Food is at the heart of some of our most long-standing traditions. Our sense of smell, after all, has deep ties to memory and emotion. That’s why the delicious aroma of a particular dish bubbling on the stove can fill us with nostalgia, lifting us out of the here and now and dropping us back into a different place and time. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I know that many of us are thinking about family through food.
In honor of Irish-American Heritage Month, Member Experience Specialist Claire Mathes had her mother transcribe a recipe for one of her favorite St. Patrick’s Day dishes: colcannon. Colcannon is a mainstay at her family gatherings, an Irish dish of mashed potatoes made with rich Irish butter, milk, sauteed cabbage and a handful of allium. These simple additions recall an era when impoverished Irish Americans relied on affordable produce to keep from going hungry — but they transform the mashed potatoes into a dish worthy of the finest St. Patty’s spread.
“Our family is very nostalgic about traditions, so we’re close knit,” she explained. “For St. Patrick’s day in particular, we prepare traditional Irish fare, but we also talk about the memories we have of relatives, and remember where we came from. We are proud of our Irish heritage and all of the people who came before us to start a new life here in America!” Like food, curiosity and conversation can transport us to the past, sometimes revealing connections that we didn’t even know we had.
Claire looked to her grandfather Lawrence — whom she knew as Grandfather Larry — as her point of reference this week when tracing back her family’s origins for us. “[His] father’s side is from County Cork in Ireland. We do not know the exact year when they immigrated to the US, but my Great-great-grandfather Thomas was in San Francisco by 1890.” There, he worked as a leather worker who took care of the police department tack for their horses. His son, Claire’s great-grandfather, was born not long after, and served in World War I before becoming an SFPD sergeant. “He loved to fish,” Claire said, something she also loves.
As for Grandfather Larry’s mother’s side, “They were dairy workers!” By coincidence, Claire had worked with dairies throughout college, not knowing that this harkened back to her ancestors’ trade. She only discovered the dairy connection this past week when telling us about her Irish-American heritage. “This has been such an amazing deep dive into my family's history — I learned a lot that I didn't know.”
On our blog, you can find Claire’s Family Recipe for Colcannon to enjoy while you reflect on your own family history today, or on any day when the comfort of mashed potatoes calls to you. I think you’ll like serving them alongside our new recipe for Irish-Style Pacific Cod Cakes, fish cakes that are bound together with a scoop of mashed potatoes. You can make them fresh, or make them with any leftover colcannon you may have in the fridge. (But, to be honest, you probably won’t ever have any colcannon leftover…)
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: An intergenerational glance at Claire’s family tree, including her daughter tucked into a shamrock onesie and a black-and-white portrait of her great-great grandfather as he presents his prized catch-of-the-day to the camera.
