Colcannon
INGREDIENTS
  • 4 cups mashed potatoes
  • 2 1/2 cups cabbage, cooked and chopped fine
  • 1/2 cup butter (avoid corn oil margarines as they will not add the needed body and flavor)
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk or cream
  • 3/4 cup onion, chopped very find and sautéd
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
DIRECTIONS
  1. Saute onions (traditionalists saute in lard or grease, but butter is acceptable.). Boil the potatoes and mash them (do not use artificial potato flakes). In a large pan place all of the ingredients except the cabbage and cook over low heat while blending them together. Turn the heat to medium and add the chopped cabbage. The mixture will take on a pale green cast. Keep stirring occasionally until the mixture is warm enough to eat. Lastly drop in a thimble, button, ring, and coin. Stir well and serve.
RECIPE BACKSTORY
(Potatoes, harvested from August to October, were a part of the feast in Ireland where they were made into a Samhain dish known as colcannon. Colcannon is a mashed potato, cabbage, and onion dish still served in Ireland on All Saint's Day. It was an old Irish tradition to hide in it a ring for a bride, a button for a bachelor, an thimble for a spinster, and a coin for wealth, or any other item which local custom decreed in keeping with idea of the New Year as a time for divination.)