widely known abroad, but much more widely eaten, particularly in rural Ireland, than the legendary Irish stew.

Servings

12

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 2 hours 0 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 15 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1.8-2.25kg loin or shoulder of bacon with a nice covering of fat

• 1 head of cabbage: Savoy, Greyhound or spring cabbage, depending on the time of year

• butter

• white pepper

• For the parsley sauce:

• 4-6 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (retain the stalks)

• 600ml fresh whole milk

• 30-45g roux (equal quantities of plain flour and butter cooked for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally)

• salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

1. If the bacon is too salty, cover in cold water and bring slowly to the boil (uncovered), white froth will rise to the top. Pour off the water. Cover with hot water and simmer until nearly cooked through, allowing at least 20 minutes per 450g.

2. Meanwhile, remove the outer leaves from the cabbage. Cut the cabbage into quarters, discarding the centre core. Cut each quarter into thin strips across the grain. About 30 minutes before the bacon is cooked, add the cabbage.

3. Continue to cook until the cabbage is soft and tender, and the bacon is fully cooked through. Remove the bacon to a hot plate and strain the water off the cabbage. Return the cabbage to the pan with a lump of butter, season with white pepper.

4. Serve with the bacon and, traditionally, boiled potatoes and Parsley Sauce.

5. Put the parsley stalks into a saucepan with the cold milk, bring slowly to the boil, then remove the stalks. Whisk the roux into the boiling milk until thickened and add the chopped parsley. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

6. Simmer for 5-10 minutes on a very low heat, then taste and correct the seasoning before serving.

Seasonal journal

Food Choices Retreats with Michael Kelly of GIY Ireland - extra dates added on April 4 and 6

Standing in a supermarket shouldn’t feel like a moral exam — but for many of us, it does.

Should I buy organic or local? Seasonal or imported? Is this ultra-processed, or just convenient? Am I doing enough — for my health, for the planet, for my children?

This immersive Food Choices Retreat, hosted at GROW HQ in Waterford, is about cutting through that confusion — and helping you feel calmer, clearer and more confident about the food choices you make every day.

Led by GIY Founder Mick Kelly, the retreat is grounded in what he calls Food Empathy — a way of thinking about food that reconnects us with where it comes from, how it’s produced, and how our everyday choices shape both our own health and the health of the planet.

giy.ie

Michelin awards

Congratulations to Forest Avenue in Dublin and The Pullman Restaurant at Glenlo Abbey Hotel & Estate just outside Galway on their recent 1 star accolades.