Forty years ago last week, I had my passport stamped at Shannon Airport with the official greeting: “Permitted to land in Ireland for three months.” It was my first visit to Ireland, and within a few hours of arriving I was enjoying my first Irish breakfast. A “full Irish” to be sure — eggs, bacon (rashers), sausage (bangers), black and white puddings, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, brown bread, toast, butter, and jam— oh my! There was not a pancake in sight. No French toast. No granola. No eggs Benedict, and certainly no vegetarian options such as an “Equilibrium Breakfast” (poached eggs, avocado, spinach, grilled tomato, and lemon) served these days at Anantara The Marker in Dublin (themarker.ie) or Grilled Flatbread, Labneh, Smashed Avocado, and Chili (currently on the menu at Ashford Castle). These are just two of the fabulous new additions to Irish breakfast choices that I discovered on my latest visit in June. How times have changed!
Over the course of my forty years of travel to Ireland, food fairs, festivals, and farmers markets have blossomed; gourmet food shops have flourished; artisan cheesemakers have multiplied; and breakfast offerings are more exciting than ever. The “full Irish” still tops most menus, and long-standing favorites such as brown bread and porridge are as popular as ever, but even these “standards” come with a makeover. Take porridge, for example, which is offered as Gaelic Porridge (topped with Redbreast 12-Year-Old Irish Whiskey, cream, and brown sugar) or Irish Cream Porridge (topped with Five Farms Irish Cream liqueur) at The Landsdowne Kenmare (landsdownekenmare.com). I also discovered poached rhubarb, warm fruit compote, and poached pears like these offered on breakfast buffets to top porridge or to stir into granola.
CHAMPAGNE POACHED PEARS
Serves 8 to 10
2 cups dry white wine
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cinnamon sticks, broken
1 vanilla pod, split
5 green cardamom pods
1/2 cup orange juice
Juice of 2 lemons
8 medium pears, peeled, cored and quartered
16 ounces Champagne
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1. In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla pod. Cook, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to simmer.
2. Add the cardamom, orange juice, and lemon juice; cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add the pears, Champagne, currants, and cranberries. Place a round of parchment paper on top; cover pan with a lid. Reduce the heat to low; cook for 25 to 30 minutes, turning pears occasionally, until the pears are very tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.
And just when you think scrambled eggs couldn’t be improved upon, think again. At Cashel Palace in Tipperary (cashelpalacehotel.ie), they arrive on perfectly sliced Kenmare Smoked Salmon and Potato Rösti (a crispy potato cake similar to boxty) with a generous dollop of crème fraiche on top. Likewise, Eggs Benedict here skips the standard Canadian-style bacon, replacing it with honey and Guinness-glazed bacon. At Ashford Castle in Mayo (ashfordcastle.com), you can choose other versions of the traditional poached eggs with hollandaise sauce dish — Florentine (with spinach) or Royale (with smoked salmon); it’s served there on top of a potato farl, a traditional mashed potato cake.
Kenmare Smoked Salmon on Potato Cake with Crème Fraiche. Photo Margaret M. Johnson
POTATO FARL
Makes 4
1 pound russet potatoes, boiled and drained
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup flour, for dredging
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1. In a medium bowl, mash the potatoes with the milk and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool completely (if possible, cover and refrigerate overnight).
2. Put the flour on a large plate; season with salt and pepper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the mashed potatoes. Form into four 2 1/2-inch-thick cakes; dredge in flour, shaking off excess.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Fry the potato cakes for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden.
A breakfast buffet is also standard fare at most hotels and guest houses in Ireland, and no where is it more generous than at Ashford Castle, where pastries, Viennoiseries, fruits, charcuterie, cheese, smoked salmon, and carved-to-order honey-glazed ham is considered the “first course.” First introduced in the 1930s, and now an Ashford tradition, the ham is slow roasted for over 10 hours and finished with a glaze of estate-made honey and cloves. Mrs. Tea’s Seed Bread is also a “must” selection from the buffet. The recipe for the nutty, aromatic, brown bread originated with Mrs. Beatrice Tollman, founder of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection that includes the castle. The bread is so popular with guests that it’s now available as “Mrs. Tollman’s Bread in a Bottle,” a clever packaging of all the ingredients required to make the bread, with the exception of the wet ingredients that bakers need to add before baking. Alternately, try the recipe below.
Ashford Castle bread and pastry selection. [Photo Ashford Castle]
MRS. TEA’S SEEDED BREAD
Makes 1 Loaf
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup muesli
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 1/4 cups plain yogurt
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup honey
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with no-stick baking spray with flour.
2. In large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, muesli, baking soda, salt, raisins, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, and honey. Stir the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture; mix well. Transfer to the prepared pan.
4. Bake the bread for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into slices.
Margaret Johnson’s “Recipes” page now includes “Ireland Hopping: Adventures in Food, Drink, and Travel.” For further details on her work, including how to order her signed cookbooks, visit here.
