Colcannon Comfort

After indulging in fancy appetizers, rich desserts and other extravagant eating over the holidays, what we really craved on New Years Day was some simple comfort food.

So, after the chores I headed out to the high tunnel, bowl in hand, to harvest some greens. It is our first winter with the high tunnel and I had expected the growing to be done by the end of November, but with the unusually temperate weather this winter we are still blessed with lots of delicious greens.

The Tuscan kale is verdant under the protective row cover. I unclipped the clothespins from the metal hoop and folded back the row cover to pick the supper greens.

Had to set the bowl down in the snow to zip the high tunnel  shut. It is so miraculous to be harvesting from the garden in January!

Now, some garden potatoes from our "root cellar" - an unheated room in the corner of the basement where we store potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, garlic and onions.
Next, cue the  colcannon-making music:

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish made with potatoes, greens (often cabbage, but I prefer deep green kale, chard or spinach) and scallions. We boil the potatoes, then add the  uncooked, chopped kale and scallions.  The hot potatoes wilt and lightly steam the greens.

The veggies are mashed with a generous bit of butter and cream.  We served it with a couple slices of sharp cheddar cheese, lots of ground pepper...

and a slice of Rog's  crusty, multi-grain sourdough bread.  It may be considered peasant food, but colcannon is a very pleasant aspect of peasantry.