By Kerry (nee Maloney) Sorrenti

Every St. Patrick’s Day, like the onus to find something, anything, Kelly green in my closet, I feel a responsibility to write something Irish for my column. Those niggling Irish genes I harbour deep in my otherwise United Empire Loyalist soul shove their way to the forefront: English practicality with a pinch of Scottish frugality is no match for that great Irish congeniality.

Jordan’s suggestion: “Just write about something green.”

I was all set to write about leeks and Cock-a-leekie soup until Jordan pointed out that leeks are more of a Welsh food, and Cock-a-leekie is definitely Scottish, despite the potatoes. Drats!

Not to be discouraged, and after some fervid digging, I learned that St. Patrick was probably born in Wales—there are other theories, but I’ll stick to this one—and so I feel the Wales/Ireland/leek connection is a strong enough defence to call this a St. Patrick’s article.

The leek is a member of the onion family, probably originating in….Oh, Sod it!

Jordan suggested I look at a column he wrote 8 years ago. He was lamenting the pressure every year to come up with “green” food for our catering business when clients wanted an Irish themed event. He made use of a small cookbook I owned—still own—that I found at a Calgary flea market. It was compiled by Edith Adams from recipes she had written for the Vancouver Sun. The date on the thin booklet is 1950 and the price: 35 cents! Here is an excerpt from Jordan’s column.

“Every year at this time I receive numerous calls from clients interested in being entertained on or around St. Pat’s Day with an Irish menu. I shudder because it is difficult to feed people ‘true’ Irish and have them ‘ooh’ and ‘aah.’ When was the last time you got excited about oatmeal, mutton, turnip, or potatoes? So I generally end up creating an interesting menu with lots of potatoes, green things [Apparently Jordan’s answer to the Irish problem] and things with names like ‘Blarney Wraps’ —a potato skin with cheese and onion— or  ‘Dublin Donut’ —a cream filled profiterole—or how about ‘Shamrock Satay’ —lamb on a skewer with a sprig of fresh mint.

“Kerry loves shopping the flea markets and is always on the lookout for cookbooks, old and new.  On one of her trips she came back with a dandy [The one by Edith Adams.] Six recipes were listed for an Irish party. The first was for something called a ‘Murphy.’ As it is, the Murphy is a potato, mashed and formed with vanilla and sugar into a ball that looks like a potato. I’m supposed to store it cold and add slivered almonds to make it look like potato sprouts. Yum, Yum!

“The next recipe was for a ‘Paddy Bundle.’ This recipe called for the making of a simple dough, placing a cored apple into the centre and to the centre of this more sugar. A ‘Shamrock Basket’ was more pastry with lime jelly followed by a recipe for ‘Shamrock Rolls’ which were more pastry with cheese…I think Edith had as much trouble as I have in trying to provide a menu for St. Pat’s Day. Her solution was some great Irish names and lots of pastry.”

I looked to my own column for last year for some inspiration, but found that I must have been feeling maudlin. I wrote:

“If you could do a time machine thing, or walk through a rock like Claire in Outlander (Alright, I know that was in Scotland!), going back 500 years, you would find a country of farms and fishing villages, people living off the land eating a variety of healthy foods either grown on their own family farm or bartered from hunters and fishermen. Their diets and lifestyles were not unlike that you would find here on the Gulf Islands, minus the supermarkets.

“Like many cultures of the time, the principal means of cooking these local foods was in a large cast iron pot or cauldron. This meant that most of the daily meals consisted of stews and soups made with seafood (clams, oyster, shrimps, mussels, lobster, cockles),  fresh and salt water fish (salmon, pike, trout, cod, mackerel,)  game (wild boar, venison, duck,) and domesticated animals (mutton, pork, beef, poultry.)

Meats were also roasted on a spit and both fish and meats were salted and cured for storage over the winter (sausages, corned beef, bacon, herring, and salmon.)

“Barley, oats, and wheat were grown, used sometimes for bread, but more often as thickeners for stews and to make porridge which was eaten for breakfast and supper; hot or cold. Corn was grown, but most of it went to making flavoured ale which the whole family would drink—it is not known just what the alcohol content was!

“Farmers made butter and cheeses from cows and goats, and there was always lots of milk to drink.

“Vegetables and fruits were largely scavenged form the wild: nettle, watercress, sorrel, wild leeks, blackberries, strawberries were just a few. Cabbage and kale were grown in gardens and provided a substantial part of the daily diet. Seaweed was a common flavouring ingredient for many dishes, while honey was used on everything, even roasted meats, as well as for the making of mead, a fermented honey beverage.

“But nary a potato in sight!

“The potato didn’t arrive in Ireland until the 17^th century, after the Spaniards brought it back from South America. It grew well in Ireland due to climate and soil conditions, and grew fast. It provided a good source of nourishment that kept well over winter and it quickly became a staple in the diet, replacing more labour-intensive foods.

[I then got carried away with the political/famine part]

“You would think the Irish would never want to eat another spud, but it remains an integral part of their cuisine today. They have also returned to their pre-potato days, incorporating the local bounty from both land and sea into what are considered more traditional dishes. The Irish stew has become gourmet fare. ‘Braised Lamb shanks with barley and root vegetables’ or ‘Mussels with potato and leeks’ are just two of the recipes you will find in current Irish cookbooks”

I think I’ll leave it at that and return to the exciting topic of leeks next week, only because I am a huge fan of leeks; it has nothing to do with being Irish.