My cabbages are all maturing all at once, as cabbages do. Luckily there are a lot of ways to love cabbage – as okonomiyaki, as pickles in Buddha bowls or rice paper rolls or wraps, fried alongside a poached egg – but this is one of my favourites.
Colcannon is Irish mashed potato with cabbage, and it is one of those surprisingly wonderful recipes that have you going “aha! I understand how this became a national dish”. It has just four ingredients and like any of those classics that every kid remembers grandma making, there are more versions than you would think possible with so few ingredients. This is mine.
The Recipe:
So, the basic concept is potato mashed with about an equal volume of sauteed cabbage, with leek or spring onion to give it a little bit of heat, salt and pepper and lots of butter or cream.
Scrub the potatoes then boil or pressure cook them with a bit of salt till they are mashed potato soft. Ideally you want a good mashing potato like Sebago or Russet, but if you have garden potatoes it’s hard to go wrong. How many? Say about half the amount you would cook if you were serving them just as mashed spuds on the side.
Drain and allow the steam to evaporate so they don’t get wet and sloppy. If you time it right, your spuds will be hot, drained and ready to mash at the same time as your cabbage.
Meanwhile, finely chop a leek (or two if you are cooking for a crowd), and lots of cabbage. “Lots” means about three times the volume of your spuds, because it will cook down. You need a big, wide pan that won’t crowd it, with no lid because the idea is to evaporate off the moisture.
Saute the cabbage and leek together in a decent knob of butter, stirring all the time so that it becomes soft but not browned. You don’t need to overcook – it just needs to be tender. Add a grind of black pepper.
Mash the potatoes with another decent knob of butter, or some cream if you like, then whip in the cabbage and leek till it is all fluffy. The trick is to have both the potatoes and the cabbage hot and not sloppy at the same time. I will happily eat a bowl of colcannon on its own for dinner, but it also makes a good side dish for anything you would serve with mashed potatoes.
I haven’t got a glut of cabbages but I’m keen to try this nevertheless. Thanks Linda.
I just had this for breakfast. I had leftover mashed potato and 1/4 cabbage that needed using. I added bacon too because who needs a reason for bacon. Very hearty peasant food!