Ideas for St. Patty day party food?

[Vegetable Man]

'ello all,
I've recently begun having a lot of fun catering to larger groups of people. I'm just a beginning home cook, but I was able to pull off a super bowl party without a hitch. We had 15 homemade margherita pizzas, homemade guac and homemade blackbean dip. Also bbq'd some nectarines, portabellos and artichokes. All told, we served enough food for over 30 people, which was more than double the amount I had at Thanksgiving. It was such a great feeling, and gave me such a high, that I'm really looking forward to doing it again.

I'm looking for some fun and interesting twists on traditional St. Patty's Day fare. Looking for stuff that you might see traditionally see at dinner, such as corned beef or potatoes, but presented in a fun way so that you can eat it with your hands or whathaveyou.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Veggie

[Mezzaluna]

Hmmm... let's see. Some of these may be just plain weird as I haven't actually tried them, but the flavors go together:

Reuben cups: prebaked phyllo or wonton skin cups (baked in mini-muffin pans then cooled) with the following layered in: dab of thousand island dressing or horseradish sauce, dab of sauerkraut, bits of corned beef

"Egg rolls" - sautee fresh shredded cabbage and onion, add shredded corned beef, roll in egg roll skin and fry or bake.

Smoked salmon is very Irish. Pipe a pate of it onto cucumber slices or toast rounds, garnish with capers or dill

Scones!!!

Chicken and leek pie (recipe here) made into little tarts rather than a large pie

That last will take you to RecipeSource, which has more Irish recipes you can adapt for bite-sized foods.

Good luck!

[scott123]

Here's something I just thought of.

Irish Pizza. Start with a raw crust, then a basic cream sauce, then sprinkle with cooked corn beef, blanched cabbage, and a little shredded dubliner cheddar. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Whatever you decide to do, if you make anything with corn beef, I highly recommend pressure cooking the life out it - 1 hour+. It'll have a tendency to be crumbly and be a little hard to work with, but it'll be the most tender most delicious corn beef you've ever had.

[coolJ]

Okay, try this one for size. It's something that just popped into my head reading this thread ( hey that ryhmes LOL ). What you do is make some celtic soda loaf, cut it into wedges, split the wedges, spread with a dijon or hot mustard and stuff full of corned beef and cabbage, i'm thinking if cut small enough you could make some pretty substantial finger sandwiches.

[scott123]

mini stuffed cabbages with corned beef and potatoes, served on a platter with toothpicks.

[scott123]

guiness/irish cheddar fondue with pieces of soda bread for dipping

Irish hoagie - Try coolj's stuffed sandwich idea with a 6 foot long loaf of soda bread.

[chef from va]

here is an idea (keep in mind i am sweedish not irish but i am trying)

corned beef canape- cook a fairly thick (1/4") slice of potato in the oven to crisp it, top with braised cabbage and a thin peice of tender corned beef slathered with some stone ground mustard

cabbage and potato croquettes- classic crouquette recipe with some caramelized cabbage folded into it

i REALY like the fondue idea (its the sweed in me )

how about some doubliner cheddar crackers? just sprinkle some cheddar onto a peice of parchment and bake for about 5-10 min. after its melted just keep a close eye on them



some horseraddish sour cream to dip the crackers into

how about some soda bread toasted and spread with a sweet irish compound butter (honey, cinammon, maybe some baileys, and some sugar if you want it)

like i said just some ideas. if you decide to use any of them and need help trying to figure out the recipes for any of them just let me know

[Vegetable Man]

Thanks for the great ideas everyone. I will have to play around with a few of them before now and St. Patty's and see what works out best.

I was talking to a chef instructor who teaches in my area and she also recommended the idea that perhaps if I need a license to be more creative, that I could just go with a green food theme. However, I still like my original idea better.

Chef, what part of VA are you in? I'm in DC.

Again, thanks for help getting the ball rolling.

-veggie

[gilbear]

Veggie-Man,
The Pig is a beloved animal in Ireland. Seafood is also popular. You can do a lot with them.
Place a flock of mussels in a saute pan, add 1/2 cup of beer(Harp, Killians,etc)and steam until they just open. Remove mussels to a bowl. Add 1 tsp of HOT mustard and reduce. Just before serving, swirl in a nice knob of butter. Pour over mussels and serve.
Prepare colcannon, or "bubble and squeak", to your favorite recipe. Place Tbsp of mixture on to Cabbage leaf, roll up and braise in Guiness and meat juices.
Boxty is good. Kind of like an Irish Latke. They can be plain, or stuffed with almost anything, and rolled up like an Irish Burrito.
Scones are tasty. They can be savory, topped with boiled ham or bacon. I think I still have a recipe for Rosemary Scones if you like.
At my previous bar, we served "Irish Nachos" (potato skins with bacon, cheese and sour cream) and Shrimp steamed in Killian's with onions and spices.

[chef from va]

Fredericksburg...... the culinary blackhole of VA!