Three recipes from Donegal Ireland by Richard Kent Primmer

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

*Three of Grandma Orr’s Recipes from Donegal Ireland*

(all three are written on a yellowed white 8x9 sheet of paper in grandma’s own hand, dated January 21^st, 1893, 3 days before at age 16, she married granpa Alstorphius; 3 months later they immigrated to America; note is in a plastic sleeve of my mother’s old “Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook” that I inherited on her death in 2009 (I was only 1 of the 3 kids that learned to cook, older brother was a macho man 60’s punk, and baby sister a hard-core feminist).  Recipes as written by grandma Orr:

 

1)  DONEGAL PIE (from grama Eileen)

 ½ pound of bacon

2-4 hardboiled eggs

2 pound mashed potatoes

½ pound of pastry

  Grease a pie dish, fill it half full of mashee taters.  Slice the eggs and put on top. Fry the bacon until crisp then layer on top of eggs, then pour over the bacon fat. Fill pie dish with rest of taters, make a pastry top and bake in hot oven for about one and a half hours.  (Note: grama Orr never allowed gramps Po-Po to buy her a new stove – she used a cast iron wood burning one up to her death  in 1965).

 

2) DONEGAL CODDLE (mum from grama Brigit)

1 pound onions

3 pounds taters

1 pound best pork sausages

2 pounds thick slices of back bacon

Parsley

½ pint water or stock

  Cut bacon into 2 inch square pieces and boil with the sausages for 5 minutes then put into a dish.  Cover with thickly sliced taters, slices onions then add the water on top.  Sprinkle with parsley, cook in moderate oven or simmer on top of stove for an hour.

 

3)  COTTAGE PIE (auntie Erin; can also substitute lamb to make shepherd's pie)

1 1/2 pounds ground round beef

1 onion chopped

1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas

1 ½-2 pounds potatoes

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup beef broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

  Peel and quarter taters, boil in salted water for 20 minutes.  While taters cook, melt 4 tablespoons butter in fry pan.  Cook  onions and carrots in butter until tender, add corn or peas at end of cooking. Add ground beef cook  until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist. Mash taters in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste, stirring occasionally until liquid makes a gravy. In a dish, add the meat filling, then spread the mashee taters over the filling. Bake in moderate oven for 25 minutes.

 

(My mother being a WWII bride had learned all the Scottish recipes from her mother and when married set about learning all of dad's mother's Irish: lucky for me I was a hyper kid or I would have been riculously fat eating all this heavy farm food; have all of both grandma's recipes, some of it is very odd for US, using pig's tongues, heads, feet; curdled blood: all the parts that weren't sold.  And lol, potatoes in everything, even desserts. 

  When we visited grandma Orr until she died when I was 13, I learned to cook on the wood stove; I always ended up being the cook on cub and boy scouts camping trips; and in the Marines, with some onions and spices could make many of the C-ration "mystery meals" relatively edible. 

  In my travels I picked up a ton of recipes, a lot of rice dishes from the orient, all sorts of lovely French recipes, but many of my favorites are seafood recipes from my Florida years.  And of course, granmas genuine Irish and Scottish highland dishes).

  Enjoy!  I'll post more over time.

*Rick*