Boxty - potato bread

BOXTY - Not a Kilkenny Tradition, but made with Kilkenny Flour.

Three different types of Boxty

Boxty is a potato bread, made with wheat flour and potatoes. Traditionally cooked on a griddle or pan over an open fire, particularly in counties like Leitrim and Longford. The Boxty in this photo is interesting, although all three types are made with Mosse's flour from County Kilkenny, they vary greatly from a pancake version to a loaf-like one.

Potato breads and cakes are thought of as typically Irish food, however, it should be remembered that few potatoes were eaten in Ireland, prior to the eighteenth century.

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A Feast of Kilkenny Produce

Where can I eat a meal like this in Kilkenny? The photograph may not be the best, but the flavour was superb. The roast pork was from a Kilkenny free range, Tamworth pig crossed with a wild boar - succulent, full of flavour, without being too strong, with the perfect crisp crackling.

Kilkenny Produce at its best

The classic Sharpe's Express new potatoes, the mint, the spinach and the broad beans were freshly dug and/or picked, less than an hour before consumption. The gravy was made from the rich pork juices. Such simple fresh ingredients need no elaborate sauces, in fact they make salt and pepper almost redundant.

The tender young broad beans, cooked briefly in their jackets (no need for peeling), have a immediate and delicious flavour that no picture can convey. The spinach briefly wilted, had no requirement for any seasoning and there is simply no alternative to a freshly dug new potato, steamed with some sprigs of mint. The experience is intense.

These ingredients are all easily reared and grown in Kilkenny. So, why is it so difficult to find a restaurant in County Kilkenny serving simple high quality, seasonal and local ingredients, that are squeeky fresh, at a reasonable price?

If you know of one, please email me at: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Nettle Soup

Irish Restaurants seldom serve Irish food, so your only hope is to make it yourself. Nettle Soup is a classic, traditional and delicious dish, cheap and easy to make. Young nettles are plentiful and easily found by even the most reticent of foragers.

Wild Nettles (Urtica Doica) growing in County Kilkenny

Pick young nettle tops, using rubber gloves, you can pick them without gloves if you know how to grab the stems and leaves, without getting stung.

Apologies to Darina Allen for corrupting her recipe.

RECIPE
Large bunch nettles
Tablespoon of butter
3 shallots or 1 onion or leeks
1 medium Golden Wonder Potato
1 litre good quality homemade chicken stock

Freshly picked Nettles (Urtica Doica)

Melt the butter until bubbling, add finely chopped shallots and well diced Golden Wonder potato, add a little salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat until the potato is soft. Add the stock and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped nettles, cook for another couple of minutes.

Nettle Soup

Puree the mixture in a blender until smooth (originally, it would have put through a hair sieve) and reheat before serving. A delicious Irish country soup, the traditional recipe would not have used potato, an introduced species - oatmeal or some other cereal would have been used instead.

According to Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman, Stinging Nettles (Urtica Doica) are a very good source of protein, as well as vitamins C & B, calcium, potassium iron, phosphorous, magnesium etc. So, give it a go...

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Ham Hock and Potato Pie

A local Kilkenny organic pig is killed and no one wants the delicious ham hocks, so they landed up on my kitchen table. If we kill animals for food, we should be respectful of the fact that a life has been taken and be prepared to make use of the entire animal. Some of the lesser known cuts of meat make for the best eating. This Ham Hock and Potato Pie is made using mostly locally produced Kilkenny ingredients.

Ham Hock covered with water, simmered with celery, onions,

leek tops, herbs and spices.

INGREDIENTS TO COOK THE HOCK 

1 ham hock, 

Leeks, 

Onions, 

Celery,

Bay leaf, 

Black pepper, 

4 cloves,

1 star anise, 

Herbs.

Cover with the ham hock with water, add fresh leeks leaf tops, onion, celery, bay leaves (anyone can grow a bay tree), whole black peppers, cloves, star anise, parsley stalks, sage, thyme. Simmer 2-3 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Leave to cool in stock. Strain the stock and reduce it and retain whatever you do not require for soup.

Ham Hock cooling in its own stock

INGREDIENTS FOR PIE

Meat off hock,

Onion,

Freshly dug carrots,

Freshly dug leeks,

Freshly picked thyme - tablespoon

Goose grease left over from Christmas

1 tablespoon flour

500 mls Homemade cider

250 mls reduced ham hock stock

Creme fraiche

6 floury potatoes

Some Kilkenny produced ingredients for Ham Hock Pie

Fry onion, fresh carrots, fresh leek, thyme in goose grease left over from Christmas. Once soft, add tablespoon flour mix in and add 500 mls homemade cider, 250 mls reduced ham hock stock. Add ham removed from bone and simmer 10 minutes.

Ham Hock Pie filling ready for Potato topping

Steam 6 floury Golden Wonder potatoes, until they are smiling, these ones were grown on the fertile flood plain of the River Nore. Remove the skins, mash with 100gms of creme fraiche or milk and add any seasoning you wish. Place on top of meat and vegetables.

Kilkenny Organic Ham Hock & Potato Pie

Put in moderate oven for 45-50 minutes and you will wonder why we do not eat ham hocks more often.
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