A couple of weeks ago I was reading the online version of my hometown newspaper, the Sioux City Journal (SCJ). Usually, I'm only checking the website to troll the wedding announcements looking for people from high school. On this day I checked out the food section and was pleasantly surprised that they featured a vegetarian option for St. Patrick's Day cooking. The recipe was for colcannon and was written by Cindy Sutter of the Scripps Howard News Service, adapted from something she had seen Rachael Ray make and then printed in the SCJ.
The one thing that was lost in translation is what the dish actually is. I was under the impression that it was a meal. This is not the case. When I attempted to make it on Saturday, sous chef John figured out 5 minutes before it was done that it's not a meal, it's a side dish. That threw a damper on dinner. Basically, colcannon is fancy mashed potatoes. Our version had cabbage, half and half, russet potatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, shallots, nutmeg and veggie stock. We ate it with some organic sour batard, a relatively authentic way to eat this peasant dish.
Still perturbed that I made a side dish for dinner, I ignored the leftovers in the fridge until today. Alright, it's St. Patrick's Day, let's redeem the colcannon. On John's advice, I made the colcannon into patties and put them in a hot pan with oil. This made some nice colcannon cakes that I topped with goat cheese. Adding a California twist to bland Irish food was necessary. Once again, I took John's advice and tried the Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo. MMM MMM good! I rounded out the meal with some organic eggs and it was definitely tasty.
Lesson learned: do some research before making unfamiliar food.
Sidenote...
For SiouxCityans, the SCJ has an article today about the organic farming movement in the area. Let's check this out, eh?
http://siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2009/03/17/news/top/5ae92097c49465c48625757b005413ed.txt
Edit: John wants me to point out that he's not a soy-loving know-it-all, he would have preferred deer meat and am I usually right about all things food related.
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