Colcannon and Whiskey Tea Cake define a St. Patrick's Day meal. I, also, share a fact about James Joyce in this classic LaDiva 2012 intro to the March recipes.
Click here to find out how much I LUV potatoes! Trust me - you have never seen anything like it.
In the first years of the LaDiva Dietitian videos, every month was introduced by a separate video. This one shows my love of potatoes. What I found out was that folks just weren't watching them so I stopped producing them. Now, when people watch these intro videos they wonder hasn't Saturday Night Live picked them up.
This one was really fun to make. I'm not going to tell you how I shot it, but when working with film you have to realize that we only build as much as the camera is going to see. Lots of illusion. I was also a prop master for a number of years.
One of my favorite tricks, as a prop master, was using one item to represent another one. An example is watermelon for raw beef. The script called for Steak Tartar. Well, that was not in the budget on a nightly basis, nor would the actors eat it. Watermelon seen for a second or two glistens like raw meat and is drippy.
For this video, I did have help. I usually build, shoot, edit everything you see on the videos. But, I couldn't get in the location, position myself and start the camera. Also, I needed the kitchen gadget and liquid prop handed to me. Wonder what those are? Watch the video.
The facts about James Joyce are true as far as my research showed. He was big on his sausage eating. What I learned about Irish cuisine, growing up with an Irish grandmother in my home, was that we never ate corned beef and cabbage. NEVER. We had cottage ham, boiled potatoes and cabbage. Corned beef was too expensive.
Some research I saw suggested that is actually came from a Jewish take on the St. Patrick's Day festivities. The Irish in New York started that big parade early in the morning and weren't looking to cook lunch, but buy it out. Since the Jewish dietary laws restrict pork consumption, the base for sausage, Jewish delis swapped in corned beef for pork. However, there wasn't much solid evidence about this. Although, living in New York I could imagine some truth to the rumor.
Whatever the history, corned beef and cabbage came to be the tradition. My versions of sausage avoid the pig and the cow because I adhere to the No-Cholesterol diet. I wish you a great St. Patrick's Day, the Wee People grant all your wishes and a lovely start to the spring season.