Hi Eric!

St Patrick's day is a feast day, celebrating the Patron Saint of Ireland, and a day when the Lenten restrictions (no animal products or alcohol) were lifted. So, traditionally, St. Patrick's day recipes usually involve a combination of meat (not a problem...), beer and potatoes (the Irish staple; could be a problem for some people who avoid excess starch). I've never specifically cooked for St Patrick's day, but I've made a stew with homemade apple kvass (which is a Russian fermented drink, so not very Irish! But its a good substitute for beer); you could also use gluten-free cider (traditional cider should be gluten free). Just slow-cook lamb (or mutton), potatoes/faux-tatoes [turnips, parsnips, swedes, etc], carrots, celery, onions, garlic & a bouquet garni in a mixture of broth & cider.

The most popular meat in Ireland is probably lamb and mutton, which marries very well with anything sweet; fish and shellfish are also plentiful in Ireland, so another great recipe is Mussels steamed in cider with bacon & onions; cream can be stirred in at the end of cooking - like an Irish version of Moules Mariniere.

Boiled bacon with cabbage is also a great recipe, which tastes a lot better than it sounds. The key to that is a good, gelatinous stock (pig foot is excellent for this; otherwise, chicken stock is fine) to boil the bacon (very thick back bacon, unsmoked; you can use smoked, of course, but I find that too overpowering - I see smoked bacon as more of an accompaniment than a main) and carrots (whole baby carrots are best); add the cabbage at the last 15 minutes of cooking.

Colcannon is a wonderful side dish - you may use celeriac (also popular in ireland) or white turnips, and even parsnips, if you do not wish to use potatoes; just saute the potato/fauxtato-of-choice in good grassfed butter, and puree; saute the bacon, cabbage and some shallots in the same pan, add to the mash and stir in some heavy cream. You can add some ghee if you're dairy-free, or some almond milk.

I love black pudding, which is basically Irish blood sausage. The traditional version involves some sort of grain as filler, so I make my own; I know a good butcher and get some pig blood from him; you can also find frozen pig blood or pig blood cubes at Asian supermarkets; I mix it with pastured pork, herbs (sage, marjoram, thyme, parsley and dill), some egg yolks and mild mushrooms (just buttons), and form into patties which I poach in some bone broth. Black pudding goes well with bacon, and root vegetables. It can be added to a stew, or served alongside a celeriac cream-soup with bacon. You can also simply fry it up with onions and bacon.

Hope these come in handy!

Lots of [Irish] luck to you. Don't give money to leprechauns, no matter how hard they beg.

Milla

:-)