Entries are flying in for the fourth World Irish Stew Championship which takes place in St Angela’s College in Sligo, Ireland on 1st and 2nd May 2013.

Photo Courtesy Of World Irish Stew Championship

The 1st of May will see professional and student chefs from kitchens and colleges all over the world demonstrate their skills to create the ultimate Irish Stew! The judging panel, a team of chefs and competition judges selected by head judge Gabriel Mc Sharry, will decide who will earn the title in two categories – professional and student chef.

Photo Courtesy Of World Irish Stew Championship

Entries can be made online on the World Irish Stew Championship website, where there are also application forms for other culinary competitions including the Sligo Signature Dish, and a Mystery Basket competition.

Not only professional chefs can enter their stew, but home cooks can enter the competition by taking a photo of their stew and uploading it along with the recipe on the World Irish Stew Championship website.  The best will be selected and brought to beautiful County Sligo to compete in the final on 2nd May and they will also be treated to a Sligo Gourmet Adventure!

Photo Courtesy Of World Irish Stew Championship

The World Irish Stew Championship has been running since 2010 as part of Só Sligo Food Festival and this year thanks to the Gathering IBB Fund and assistance given by the Gathering initiative, it has become what is hoped to be an annual global event in County Sligo.

Follow the WISC on Twitter @WorldIrishStewC or tag your recipe #worldirishstew.

Follow on Facebook at facebook.com/WorldIrishStewChampionship .

The organizers would love to see some international entries, so why not get cooking here in the US, and share some of your recipes handed down through the generations.  Who knows, you might win a trip to Ireland!

Wishing all entrants every success in this great competition.  Happy stewing!

Slán agus beannacht leat!

(Goodbye and blessings)

Irish American Mom

I love Irish food.  My childhood was happy and healthy, nourished by plenty of potatoes, succulent meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, and my mother’s homemade cakes, breads and desserts.  When I moved to America over twenty years ago I was astonished to hear so many disparaging remarks about my national cuisine.

I remember watching the Today show one morning.  Bryant Gumble was hosting back then.  His recent trip to Ireland was a highlight of that particular show.  I watched with pride as he praised the beauty of my homeland.  My bubble soon burst.  He threw his eyes to heaven once he mentioned Irish food.

When Irish American comedian Dennis Leary was being roasted by

his friends at Comedy Central, he joked it should have been a boil

instead of a roast. His Irish mother and most Irish women have a

penchant for boiling nearly every meal.  

Irish born actor, Peter O’Toole, said his three favorite Irish foods were all Guinness.   Poor Irish food! It often takes a beating here in America.

Our cooking has a reputation for being bland, sauceless and lacking in flavor.   This opinion is understandable in a world where exotic spices are over-rated, and food is expected to appeal to the eye more than to the palate.  The old joke tells how the Irish cook’s spice drawer holds nothing but salt and pepper.

Irish food may seem dull to some, but for me it is the straightforward simplicity of its ingredients and techniques that put it in a distinctive, satisfying class all of its own.

French cuisine is magnificent, yet not for the everyday cook with little time to fuss and fume over sautee pans and steaming pots.  In years gone by the Irish cook had little more than an open fire and a big black pot for cooking.  As a result traditional Irish meals are not elaborate.

Simple and economical, Irish food does not try to mask the true

flavor of wholesome, quality ingredients.  It is an unpretentious

cuisine, whose strength lies in its simplicity.

Many Americans eat out way too often.  Sometimes I think the home cook is intimidated by the complexity of many ethnic cuisines.  Cooking shows focus on elaborate recipes and visually appealing dishes, rather than assisting the home cook to learn simple, economical family favorites.

Irish Americans have an unjustified, inferiority complex about the traditional recipes of our forefathers.   We need to learn to be proud of our cuisine.  To this day it is the rustic food of my childhood that I long for, not the fancy food I first tasted when I lived in New York.

Anyone who has tasted a Guinness beef stew, or a roast leg of lamb, can testify to the glories of Irish cooking.  With Thanksgiving fast approaching America is now planning the great family get-together and time-honored dinner menu.  This week I plan to share some of my recipes that can help give an Irish twist to a traditional American Thanksgiving meal.

We’ll learn how to cook rutabagas, and roast potatoes.  Remember, the Irish know plenty about cooking turkey.  An Irish Christmas dinner usually features roast turkey.

And so I make no apologies for Irish food.  I plan to keep cooking as

my mother cooked, and her mother and grandmother before her.  

Come back and visit often.  Together we can bring Irish American food to a new level of excellence and appreciation.

Slán agus beannacht leat!

(Goodbye and blessings)

Irish American Mom

Cream crackers are flat, square, crispy crackers with distinctive air pockets and a lovely creamy, savory flavor.  As a kid, cream crackers spread with butter and jam, accompanied by a glass of cold milk provided the perfect supper time snack.

When I was grocery shopping at my local Kroger store here in Kentucky a few days ago, I spotted a familiar orange, rectangular package on a shelf marked “special orders.”  Subconsciously, my brain forced me to stop for a closer inspection.  To my delight it was indeed a package of Jacob’s cream crackers, all the way from Ireland, beckoning me from their lonely spot on that not-so-popular, strange, foreign foods’ shelf.

And so, I placed them gently in my cart, proud of myself for saving them from Kroger’s unwanted, discarded stack, and all for the bargain price of $1.99.

When I decided to write a blog post about my cracker discovery, I did a little internet research on the history of cream crackers.

I always knew cream crackers were made by Jacob’s bakery in Dublin, but part of me always assumed the recipe originated in England, like so many other Irish foods.  To my delight I discovered the cream cracker is a true, Irish original, and an authentic “taste of Ireland”, and “a taste of Dublin” to boot.

The Supper Trio – Cream Crackers, Butter and Cheese

Joseph Haughton, a Dublin man, invented the cream cracker in his home.  The first crackers were baked commercially by William Jacob around 1885.  Ever since, Irish people have been enjoying them served with cheese and other savory or sweet toppings.

Their popularity spread throughout the United Kingdom and as far afield as southeast Asia.  Here in America the closest cracker is probably a Matzo.

When you bite a cream cracker a few stray flakes may fall, but they do not crumble into bits like many other appetizer crackers.

They are also perfect for thickening a clam chowder soup.

The ingredients include wheat flour, palm oil, sunflower oil, salt, sodium bicarbonate and yeast.  Looks like today’s recipe may still be pretty close to Haughton’s original.  I could find no additional artificial anything or hydrogenated oils on the short list of ingredients.

One significant omission for me was no mention of cream to support their famous name.  Apparently, the name refers to the method in which the mixture is creamed during the manufacturing process, not an actual ingredient.

And so, when the kids are tucked in bed tonight, I think I’ll pour a glass of cold milk, butter a few cream crackers, adorn them with slices of Dubliner cheese, then savor my truly Irish snack.

Slán agus beannacht leat!

(Goodbye and blessings)

Irish American Mom

P.S.  Neither Jacob’s nor Kerrygold have ever heard of me.  I just love Irish cream crackers and cheese.