St. Patrick's Day

Today, a St. Patrick's Day inspired stew and Irish Soda Bread. I wanted to make red cabbage with apples too, but will wait for everyone to return home. Tonight it's just myself and H.
The stew is made with chicken, because eating lamb breaks the hearts of teenage girls in this house. I suppose had R been here I would have used lamb, but for tonight, it's chicken.

The Irish Soda Bread recipe came from our

Irish Pub Cooking book. 

I made a buttermilk substitution by adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to cream (I wanted this to taste rich!).

Sift together 4 CUPS of flour with 1 TSP baking soda and 1 TSP salt.

Make a well in the flour mixture, and pour in 1 3/4 CUPS buttermilk.

 Fold together with a wooden spoon until blended, 

then turn out on to a floured board and gently knead. 

Dough should be soft but not sticky.

Place dough on greased baking pan and slice slightly on top - I cut mine a little deep tonight (it was a sharp knife!). Bake at 425F for 25 minutes. 

This is what you'll get:

Irish Soda Bread

The stew was of my own invention. Inspired by traditional Irish stew I sautéed one onion, two stalks celery, and one carrot - all diced, in a splash of olive oil.

Chicken was chopped into medium sized cubes, 

and shaken in a bag of flour seasoned with salt and a lot of pepper:

then added to the sautéing vegetables and brown lightly: 

Added next was broth and chopped vegetables: carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, and one bay leaf.

It all simmered on med-high about 30-45 minutes.

The Irish dish.