RECIPE EXCHANGE: Recalling the Emerald Isle

When Susan O'Hara Christopher makes barmbrack, a yeasty fruitcake, she can't help thinking of her home.

Her ancestral home.

The O'Hara family ancestral home was Raheen in County Galway in Ireland. The recipe she uses came from Lady Augusta Gregory, an Irish folklorist who was a key figure in the Irish literary revival of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Lady Gregory's estate was Coole Park, next door to Raheen, and she used to make this cake and serve it to such writers and actors as W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, Lennox Robinson, Sean O'Casey and Barry Fitzgerald, said Christopher, who lives in Wicomico Church.

"When I visited Coole Park, I went to the room that Yeats stayed in when he did his writing there," Christopher said.

Did she see any barmbrack crumbs?

"I didn't see any crumbs," she said, "and I didn't any ghosts, either."

She also didn't see Raheen. A fire destroyed it in the 1970s. All that's left is a foundation and photographs.

Barmbrack is always on the St. Patrick's Day menu for Christopher's family, as is corned beef and cabbage, Irish cheese and celery soup, a celery-and-potato soup that she serves as an appetizer.

When the family gathers around the kitchen's green marble counter island for their St. Patrick's dinner party, they refer to it as "eating off the Emerald Isle."

Other readers also shared favorite recipes related to St. Patrick's Day.

Richmonder Joanne Brothers said her family's favorite for the day is a "good old-fashioned New England boiled dinner: corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, parsnips, turnips or rutabagas (optional), leeks (also optional) and beets (best cooked separately). If the corned beef comes without a seasoning packet, add some pickling spices after bringing the meat to a simmer and skimming the pot. Serve with mustard. The antidote to this reasonably healthy meal is the Reuben sandwiches we make the next day."

Susan Reed of Charlottesville shared her recipe for simmered corned beef, which she described as "quick, easy and delicious." We've posted the recipe online.

Tom Driscoll of Richmond shared a great story about a dinner he and his wife, Linda Singleton-Driscoll, enjoyed in a pub during a trip to Ireland. They sat at the same table with a couple from Switzerland and in the course of the conversation discovered the woman's brother lived in Richmond. And Tom Driscoll knew him.

"That 'small world' meal ended with a most incredible dessert that made the evening even more memorable," he said, speaking of the banoffee pie. We've posted the recipe online.

Bill Lohmann writes for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

For a change, use dark raisins, dried cranberries and dried blueberries. At Christmas, try citron, but it can be hard to find. Spread honey butter or butter on the cake when sliced. At Halloween, it's traditional to wrap a wedding ring in paper and bake it in the cake. The person who receives that slice will be engaged before the year is out.

Recipes

Barmbrack (Gort Cake)

4 cups cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs, beaten

3 tablespoons butter

1 yeast cake

3 tablespoons sugar

1¼ cups milk

1½ cups golden raisins

1 cup currants

1/3 cup candied fruit

Sift flour, salt and nutmeg. Use a fork to press softened butter into flour. Cream yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar, add rest to flour mixture.

Warm the milk and add to the yeast and eggs. Blend into dry ingredients, until batter is stiff. Fold in raisins, currants and candied fruit. Place in buttered cake pan to half full. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about 1 hour). Brush some beaten egg on top for a glazed look. Bake at 375° for 1 hour or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. -- Susan O'Hara Christopher

Celery Soup

2 tablespoons butter

2 heads celery, chopped

2 potatoes, diced

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 bay leaf

4 15.5-ounce cans chicken stock

1 teaspoon nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup evaporated milk OR cream

grated Irish cheese to taste

Melt butter and add celery, potatoes, onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until veggies are soft. Add bay leaf, stock, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Cook 20 minutes on low then add evaporated milk or cream.

Remove bay leaf and keep on low heat until ready to serve in mugs. Sprinkle each serving with extra nutmeg and grated cheese.

--Susan O'Hara Christopher

Banoffee pie

1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs

2/3 cup butter, softened

2 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk

4 medium bananas

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix graham cracker crumbs with softened butter and press into a large pie tin. Place crust in refrigerator until filling is ready.

Boil the sweetened condensed milk, unopened, in a pan of water for 1½ hours. To keep the cans from overheating and exploding, they must remain submerged at all times while boiling. If the water level drops, refill the pot. This caramelizes the milk in the can. Allow the milk to cool to room temperature.

(The alternative process: Pour 1 can into a 2-quart glass measuring cup. Cook in microwave on 50 percent power for 4 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes until smooth. Continue cooking on 30 percent power for 12 to 18 minutes or until very thick and caramel-colored, stirring briskly every 2 minutes until smooth. Repeat process with second can of milk.

Slice the bananas and layer in the pie pan. Spoon caramelized milk over the bananas. Whip the whipping cream with the confectioner's sugar and vanilla and spread on top of the caramelized milk.

--SOURCE: Thomas S. Driscoll and Linda Singleton-Driscoll, Richmond

Simmered corned beef

1 3- to 3½-pound corned beef brisket

3 cups water

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

½ cup mustard

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Cut fat off brisket. In 3-quart casserole, place brisket in water. Slice onion over brisket and add garlic and bay leaves (and, if desired, any packet of spices that comes with the brisket). Cover. Microwave on high for 25 minutes. Turn brisket over. Microwave on medium (50 percent power) for 60 minutes, turning brisket over after 30 minutes. Drain.

Mix mustard with brown sugar. Either brush the glaze on the brisket and cook in the microwave for a few minutes more, or simply mix the glaze, warm it in the microwave and serve on the side of the brisket.

Serve with boiled cabbage and potatoes.

--Susan Reed, Charlottesville