Land of Cabbages and Kings (will denote sourcing)
photo courtesy pinterest – source unknown
Field, Stream, Ocean and the potager……………..
Today I’m going to borrow a famous phrase from Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and the Carpenter – that being “Of Cabbages and Kings”. These four words just seem to fit in my mind’s eye, the subject of today’s post – the land, the heritage, bounty and the beauty that is Ireland. While it is a fact that Carroll was indeed English and not Irish, in the spirit of today’s much-needed congeniality, we shall overlook any and all societal faux-pas this may engender.
I am forever grateful for Public Television. Aren’t you? Further, I am forever grateful for the Create Channel – I don’t think I need to say why – except that I have been introduced to so many premiere culinary talents there that I would have otherwise not become acquainted with, and it’s all without the tiresome and anxiety-producing chaos…… (oops, I said why)…………
Ever take a moment to wonder where your very fundamental views of the world order were formulated? Ever ask, how good was your elementary education and how did it shape you? Just how thorough and even-handed was it? What was in the minds of the curriculum experts of the day? Further, just how much did it profoundly affect the way you grew up and formed your perspective on the world? To what extent did you pick up the thread afterward and take it further, re-aligning your perspective to correct for the fatal flaws and erroneous exclusions?
We’re going to travel, if for only a few moments, down memory lane to try to unfold how important what little impressionable kids are taught in primary school is to their development. These days, with the internet, kids have access to everything, defining access in a completely different way – kind of how the advent of tv did for my generation.
Why all this contextural posturing, you ask? I’d just like to try to capture, if you will, the prism within which I came to think about the food and culture of Ireland. I’m no expert on the cuisine of Ireland – which is precisely why I’m writing this post. But, I’ve recently become more curious about, not only the soaring beauty of Ireland, both in it’s natural and archeologically-incredible beauty, the history that lies within but also, most notably of the abundant and pristine ingredient offerings and of some of the pre-eminent chefs that represent their cuisine that in the present day, define its food culture.
Before we go there, let me just try to explain how I got to where I am in terms of writing this post. I’ll try to describe, in some semblance of order, what have become the remnants of memory of my formative years in the history department from my own early school experience. This is relevant to this little story overall as it tended to color my own thinking for a long while and is why I’m now pushing up against these once sound but now tinder-like walls to expand my horizons and try to correct if not rebuild the foundations of my own thinking and perspectives. These days I find myself wondering just how many of my own generation are in the same boat and if they too wonder about their inherent and home-grown perspectives.
If you look around here, particularly in and around several northeast cities, you’d think we in America had an ownership of what is Irish tradition and culture, particularly this week. This Thursday, as we all know, is the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. What will you be eating? If you live in and around New York City you may get the idea that green bagels and green beer are the centerpiece of traditional Irish fare. This, unfortunately is another example of how American food culture can go awry and may become a most-silly watered down version of something that long-ago meant to imitate real life.
As I was growing up in the late 50s and 60s and later, I gathered up the impression that food from the British Isles and especially of Ireland was uninspiring at best. Born of the lore of the great western european immigrant experiential-story that belied my own ancestors, my perspective was formulated and centered around my own Italian-American ancestry. Then of course, it became slightly broadened as I gradually discovered the legacy of great French cooking and their legendary chefs. It almost seemed like the rest of Europe didn’t matter so much in the pecking order that was the western european culinary map. Oh there were intermittent stories of the great Viennese café culture and of one or two iconic dishes of spotty locales, but that France-Italian story, especially in the food department tended to be central and hung onto its reign of prominence and as a thread in my own thinking for most of my formative years. (How’s that for a distilling down of the centuries?)
If, like me, you are a product of the public school experience that was the 1960s and early 70s, you might just have become quite substantively biased in your view of world history – and, having been born with a generation of parents who served in and then were so profoundly affected by the mindsets of the post-World War II experience, you may too just have as your lifetime’s central historic underpinnings the rise of Nazi Germany, the Donna Reed-era of domestic “something-ness”, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and ultimately, the pulling down of the Berlin Wall. I’m not underestimating these milestones in history, but as I’ve grown up, I realize how distorted our history lessons were, barely commenting upon and certainly not, in the normal course of things, encouraging a deep study of the iconic cultures of the Far East, Persia, India, and the era of the iconic crossroad that was Constantinople. Yes, we were schooled in Western Civ over and over, studied the Greek columns, the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, but little was stressed about the great Muslim domination of Asia, Africa and Europe and the spread of Christianity most certainly stands as central to all we knew. We spoke of the fate of the Czars, watched Dr. Zhivago, read and re-read War and Peace and saw Reds. We skimmed along the roads of the Incas and the Aztecs. I was a child who remembered being able to mumble a prayer in public school and where Sunday School meant the study of the Catechism, all with right and wrong answers, and the unquestioning authority and piety of the Catholic Church. (Don’t worry, we’re not going to go there.) I feel quite lucky that my best memories of Sunday mornings from my childhood center around those visits to the French Pastry Shop in Morristown and ogling coffee cakes – well, you know). Is it any wonder though, that my own generation of public schoolers may have grown up being leery of if not downright uneducated about the rest of the planet and their relative importance in overall world history? I’m not totally blaming “them” – I’m just saying that if you don’t yourself pick up the thread, test it, stretch it out and re-adjust for some gross errors, you might be like me. It’s kind of sad.
As time went on and we studied in school the great recent cultural formations which were exclusive to “the continent” – we basically introduced ourselves to the likes of the Dutch masters, the Vikings, the other various and sundry marauding tribes of central Europe that settled upon, morphed and became the countries as named and are as familiar to us now, the great religious wars and their remnants, and more recently of the famines and starving populations left over from the feudal systems that dominated more recent European history and those massive waves of immigrants who became the foundation of the late 19th and early 20th Century story in America. So many of us are born of this story and my own myopic view was formed here – and we often overlook if not forget the amazing cultures that exist beyond the Franco-Italian experience – not only in the beauty, history and relevance departments but in the food department as well. Well, that’s all a long and round-about way of trying to distill down what my own little brain tends to remember of what was the “curriculum” of those decades, at least in my own little corner of the world – my own public school system which was considered quite admirable in the state of NJ at the time, and now I’m left wondering how many of my own generation have grown up with this terribly distorted if not singularly-exclusive formulation of our world view. But now, back to Ireland……………
For the country of Ireland, the lore centered around the boiled dinner and the consumption of copious quantities of boiled potatoes. If you are lucky, you might just get a sprinkle of parsley over all. The meal of the year on American soil became the famed Corned Beef and Cabbage.
Nowadays, unless you have made a point of studying it, you may have missed the many and very talented chefs from Ireland. Many have learned to make a living at serving in some of Irelands lovely architectural remnants. Some, including but not limited to those have been brought to the American audience by Create, are now showcasing how their vibrant array of fresh, prime ingredients, particularly their lamb, beef and seafood, that are produced in their country are served up in the most sophisticated of styles. In local pubs, the old model for pub food is legendarily good and remarkably current. The fresh produce showcased in their recipe collections is really quite remarkable in its breadth and finesse of usage.
I, for one, have had a wonderful time leaning in to be educated by the likes of Rachel Allen, Clodagh McKenna, Nevin Maguire, and Kevin Dundon. Here is a wonderful collection of contemporary Chefs of Irish descent who combine their deep food heritage with the astounding array of fresh and pristine ingredients of their land. They work to showcase the amazing array of artisan producers that are found around their gloriously beautiful, bountiful and fruitful country. Kevin Thornton is another centerpiece chef of Dublin fame worth studying. This just scratches the surface of the talent there to be sure, but they have gone a long way toward welcoming neighbors, friends and family from near and afar to appreciate their historic treasures and scenery. Basically, I’m just in my infancy in investigating in and around the northern isles of the food world and in fact, feel kind of torn about leaving my as yet under-developed knowledge base in and around my own inherently-favorite terroirs. But, indulge we must and look outward we must.
As I do continue to work to develop my education around traditional European cuisines, I think that Ireland may continue to get a bit of short shrift when compared to those two stellar kingpins, the French and the Italians. This is entirely unfair if not just plain wrong. Well, that was a very long-winded way of saying that I and, I suspect many of my own generation, didn’t grow up with a very positive impression of Irish food. Whew! Well, you get the point.
So whatever you grew up thinking of Irish Cuisine – turn on the light and go exploring in the Land that to me evokes the heritage of “Cabbages and Kings” – your own way or my way!
Here, to marvel at, explore and enjoy are the Home Pages and a sample recipe of the few popular chefs mentioned here. Let’s just say their Lamb and Seafood offerings are to marvel at! Not to be outdone however, their dessert offerings are amazingly beautiful and their keen use of the freshest ingredients have a lot to teach us! Take a look and whet your own appetite for contemporary Irish Cookery – this is not your mother’s Corned Beef and Cabbage Cuisine and thoroughly deserves to be admired, experienced, imitated and celebrated!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all – Irish and Irish Wannabes!
http://www.clodaghmckenna.com/home/ – Rhubarb and Ginger Cheesecake: http://www.clodaghmckenna.com/home/recipes/?id=86http://www.clodaghmckenna.com/home/recipes/?id=86
http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food/programmes/750899-neven-maguire-home-chef/ – Sichuan Peppered Lamb with Spiced Red Currant Compote –http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food//recipes/2015/0623/743214-sichuan-peppered-lamb-with-spiced-redcurrant-compote/
http://www.rachelallen.com – Hot Oysters with Champagne Sauce – http://www.rachelallen.com/post/hot-oysters-champagne-sauce
http://www.kevindundon.com – Lemon Herb Cursted Cod with Cherry Tomatoes and Broad Beans – http://www.kevindundon.com/lemon-herb-crusted-cod-cherry-vine-tomatoes-broad-beans
http://www.thorntonsrestaurant.com – Loin of Rabbit with Carrot Cones pearl Onions and Truffle Sauce http://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/food//recipes/2012/0126/746722-loin-of-rabbit-with-carrot-cones-pearl-onions-truffle-sauce/
So, today and all of this week in the very least, take a little journey as I will, through the recipe archives of Irish Cooking – and, if you will, make a few meals and treats that give proper homage to their great ingredient baskets, ingenuity in the kitchen and the gorgeous terroir that they call home! Remember that all great food isn’t necessarily only where you may think it is (like all those right and wrong answers from Catechism). And mostly, Enjoy!