Welcome to another edition of Salty Squid! But this is no ordinary posting, this ladies and gentlemen is our very special St Patrick's kinda Irish tapas. We even had a very special guest to help celebrate a world without snakes! So grab a Guinness, kick back and join us in our celebration of St Patrick's Day. 
We all know that smoked salmon on soda bread is as Irish as Barack Obama. In place of typical soda bread, my friend Caroline gave me a great recipe for this Guinness bread using wholewheat flour and treacle and of course Guinness. This bread worked really with the smoked salmon and crème fraiche. I actually can't explain how nice this bread turned out. Just make it and see for yourself!
Honestly, I wasn't so happy with the presentation of some of the dishes this week, but, as I am sure you can imagine, we had great fun 'testing' the presentation of this delight. 
Moving along swiftly to one of my personal favourite Irish dishes...Bacon and Cabbage. I love the simplicity of it. Of course, to tart this dish up a little (it was a Friday night after all!) I made creamed cabbage, instead of boiled cabbage as 'me ma' would. Again, B&C would not be complete without potato. In fact, anything Irish is not complete without potato. My favourite is buttery mash. But to try add an element of pretentiousness, I served it with homemade potato gnocchi.
I really wanted to do a fine selection of Irish meats, but it was not the easiest of tasks and sadly, trying my best to stay within budget, the Irish meats were a no go. But we had a nice selection of good Italian and German ones instead, served with our own red onion marmalade.
And with our very special guest looking after the sweeter side of Saltysquid, we were treated to these beautiful homemade dark chocolate & Baileys truffles that, well, that were just amazing. The best we have ever eaten.
However, that was not where our guests' generosity stopped, and we were treated to another taste of sugary heaven. Her own Hungarian (I am sure she meant Irish) Gateaux. Chocolate chip cookies, soaked in sherry, topped with cream and Cadburys flake. My god.
Shopping List:
Veggies €2.00
Free Range Irish Bacon (local buther) €4.99
Smoked Salmon €3.20
Salami €5.20
Baguette €1.95
Guinness €2.20
.........................................................
Total €19.55
Drinks:
Cremant De Loire, France 12.5%
Barbera D'Alba, Italy, 2005 13.5%
On the stereo:
Fiddly-di and Fiddly-De, and Fiddly-Doo music
That creamed cabbage was the nicest thing I have tasted in so so long, still dreaming about it - recipe please.....?? Had a brilliant evening, vielen Dank!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sinead, we had a great eve too. But the following day was a bit tough! Your deserts helped a lot though. We will stick up a recipe for the cabbage this week! And thanks for the follow too!
ReplyDeleteThe Guinness soda bread looks absolutely delicious! I love how you illustrate throughout your posts. Totally adorable and yummy. I can't wait to read more of your posts.
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