Colcannon

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish, a potato puree enriched with kale or cabbage and sometimes with shallots or onion. As Il Cucinologo, I will illustrate the traditional recipe for you and then suggest a variant with an Italian touch.

Ingredients for traditional Colcannon:

• 1 kg of potatoes
• 200 g of kale or cabbage, finely chopped
• 100 ml of milk
• 50 g of butter
• 1 small onion or shallot, chopped
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into uniformly sized pieces. Cook them in a pot with plenty of salted water until they are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cook the cabbage or kale in a separate pot with a little water or steam until tender but still slightly crunchy.
3. In a frying pan, melt a knob of butter and sauté the chopped onion or shallot until it becomes translucent and soft.
4. Drain the potatoes and mash them with a potato masher or a fork. Add the hot milk and the remaining butter and mix until you get a smooth mixture.
5. Add the sautéed kale/cabbage along with the onion to the mashed potatoes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve the Colcannon hot, perhaps with an additional touch of melted butter on top.

Italian variant:

To give an Italian touch to Colcannon, you could add grated Parmesan cheese and replace some of the butter with extra virgin olive oil, for a more Mediterranean flavor. You could also add chopped parsley for a note of freshness and color.

Curiosity

Colcannon is a dish that has peasant origins and is traditionally consumed during the Halloween period in Ireland. Surprises such as coins or rings were often hidden in the dish as a form of divination for the future.