Colcannon

Colcannon.

This recipe is Celtic in origin. The dish was brought to the United States by Irish immigrants escaping poverty and starvation. Colcannon is a low cost dish often served as a vegetable side dish.  The dish was often the complete meal for the lucky ones in the potato famine days in the 1800's in Ireland.

3 lbs. potatoes with skins on cut into eighths. Some prefer the potatoes mashed.

I small head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

2 chopped onions

1 cup of milk

1 cup finely chopped parsley or green onions

1/2 cup of olive oil or 2 tablespoons of butter

1 cup of bacon or ham bits or add three cups of ham in one inch pieces and make it a single dish meal

Salt and pepper to taste

2 TBS of Worcestershire sauce or 3 TBS Outback Al's Sauce

Place ingredients in covered casserole dish or Dutch Oven and bake for 40 minutes at 350. Serve with grated cheese of your choosing.

A traditional Irish song "Colcannon" has the following lyrics.

Lyrics for "Colcannon" also known as "The Skillet Pot."

Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?


With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.


Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake


Of the creamy, flavored butter that your mother used to make?

Chorus:

Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I,

and the more I think about it sure the nearer I'm to cry.

Oh, wasn't it the happy days when troubles we had not,


and our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot

See the following web site for more lyrics and music: http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiCOLCANON;ttCOLCANON.html


A common theme through much of the family cooking across time and cultures was the cast iron cooking pot and lid. In America they are  known as "Dutch Ovens" and were used by Lewis and Clark in the Northwest in 1804-1806. In Ireland they were "Skillet Pots" and in Australia they are "Camp Ovens." The picture above is a "Skillet Pot."