Dead Simple: Parsley Sauce for Your Saint Patrick's Day Meal
john barry
Hi there. How are you? I'm having a hard time believing that March is around the corner. Where did the last few month go? I am totally looking forward to the days getting longer and longer and it warming up around here. Plus, we are all psyched that the next major Holiday (besides Emmett's birthday, as I am reminded EVERY.SINGLE.DAY) is Saint Patrick's Day!
Spring means mixing things up with evening trips to the park, more eating out (even though that has been scaled back by the arrival of this), and possible getting the grill out. But for the next few weeks it's business as usual around here.
My father-in-law, Paddy, and I take turns hosting Sunday dinner. It’s an informal affair, just Paul and I, the kids, Paddy and my brother-in-law, John. Nothing fancy, more often than not, dinner is just what we would normally have. But, it’s nice to sit down to a meal together, and it’s a part of the week that we all look forward to. Last week, Paddy and John did more than their fair share. They drove to our house so we wouldn’t have to get the kids bundled up AND they brought an Irish bacon. There really wasn’t much for me to do to make dinner happen.
We typically eat our Irish bacon (and corned beef for that matter) with Coleman’s mustard on the side. But since I was only responsible for vegetables, I decided to make some parsley sauce to go with the bacon. This sauce is a basic bechamel with chopped parsley and lemon juice mixed in. It goes great with bacon and would probably be nice with fish (fish Friday idea!) or to spruce up some simple steamed broccoli or spinach.
You can make this sauce in the time it takes to cook some carrots and cabbage on the stovetop. I will definitely be making it again with my corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day. With some Coleman’s mustard on the side, of course.
Parsley Sauce
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- Salt to taste
Place butter and flour in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. I like to use a high quality salted Irish butter, such as Kerrygold, for this. If you use salted butter, you won’t need to add much salt at the end.
Stir butter and flour together until if makes a homogenous paste and bubbles but does not brown, about 2 minutes.
Pour milk in slowly and cook, whisking constantly, for 4 or 5 minutes, until sauce thickens. I add milk a little at a time, keeping in mind that sauce will be slightly thicker when taken off the heat. You may or may not use all the milk.
Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley.
Season to taste.
To say I love Irish bacon would be an understatement. If you are looking for something to do with leftover Irish bacon, look no further.
I've used it in all of these:
and, it makes a regular appearance at our house in fried rice, sandwiches, scrambled eggs, even biscuits, cornbread and scones. Bacon is my weeknight, breakfast, anytime hero.