When I moved to Dublin from my rural hometown, I learned pretty quickly that attending its St Patrick’s Day parade as a resident of the capital was a no-no.
The streets are crowded; the pubs are overflowing; you cannot see a float. You may, if you’re tall enough, catch the top two centimetres of a display’s uppermost flag. Getting back home once you’ve realised your mistake is an odyssey.
Still, now that I’ve been in London for almost six years, this time of year has started to make me homesick.
Don’t get me wrong ― not homesick enough to attend London’s Paddy’s Day parade, which I’m sure is lovely but will nonetheless be clamorous.
Instead, I’ve started making some familiar recipes which remind me of my childhood. And to be honest, I reckon sitting at home with a tea loaf tops most Paddy’s Day parties I’ve attended anyway.
1) Tea loaf
I am a staunch defender of raisins, but looking back, that’s probably only because recipes like this one spoiled me.
I grew up with plump, juicy, flavourful jewels of dried fruit, because a classic tea loaf involves soaking them in tea (Barry’s if you can get it) and whiskey overnight.
The rest of the steps are simple ― mix the soaked fruit with flour, sugar, and splices before adding an egg, and cook the cake low and slow until baked through.
The main ingredient in this rich, brilliant-with-butter recipe is time; don’t, whatever you do, skimp on the soaking.
2) Potato farls
There is no set recipe for potato farls: a bit like bubble and squeak, they’re more of a “bung it in and hope for the best” situation.
You mix either fresh-boiled mashed spuds or last night’s mash with flour and baking powder, adding butter or milk if you want and seasoning the mix.
Then, you roll the mixture out into a circle, cut it into quarters, and fry them in a dry, hot pan for a couple of minutes each side.
Personally, I like about 25g of plain flour per 100g potato; I add a half teaspoon of baking powder per 100g of flour.
But that’s just a rule of thumb ― aside from rolling the farls way too thick, as I had in the above picture, you really can’t mess the recipe up.