Cuddle up with Ceili Cottage’s Dublin Coddle
Owner puts dance, music, food and drink on menu, so celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with this Irish stew
Tiny Irish flags drape from the ceiling of Leslieville’s Ceili Cottage as the aroma of burning peat moss wafts from a tiny furnace behind the bar. The restaurant is getting ready for one of its busiest days of the year: St Patrick’s Day.
Owner Patrick McMurray says that since opening in 2009, there has been a line down the block all day waiting to get into the restaurant where the Irish and Irish-at-heart enjoy pints along with freshly shucked oysters.
But McMurray considers the Ceili Cottage to be more than a pub. “The word ‘ceili’ is a Gaelic word for a get-together with dance, music, food and drink,” he says. “And I put the importance in that order.”
McMurray’s grandparents immigrated to Toronto from County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1910 (coincidentally they lived in a house steps away from where the Ceili Cottage is now).
He says he wants the restaurant to be a hub for Irish culture. There is a dance studio in the back where his and other neighbourhood kids practise traditional Irish dance. Shelves of Irish literature line the wall across from the bar. Weekly, and during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, there is live music. As for the food, McMurray wants people to think outside of overcooked potatoes.
“People think of potatoes, that everything is fried or boiled to death. In my mind, Irish cuisine is the original farm-to-table because you used what you had around you,” he says.
“Ireland is an island and there are oysters all over, which played a huge part of how people survived during the famine. Today, there are new chefs focusing on the different potato varieties and how those subtle differences lend themselves to food pairings.”
While the restaurant will undoubtedly be a huge party over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, McMurray hopes people will get more out of the holiday than a hangover.
“The green beer, the beads, the tshirts with provocative slogans, it’s all a bit too frat house for me,” McMurray says.
“But as soon as March hits, it allows us to promote Irish culture and cuisine and people want to try Irish food, so everything works out in the end.”
Ceili Cottage’s Dublin Coddle
Star Tested The Dublin Coddle is an easy but classic Irish potato, sausage and bacon stew. In many households, the Dublin Coddle is where scraps of vegetables and meat would go at the end of the week, so while these are the ingredients most recipes call for, McMurray says any hearty root vegetable or sausage will do. The stew can also be as soupy or thick as you like, so have extra broth on hand if you want a thinner consistency.
At the restaurant, McMurray uses Guinness sausages from local butcher Olliffe, which is just down the street from Ceili Cottage in Leslieville. Olliffe has two other locations: one in the St. Lawrence Market under the Sausage King banner, as well as Yonge and Summerhill (it’s one of the “Five Thieves”). Yukon gold and new potatoes work well in stews because they contain less starch compared with russets (the perfect potato for mashing), mean- ing they don’t disintegrate and hold their shape after hours of simmering. 1-1/4 lb (about 4) Olliffe Guinness sausages, or any uncooked sausages 1lb (450 g) diced thick-cut bacon or lardon 2 cups (500mL) no-salt-added beef broth, plus more for simmering 4 lb (1.8 kg) cubed, skin-on potatoes such as Yukon gold and new 2 large yellow onions, chopped 3 medium-sized carrots, chopped 1 sprig rosemary 1 sprig thyme 1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped fresh parsley Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste In a large pot over medium heat, sear sausages until browned and cooked. Pour out any excess grease. Remove from pan and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing into bite-sized rounds. In same pan, sauté bacon until crisp and browned, pouring out any excess grease. Add broth and deglaze pan, scraping off bits of caramelized sausage and bacon.
Return cooked sausage to pot. Add potatoes, onions, carrots and herbs. Bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours, or till potatoes and carrots are fork-tender. If stew dries out, add more broth, ensuring there is always about an inch of liquid at bottom of pot. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
Serve immediately with crusty bread and a pint of dry Irish stout, a robust porter or American brown ale.
Makes 6 to 8 servings. karonliu@thestar.ca