I’ve never had it, but read a recipe in a magazine while waiting in the doctor’s office.
Why did I never realize cabbage and potatoes should be combined this way!? It’s so obvious! Since I’ve never actually eaten it, I’m afraid I’ll mess it up and not even know.
I didn’t clip the recipe and surfing brings me a few different versions. Kale or cabbage? Boil the kale or saute in bacon grease or olive oil? Bake before serving or just boil it all up and mash together? Caraway seeds, mace or just S&P?
Tyler Florence of the Food Network did an episode on it. If you go to foodtv.com and search for his show (Tyler’s Ultimate) or the recipe itself you might be able to find it. He went to Ireland and got the classic recipe from an Irish Lass and then another recipe somewhere else and came up with his own version which sort of combined the other ideas. I’ve been meaning to try it myself but I would go for the classic version.
I use the recipe in Laurel’s Kitchen. It calls for kale, and you steam the kale and potatoes (separately). While they are steaming, saute either leeks or onion in butter; mash the potatoes with milk and then combine with the kale and leeks/onion, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.
I just made colcannon for the first time a couple of months ago. Rather than sticking to any of the recipes I found online, I just read them, got the general idea, and improvised my own version. I used cabbage and leeks, no kale, and cooked it in water. I was surprised that my local grocery store didn’t have mace, so I just left that out and seasoned with salt & pepper only. It came out fine, very tasty.
I’ve never had Colcannon, but I have made its cousin Bubble and Squeak with wow-wow sauce. I can attest to it being very tasty.
I’ve seen recipes that substitute Brussels Sprouts for the cabbage, I’ve not seen kale, however.
That’s what I guess I’ll do too Biffy, although I like the idea of softening the cabbage in bacon grease first then adding it in. Adding a coupla hundred fat grams never fails to improve a dish, right? I dislike everything in the onion family so I’ll be omitting that key ingredient, although I’m really tempted to sneak some garlic in instead.
As I was browsing thru all sorts of different recipes last night, most simple but some of them were pretty complex I was picturing some ancient Irish ancestor of mine reading the directions and laughing her butt off. I can so imagine the poorer daily version of the dish being throw it all in a pot, boil and mash with some butter and not ‘gently braise the leeks in extra-virgin olive oil, don’t forget caraway seeds, blah blah’ foodie stuff.
