Ireland

Country - Ireland

Cuisine Description - The cuisine of Ireland is rather homogeneous. As the country is on an island, the other countries have made contact with Ireland very late. Therefore, the influences are not very strong and the traditional dishes have a very important role in the Irish cuisine. More recently, many of the European countries, as well as countries from Asia and America, have begun to affect the Irish cooking style. As there cannot be made a classification based on the regions of the country, the only way to categorize the Irish cuisine is by the cooking styles. Hence, Ireland displays two cooking manners: traditional Irish cuisine and modern Irish cuisine. The first one consists of simple dishes made from the basic ingredients that can be found across the country, while the other one features more complex foods. The greater number of the modern dishes is the consequence of the ingredients’ number, which is increasing.

By Style:
[edit] Traditional Irish Cuisine

Examples of Irish cuisine are Irish stew, and bacon and cabbage (boiled together in water). Boxty, a type of potato pancake, is another traditional dish. A dish mostly particular to Dublin is coddle, which involves boiled pork sausages. Ireland is famous for the Irish breakfast, a fried (or grilled) meal generally comprising bacon, egg, sausage, black and white pudding, fried tomato and which may also include fried potato farls or fried potato slices.

Colcannon is a good dish made traditionally of potato and curly kale, or sometimes cabbage. Champ consists of mashed potato into which chopped scallions (spring onions) are mixed.

While seafood has always been consumed by Irish people, shellfish dishes have increased in popularity in recent times, especially due to the high quality of shellfish available from Ireland's coastline, e.g. Dublin Bay Prawns, Oysters (many oyster festivals are held annually around the coast where oysters are often served with Guinness, the most notable being held in Galway every September ) as well as other crustaceans. A good example of an Irish dish for shellfish is Dublin Lawyer - Lobster cooked in whiskey and cream. Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish used.

Traditional Irish breads include soda bread, wheaten bread, soda farls, and blaa, a doughy white bread roll particular to Waterford.
[edit] Modern Irish Cuisine

In the 21st century the usual modern selection of foods common to Western culture has been adopted in Ireland. Europe's dishes have influenced the country, along with other world dishes introduced in a similar fashion to the rest of the western world. Common meals include pizza, curry, Chinese food, and lately, some West African dishes and East European (especially Polish) dishes have been making an appearance. Supermarket shelves now contain ingredients for traditional, European, American (Mexican/Tex-Mex), Indian, Chinese and other dishes.

In tandem with these developments, the last quarter of the 20th century saw the emergence of a new Irish cuisine based on traditional ingredients handled in new ways. This cuisine is based on fresh vegetables, fish (especially salmon and trout), oysters, mussels and other shellfish, traditional soda bread, the wide range of hand-made cheeses that are now being made across the country, and, of course, the potato. Traditional dishes, such as Irish stew, coddle, the Irish breakfast, and potato bread have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Schools like the Ballymaloe Cookery School have emerged to cater for the associated increased interest in cooking. Copyright Recipes Wiki