St. Patrick's Day - a Great Day for Celebrating All Things Irish

St. Patrick's Day is a great day for the Irish Worldwide. Here, where I live in Ireland, the shops close up and the villagehas a fair, with local pubs serving champ and irish stew along with the Guinness. But no matter where you live in the world, there is probably an irish themed pub nearby, and so you too can join in, whether you are Irish or not.

Guinness is still the most famous beer and most consumed beer in Ireland, and is well known for it's distinctive flavour. This is the black dry stout with the thick creamy head. Even when I travelled to China, they had an irish bar serving Guinness, and if you are celebrating the luck of the irish, you should do it with a pint of Guinness in your hand!

If Guinness is not your drink, why not try Bushmills whiskey - it has been on the go from 1608 and has been drunk by the British kings King Henry II and King James I (or so it is rumoured!) When the irish emigrated to America, they took with them Bushmills Whiskey, and so it is internationally recognized!

Enough of the alcohol, now for the food. Start the day with a good Irish fry up, consisting of Bacon, Fried Eggs, Sausages, Soda bread, potato bread, pancakes, tomatoes and mushrooms if you fancy them. Traditionally this is washed down with a mug of tea, white with two sugars - if you're making!

Irish Stew was the stable dinner of the irish for many years and it is still popular today. A typical recipe for it is:

Ingredients
4 litres of water
1 lb of stewing beef
1 lb lean mince beef
pint beef stock (can be made from Cubes)
4 medium size carrots.
2 medium size onions.
2 large celerys.
7 medium size potatoes
2 tablespoons of gravy powder

Method
Boil the stewing beef alone for about 1 hour.
Brown the mince.
Strain off most of the fat.
Chop the vegetables to spoon size. Peel and chop the potatoes.
Put all ingredients in a big pot and bring to boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.Near the end add the Bisto to 1/4 cup of cold water, mix well, and stir into the stew.
Season with salt and black pepper
You can add mixed herbs to the mix if you fancy.

Other Irish dishes include Champ (Mashed potatoes and chopped scallions) and Colcannon (mashed potatoes mixed with Boiled cabbage.)

Be sure to wear you shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. It brings good luck to the Irish and it is a traditional emblem, as is wearing green. When you are in the pub supping Guinness, you will maybe have the luck to hear a traditional irish band playing a gig or reel. These bands consist of tin whistle, fiddles, flutes and bodhrans (drum) and maybe a few irish dancers could take the floor (as made world famous in the river dance)

No matter where you are in the world, St. Patrick's Day is a great day for celebrating all things irish, but moreover, it is a good excuse for enjoying yourself, so have a great day!