What a wonderful feast day! You already know that I’m fully immersed in St. Brigid at the moment. Today has been like a long anticipated holiday for me - a bit like Christmas after Advent. If you’ve listened to the podcast, you’ll be waiting for the recipes and craft links. I suppose it’s too late to start with an Irish Oat breakfast, but this menu would also be appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, which is just a few weeks away now.
Irish Oats
4 c. boiling water
Pinch salt
1 c. Irish Oats
1/4 - 1/3 c. brown sugar
Boil water, add salt. Pour oats into the pot, stir, cover, and turn off heat. Let stand overnight. In the morning, add brown sugar and warm through over low heat. Serve with fruit and cream!
This evening we’ll be having a beef roast with mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage (YUM!), carrots and barm brack (recipe follows). Just a little tip about making a beef roast - or any meat for that matter. Place it into a roasting pan with a lid (fat side down), just big enough to fit the meat (or meat and vegetables). Plunk the lid on top and roast at 400F for an hour or hour and a half. Don’t add water, just let it go. I promise, it’ll be the loveliest meat you’ve ever made.
On to the barm brack…
Barm Brack - Arán Breac (Speckled Bread)
Ingredients:
1 lb flour (weighing dried ingredients yields best results)
6 oz sugar
1 lb mixed dried fruit (we used raisins, sultanas or golden raisins, and dates)
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp all spice/mixed spice
Pot of tea
The ‘lucky’ ingredients
- a ‘gold’ ring, to foretell marriage within a year
- a small coin, to forecast wealth
- a small piece of cloth to forecast poverty
- a little piece matchstick to forecast the husband will beat his wife
- a thimble to forecast spinsterhood
- a button to forecast bachelorhood
Method:
Wrap each ‘lucky’ item carefully in greaseproof and/or tissue paper.
The trick to making a Barm Brack is the soaking of fruit overnight in the
tea. While this makes the dried fruit softer and more appealing in general,
one must be careful when mixing the dough not to over-knead or the
rehydrated fruit will break too much. Add the sugar and egg to the fruit mix the next day. Sift in the remaining dry ingredients. Mix gently. Stir in the wrapped ‘lucky’ items and try to distribute them evenly. Use a 7″ round
baking tin at 350°F for 80 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
The Brack can be made up to a week in advance and stored in an air-tight
container. It is traditional that only he/she who has baked the cake should
cut and serve the slices, as only he/she may know where are the ‘lucky’
items and will distribute them equitably! There is also a tradition whereby the head of the house is meant to throw the bread at a wall. The more pieces it breaks into, the better the crops and livestock will do that year. Not happening here. There will be no wasting of good bread!
St. Brigid’s Crosses
We used 17 pieces (about 18″ long) of flat oval reed for each cross. You’ll also need binder reed or twine. Soak your reed in quite warm water for 10-15 minutes. We used a diagram online to help us along. It was quite and adventure. We actually did more weaving than the diagram appears to call for. If you think of each folded reed as a mouth, you eat the first reed, get eaten by the second, and so on. You’ll want to keep snugging up the reeds as you progress. When you’ve used up all your reeds, tie each arm with twine or binder reed. Let dry and tighten up the bindings. Trim the edges neatly and hang your cross over the door!
We’re also working on hand-rolling candles today. Tomorrow is Candlemas and we’re planning to bring our finished candles to be blessed in the morning. Traditionally, these blessed candles were used for sick visits from the priest. Now with the reduction in such illnesses requiring frequent visits from Father, they can be used for special meals throughout the year such as Easter, birthdays, Thanksgiving…
We purchased a box of 10 beeswax sheets and small, square wick. I don’t like flat wick for most candles. Cut each sheet in half across its length and cut a piece of wick about a half inch longer than what your finished candle will be. Begin by pinching the wax around the wick and rolling fairly tightly - without pressing too hard as you wouldn’t want to destroy the lovely honeycomb design. Roll up to the end of the wax and use your thumb to press the edge of the wax down to keep the candle ‘closed’.
A couple of tips:
1. warm your hands before starting, it makes manipulating the wax that much easier.
2. using an old electric skillet, or indeed, a lighter, melt the base of the candle. This will help hold it together.
Have fun and - Happy Saint Brigid’s Day!
