My two favourite dishes in the world to cook, are Coddle and Irish Stew. I thought I would post my version of Coddle which I absoulutely adore! If you are not Irish and have never tasted this very Irish dish, please try it at home. I love it because of its simplicity yet the taste is so extravagant!
Different makers of coddle will tell you different ways it should or not should not be made, so give it a google and have a read of other peoples recipes. It originated in the times of the Irish Famine of 1765 to 1767. The Irish who were lucky enough to have a pig, could grow good potatoes and onions using its fertiliser. From these ingredients a number of recipes came including the ‘coddle’. In Dublin, it was a nutritious way of eating when times were hard. Potatoes, bacon pieces and a sausage stewed made for good eating. Today, I cook this dish with seasoning for a taste I would run a mile for!
4 main Ingredients people.. thats right, only 4!
Potatoes, Onion, Sausages & Bacon (Rashers)
Seasoning – Parsley & Thyme.
Pearl Barley (optional)
You can put celery or carrots in, I found that one time I put two of both in, they totally took over the taste, so today I have placed one celery stick in, no carrot ( I’m actually all out of them since the lamb hotpot yesterday).
(1) So basically, get your biggest pot for stewing in. Have a look inside, and start peeling potatoes, dice and slice them. You want to fill the base of the pot with potatoes to start with.
Fill the base of pot with spuds :0)
(2) Peel one large onion, like what I have in the picture. You may need to use 4 regular sized onions if you dont have a large one to hand as you need to fill over the potatoes with onions now, like below.
chop em up
It should look like this now:-
Sprinkle onions on top of potatoesI added some celery, just because my man likes it, he also likes carrots in it too, but I haven’t got any!!! Now its time to place the meat on top. You should use the finest pork sausages and rashers for this recipe, so don’t cheap out! place the sausages on top of the ingredients
Next, place the rashers on top
Next place the magic ingredient in the pot, dried Thyme. This adds an insane flavour to the entire dish, trust me, tastes fantastic.
Pour cold water over the ingredients until it covers them entirely and place on a low heat.
Don’t get worried as your dish starts to look like this – its normal.
This is just all the fat, potatoes and onions boiling away, it goes after a while
Now, you let it cook for as long as you want. I always, as a rule of thumb, cook it for an hour and ten. Anything after that is a bonus. Its 16.11pm as I type this, and Eric is going out tonight so, I’ll serve up around 5.15.
Enjoy making this dish, please do try it, its is sooo good!
TA-DA! Bon Apetit!!
