Kitchen Away From Kitchen: St. Patrick’s Day on the American continent

Happy St. Patrick's Day -
from kitchen to your kitchen

One more of my many firsts here in the States: St. Patrick’s Day. Yes, they do celebrate it now in Russia too, and I’ve seen several St. Patrick Day Parades back home - it is always on Novy Arbat street, very close to my Moscow apartment, but I never cooked anything special for that day.

This year my father-in-law decided to introduce me to some traditional St. Patrick’ Day meal and suggested to celebrate it at our place with his big cooking contribution. It is worth mentioning, that Pappa Robin is a much better cook, of course I said yes, and it was a smart decision:) He came up with corned beef, cabbage, roasted veggies (potato, carrots, batatas and onions) and wonderful home-made bear bread (I didn’t even manage to take a pic of it - it was eaten up immediately). Everything looked and smelled so great and the corned beef was so tempting but because of Lent I could have veggies only - at least I could spice them up with some horseradish.

St. Patrick's Day meal (veggie version) - by Robin Haworth

St. Patrick's Day meal (meat version) - by Robin Haworth

I was craving something sweet for a long time (I have to admit, by ‘something’ I mean a good chocolate cake) but had to look for some Lent-friendly recipes and came across “monastic sweet cake”. Well, to say that no eggs-butter-milk cakes taste the same as regular once would be a lie. They don’t but to me it was a sweet treat for sure. If you are fastening and want to add something sweet to your menu it would be a good idea.

Monastic sweet cake (Lent-friendly)

Ingredients:

1 cup warm and strong tea
7 tbs flour
3 tbs vegetable oil
3 tbs jam or jelly
1 cup blueberries (or any other berries or dried fruits)
2 apples

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F (200C)

2. Grease a round baking pan

3. Mix all the ingredients.

4. Bake for some 30 minutes

This cake didn’t look as beautiful as a regular one or an egg apple pie but was sweet!!! For Dave and Pappa Robin I made well-proved cornbread muffins - they always work out well and are always enjoyed in my family.

corn muffins

Being now acquainted with some traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal, next year I will attempt and make something Irish myself. I always worry when I cook something non-Russian thinking I can’t make it authentic but since it is such a great cultural mix here in this country I hope I can get away with it:)