“Coldcannon” in the Heat of Summer

Summer in Chicago. The heat and humidity doesn’t exactly leave us longing for heaping portions of butter-laced potatoes, sausages, lamb stew or other such Irish specialties (as much loved as they are around here at other times of the year).  That being said, certain classic Irish flavor and ingredient combinations are always welcome on our table.

This salad is one of them.  I call it Cold-Cannon - get it? It’s a salad using the same ingredients as Colcannon but it’s cold. Thus, COLD Cannon.

Kidding.  Well, all that is true but really I’m just making fun of Paul again. Puns aside, the combination of greens, green onion and potatoes works as well here as in Colcannon, which is also delicious. Lentils add some protein and heft but can also be left out. I like that this dish can be eaten cold, at room temperature or warm (there goes it’s punny moniker) and gets better as it sits, making it an excellent candidate for a picnic, potluck or make-ahead side. It’s also vegan and gluten free.  Effortlessly so. Summer needs more dishes like this.

Roasted New Potato Salad with Kale, Lentils and Green Onions

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds small new potatoes, cut into bite size pieces (if necessary)

Vegetable oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2-3 cups kale, chopped

½ cup cooked French lentils

Juice from one half lemon

2 teaspoons red wine or sherry vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon capers, drained and coarsely chopped

2-3 green onions, roots and wilted outer leaves removed, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Lentils and Vinaigrette.

 Make vinaigrette. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, chopped green onion and capers. Slowly whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 375°F. Place potatoes on sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with vegetable oil.  Toss potatoes in oil until they are lightly coated. Roast for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and toss with vinaigrette, lentils and chopped kale while still warm. Top salad with parsley and eat warm, cold or at room temperature.

I put the chopped kale in the bowl with the dressing and added the potatoes straight from the oven so that the heat would wilt the greens just a little.  Then I mixed the kale and potatoes until they were evenly coated with dressing before addng the lentils and parsley . 

I put my camera away and ate this immediately.  

Happy Heatwave! 

Ice Cream

So we've been making a ton of ice cream around here this summer. Way too much. I currently have five flavors in my freezer. Five. Somehow there's not that much left in any of the (five) containers as our consumption rates have been similarly excessive. I have a bunch of 'reasons' for this:

1. I’m on maternity leave (huh? I know, I’m reaching but I usually don’t have this kind of time);
2. the heat (though it hasn’t been so hot lately);
3. we don't have to go out for ice cream (but we still do);
4. it's fun for the kids (though they aren’t always home when I make it).

Ok. Let's call a spade a spade.

I LOVE ice cream. I can never get enough and I don't really discriminate when it comes to flavors. I like them all. Once I put the bowl of the ice cream machine in the freezer, it's summer home, I can't control what happens next.

As you can see, this is not the ice cream that's the subject of this post. This is the ice cream that I am eating while making more ice cream. Shameless. 

When I saw Clodagh McKenna's recipe for brown bread ice cream, ice cream with little bits of caramelized brown bread in it, I had to try it. Now I want to get one of those bicycles with the coolers in the front and sell my ice cream at all of the summer festivals. Wouldn't that be fun(ny)? Maybe I could pedal off all of the extra calories.

This idea is genius. Make breadcrumbs out of stale bread. Coat them in butter and brown sugar and toast them in the oven. Flavor your custard style ice cream base with the caramelized crumbs. And save a few to use as a topping. The Bailey's (or any alcohol) helps to keep the ice cream from freezing too hard in the freezer but you can leave it out and just set the tub on the counter for a few minutes before scooping. Leave it in if you feel like you need an excuse not to share with your kids.

Brown Bread Ice Cream

For the Vanilla Custard Base

I use a vanilla custard base recipe that I have adapted to fit perfectly into the little ice cream machine I bought when I lived in Japan. You can use this recipe and instructions on the process of making the custard base. To that, I add Bailey's and the caramelized brown bread crumbs, making some extra crumbs to top the ice cream with.

1 batch of custard base (see above)

1-2 tablespoons Bailey's

For the Caramelized Brown Bread Crumbs

3 slices stale brown bread, toasted

2 tablespoons salted Irish butter

1-2 tablespoons brown sugar, loosely packed

To make the bread crumbs, toast the bread and break it up with your hands into small pieces or place bread in a ziptop plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin until coarsely ground.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt butter and mix with breadcrumbs until somewhat evenly coated.

I just tore the bread into small pieces with my hands. The texture is just a matter of personal preference.

In a bowl, mix the buttered breadcrumbs with brown sugar. Sprinkle the buttered, sugared bread crumbs onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spreading them out evenly.  Bake for about 10 minutes, stirring halfway through.  The sugar should be melted and the crumbs should be crispy and browned. Remove from the oven, let cool and store (you can make these up to a few days ahead) until you are ready to churn the ice cream.

Look! It's like brown bread granola. Exciting.

Definitely store these somewhere out of the way while you wait for your custard to chill.  I put them on a high shelf in the kitchen along with my other - less tempting - dry goods to prevent these little nuggets from getting consumed before churn-time.

Once your custard base has chilled, add 2 tablespoons of Bailey’s to the base and churn in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions. Remember to place your ice cream container in the freezer ahead of time to pre-chill it. This helps minimize melting when you transfer your churned ice cream to the freezer.  A couple of minutes before the ice cream is fully churned, pour two thirds to three quarters of your brown bread crumbs into the machine and allow them to be dispersed throughout the ice cream. Reserve the rest to use as a topping.

This is how my ice cream looks when it's ready to take out of the machine. My machine starts making this loud clicking noise when it's finished. I have no idea whether or not that's typical ice cream machine behavior or not. Now I'm talking about my ice cream machine like it's my fourth child. Yikes. 

After the machine is done churning, remove ice cream and place in the freezer in your pre-chilled container to freeze more thoroughly. This usually takes at least a couple of hours though I also love the soft serve consistency of ice cream straight from the machine (I don’t discriminate when it comes to texture either). Scoop, top with more caramelized brown bread crumbs and enjoy!

Off to the freezer to firm up. 

We liked the contrast between the brown bread crumbs that were churned and frozen into the ice cream which were kind of chewy and the ones we sprinkled on top that were crunchy. 

Dinner on the driveway. 

Afternoon with Eve: Marmalade Muffins

Babies are curious creatures. After having three of them in less than four years, I should know.  I remember when Emmett was a baby, I was always hovering over him, sure that he would wake up at any moment demanding sustenance. I tiptoed around, waiting. Unsure of whether or not to try to take a quick shower, have a snack, make a phone call.  Most of the time I think I just waited. Now that I’m a more seasoned mama, I know that babies are unpredictable. Sometimes they’ve eaten, been changed, are swaddled tight and less than two minutes into what you are hoping will be a nice long nap, they’re up.  Screaming to be burped, for more milk or maybe just the smell and body heat of mama. Each time this happens I tell myself that it’s ok, the laundry can wait, the to-do list can grow longer and longer.  My day-job for the next few weeks is to take care of Eve. Just that. Just Eve.  

What I don’t do anymore is just wait for her to wake up.  When she’s asleep, I get things done, even if I think she will probably wake at any moment. Today was one of those days where she took an extra long nap at just the right time.  I had friends over for lunch, we ate and talked, and talked some more, she slept.  I thought “Dare I try to get some cooking done?” I made lentil salad, did the dishes and took the garbage out, she slept.  “Do I just go for it and try to make the muffins that I promised Emmett two days ago?” I prepared the muffins, slipped them into the oven and cleaned up in the kitchen.  Just as I finished washing the mixing bowl she woke up, hungry.  My kitchen started to smell like butter and oranges.

Marmalade Muffins

Adapted from Melissa Clark’s recipe for Orange Marmalade Cake

Yield 12 large or 24 regular-sized muffins

⅓ cup Irish Marmalade (I used Mileeven Irish Whiskey Marmalade)

¾ cup granulated sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) Kerrygold unsalted butter, softened

⅛ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon lime zest

½ teaspoon orange zest

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

Coarse sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line either one or two muffin tins with liners.  

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together sugar, butter, oil, orange and lime zest for about 5 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time and mix until each one is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next.

4. Scrape down the bowl.

5. Add marmalade and orange juice and mix.  This will make the batter curdle.  Don’t worry! Once you add the dry ingredients no one will be the wiser.

6. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder.

7. Remove wet ingredients from mixer and gently fold in dry ingredients with a spatula until just combined.

8. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, place an equal amount of batter into muffin tins to make either 12 large or 24 regular-sized muffins.

9. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top and bake 18-24 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden skewer pressed into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  This will depend on the size of your muffins. I made 12 large ones and 24 minutes was just right.

Glaze, either Melissa Clark’s or a simple orange juice and confectioners’ sugar, would be a welcome addition in place of the sugar topping. I plan to freeze some of these and reheat them in the microwave so I left them unglazed for now.

I was not prepared for how much my kids would like these muffins. I only have one muffin tin (regular size) and there was no way I was going to try to bake them in multiple batches. I decided to completely overfill the tin and ended up with HUGE ones. Emmett took down two in seconds (yep, not my best parenting moment) and reached for a third (even I have my limits) and Isla ate a whole one even though it was almost as big as her head.

The sweet finish to a beautiful day.