Rachel Allen's Colcannon with Cabbage
March 14, 2008
The Secret Sauce welcomes chef Rachel Allen to the blog, where she will share her recipes for a traditional Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day.
Rachel Allen writes, "This traditional Halloween time Irish mashed potato and cabbage dish is delicious, perfect winter food. I love this with the Pork Chops with Caramelised Apples, or the Homemade Pork Sausages and Apple Sauce."
Click to continue reading and make sure you scroll down to the bottom of this entry to find even more delicious recipes from chef Rachel Allen.
Colcannon with Cabbage
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:Procedure:
- 1.5 kg (3lb)floury potatoes, scrubbed
- 75g (2.5oz)butter
- 500g (1 lb) green cabbage like savoy or spring, outer leaves removed
- 25g (.8oz) butter
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 250ml milk (1.5 cups)
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain 3\4 of the water after 5-10 minutes, and continue to cook on a low heat (avoiding stabbing the potatoes with a knife; if they are floury potatoes they will break up if you do).
- When they are cooked, drain all the water off, peel and mash with most of the 75g butter while hot.
- Meanwhile, cook the cabbage.
- Cut the cabbage into quarters, then cut out the core. Slice the cabbage finely across the grain .
- Heat a saucepan, add 25g (.8oz) butter and 2 tbsp water. Add the sliced cabbage, toss over a medium heat for 7-10 minutes, until just cooked.
- Add to the potatoes
- Add the milk and the parsley (keeping some of the milk back in case you do not need it all)
- Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth, adding more milk if necessary.
- Serve piping hot with the remaining butter melting in the centre.
Click here to print this recipe!
About the Chef:
Rachel Allen was brought up in Dublin and her early cooking experiences were with her sister, both pretending to be Delia Smith and each talking to the wall as they made biscuits. Encouraged by her family Rachel went to the Ballymaloe Cookery School at the age of 18 and realized that she wanted to make food her career.
After graduating from the school she cooked at the renowned Ballymaloe House Hotel, eventually returning first to test recipes and then to teach at the school. She worked for a while as a caterer in Vancouver before returning again to teach at Ballymaloe. This is one of the premier cookery schools in Ireland and has an international reputation.
In September 2004 RTE, the national TV station for Southern Ireland, broadcast Rachel’s first series Rachel’s Favourite Food, which was screened on BBC 2 each Saturday morning, and has also been seen in Australia, Italy, Africa and elsewhere. Rachel’s Favourite Food (the book to accompany the series) was published by Gill & Macmillan. Rachel's follow up book and TV series were both called Rachel’s Favourite Food for Friends and were both huge successes. Her third series, Rachel's Favourite Food At Home, this time shown on BBC1, due to the excellent ratings was another smash and the accompanying book, Rachel's Favourite Food at Home (HarperCollins 2006) hit the top of the book charts. Rachel’s latest series, Rachel’s Favourite Food For Living, aired on BBC1, the accompanying book, Rachel’s Food For Living was again published by HarperCollins in 2007, as was a beautiful Rachel Allen Diary for 2008. Rachel is also a frequent guest on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Rachel has appeared on numerous programs this year including: Castle in the County, Market Kitchen and Cooking the Books on Channel 5.
Rachel has most recently appeared at Taste of the World for the New York Times as the special guest of the Irish Tourist Board.
Rachel lives near Ballymaloe with her two young sons and her husband, another cook, who runs two restaurants in Cork.
More recipes from Chef Rachel Allen:
Rachel Allen's Smoked Mackerel Pâté on Crostini
Rachel Allen's Homemade Pork Sausages
Rachel Allen's Apple Sauce
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