Batty over Irish Cuisine

Method
Chop your potatoes and onion into chunks and finely chop the parsley.
Preheat your oven too 160 degrees.
Lightly fry the sausage and bacon so it browns.
Create alternate layers with the potato, onion, sausage and bacon. Sprinkle a little of the chopped parsley amongst the layers too.
Dissolve a ham stock cube into 500ml of boiling water and then pour over the ingredients in the dish.
Use the lid or tin foil to cover your dish and put it in the oven.
Cook it at 160 degrees for 3 hours.
In true Irish style if you wish to add a little Guiness to your recipe, feel free! Around 15 minutes before the Coddle is cooked add a pint/dash of Guiness to the mix, it’ll give a rich tangy taste.

It’s filing enough to eat alone but if you wish to make it more filling it goes really well with Colcannon, another traditional Irish dish which is very simple to make.

Guinness and Walnut cake

Ingredients
10ozs of dark brown sugar
4 ozs of unsalted butter or margarine
2 eggs
8 ozs of plain flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
8 ozs of Guinness or other dark stout
2 ozs of cocoa powder
walnuts chopped finely
cake tin

Method
Grease your cake tin and beat the eggs in a bowl.
Preheat your own to 150 degrees.
Mix the butter and sugar together and fold in the beaten eggs.
Mix the Guinness and cocoa powder, and chopped walnuts together.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and Guinness mix while mixing (I use a food mixer as I’m rubbish at hand mixing).
When you mixture is smooth transfer to your greased cake tin.
Cook at 150 degrees for 45 minutes, check to make sure the middle is cooked and if not put it back in the oven for 5 minute intervals.

You can do what you please with the topping. I used melted chocolate with a scattering of walnuts but the cake is just as tasty un iced, more like a loaf.

Will you be watching the cricket this year?