Food with JP Passion: Comforting Traditional Irish Coddle

By JP Kennedy

As many of you will know Coddle is a very old and traditional Dublin recipe originally devised as a way to use up any remaining sausages and rashers before Friday which in the old days; Catholics traditionally didn’t eat meat.

To be honest when I was younger I was not a fan of Coddle; the sound or the look of it – A white stew with boiled sausages and rashers didn’t evoke for me the warmest of feelings.

As we grow older our palettes change and it’s the old style traditional feel of this recipe that I’ve come to appreciate and enjoy.

I don’t boil the sausages or rashers, preferring to fry them off first.

I also use bacon lardons instead of rashers and the addition of some cream and fresh herbs adds a real depth of flavour to this old style Dublin dish.

I can’t think of a better time than now to start making dishes like this!

Perfect comfort food in-a-bowl now that the evenings are starting to get darker and cooler.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

• 6 slices of streaky smoked bacon diced or bacon lardons
• 1lb of good quality sausages, chopped into bit sized chunks
• 3 carrots chopped into chunks or 8 baby carrots whole
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 50g butter
• 250g of potatoes peeled and cut into small chunks
• 300ml hot chicken stock
• 200ml of single cream
• 1 teaspoon of freshly chopped thyme
• 1 tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley to garnish at the end
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper for seasoning

Method:

1. In a large casserole dish melt the butter over a medium heat and fry off the onions for about 5 minutes covered to sweat them off.
2. Remove the casserole dish lid and add the bacon pieces / lardons. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally.
3. Then add the chopped sausages, chopped carrots and potatoes and cook off for 5 minutes. Layering in the ingredients like this adds real flavour.
4. Pour in the stock, cream and thyme, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil then reduce the temperature and allow to simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on.
5. When you are ready to serve add the chopped parsley – serve in large bowls and enjoy. Delicious with traditional Irish soda bread to mop up all the soup!

There are many ways to vary the recipe to suit your own tastes but this is my favourite method for cooking a Coddle.

The cream and herbs add real depth and luxurious flavour. You can if you want to also add some pearl barley to this dish, 100g which you should add at the same time as the stock.

This style of traditional old fashioned cookery is my favourite as there is a story behind the recipe with versions of the recipe being handed down from generation to generation.

I hope you like my take on the recipe and more importantly give it a bash and enjoy now we are officially in the depths of Autumn.