St Patrick's Day Redux

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. What better way to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland than to wear green, drink beer, and eat giant mounds of corned beef with mushy cabbage? Actually, wait. There should be a better way. And this year I decided to find it. I don't mind the traditional dishes, but I think I prefer corned beef sandwiched between slices of rye bread with some tangy & sweet whole-grain mustard, and neither Andy nor I have ever been big fans of cabbage. This feast day is meant to be a celebration, and across the country we rejoice with the same old stuff? If the Irishmen of yore could see us now, they might exclaim in surprise: "Feck! Why in the name of St. Bride would you slave over corned beef and cabbage when you could nip down to the Safeway and buy yourself one of those frozen barbecued chicken pizza yokes?" Although I wasn't going to serve pizza, I did want to make something out of the ordinary, and it wasn't long before I set a new plan in motion.

In honor of March 17th, my friend Micki decided to bake some Irish soda bread. Micki is a married mother of two children, lives in San Diego, and is what you'd get if you crossed the Barefoot Contessa with a MacBook Pro. She designs graphics and logos, gardens, blogs, cooks, paints and loves doing all of it. She enjoys baking so much that she created a blog around it (called "The Yeast I Can Do!"--did I mention that she puns?) and this month eschewed the traditional but slightly bland Irish soda bread recipes in favor of her own version: orange-scented soda bread with cherries and chocolate chunks. Yum! I knew that this decadent and sexy baked good would be my inspiration to forgo the huge pot of b'iled potatoes and make something for St. Patrick's Day that would be a deliciously contemporary nod to the Emerald Isle. Excited at the prospect of this new plan but feeling run down because Alton was sick, I asked Micki several days ahead of time for her best suggestions for my St. Paddy's Day Redux dinner menu. She loved the idea and quickly got back to me with three mouthwatering suggestions (recipes are linked): Irish Cheddar & Stout Fondue, Farfalle with Savoy Cabbage, Pancetta and Mozzarella, and Guinness-braised Short Ribs. Wow.

Her only request in return for her ideas was that I document the dinner photographically. Done! As I have mentioned, Alton and I got sick, so my amazingly Irish menu would have to wait. Today, almost exactly one week belated, I cooked up our gaelic-esque feast.

While Alton napped this afternoon, I started on the main course, the braised short rib recipe that would take about four hours to make from start to finish with marinating and cooking time.
Ribs

Seasonings for the spice rub marinade.

Ribs after their massage, then into the fridge to chill out.

Veggies for the braised rib recipe: carrots, garlic, leeks (I omitted the celery).

Toasting pine nuts ahead of time for the cabbage-pasta dish.

And the rest of the pasta ingredients are also made ready to go.
Then the ribs come out of the fridge to get browned.
Veggies get their turn.

Add some Guinness and tomatoes and pop this baby in the oven for two and a half hours.
Now let's move on to other things, like the first course. Mmm.
Cheese is shredded...

...and Alton is up from his nap! We play upstairs until Daddy gets home, then the ribs are almost ready to come out. While those rest on the stove, we get ready to dip. The fondue pot is situated on the table far away from Alton's high chair and I turn the heat on low to warm up the Stout base and begin adding the cheese.

Stir it up.

For dipping, we have apples, carrots, and cubes of bread.

Alton decides he doesn't want the melted cheese, but is happy to partake of all the other items.


And the Irish Cheddar-Stout fondue is a hit! We ran out of things to dip before we got tired of eating it. But that's okay, because it's time to move on to our main courses. Sautéing the pancetta for the pasta-cabbage recipe.

The finished product, with tiny chunks of mozzarella, the toasted pine nuts and pancetta-cabbage sauté wrapped around the pasta.
The short ribs stayed warm all this time in their iron pot.

Served up and ready to eat!

We sipped on the small bit of Guinness that was leftover, then switched to the sparkling wine that Andy surprised me with when he came home from work (let's do that every Thursday!). We feasted to fullness and toasted our lovely meal while Alton finished his own food and brought puzzles over to play with at our feet. For a dessert suggestion, Micki had emailed me an extremely tempting Irish Cream Chocolate Mousse Cake recipe...but I knew I would be done in for the day. We're going to have Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream bars instead. What a delicious day!