Irish Hotpot Recipes

IRISH HOTPOT

Steps:

• Preheat oven to oven to 225°F Brush the bottom of a heavy Dutch Oven with some of the butter.
• Spread half of the potatoes on bottom of pot, top with pork chops. Sprinkle chops with some of the salt and pepper. Layer the onions on top of the chops, sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Cover with remaining potatoes. Make sure top layer of potatoes doesn't touch the lid of the pot.
• Pour in the stout, brush potatoes with remaining butter and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper.
• Cover pot and bake for 8 hours. Check every so often to make sure it isn't drying out. Add water, 1/4 cup at a time, if needed.
• Remove from oven and let cool 20 minutes. Serve.

DUBLIN CODDLE - IRISH SAUSAGE, BACON, ONION AND POTATO HOTPOT

Steps:

• Peel the potatoes. Cut large ones into three or four pieces: leave smaller ones whole. Finely chop the parsley. Boil the water and in it dissolve the bouillon cube.
• Grill or broil the sausages and bacon long enough to colour them. Be careful not to dry them out! Drain briefly on paper towels. When drained, chop the bacon into one-inch pieces. If you like, chop the sausages into large pieces as well. (Some people prefer to leave them whole.).
• Preheat the oven to 300F / 150°C In a large flameproof heavy pot with a tight lid, start layering the ingredients: onions, bacon, sausages or sausage pieces, potatoes. Season each layer liberally with fresh-ground pepper and the chopped fresh parsley. Continue until the ingredients are used up. Pour the bouillon mixture over the top. On the stove, bring the liquid to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down and cover the pot. (You may like to additionally put a layer of foil underneath the pot lid to help seal it.).
• Put the covered pot in the oven and cook for at least three hours. (Four or five hours won't hurt it.) At the two-hour point, check the pot and add more water if necessary. There should be about an inch of liquid at the bottom of the pot at all times.
• To Serve. Guinness, bottled or draft, goes extremely well with this dish (indeed, adding a little to the pot toward the end of the process wouldn't hurt anything). Another good accompaniment is fresh soda bread, used to mop up the gravy!

LANCASHIRE HOTPOT

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3.
• Heat a little of the 100g dripping or butter in a large shallow casserole dish and brown 900g stewing lamb chunks in batches, lift to a plate, then repeat with 3 trimmed and sliced lamb kidneys.
• Fry 2 chopped onions and 4 peeled and sliced carrots in the pan with a little more dripping until golden.
• Sprinkle over 25g plain flour, allow to cook for a couple of mins, shake over 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, pour in 500ml lamb or chicken stock, then bring to the boil.
• Stir in the stewing lamb and kidneys and 2 bay leaves, then turn off the heat.
• Arrange 900g peeled and sliced potatoes on top of the meat, then drizzle with a little more dripping.
• Cover, then place in the oven for about 1½ hrs until the potatoes are cooked.
• Remove the lid, brush the potatoes with a little more dripping, then turn the oven up to brown the potatoes, or finish under the grill for 5-8 mins until brown.