Somewhat Simple for St. Patrick’s Day

We survived the Ides of March, yesterday, and look forward to St. Patrick’s Day, tomorrow. Between the two, today, I celebrated my birthday by taking the day off from work.

Benjamin Franklin Parkway

My husband and I were planning to drive up to NYC to walk around the Upper West Side, but we reconsidered when the weather forecast changed to lower temperatures.  Instead, we drove down to Philadelphia. It was somewhat strange to drive past the Philadelphia Museum of Art and not see anyone in line to have their picture taken with the Rocky statue. The colors of the country flags that line Benjamin Franklin Parkway seemed especially bold against the clear blue sky; the sycamore trees were no competition without their green leaves. We found a parking space in Chinatown and walked a few blocks to Reading Terminal Market.

At Reading Terminal Market

City Kitchen had advertised that a cooking demo of a traditional Irish dish would begin at 11:30 a.m. We arrived in time to secure seats in the back row. After forty-five minutes we had sampled “Irish potatoes” (a Philadelphia sweet confection of cinnamon and coconut flavors), soda bread with honey butter, shepherd’s pie, and a platter of bangers and mash laid out with the colors of the Irish flag.  The instruction wasn’t too complex; it seemed more of a sampling, though he did explain the preparation as he put the ingredients together. Overall, the experience was comfortable and inviting.

Joking About Showing Off

If you’re looking for something simple to serve at your St. Patrick’s Day celebration, I recommend the bangers and mash flag:

Green beans in garlic butter, mashed potatoes with seasoned salt and sour cream, Irish sausages, and sliced carrots in honey butter and whiskey.

Bangers & Mash Flag

Tasting: Bacon

Standard: Lancaster Brand bacon

Smith: uncured bacon wrapped around fig & goat cheese and bacon-wrapped dates & goat cheese

Stumpff: pancetta with guacamole on sliced sweet potato

Zartman: low-sodium bacon wrapped around asparagus spears

Zartman: bacon jam made with onion and balsamic vinegar

Homemade Bacon Jam and Freshly Baked Bread

Bacon Jam:

• slices bacon, chopped
• Vidalia onions, peeled, sliced thin, and diced
• Mustard seed Dijon mustard
•  brown sugar
• apple cider vinegar
• ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes I forgot to put this in.
•  balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. Cook bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan. Set aside.
2. Add the onions to the fat in the pan. Cook until onions are translucent and lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Add the bacon, mustard, brown sugar, cider vinegar, and balsamic vinegar. Stir to combine.
4. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced, about 45 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let cool.
6. Spoon into jar and store in refrigerator.

 

 

 

Crockpot French Onion Soup

We had invited a group of friends over to taste apples and cheese. While that combination could be filling, I wanted to make sure that we had something of a complete meal when all was said in done, so I promised soup for anyone who might still be hungry.  Cheese was a source of protein, so a vegetarian soup would round out  things. Toasted cheese sandwiches paired with tomato soup is a classic combination and could have worked well. However, we decided on French Onion Soup.

A traditional recipe will tell you that you need to start off by sauteing your sliced onions.  This would mean standing over a hot stove and stirring the vegetables for 25 to 20 minutes, then adding your liquids and letting the soup simmer to develop the flavors.

With a heat advisory in effect, and only one window air conditioning unit, any action that might increase the temperature of the inside of our apartment was not encouraged. That in mind, I headed to the bookshelf to see if there might be a way to prepare French Onion Soup in a crockpot.

After scanning the table of contents and index pages of several cookbooks, I figured out the basic technique for the slow-cooking part and got some ideas of how to make it taste better by adding bay leaf as well as pouring in some white and Marsala cooking wines in the last few minutes.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

Ingredients:

3 cups sliced onion + 3 T softened butter

3 T flour

1 T Worcestershire + 1 t sugar + 1/4 t pepper

7 c beef broth

2-3 bay leaves

1 c white cooking wine

2 T Marsala cooking wine

Instructions:

Put the sliced onion and the butter into your crockpot. Toss them together, so that the onion rings separate and the butter coats most of them.  Set the crockpot on high. Place the cover on, and let the onions cook for 30-35 minutes.

Add the flour to the mixture, tossing the onions with a fork so that the flour is distributed somewhat evenly.

In a separate bowl, combine the Worcestershire, sugar, and pepper. Pour this over the onion-flour mixture. Add the beef broth. Place the bay leaves on top. Place the cover back on, and let the soup cook: 3-4 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low.  In the last 10 minutes, add the cup of white cooking wine. In the last 5 minutes, stir in the Marsala cooking wine.

French Onion Soup is tasty with a slice of crusty bread floating on top, which has cheese that has been broiled, but if it is a hot day, just slices of store-bought bread and a bowl of shredded cheese will also work out well.