Our New Saint Patrick's Day Tradition-Colcannon

If you know anything about me, chances are you know I'm super Irish and super proud. Since my mom was a child, our family has been celebraing Saint Patrick's Day with the same foods-- corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots broiled in the corned beef water with rye bread on the side.

This year, I wanted to contribute a dish instead of a bottle to our festivities and decided to bring colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. The original recipe is fairly bland and is made with kale or cabbage, so this is a combination of my research online about the traditional recipe and some newer recipes I found.

The dish turned out amazing and even started a new tradition. Next year, Mom won't boil her potatoes, we'll serve the colcannon on the side instead. So thrilled to help shape my family's history!

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes
3/4- 1 cup warmed milk (I used fat free, but you can use anything- especially cream!)
4-6 T butter, divided (or more-who are we kidding?)
1/2 onion, chopped  
1/4 of large green cabbage, shredded
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and grease reserved
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Scrub, peel and dice potatoes and place in large pan of boiling water. Cook until you can pierce easily with a fork.

While potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan, reserving the grease.

To the greased pan, add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes. Once it's started to soften, add the shredded cabbage. Keep stirring for about 5 additional minutes until onions and cabbage are soft. (Careful not to burn the cabbage.)

When the potatoes are done, drain them. Immediately add half of the butter and warm milk to the drained potatoes (start with 1/2 cup and add more to your desired consistency)  and mash quickly with a potato masher. You can use a handheld mixer, but I wanted some lumps for a more homestyle dish. Adjust the salt and pepper of the mashed potatoes. (Don't oversalt. The bacon and bacon grease will add plenty of that!)

When the potatoes are mashed and have the desired consistency and flavor, add the onions and cabbage from the pan and give a stir to combine.

At the last minute, add the crispy bacon and stir once more. Make a hole in the center of the potatoes and add remaining butter. Of course you can skip this step if you're being calorie conscious, but WHY? 

Here's cooking me on St. Patrick's Day, and the REAL me on St. Patrick's Day: :)