Colcannon

We get a veg bag delivered every week.  It comes from a collective of farms, a grower's cooperative about five miles away.  The bag always contains carrots, potatoes and onions plus five other seasonal vegetables.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas we had brussel sprouts in the bag every week.  I confess to loving brussel sprouts the rest of the family like them a bit, enough to eat them on their own occasionally but not week in week out.  A trawl through my recipe books and online and I could not find a recipe where they were not the dominant flavour/main ingredient.

Thinking laterally I looked at cabbage and kale recipes, brussel sprouts are a mini cabbage after all.  I never have to hide cabbage as my children love eating it, I usually just steam it to soften, then heat up a little sesame oil in a frying pan, add a crushed garlic clove and fry gently for a minute or so then add the steamed cabbage and fry gently coating in the garlicky oil.  I cook kale and any leafy greens in this way too.  So back to the brussel sprouts......a search again in my recipe books and I found a recipe for colcannon.  I had cooked this recipe before and had found it rather uninspiring so I decided to add a few extra ingredients and swap the cabbage for brussel sprouts.  This is what I have ended up with, a tasty dish which I usually serve with a lentil Dahl.

Colcannon

1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
Approx 200g brussel sprouts, or a small head of cabbage or kale finely shredded
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
Butter/cream/milk
100g cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5

Boil the potatoes and steam the brussel sprouts/cabbage/kale which ever you are using.

Fry the onions in a little oil or butter add the garlic and cook for a minute or so remove from heat.

Mash the potatoes with butter, cream and or milk whatever you prefer it is best if the mixture is soft and moist.  Add the cream cheese and mash to mix.  Add the onions, garlic and greens and stir to mix.

Put into an ovenproof dish and cook for about twenty minutes until top is slightly brown and the mixture is heated through.

I entering this recipe in the Shop Local Challenge over at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.