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Food & Drink

Agnes McCafferty’s Irish Scones

  •  1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  •  1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 pound dark seedless raisins
  • 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
Heat oven 375 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan with unsalted shortening.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Stir in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is the consistency of coarse corn meal.  Stir in raisins.  

Place buttermilk, egg and baking soda in a small bowl and beat together with a fork until blended.  Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring until blended.  Turn out dough onto a floured board, and knead lightly until smooth.  

Place dough in pan and with a sharp knife cut an X one-half inch deep into the top.  Bake 70-75 minutes or until done.  Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.  Cool completely before cutting.
March 13, 2007 by
Food & Drink

Brunch Potatoes

By Brian Duffy

  • 4 baked potatoes diced
  • 4 slices Irish bacon
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 2 green onions, sliced thin
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 T chopped parsley
  • 3 T butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Preheat a large sauté pan to medium high heat and add butter, onions, bacon, pepper. Cook for 8 –10 minutes or until bacon is cooked and all items begin to sweat. Add remaining ingredients and season for taste.

Transfer to oven for 10 minutes. Remove and serve.

March 12, 2007 by
Food & Drink

Ulster Fry (A Classic Irish Breakfast)

By Brian Duffy

A classic Fry Includes but is not limited to:

  • 2 Bangers (sausage)
  • 2 Rashers (Irish bacon)
  • Roasted Tomato
  • Heinz Beans
  • 2 Fried Eggs
  • Black & White Puddings
  • Oil or Butter for frying

Variations Can Include:

  • Vegetable Rolls (Ground Sausage with Green Onions)
  • Soda Farl (flat version of Irish soda bread)
  • Potato Farl
  • Mushrooms
  • Wheaten Bread

The key to this is to cook in the proper order:

Fry bangers until cooked through; remove and set aside.

Slice tomato in half and place the cut sides in the pan. Meanwhile, cook the rashers until crispy. Remove and set aside.

Slice the pudding about 3/4” thick and fry on both sides until brown.

Remove the tomato and hold with the rest of the fry.

Add the beans and warm through. Remove and set aside.

Add a little butter with remaining drippings and fry the eggs, basting with the butter.

Transfer all items to a plate and arrange accordingly. Garnish with Aunt Eileen’s Wheaten Bread from The Shanachie or your own recipe.

March 12, 2007 by
Food & Drink

Farmer’s Breakfast Casserole

By Brian Duffy

  • 3 cups frozen shredded hash browns, 24 oz. bag
  • 3/4 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded
  • 3/4 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1/3 cup mild salsa
  • 1 cup ham, or Canadian-style bacon, diced
  • 1/2 cup green onions, sliced
  • 1/2 cup cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 12 oz evaporated milk, canned
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Make Ahead (day before)

Grease a 2-quart square-baking dish. Spread the potatoes evenly in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with cheeses, ham, salsa and green onions. Combine the eggs, milk, pepper, and salt and pour over the potato mixture in dish. Cover and refrigerate. To serve, bake, uncovered at 350°F for 50 to 60 or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Optional: Add extra shredded cheese to the top during the last 15 minutes of baking. Serves 6.

March 12, 2007 by
Food & Drink

Get Your St. Paddy’s Day Started Off Right

By Brian Duffy

After your first trip to Ireland, tell the truth: The sight you talked about the most wasn’t the Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle, or the Guinness Factory. It was the breakfast.

The Irish really know how to build a great old-fashioned stick-to-the-ribs (and arteries) morning meal. On your plate you’ll find eggs, bacon, sausage, butter, beans, bread, and even blood pudding—enough food to get you through the day ’til a late supper. About day three of your tour, and you’re asking for the Special K and skim milk.

But, oh, how good it is while you last. This year, as part of The Shanachie’s St. Patrick’s celebration, we’re serving an Irish breakfast, including the three recipes I’m including here. (As our special gift to our patrons, we’re also going totally smoke-free, just like Ireland.) And you don’t have to serve these savory dishes just in the morning.

Our motto: Breakfast—it’s what’s for dinner.

March 12, 2007 by
Food & Drink

A Little Whiskey With Your Coffee?

Irish Coffee Judge Vern Leedom has a full cup of the Rib House's Irish coffee after the judging.

Irish Coffee Judge Vern Leedom has a full cup of the Rib House's Irish coffee after the judging.

Coffee, sugar, whiskey. Such a simple recipe, it’s a wonder no one thought of it sooner.

No, the Celts didn’t serve it to the invading Norsemen. Irish Coffee is of far more recent vintage: It was purportedly concocted in 1942 by Chef Joe Sheridan at the Foynes Airport in Ireland to assuage cranky passengers whose flight had to turn back because of bad weather. By all accounts, it worked.

And at the second annual Irish Coffee Competition sponsored by the AOH Notre Dame Division 1 last Thursday night in Swedesburg, there wasn’t a cranky person in the house. But it was clear that there is really no simple recipe for Irish Coffee. Yes, it always has coffee, and yes, it always has whiskey. But every chef and bartender and fire chief and guy named Murray has his or her own “secret ingredient” that makes each cup different. In fact, there may be more versions of Irish Coffee than Starbucks has menu items.

The winner of the AOH’s competition, for example, has the basics, plus Kahlua, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and crème de menthe, plus the now ubiquitous chocolate shavings and whipped cream. It’s the recipe of Kim Lonchar, assistant manager of the Bridgeport Rib House, who tested versions on her customers for the last two weeks before coming up with the winning combination. “I had everyone in the bar testing them last night,” says Lonchar who, with her compatriots, will be riding on a float in the AOH’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 10 in Conshohocken as their reward.

It was a tough competition. “The vote was really close,” said AOH president Pete Hand before he handed out the awards. And it must have been. The judges—the current and three former grand marshals of the parade—seemed to each have a different favorite among the six entries, which they sipped in a blind taste test.

Second place went to Guppy’s of Conshohocken for a recipe developed by Mick Higgins, a painting contractor (Galway Bay Painting of Plymouth Meeting) who is not only a friend of the owner but a former pub owner himself from Galway. “I’m also a good drinker and a part-time bartender,” he explained with a grin. He didn’t share his ingredients, but his version of Irish Coffee seemed to have a “it’ll put hair on your chest” ratio of strong coffee to good whiskey—and it drew judge Seamus Dougherty to the Guppy’s table to have a whole cup. “This was my favorite,” he said, oblivious to the “Got Milk” slash of whipped cream in his mustache.

Coming in third was Elks Lodge #714 of Bridgeport which served Irish brownies with their coffee, presented, appropriately, in shot glasses. Maureen Di Stefano explained what made the brownies Irish: “There’s Bailey’s in them!”

Though honorable mentions weren’t handed out, all of the other entries were honorably mentioned by someone. They included the Swedesburg Volunteer Fire Company (recipe from Chief Bernie Gutkowski), Spamps Restaurant of Conshohocken (recipe by bartender Dawn Peacock); and defending champs Chick’s of Bridgeport (recipe by bartender Tracey Looby and Amy Chiccarine).

You’ll be happy to know that we snagged two of the recipes for you, including one that made irishphiladelphia.com very happy (but we won’t say which one, since we really liked them all).

March 5, 2007 by