What to Cook on St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is on a Friday this year. If you’re looking for more to do than party with green beer, try adding Irish cheeses and foods to your celebration.
You can start with a cheese board of Kerrygold and Wexford Creamery cheeses. Both companies hail from Ireland and have been in the cheese business for over 50 years. Your guests can compare tasting notes on the five different kinds of Irish cheeses GreenStar offers: Wexford mature Irish cheddar, Kerrygold Dubliner, Skellig, Reserve Cheddar, and aged cheddar with Irish whiskey. Pair the cheeses with dried apricots, almonds, dried figs, sliced apples (try the Opal apple, which does not brown when sliced), and the GreenStar Bakery’s own Irish soda bread.
Traditionally, Americans cook corned beef for St. Patrick’s day. If you were in Ireland, you would be served lamb or pork. Try making a shepherd’s pie with local ground lamb from Wolftree Farm. Wolftree raises Icelandic sheep in the hills of Burdett, about 20 miles from Greenstar. GreenStar carries their frozen ground lamb, sausages, loin chops, shanks, and breakfast sausage.
Lentils are a good vegetarian substitute for meat in a shepherd’s pie. The Post Punk Kitchen has a fun Monster Mash Shepherd’s Pie recipe that features green mashed potatoes. The recipe has a Halloween theme, but would be good any time of the year.
Check out the following recipes and links for more ideas on how to bring Irish tastes to your table this year:
Colcannon with cabbage, or try the Ithaca version: Colcannon with kale
St. Patrick’s Day spinach pancakes with corned beef hash (my kids love the pancakes)
17 Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day from The Kitchn
Shepherd’s pie with lamb from the Food Network