A Sunday Evening Dinner

After my husband and I tried the Blarney Puffballs (registered, The Irish Lion Restaurant) a couple of weeks ago, I had been given the directive to find the recipe for these little bundles of goodness.

Fortunately for me, fellow world-famous blogger, Rosie Hawthorne of Kitchens Are Monkey Business, took up the gauntlet and made her version recently. Since Rosie had taken some of the Monkey Business out of recreating the recipe for me, I started with her notes and ran.

Here is my partial mise en place for my take on Irish Pancakes Patties.

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 Yukon Gold potatoes

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 egg

1/2 shallot, grated

1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped

1 teaspoon rosemary, chopped

4 garlic cloves, grated

First I peeled and cubed the potatoes before adding to some water and sprinkling with some kosher salt. The potatoes cooked in the microwave for about six minutes, until fork tender.

I added the butter and mashed until fairly smooth. I then placed the potatoes in the refrigerator to cool.

Meanwhile, I grated the garlic, shallot and cheese. The minced herbs, flour, salt, pepper, baking powder and egg were mixed together and set aside.

Once the potatoes had cooled, I mixed in the other ingredients and put everything back into the refrigerator for another couple of hours.

Then, I wisely decided to make a test patty as after much deliberation, I opted to take Rosie's suggestion and make potato patties rather than puffballs. The deciding factor ended up being that with the patties I would not have to deep fry the potatoes.






I used a cookie scoop to measure out the right amount of potato mixture and then gently flattened the ball into a patty. I fried the patty in a bit of oil and served with a dollop of sour cream with a sprinkling of chives.





The Foodie daughter and I both decided that a bit of bacon would not be amiss and I finely chopped up some cooked bacon for the potatoes. More cheddar cheese was also added at this point.

I also decided to add in about 1 tablespoon of sour cream to the mix, just to kick things up a notch.







There, that looks much better. Back into the refrigerator.







Turning back to Rosie's recipe, I scooped out the potato balls before flattening and dredging in bread crumbs. And these patties then went back into the refrigerator to firm up before frying.

I fried a few patties at a time in canola oil before draining on a rack. The finished potato patties were then held in a warm oven until dinner time.

I had also chosen to bake a turkey breast roast for our dinner.






Unfortunately, I was unable to find an unseasoned turkey breast, so I settled for a roast that had added salt, dextrose, sodium phosphate and vegetable oil. It could be worse, I guess.

I wanted to make a special sauce for the turkey. I ended up creating my own sauce in the end, but I did start off with a recipe from the Internet.

3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2/3 cup turkey stock
2/3 cup sherry
1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoons water
1/2 cup Craisins, half chopped, half whole
1 teaspoon chives, chopped





The sherry, turkey stock and mustard cooked together for five minutes.

Then the Craisins were added.

The cornstarch slurry (cornstarch and water) were added along with the chives.

After tasting, yellow mustard, honey and black pepper were added to taste. Guess I couldn't leave well enough alone.

Not too bad, but I think I'll stick to my own recipe from now on.

Dinner is served.

The turkey breast was tender and flavorful. The sauce added just the right kick to the moist meat.

The Irish Potato Patties were a hit, with the bold flavors of the bacon, rosemary and chives adding just the right amount of interest to the potatoes. The sour cream and chopped chives on the side helped to ground and round out the flavors.

The Foodie daughter asked for corn with bacon, ignoring both her boyfriend's and my suggestion for broccoli as a side dish. Next time you get broccoli, dear daughter.

Everyone seemed to enjoy dinner and raved over the Irish Potato Patties.

I am a very happy Foodie.

Fishing for Dinner

Now, despite loving shell fish, I don't care much for fish. However, fish is supposed to be good for you and since my husband and daughter like fish, once in a while I brave the fish for my family.

I decided to make baked tilapia with a Parmesan crumb topping.

I made this up as I went along and these are the ingredients for my dish: black pepper, Parmesan cheese, dried thyme, butter, Panko bread crumbs, tilapia fillets, bacon and garlic. I definitely should have added salt to the mix, but with Parmesan cheese being a bit salty, I erred on the side of caution this first time out.

I mixed some of the bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, black pepper, dried thyme and grated garlic together. I then melted 2 tablespoons of butter and added that to the bread crumb mixture.

The mixture is ready for the fish.

I diced the bacon and lightly fried it, leaving it a bit undercooked as it would be cooking some more later. I added a second slice of bacon that will be used for another dish to the pan.




Parmesan crumb topping meet tilapia. Tilapia meet bread Parmesan crumb topping.





And let's add some bacon to the party.

I bet you were wondering what the second dish using bacon was, weren't you? I decided to make my version of Rosie Hawthorne's Corn and Bacon dish. I am sure I fudged it a bit since I was doing the recipe from memory.

I used frozen corn instead of fresh corn and added a bit of milk instead of water.

Do you remember that I threatened to add pomegranate arils to tonight's salad? There they are, along with some honey roasted pecans. And you know what? Pomegranate arils definitely belong in a salad.

And here's the rest of our dinner. The Parmesan crumb topping added a nice crunch to the mild tilapia, although some salt in the topping would have made it even better. And the corn was sublime. Rosie needs to thank Mr. Hawthorne's mama for me.

My dear husband's response? As expected, he would have been happier without the Parmesan crumb topping on the fish. He doesn't like Panko bread crumbs and he likes his fish plain. Oh well, Darling daughter and I liked the Parmesan crumb topping. So there.