Colcannon: An Irish potato and kale recipe
Colcannon is similar to the famous Irish dish "Champ", but shredded kale is added, giving it a wonderful green speckled appearance. It's a great and simple way to use kale and St. Paddy's Day is just around the corner.
The original recipe in In an Irish Country Kitchen by Clare Connery called for 1lb each of potatoes and kale. I only had a half pound of kale and I really felt that it was just the right amount.
Here's how I made it:
Cooked and mashed 1lb of potatoes. Removed the kale stems and chopped the kale finely. Cooked the chopped kale in salted water for about 10 minutes. Drained. Heated 1/3 cup half-and-half and 1/3 cup of milk with chives and simmered for a few minutes. Beat the milk mixture into the mashed potatoes, then beat in the drained kale. Seasoned heavily with salt and pepper. Served with butter.
Variations include substituting cabbage for the kale and scallions for the chives. Next time I'll try it with scallions for a more oniony taste. I added lots more salt and fresh ground pepper than I normally would to mashed potatoes and it really brought out the flavours.
posted by Catherine at 8:57 PM
6 Comments:
Catherine - How do you do it? You seem to make all kinds of stuff that I want to cook too! Do you think it would have come out nearly as well without the cream?
Hi Brendon,
I checked out a lot of Colcannon recipes and they all called for milk or cream or a combo except one that suggested using sour cream or yogurt.
The taste with the modest amount of milk/cream wasn't rich tasting. I think you could use 2/3 of cup of milk and be fine. If you want to cut out the dairy completely and use olive oil, you'd have a different dish (but I think it would still taste good!).
Try it and let me know!
This is a perfect place for fat-free half n half if it's calories you're trying to avoid ... think I'll try a cabbage/broccoli rabe version!
Thanks for the inspiration -- my version with potato, cabbage and broccoli rabe (all cooked in teh samem pot!) was just delicious ...
do not fear the cream, comrades!
I like this recipe as I can use it as a vegetarian meal. I usually fill cabbage leafs with ground meat, but this certainly sounds great. Thanks
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