Switch up tradition
Eat
Trade in corned beef and cabbage for smoked brisket hash and Guinness lamb stew.
Eat
Shepherd’s pie, anyone? A guide to Bay Area pubs and restaurants serving favorite holiday fare.
Ask a roomful of Irish people what they eat on St. Patrick’s Day, and not a single one will say corned beef and cabbage. That dish, like green beer and leprechaun costumes, is an American creation. It’s certainly a tasty one. No one here is knocking brassicas and beef.
But in Ireland, the feast for the March 17 holiday typically includes dishes eaten on any other Sunday: A hearty breakfast of fried eggs, bacon or blood sausage, and brown soda bread followed by a beef or lamb roast for dinner. There may be a freshly baked scone and pot of tea in there somewhere. Definitely an extra Guinness or two.
You can find these dishes at Irish pubs and restaurants across the Bay Area, from Mountain View’s Stephens Green to Oakland’s Slainte, which reopened this month after being closed since the start of the pandemic. Or if you’re on a cooking streak and planning to don green sweats at home, try your luck with a slew of expert-approved recipes, from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s raisin-studded Irish soda bread (bayareane.ws/sodabread) to America’s Test Kitchen’s home-corned beef and vegetables (bayareane.ws/cornedbeef).
Corned beef — with or without cabbage — is essentially brisket brined in salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves and other ingredients, then braised to perfection. For St. Patrick’s Day, Danville private chef, food blogger and Food Network “Great Food Truck Race” competitor Aly Romero takes hers up a notch by smoking the brisket and dousing it with her favorite barbecue sauce.
“I’m not sure I should admit this, but I’m not crazy about corned beef and cabbage,” says Romero, whose recipes have been featured on “The Chew” and “Good Morning America.” Her Irish blood is on her mother’s side. “The idea behind St. Patrick’s Day is to have a flavorful meat that brings the family together around the table, something that everybody enjoys eating.”
For Romero, her husband and three kids, that’s brisket for dinner and a flavorful hash the next morning made with leftovers, eggs and Brussels sprouts, which are “really just small baby cabbages,” she says. You could cook up her potato
Aly Romero’s Guinness lamb stew is made using simple ingredients. “The dish practically cooks itself,” she says. and pancetta-studded Guinness lamb stew, which Romero makes with boneless lamb shoulder.
“It’s hearty, warming and the perfect comfort food for mid-March,” says Romero. “The stew has simple ingredients that are easy to put together and once you get it going, the dish practically cooks itself, and the house smells amazing.”
Romero likes to add green peas to her stew for “a burst of freshness,” but reminds home cooks to add them only at the last minute of cooking because — fresh or frozen — “no one wants brown peas.” Romero’s recipe uses flour as a thickener but some traditional Irish stews don’t, she says, relying instead on the natural starch in potatoes for thickening.
“If you want a thinner variation, skip the flour,” she suggests.
Another St. Paddy’s crowd-pleaser is shepherd’s pie. You can go traditional, with ground beef, peas, carrots, onions and a crown of buttery mashed potatoes, or use any ground protein you have on hand, from turkey to Impossible Burger.
“If you’re looking to go lighter, you could top it with pureed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes,” Romero says.
Or have it with a side of cabbage slaw. No one said the cabbage had to be cooked to be Irish American, right?