Ireland is known for many things, among them its rolling, picturesque landscape, fine linens, those thick fisherman sweaters and its many welcoming pubs.
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Chef Matthew McKenna of Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle Irish Pub in the Strip District with the restaurant's popular Irish Stew. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette) |
But its cuisine? Not exactly.
Ask your average diner what he or she knows about Irish food and chances are the only dishes that will come immediately to mind are corned beef and cabbage, fish and chips and soda bread. Oh, and potatoes, invariably of the boiled variety. This close to St. Patrick's Day, many Americans may also recall the Emerald Isle's most famous beverages, whiskey and beer (the latter tinted green in honor of this popular U.S. holiday, of course). As far as dishes sophisticated enough to demand a fine cabernet or china and candlelight, well, you're better off heading to the cosmopolitan kitchens of France.
"Traditional Irish food is one-pot, familiar comfort food like stew," says Matthew McKenna, head chef at Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle Irish Pub, on Penn Avenue in the Strip District. "It's not earth-shattering, but it's good." Actually, says McKenna, an Irish-American who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., there's some truth to notion that Irish dishes revolve around potatoes. These humble spuds are not only plentiful and cheap, they're also filling. And back in the old days, many Irish cooks were simply "just trying to feed the family."
Yet potatoes are only the beginning. Traditional Irish cooking also makes good use of root vegetables such as parsnips, turnips and carrots. Because the climate is so damp, vine vegetables such as squash and pumpkins are unfamiliar -- they'd rot before they could ripen. Many dishes also feature native ingredients such as lamb, beef, salmon (both fresh and smoked) and dulse, a kind of seaweed. In an effort to boost the country's image, Irish chefs over the past two decades have set about creating a "new Irish" cuisine.
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Traditional Irish dishes from Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle: Irish stew, bottom; fish and chips, top. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette) | |
"Ireland Memories," a new book by Patricia Tunison Preston, author of nine travel books about Ireland (www.IrelandExpert.com), is loaded with examples. Illustrated with more than a dozen wispy watercolors by County Galway artist Nora Keane, this 96-page hardcover cookbook/travel guide features 24 "new Irish" dishes, such as Wild Salmon with Chive Sauce, Spicy Lamb Salad and Tossed Tagliatelle with Smoked Salmon, and Dulse and Poitin (a vodka-like spirit also known as Irish moonshine whiskey). Sprinkled throughout are snippets of information about the history and culture of this ancient land. (The book is available directly from the publisher, Travel Memories Press, for $15 plus shipping and handling; 800-638-3909.)
Changing the image of a cuisine hundreds of years in the making, though, takes time. So, for the most part, Irish restaurants and pubs this side of the Atlantic stick with what Americans expect in an Irish restaurant: familiar one-pot casseroles and soups.
Two of Mullaney's most popular dishes, for example, are stout-battered fish and chips, known in Ireland as One and One, and a savory Irish stew made with chunks of lamb, a trio of root vegetables and Guinness stout. The pub is also known for its salmon (cured in-house with Irish whiskey) and its shepherd's pie, a hearty casserole of seasoned ground beef and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes and shredded cheese.
Among the favored dishes at Molly's Irish Pub, a new Irish restaurant in Peters, are Roasted Potato Leek Soup and cockles and mussels steamed with shallots and white wine and topped with a cream sauce flavored with Jameson's Irish whiskey. For dessert, traditional favorites include bread pudding with Irish whiskey sauce and Irish whiskey cake.
It's no surprise that for Irish pubs and restaurants, there's no busier time of year than the weeks leading up to St. Patrick's Day, which this year falls on Sunday. What is surprising is that in Ireland, the day is more of a religious holiday (think Christmas or Easter). Until the '70s, in fact, Irish laws required that all pubs be closed on St. Patrick's Day. Anyone who's ever ventured out on March 17 knows that's not the case here. Since the first St. Patrick's celebration in 1737 (held by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston), the holiday has only grown in popularity. Just how popular? Even folks with no ties to Ireland don Kelly green and pin on shamrocks, attend parades and drink themselves silly in celebration of Ireland's patron saint. Or as Mullaney's bartender (and transplanted Irishman) Declan Gilbert puts it, "It's an excuse for everyone to have a party for a day."
Like many local Irish eateries, Mullaney's, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, kicked off the festivities weeks before the actual holiday. In addition to live music every Saturday and Sunday night and Ceili and set dancing (the Irish version of square dancing) on Tuesdays, members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops performed Celtic music every Tuesday evening for four weeks leading up to St. Paddy's. The weekend before the big day, the pub boasts continuous live entertainment with such groups as Red Hand Paddy and Guaranteed Irish; in the past, they've drawn so many revelers that this year they are closing off 24th Street and putting a tent over it to handle the overflow. Tonight, the mostly Irish staff will stage Finnegan's Wake, a traditional Irish wake, complete with coffin and corpse.
The folks at Molly's Irish Pub are going all out as well. Relative newcomers to the Irish scene (they opened in October), the pub is celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day in a big way: every day of the month. That includes live entertainment every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the pub will host two popular local bands: Jim Lamb and The Wild Geese.
"Everyone loves St. Patrick's Day, so we're expecting a big crowd," says pub spokesperson Kathy Slencak.
Gretchen McKay covers homes and real estate for the Post-Gazette.
Related Recipes:
Beef and Guinness Casserole
Wild Salmon with Chive Sauce
Roasted Potato Leek Soup
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