Donal Skehan: Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with these Irish favourites

For the past few years, I have been making an annual pilgrimage to New York to appear on the Today show, NBC's flagship breakfast television show. As their token Irish cook on St Patrick's Day, I've been on hand to serve up some of our best traditional fare. I do so among hosts dressed entirely in green, on air mentions of "St Patty's day" and some of the finest stereotypical Irish American accents you could shake a shillelagh at.

That being said, it is an honour to be asked. Every year I feel immense pride and pressure in equal measure to deliver something that is true to our culinary heritage.

This year, however, I am slightly torn. Having resisted last year’s request to make a “Shamrock Shake” (if this ever happens please take me out of the oven, because I know for sure I’ll be done), the request has come down for me to make corned beef and cabbage.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and I’ve already had the argument that back home we have tender slices of good Irish bacon (cured pork loin), served with buttered cabbage and maybe a parsley sauce, if you’re feeling fancy.

However, it has fallen on deaf ears. The powers that be and the American public have demanded their twist on the classic, the highly popular corned beef and cabbage.

In order to justify cooking what I thought was a confused slight on my home nation’s traditions, I have done some digging on the origins of this seemingly bastardised traditional recipe, with surprising results.

The roots of this Irish-American traditional food show-down, do in fact stem from Irish shores. While bacon has always been more popular due to its lower cost, there has always existed a tradition of salting beef to preserve it, which goes way back to the high kings of Ireland.

Corned beef got its name from the English in the 17th century, because of the similarity in size of the crystals of salt used during the curing process to corn kernels. Irish corned beef became a much sought after commodity and was shipped on trade routes, prized for its flavour, low cost and ability to be kept for long periods of time.

When the first Irish immigrants began to settle in America, corned beef replaced bacon in our traditional dish and a new classic was born – or was it an old classic reborn?

Either way, this St Patrick’s Day, while I’m cooking corned beef and cabbage for “the Americans”, as my granddad says, I hope these recipes will give you food for thought on a day when we can be especially proud to be Irish.