Irish Food Before Potatoes and Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal

Oats must be one of the most ubiquitous Irish ingredients of all. Showing up in griddle cakes, breads, sausages - oats are everywhere in Irish cuisine. Due to lower summer heat requirements and greater tolerance for rain, oats have always been an important crop in Ireland where they grow better than other grains such as wheat, rye or even barley. Historically, oats, along with dairy products were the main sources of sustenance for the Irish, pre-dating the widespread consumption of potatoes that Ireland is known for today. Potatoes, which originated in Peru, were not introduced to the Irish until the late 1600s. Of course, it would be hard to imagine Irish food without Shepherd's pie, fish and chips, colcannon and so many other potato-based dishes, but the fact remains that before potatoes there were oats.

I love oats in both savory and sweet preparations (so it’s fortunate for me that I’ve got a hook-up in the oats department).  Granola, oatmeal cookies, porridge, white pudding, plain with butter and a little salt (like my mom), I even put oats in my meatloaf for body and to help everything stick together. In the summer, I make overnight oats, pack them in single serve jars and eat them straight out of the fridge. I also enjoy them the way they are most commonly served here in America, with fruit, nuts and brown sugar for breakfast.  Baked oatmeal is just a twist on regular breakfast porridge with toppings. I like how it bakes up a little custardy from the eggs, which, incidentally, provide some extra protein and help keep me (and the kids) full for longer.

More apples? Yeah, I know. Truthfully, I’m not getting that into fall yet, especially given the 80 degree weather, tomatoes and peppers still growing in the backyard and the grill still our primary method of getting dinner on the table. The reason I’m cooking with apples again this week is simply that I had a few leftover from last week.  And while they weren’t very good for eating out of hand, they were great in a fruit crumble.  Naturally, I figured they would work in baked oatmeal as well. I haven’t made baked oatmeal for ages and I have to say I’m loving that I made this big batch and have breakfast set for the week. Less thinking, less to do, especially in the morning, is always a good thing.  Consider this recipe a gift to your future self.

Here it is just before baking, the white chunks are coconut oil that hardened because the milk and eggs were cold.  This didn't cause me any problems and now that I think about it, a pineapple-coconut version of this would be delicious. 

Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal

• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
• 2 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• ½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• ½ cup raisins
• 2 cups milk
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup coconut oil (or butter), melted
• 4-5 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Spray large baking dish with cooking spray or coat with butter and flour, tapping excess flour out of the pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix oats, sugar, apple pie spice, salt, baking powder, baking soda, walnuts and raisins until thoroughly combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, maple syrup, eggs and coconut oil.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir to combine.
6. Allow oat mixture to rest while you peel, core and cute apples.
7. Layer apple slices along the bottom of baking dish.
8. Top apples with oat mixture.
9. Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
10. Uncover and continue to bake for 15 minutes.
11. Serve warm or at room temperature.

You can make this with any type of fruit you have on hand, fresh or frozen. Sometimes I make it with frozen peaches and cardamom instead of apples and apple pie spice. Cranberries and orange zest would be great. Even though this dish doesn’t have very much sugar or fat in it, it still makes a nice dessert with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. It also travels well.  What more can you ask of the humble oat?

Toasty. Oaty. Healthy. 

Real Irish Soda Bread

I just wish you could smell this! 

I recently came across this re-creation of a 19th century recipe for Irish Soda Bread on my favorite food website and of course I had to try it. As a brown bread lover, I usually use coarse whole wheat flour for this type of bread but curiosity, combined with not having any around compelled me to try it with all-purpose. The result was fantastic. The crust was nice and crisp, not what you would suspect from a quick bread. Like brown bread, this was substantial, the kind of bread you could eat with a soup or stew and call a meal. Yes, the crust loses its crunch after being stored for a day or so, but a toaster solves that problem. I ate a few slices of this bread fresh out of the oven slathered with butter and sprinkled with sea salt.  For the next day or two, I ate it toasted for breakfast.

As you can tell from the recipe this bread is the definition of quick. My oven barely had time to preheat before I had my shaped loaf all set up in my dutch oven and ready to go. And isn’t it pretty?  I still love my soda bread brown but I can tell I will be making this again.

What I loved even more than the recipe was all of the banter in the numerous comments to the accompanying article entitled “Irish Soda Bread, as it was Meant to Be” regarding the authenticity of using white flour for this type of bread instead of the coarse whole wheat flour which would produce what we call "brown bread". While there seemed to be little controversy over the fact that most soda bread in Ireland doesn’t contain sugar or dried fruit, the use of all-purpose flour in this recipe seemed to create quite a stir. The issue of whether or not white flour was more popular than whole wheat in the mid-1800’s and to whom it was available is discussed at length in the comments.  A few of the folks commenting seem to have significant knowledge on the topic of Irish food history.  If you are a food and history nerd like me, you might enjoy it.

Aside from eating soda bread, we were celebrating our Irish heritage last weekend at the Irish American Heritage Center's summer festival in Mayfair.  We decked the kids out in their Irish soccer uniforms (courtesy of our cousins) and enjoyed some food, music and Irish dancing. Isla was particularly captivated by the Irish dancers. Who knows? We may have a budding Irish dancer in that one.  If you have never been to the Irish American Heritage Center, you really should check it out.  They have a pub that is open most nights, a gift shop, event spaces, performances, a library, Irish dance classes and more. I highly recommend a visit.  

Watching an Irish dance performance. 

Spring is Here: Breakfast on the Grill

Future Women's Irish National Team players

Isn’t it great when the good weather finally arrives? In Chicago we really have to wait for it, but we are so, so grateful when it comes. I hate that the kids are cooped up for so many months and that I feel like I’m on a never-ending hunt for indoor activities that do not involve technology. Our backyard is a postage stamp and in the five years we have lived in our house we have managed not to fix it up at all, despite our best intentions. Still, we’ve got a small garden, a sandbox and a soccer goal.  What more could you ask for? Awesome neighbors. Yep, we’ve got those too, so we’re good.

This weekend wasn’t super warm but it was sunny, and nice enough to be outside for most of the day.  Our Cousins returned home to Ireland on Saturday and we were sad to see them go. The morning after they left, immediately after Isla woke up she ran downstairs to find them.  She came back up in tears after realizing that they were really gone.

But, before they left we had a big Irish breakfast courtesy of my father-in-law and the Irish Boutique. Winston’s sausages, Irish bacon, white pudding, black pudding, eggs, beans, hash browns, and pancakes and strawberries.  Paul was inside making the pancakes and because it was nice out, I decided to do all of the meats and the eggs outside on the grill. Recently, we’ve been using our grill for more than just your typical burgers and sausages. Grilling whole chickens, a turkey breast and now, breakfast. I haven’t tried it yet but I want to make fried chicken on the grill too, since I refuse to deep fry anything in the house.

I love the days when we can eat dinner (or breakfast) outside and stay out until bedtime. I love not having to clean up the stovetop - because I’m I freak about making sure the stovetop is always clean (even though nothing else is). I also love how cooking outside gets the kids outside and gets us all talking and playing and moving more. It may be a little premature but I’m already thinking about ice cream weather and what flavors we should make this year.

She likes black pudding!