A taste of Ireland

COEUR d'ALENE - It's hard to go wrong with a recipe that has "Grandma" in the title.

Tina-Marie Schultz says her friends "fight for an invite" to dinner on St. Patrick's Day when Schultz serves recipes passed down from her husband's great-grandmother. Margaret "Maggie" Dunne came to the United States from Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1800s, Schultz said.

She prepares Grandma Dunne's Sirloin Corned Beef each year and serves the meal with glazed carrots, red mashed potatoes, cabbage and soda bread followed by Grandma Dunne's Whiskey Bread Pudding for dessert.

Schultz was one of several readers and Press staff members to submit recipes for a St. Patrick's Day feast that was prepared and tasted by the newsroom staff. It was agreed, "grandma" equals good.

• Grandma Dunne's Sirloin Corned Beef

For this recipe, Tina-Marie Schultz purchases her corned beef at a meat market in Spokane. "It is a better cut than the packaged briskets in the local markets," she said. Cooking low and slow made for some incredibly tender corned beef. The recipe makes a generous amount of the sauce, which is very sweet.

1 sirloin of corned beef (about 7 pounds)

2 cups honey

2 cups light brown sugar

2 cups Grey Poupon mustard (or your favorite spiced mustard)

1/2 cup water

Combine the honey, brown sugar and mustard and mix well. Slather the mixture all over the sirloin. Place corned beef in deep baking pan and add the water to bottom of pan. Cover tightly with heavy duty foil.

Bake in 200 degree oven for 10-12 hours.

Schultz cooks her corned beef overnight and makes a gravy using the drippings. Simply add the drippings to a sauce pan and mix in 3-4 tablespoons corn starch and whisk over medium heat until thickened.

- Submitted by Tina-Marie Schultz

• Grandma Dunne's Whiskey Bread Pudding

Fans of bread pudding will enjoy this dessert. Newsroom tasters enjoyed the whiskey sauce, describing it as "sweet and smooth, with a hint of whiskey." The pecans add a nice crunch and the raisins add texture.

For the pudding:

5 large farm fresh eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon real vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

8 tablespoons butter, cut up (DO NOT USE MARGARINE or butter substitutes)

2 cups heavy cream

1 (12-inch) loaf French bread, crusts cut off and sliced 1-inch cubes

1/4 cup raisins (soaked in Irish whiskey overnight to soften)

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Whiskey sauce:

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

5 tablespoons Irish whiskey

Garnish:

Powdered sugar, for dusting

Whipped cream, optional

In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended. Add the sugar and mix in, then add the vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter and cream. Lay the bread cubes in a 8-by-8-inch square baking dish, sprinkle the nuts and raisins around, and then pour the custard over the bread. Cover the dish and let it soak overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover the dish with foil and poke holes in it. Bake until bread pudding souffles up, about 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes to brown lightly.

For the sauce, in a saucepan heat the cream, sugar, cinnamon and butter together until almost boiling. Meanwhile, mix the corn starch with the whiskey and stir it into the hot liquid. Bring just to a boil to thicken it.

To serve, pour a few spoonfuls of the whiskey sauce onto a dessert plate. Scoop out the desired portion size of the pudding, placing it on the sauced plate. Dust the pudding with powdered sugar and finish it off with a dollop of whipped cream.

- Submitted by Tina-Marie Schultz

• Grandma Collins' Irish Soda Bread

Monika Swing's friend gave her a recipe called "Grandma Collins' Irish Soda Bread" - a recipe that Swing said makes "a moist bread, not like any other Irish Soda Bread I have tried." One of our reviewers agreed, saying "it was some of the best" she had ever tasted. The reporter who prepared this soda bread said it was the first time she'd ever made bread and the recipe was incredibly easy, plus she only dirtied one bowl.

3 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons melted margarine

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup Raisins

1/2 cup currants

Mix everything together with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be a little lumpy. Grease and lightly flour two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 1 hour, check after 45 minutes. Cut the recipe in half to make a single loaf. It tastes good toasted for breakfast, too.

- Submitted by Monika Swing

• Irish Boiled Red Potatoes

A traditional Irish side dish. This recipe will please garlic lovers.

6 red potatoes

1 T butter

1/8 c chopped Parsley

1/2 t minced garlic

dash of salt

Quarter red potatoes then boil just until fork-tender. Drain and place them back into the pot on low heat. Add the butter, parsley, garlic and salt. Stir well to combine. Serve hot and enjoy!

- Submitted by Maureen Dolan

• Granny Franny's Cabbage Salad

This salad was this writer's grandma's go-to potluck dish. Reviewers liked this salad for its simplicity and crunchy texture. The sweetness in the dressing balances the scallions and peppers.

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar or honey

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar

1 package ramen soup

1 seasoning packet from ramen soup

1/2 head cabbage

1 green, red or yellow pepper, chopped

5 green onions, sliced (tops and all)

4 tablespoons sesame or sunflower seeds

Combine oil, sugar or honey, vinegar and seasoning packet from ramen soup in a small container and shake. Set aside. Shred cabbage and combine with onions, peppers and sesame or sunflower seeds.

Pour oil mixture over salad and stir. Put ramen noodles in a plastic bag and crush. Fifteen minutes before serving, add noodles and stir.

- Submitted by Taryn Thompson