An excellent vegetable dish from Ireland that goes great with bangers and onion gravy. It’s a great way to use up leftover cooked potatoes and cabbage.
For something a little more upmarket try serving it with cold baked ham and spiced peaches.
COLCANNON
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
1 medium cabbage, quartered and core removed
200 g potatoes, scrubbed
2 medium leeks, washed and sliced
225 ml milk
2½ ml ground mace
Salt and Pepper
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
100 g butter
METHOD:
Boil the cabbage in salted water until tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain well and chop the cabbage roughly. Set aside.
Bring another pot of water to the boil and cook the potatoes until tender. Drain off the water and set aside.
Put the leeks in a saucepan, cover with the milk, bring close to boiling and then turn down to a simmer until tender. Set aside.
Add the mace, salt and pepper, and garlic to the potatoes and mash well with a hand masher. Now add the leeks and their milk and mix in with the potatoes, taking care not to break down the leeks too much. Add a little more milk if necessary to make it smooth.
Stir in the cabbage and lastly the butter. The texture that you want to achieve is smooth-buttery-potato with interesting pieces of leek and cabbage well distributed in it.
Transfer the whole mixture to an ovenproof dish, make a pattern on the surface and place under the grill to brown. Serve.