Friday, February 6, 2009

Brighid's Feast - the Main Course


Today, I'll post the recipes for the main course of our Imbolg holiday meal this year. They are both ancient traditional dishes from the area that is now known as Ireland or Scotland.

Imbolg is the midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, so the larders are getting bare. Potatoes harvested last fall are still edible, but perhaps getting a bit wrinkly. Clapshot is a wonderful, filling dish that turns very little into something fit for a true celebratory feast. It's a perfect dish to celebrate the fact that we did, indeed, have enough food stored to get us through the winter, and now we can see the promise of Spring as it approaches!

Clapshot

4 or 5 large potatoes, diced
1 or 2 turnips, peeled & diced
1 onion, chopped
2 knobs of butter
2 tsp Dulse
Pepper to taste
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch dried parsley
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese

Boil potatoes, turnips & onion in lightly salted water until soft. Drain. Mash vegetables with both knobs (a knob is about a teaspoon) of butter, dulse, pepper & nutmeg. Spread evenly in a pie plate. Cover with grated cheese & parsley. Bake at 400F degrees (200C) for about 15 minutes, until cheese is golden brown.

The other dish we had for our feast was a delicious salmon, prepared in a traditional way. This can be easily prepared over a fire, or stovetop, and doesn't take long. So, when the clapshot goes into the oven, start the salmon!

Salmon Steaks in Oatmeal Crust

1 Salmon steak per person
2 beaten eggs
Pinhead, or Scottish oatmeal (chopped groats)
Butter for frying

Place salmon steaks in beaten eggs and flip to coat. Lift out, one at a time, and roll in pinhead oats, covering the entire surface. Saute in hot butter until cooked through.

2 comments:

Anne said...

Excellent! I can eat this stuff -- if U substitute margarine for the butter.

So, you're eating oatmeal? Doesn't it have some gluten? I can eat it (as far as I know), but my problem seems to be with the wheat, not the gluten.

Sarah said...

Ack! Not margarine! It's a solid at body temperature! Can't you do dairy?