RECIPE: Irish Soda Bread with Caraway Seeds and Currants

I am SUPER-PREPPED for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, I mean r-e-a-d-y. Corned beef brisket? Check! It's absolutely gorgeous and ready for the slow-cooker. Cabbage? You betcha, complete with butter, salt and pepper to adorn it. Baby carrots? Darn tootin'. I switched them out for the boiled potatoes because I felt like the meal needed a little color.

But the pièce de résistance? It would have to be the Irish soda bread I baked earlier today, which you can see in the picture undergoing some kind of sweating process: I read about fifty different recipes and nearly all of them urged me to wrap it up and let it sit overnight, hinting strongly that I'd be missing out of some kind of extra taste sensation if I served it hot from the oven.

So my two loaves of bread are having their spa treatment so we've not had the smallest taste. If I could go by the aroma they produced while baking, I'd say this recipe is a winner. Not to mention the fact that it was really very easy to prepare, one of those recipes you can throw together in a matter of minutes that still has you coming off looking like some kind of kitchen genius.

Irish Soda Bread with Caraway Seeds and Currants

Ingredients:

6 cups of flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups buttermilk

1 cup currants
2 teaspoons caraway seeds

Directions:

Stir beaten eggs into the four cups of buttermilk in a small mixing bowl; set aside. Combine all dry ingredients (except for currants and caraway seeds); add buttermilk/egg mixture slowly, stirring only until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in currants and caraway seeds.

Divide the dough in two and pour into two standard loaf pans that have been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. For a more traditional loaf, shape into two boules on two baking sheets lined with parchment. Allow to sit on the counter for half an hour to give the chemical leavening action of the baking soda and buttermilk to occur. At the end of that time, slash a cross in the dough and bake in pre-heated 325 degree oven for approximately fifty minutes. Bread is done when a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Yield:

Two standard loaves or two rustic boules. You can try for one large boule, but you'll have to bake it longer and I'm not sure how much longer that would be.


Serve with melted butter and honey or jam for a teatime treat, or serve with dinner.

Stop and stare

I didn't mention this the other day when I wrote about our Countdown to Spring pastel paper chain, but when I was at Hobby Lobby buying the paper for the chain, I also spent a couple of dollars buying some red, white and pink paper to make some Valentine hearts.

Ma was the person who taught me to cut Valentine hearts out of construction paper, and I can whip out a whole bunch of them in a matter of seconds, big, small, medium-sized, take yer pick. So I sat on the sofa on Sunday afternoon and cut out about a bajillion Valentiney hearts and handed them off to the girls with some Scotch tape and told them to go for it and decorate the big front window (Aisling), the glass in the front door and the upstairs bathroom window (Meelyn) and create some festive cheer. We live on a busy corner in our city's historic district and we all thought it would be uplifting, giving pedestrians, passengers and drivers something more pleasant to look at than all the giant heaps of dirty snow piled up everywhere.

My husband covered quite a few of our windows this winter with those sheets of clear plastic that are supposed to keep the heat IN and the cold air OUT -- I know, I thought it was an aesthetically unappealing idea, too, but as it turns out, it's not nearly as bad (read: unacceptably tacky) as you might have first thought -- so we couldn't go heart-wild and decorate every single one of our many large windows, but we felt that the few un-plasticked windows we had to work with created a happy effect.

We were confirmed in this thought just yesterday, when a school bus stopped at the stop light right in front of our house. Meelyn happened to have just gone out to get the mail, and she came in and said, "There are some little girls on that school bus looking out at our Valentine windows. They're smiling and pointing."

"Really?" I said, smiling myself. "That's very cute."

She peered out the front door's big window again and said, charmed, "Oh, look! That's so sweet! Now a whole bunch of kids are smoodging off their foggy windows with their coat sleeves and looking out!"

And indeed they were. I snuck a quick little peek myself before the school bus trundled on, and it was a great pleasure on a snowy, yucky winter's day to see all those bright little faces framed in the bus's windows.

It inspired us so much, I think we're going to do a show for St. Patrick's Day as well. although I have firmly resolved that nary a leprechaun shall appear on my house.

I am already practicing my cutting of this slightly more elaborate holiday decoration and am already contemplating the several different shades of green that will add interest and artistic depth to the display, 'cause we are all about the Art.

St. Patrick's Breastplate

St. Patrick was born in 387, the Christian son of Roman parents living in Britain. As a young man, he was captured by Celtic slave traders, who kidnapped him and took him to Ireland where he led a very difficult life for several years. He eventually escaped from his captors, made his way home, and was reunited with his family. He began studying for the priesthood and was ordained as a priest and then appointed as a bishop. St. Patrick had a dream in which he saw the people of Ireland calling out to him, begging him to bring Christ to their pagan land. He left Britain to do that very thing.

St. Patrick spent forty years among the Irish people, teaching, preaching and healing the sick. He founded monasteries and trained young men to be priests; he cared for the poor. He started a small flame of faith in a land that burned into a brushfire, allowing the Irish people to withstand hundreds of years of persecution for their Catholic beliefs.

St. Patrick died on March 17, 461.


St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach the people of Ireland about the Holy Trinity.

The following prayer is known as St. Patrick's Breastplate. It was taken from his Confessions.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.
+Amen+

Erin go bragh!

An Irish toast for ye, me dearlings, for when ye hoist your wee dram:


May those who love us, love us.

And those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts

And if He won't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles

So we'll know them by their limping


And what would this day be, then, without some singin' to go with the drink?


In Dublin's Fair City
Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheel'd her wheel barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!

Alive, alive o!, alive, alive o!
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!

She was a fishmonger
But sure 'twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they each wheel'd their barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!

She died of a fever
And no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
But her ghost wheels her barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!