Northern Ireland
Griddle breads, buttermilk and potatoes in every guise. A table that expects you to eat a second helping and says so.
Ulster Fry
A proper Northern Irish breakfast: sausages, bacon, black and white pudding, egg, tomato, and the two things that make it Ulster rather than English — a soda farl and a potato farl, both fried until golden in the pan.
Traditional Soda Bread
Irish soda bread uses no yeast — the leavening is the reaction between buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda. Ready in under an hour, best torn (not sliced) and eaten warm with butter.
Traditional Irish Stew
Classic Irish stew is a slow simmer, not a brown-then-braise: lamb neck, potato, onion and carrot cook together in a clear peppery broth. Never browned first — that would be a different dish.
Boxty Pancakes
An Irish potato pancake made from both raw grated potato and cooked mashed potato — the combination gives them their unique dense, chewy character. 'Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man.'
Potato Farls
The potato half of the Ulster fry. 'Farl' means 'quarter' — the round of dough is cut into four triangles before cooking. Best fresh from the griddle, better still fried in bacon fat the next morning.
Colcannon
Buttered mashed potato folded through with dark greens (kale or cabbage) and spring onions. Traditionally eaten around Halloween in Ireland, sometimes with charms hidden inside.
Barmbrack
An Irish tea loaf, especially associated with Halloween: charms baked inside once foretold your fortune (a ring meant marriage, a coin meant wealth). The tea-soaked fruit gives it a deep, dark sweetness.