St Patrick’s Day Recipes for your Party
St Patrick’s Day Recipe Dilemma: You want to throw the greatest St Patrick’s Day party of all time and the only green options you have are broccoli or food dye.
The shining light of The Cookery School, Lyons, County Kildare
We know your pain, reader, so we scoured the country for a little help and a few recipes. We found it at The Village at Lyons Cookery School in County Kildare. It’s here that food blogger and TV chef Clodagh McKenna waves her magic cooking wand to turn culinary frogs into gastronomic glories and, lucky for us, she’s given us a couple of quick and easy recipes to keep our St Patrick’s Day party as green as it is tasty (and – even better – you don’t have to slave over the oven for these).
But enough from us, it’s time to let the food (and Clodagh) do the talking!
Gorgeous Green Pea and Bacon Soup
Clodagh McKenna's Gorgeous Green Pea and Bacon Soup - Alberto Peroli 2010
Preparation time 5 minutes Cooking time 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 knob of butter (a tablespoon will do)
- 1 potato, peeled and sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 strips of smoked bacon, diced
- 3 1/3 cups of hot chicken stock
- 16oz (450g/2 cups) frozen peas
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- ½ cup of double cream
- 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint
- 1/5 of a cup of crème fraîche
- A few fresh mint leaves to garnish
Method
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat and add the potato and onion.
- Reduce the heat, stir, cover and leave to sweat for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid, turn up the heat a little and stir in two-thirds of the bacon.
- Leave to cook for a further 3 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken stock and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Tip in the frozen peas and cook for 5 minutes.
- While the peas are cooking, place a frying pan over a high heat, tip in the remaining bacon, and cook for a couple of minutes or until the bacon is nice and crispy.
- Set aside in a bowl lined with kitchen paper to remove excess fat.
- Season the soup with salt and pepper, and then blend in a liquidizer.
- Stir in the cream and mint
- Pour the hot soup into cups/mugs. Using a teaspoon, add a few drops of crème fraîche to the soup in each cup, followed by a sprinkle of the fried bacon and a mint leaf.
Shamrock Salmon Sandwiches
Makes 2 large sandwiches or 8 party-sized bites
Preparation time 5 minutes
Green and gorgeous Smoked Salmon and Shamrock Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 3 large slices of smoked salmon
- 4 small, roughly chopped pickles
- 220g (8oz) cream cheese
- 1 lemon
- 4 slices of brown soda bread (or Guinness bread)/2 slices if serving as party-sized bites
- 1½ cups of watercress
Method
- Cut the smoked salmon into bite-sized pieces.
- In a bowl, mix together the pickles, cream cheese and a squeeze of lemon.
- Spread the salmon and pickle mixture over your bread and top liberally with watercress. If you want to serve as party-sized bits, leave as open sandwiches and cut into quarters.
Now all you have to do is serve with a smile and a big green hat.
The party doesn’t end there, we’ve also got the recipes for St Patrick’s Party drinks, from cocktails to milkshakes. If you fancy a dish that’s a little less green but just as traditionally Irish, try our Irish Stew recipe.
As you’d expect, there’s tons going on around the island in celebration of St Patrick’s Day. We’ve put together this guide for all the St Patrick’s Festivals and events in Ireland.
Interested to know who St Patrick actually was? We’ve recreated the St Patrick story with his myths and legends, Hollywood style.
These recipes look delicious. Unfortunately the link to the Cookery School doesn’t work…
tHESE RECIPES SOUND SCRUMPTIOUS.. I NEED SOME MORE TOO. LIKE DESSERTS AND SUCH.. COULD YOU SEND THEM TO MY EMAILOR IS THERE A LINK i COULD GET MORE RECIPES?? THANKS SO MUCH AND I WISH FOR YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY.. I ONLY WISH I WERE THERE TO BE ABLE TO CELEBRATE ON THAT DAY.. IF ONLY I DIDN’T LIVE SO FAR AWAY..
Love it !! Thanks
Hey guys! Thanks so much…and checking out the link right now!!! Sorry…
Hey Conyers…link all fixed now! Phew…
Love the garnish , shamrock!!! <3
LisaG how do we put an image up with our comments/ Does it appear after comments are checked out? Thank you. :O)
Hmmm – good question Glenda! All of us here had to go to a site called http://en.gravatar.com/ to load our little faces, so any time and anywhere we posted something, our pics suddenly appear! You could try that, and the same would happen wherever you post!
(By the way, can you tell I’m a words rather than a techy being?!?)
I amj half Irish and I love almost all of it, or at least what I have eaten
Any recipe from a Fallon has to rock
All the above sound VERY tasty & not hard to duplicate! Which is ALWAYS a plus!!:-)
time 4 a Guinness! Cheers! 
Lucinda
Would love to see more of his tasty ideas!!
@Kathy + Lucinda – Hey guys. Wish I could take credit for these but it’s all down to Clodagh’s culinary wisdom! (Have to agree with the Fallon thing though!)
Hello Everyone! Thank you for all your comments and likes! I have a daily Food Diary in which we post recipes everyday just log on to my website, while you are there sign up for my monthly LOVE Food Ezine to receive free recipes every month! I’ll be in the USA in May to launch my new book Homemade – so follow me on facebook/twitter for updates on where I will be signing
Clodagh x
Any suggestions about chocolate covered strawberries or Edible fruit on St.Patrick party !!
Hey Patricia one of my favourite St. Patrick’s day desserts is Key Lime Pie.
1 graham cracker crust
1 3 oz can frozen lime juice, thawed
1 16 oz cool whip
1 can condensed milk
Mix together and pour into crust and chill
If you want more green add a drop or 2 of green food coloring or decorate with sliced limes
(If you can’t find a small lime juice use larger, 32 oz cool whip, I don’t usually increase the milk, and make 2 – 3 pies. Hope this helps.)
Looks wonderfully delicious!
Happy St. Patties Day!
Peace and Love,
Georgiann
Anyone got a recipe for shepherds pie for a orphaned Irish Catholic kid in Tucson AZ?
What is crème fraîche?
Here’s another Kathy Fallon, at least nee. I don’t see the name too often here in New Jersey! So, hi cousins!
@ Kate/Kathy Fallon – here’s a shock for you both – my Mum’s name is Catríona (the irish for Katy). Must say that I have a certain fondness for the name!
Thank you I will try all recepies. Have a blessed St. Patrick’s day.
Love you,
And you enjoy the day, too. Happy cooking from here in Ireland
I had just found a recipe for Soda Bread BUT none for Guinness though. The 2 recipe’s will be tried as I can see just reading them that they are good. Thank you, FOODIE Marilyn
Hi Marilyn
The Guinness Bread recipe was taken down for a few hours while it was being tweaked, but it’s up again now so you can get back to your baking!
http://blog.discoverireland.com/2011/01/irish-guinness-bread-recipe/
Do tell us how you get on!
Love, Love, Love this. So glad I found it!
Love it.. Love it.. Love it !!!
I’ve been to Ireland and would Love to go back.
I enjoyed all, but Really enjoyed Clifford’s Bar !!
Thanks for recipes. I have been to Ireland and I think it is most awesome Country. Love the people, so friendly and jolly. Hope to be back in Ireland in 2014 for the World Flower Show.
Green pea and bacon soup? Looks horrendous but actually sounds good. I will have to give it a try.
I can recomend a LARGE glass (or two) of
“GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU”
served over a pub counter in Cork!
Appreciate the honesty, Mike. Hope it tastes nice.
David
Have been to Ireland and the folks are wonderful would love to go back and meet Bernadette O’Riely of Belfast. She is a wonderful person as was the family, I met her in 1953. Had a wonderful time at the hotel for Evening meal and then at the dance hall. Hope you see this Bernadette. Daniel Murphy (USN}
would love to go back to meet friends and have good times. Dan M.