Sometimes it’s tough being Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. Case in point: On the train into work this morning I got to experience a young lad in a green JETS t-shirt and shamrock tattoo, moon my train when he wasn’t able to push himself onto the already crowded car on his way to the St. Patty’s parade. I thanked my Irish forefathers that we left his ass in Secaucus.
Once we arrived at Penn station I was welcomed by a scene easily recognizable from college: Packs of “youths” (as Liz Lemon calls them) revved up for a day of drunk and disorderly behavior, fueled by juvenile lust and freakishly warm early spring temperatures, packed into a building with questionable fire codes.
By lunchtime the streets of NYC were like a never ending outtake reel from The Jersey Shore. Girls in hot pants and shamrock knee socks crying on stairwells. Boys brawling on the sidewalk in Times Square. People stumbling around in furry green fedoras and drinking spiked bottles of Coca Cola. You may argue this is what St. Paddy’s is about, but I would argue there’s a difference between what I think of as an Irish good time (pubs, singing, loud storytelling, beer from a tap, sweaters instead of hot pants) and what was going down yesterday (an excuse for really bad behavior and questionable sartorial choices).
All this is to say that, as someone of Irish descent, who’s married to someone of Irish descent, I’m going to try and bring this holiday back from the sketchy brink. This weekend I’m planning a real Irish dinner for family and neighbors and I’m going to be using recipes from a great cookbook (written by my former boss at Saveur) The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews. On the menu will be: corned beef (of course) with a parsley bread sauce, shepherd’s pie made with ground lamb, parsnip and carrot mash, brown soda bread and smoked Irish salmon.
And in the meantime I’m making asparagus. It’s the beginning of asparagus season and I love that I’m already finding beautiful spears in the supermarket. I also love that Belle actually eats asparagus; next to string beans they’re the only green vegetable she’ll eat. It might help that I serve it to her with a side of green goddess dressing, which she likes to dip her spears into in a luxurious fashion. What I love about green goddess (my version at least) is that it can be made quickly, with a variety of ingredients depending on what herbs you have on hand, and it makes everything taste better and zingier. The other way I like to enjoy spring asparagus is to pan roast it, which I think improves the taste because the spears become almost close to caramelized, their woody texture breaking down to something tender but not mushy.
Here are both recipes for your enjoyment and
