Chicken in Guinness with Mash from Guest Author Lisa Q. Mathews + Giveaway

KORINA MOSS here, excited to have my first Mystery Lovers' Kitchen guest, LISA Q. MATHEWS, sharing her recipe for a complete St Patrick's Day meal, plus a bonus leftovers breakfast! I'd say she's the perfect author to be joining us today. Read on to find out why! Be sure to comment to be entered in her Irish Giveaway!  

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, one and all! And thank you, Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, for inviting me to share my favorite holiday with you. The Jig is Up, the first book in the Irish Bed & Breakfast series, kicks off on August 20th—but it’s never too soon to start celebrating!

The bagpipes are calling and you’re donnin’ the green, ready to hit the parade. Unless…you somehow forgot to prepare the corned beef and cabbage yesterday. Or you’re still trying to banish last year’s fine aroma from your kitchen. No worries, here’s a delicious, hearty recipe that’ll have you ready for Paddy’s in a pinch—no need for the luck o’ the Irish or a prayer to St. Jude. Send the family off to save a spot at the parade, and Bob’s your uncle.

What you do need are a few simple, fresh ingredients and a can or two of Guinness to make this Irish version of coq au vin. It’s a modified version of the traditional Beef in Guinness, using chicken, which cooks faster. The alcohol burns off in the cooking, and if you don’t have Guinness on hand, you can substitute another beer (the Guinness does give a lovely taste, though.) No need to measure precisely, and if you prefer you can substitute simple boiled potatoes (add salt, butter, and parsley) for the mash. Every family has their own style of spuds, but this is our favorite—and thanks to early training, all of my kids are champion peelers. (My relatives in Ireland can peel with a knife faster than I can get a Good Grips peeler out of the drawer, but there you have it.)

Note: If you’re looking for a truly authentic taste of the Emerald Isle, Kerrygold butter is the way to go. Pure cream from happy Irish cows (all that rain and green grass to roam) and salt. Keep in mind that, due to its higher fat content, it melts faster, and you can use a wee bit less—but you won’t be sorry. (Fun fact: Kerrygold was banned in Wisconsin until 2017.)

Chicken in Guinness with Mash (serves 4)

Ingredients

(Chicken)

2.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 yellow onions

6 medium carrots

Enough flour to coat the chicken 

Pepper 

¼ c butter 

2 c Guinness and water, mixed (more as needed)

Fresh parsley

Instructions

Peel and slice the onions and carrots. 

Cut chicken into chunks and toss in flour seasoned with pepper. (I shake the chicken in a brown paper bag and dump the chicken pieces into the pot, hands-free.)

Brown chicken quickly in hot butter in Dutch oven or other high-sided pot. 

Remove chicken into a bowl and fry onions until transparent. 

Return chicken to pot with onions, then add carrots and Guinness/water mixture.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover closely and cook for about an hour. Check periodically to make sure the dish doesn’t dry out, adding more Guinness and water if needed. (I add a little more Guinness than water.) Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.

(Mash)

Ingredients

8-10 potatoes (Note: Rule of thumb is 2 medium spuds per person—but make it 3 and you’ll have leftovers. Mashed potatoes can be reheated (microwave works well if you add a little milk and stir-halfway through—but freezing is not recommended!)

1.5 c milk (I use 2%--with more added as needed for smooth consistency)

.5 c butter (more to personal taste, depending on number of spuds)

Sea salt if desired

Pepper

6-12 scallions/green onions (I don’t use the tops)

1 t nutmeg (to taste)

Instructions

Rinse potatoes in cold water, then peel and rinse again. Cut each potato into quarters, then cut any larger pieces so sizes are uniform (they’ll cook more evenly). Place in large saucepan and cover with cold water. Add water high enough so there’s liquid above the spuds, but not so high that the water is likely to boil over. 

Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, leaving the lid a bit open. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, so the spuds cook evenly in a crowded pot. Lower heat, and let spuds boil until soft and mushy when pricked with a fork. (It’s okay if the water is a little murky.)

Slice scallions and butter separately while potatoes are cooking and place aside.

Drain water from the pot. Use a potato masher to give the spuds an initial smash, then mash them with a dinner fork. (This prevents hard, uneven surprise lumps.) 

Add butter, a few slices at a time. Season potatoes with pepper (and sea salt if you’d like) and stir lightly with fork. Then start gradually adding the milk. Switch from fork to wooden spoon and stir, adding scallions.  Then sprinkle nutmeg in, a wee bit at a time—it really “perks” the potatoes. 

Serve chicken alongside or atop the potatoes, using plates or bowls. Garnish with parsley sprigs. Serve with Irish brown bread (it has a nuttier, less-sweet taste than soda bread).

I don’t have a bread recipe because…I use a mix, just like my relatives in Ireland! During my first visit I was amazed that delicious fresh bread was served at every meal. I couldn’t stop remarking on it. Upon my return home, I discovered a family member had tucked a package into my suitcase. It just happens that the Buckley family in The Jig is Up secretly uses the same shortcut at their bed & breakfast, The Buckley House. (And so does their big competition, The Smiling Shamrock across town in Shamrock, Massachusetts.)

There's a bonus to using mash instead of boiled potatoes: You’re halfway to a delicious Irish-style breakfast (a mini version) tomorrow. Just form those leftover spuds into paddy’s patties and fry them up with a few Irish bangers (I got mine online). Bring out that trusty brown bread and serve with Irish jam. Leave the dishes to family members or the kitchen fairies (more helpful than the other kinds). 

GIVEAWAY: Here's an Irish-themed giveaway for one lucky commenter, complete with an Irish tea-cozy, a tiny inspiring potato, bookmarks, and a package of Cadbury buttons. Giveaway open to US and Canada.

 Sláinte, and may the spirit of St. Patrick stay with you year-round!

Readers, how are you spending this fine St. Patrick’s Day?

Irish step dance takes a deadly turn in this Celtic cozy series debut, perfect for fans of Carlene O’Connor and Paige Shelton.

Single-mom and police chief’s daughter Kate Buckley is all about family. After she receives an urgent text from her younger sister Colleen, she puts her life on hold and rushes to her Irish-themed hometown of Shamrock, Massachusetts. With her two daughters in tow, she’s ready to fight if it means she can help her charming but hapless sibling.

When they arrive, Colleen claims it was all a misunderstanding. But everything changes in an Irish minute when Colleen’s best friend Deirdre, a dance show star, is found dead in the parish hall. With the discovery of a possible witness, a chilling motive, and a wee bit of incriminating evidence, Colleen quickly becomes a person of interest in Deirdre’s murder. Convinced her sister isn't a killer, Kate is determined to clear Colleen’s name.

As Kate investigates, Colleen takes charge of Shamrock’s popular Irish dance show in honor of her late friend–with disastrous results. With the St. Patrick’s Week festivities in full swing, Kate must catch the killer before the celebrations are ruined and her sister’s Irish luck runs out. 

Available for preorder here. 

LISA Q. MATHEWS began her publishing career editing Nancy Drew books. She also wrote for kids’ series such as Mary-Kate and Ashley and the Lizzie McGuire Mysteries. She now writes lighthearted mysteries for grownups with strong female characters and plenty of family, including the Irish Bed & Breakfast Mysteries (Book One, THE JIG IS UP debuts 8/20/2024) and the Ladies Smythe & Westin. Her short story “Fly Me to the Morgue” was an Agatha Award finalist. Lisa lives in New Hampshire. The “Q” in her name stands for “Quinn.”

Website & Newsletter: https://www.lisaqmathews.com/

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/LisaQMathewsAuthor

Blog: https://chicksonthecase.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaqmathews/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14418623.Lisa_Q_Mathews

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lisa-q-mathews

Irish Food Reprise

by Sheila Connolly

For various reasons I haven't been able to create a
new recipe for this week. Moving to a new 
country is complicated! And the rest of my
possessions including cookware won't arrive 
until next week, though they were shipped in September.

So I thought I'd revive one the the earlier posts
I wrote for MLK--in 2014! Actually I've been visiting (and
eating) in Ireland for 20 years, but Mystery Lovers'
Kitchen isn't quite that old. I've added a few
more recent observations to the post.



Shall we begin with the "full Irish"?
(that would be breakfast)

And then on to lunch: a nice ordinary sandwich, with a bit of brown bread and smoked salmon






And then a bit of dinner, with mussels and samphire (which grows on rocks, I'm told)
Samphire is a kind of seaweed, I think. and if the TV special I saw today, seaweed has become quite popular in Ireland (dried). It makes a good substitute for salt, and has more vitamins.

I have a small kitchen to play in. (The new one now has a Neff slide and hide oven. but I keep having to look at the instructions to figure out which buttons to push.)

Bread at Field's Market in
Skibbereen

My favorite fishmonger in Union Hall
(he was thrilled to have a real writer
in his shop). His name is Peter, and he
recognizes he when I drop by. He also sneaks in an apperance in A Turn for the Bad, although I'm not sure he knows its.



 

Monkfish

The cheeses at the Skibbereen
weekly market

Chickens

Ducks

Fresh greens in November!

No, the baby's not for sale



And don't forget dessert!

(Known somewhere else as
mille feuilles or Napoleons)

Bramley apples

The food continues to be amazing, and as fresh as it could be. County Cork is still very rural, and there are more cattle and sheep than people. But it also has some wonderful modern cities and towns and villages, and new restaurants keep popping up. People care about food here--a far cry from the overcooked ham and potatoes and cabbage that headed a lot of menus twenty years ago.

And it's a beautiful place. While the towns are lovely, they turn to country very quickly, and there's a lot of history in the area. My cottage is only 12 miles from where Michael Collins was born, and people still talk about him, nearly a century after his death. Is it any wonder I want to be here?

[Waving to all the Bouchercon and Crime Bake attendees of this busy week! I'm sorry to miss seeing you all.)

Samhain and Soul Cakes

[If this post appears a bit late, I apologize. My Irish kitchen is minuscule, there's little counter space (but an amazing oven!), and there have been assorted wireless glitches over the past week. Plus most of my cooking tools are sitting on the pier in Cork city.]

Halloween cupcakes from Field's

This has got to be the simplest cookie recipe in existence. It has all of three ingredients and takes a spoon and a sifter to make, and only one cookie sheet.

Ingredients:

1 stick (1/4 pound) of salted butter, softened
4 Tblsp granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups flour

And that's all!

For a little background: Samhain, which we call Halloween, is a Gaelic festival that marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It lies halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, and is widely celebrated in Ireland. Yes, our Halloween is what's left of a pagan festival that has survived into the present.

Some of the modern descriptions are a bit odd. It has been said that the idea of giving away cakes goes back to the Druids, and they were used as part of a lottery around a bonfire. If you happened to pick a burnt cake, you got to be the human sacrifice for the year. Or you could give cakes to any angry ghosts who happened to be wandering around on the day. 

Instructions:

Cream together the butter and sugar. Use a flour sifter to add the flour to the bowl, and mix until it's smooth. 

Divide the dough into two parts, and shape each half into a flat circle about half an inch thick. 

Put them on an ungreased baking sheet and poke lines with the tines of a fork, making eight separate wedges in each cake. 

Bake for 25 minutes or until light brown at 350 degrees.

These may look a little rough, but they didn't have electric mixers among the Druids, and my version is entirely hand made.

This is the stone that my handyman gave me. It might come from
an ancient circle. It might have been aligned with the sunrise
on Samhain. Who knows?

Alas, there are no young children in my neighborhood,
so I guess I'll miss Trick-or-Treating this year.

Marinated Chicken with Leeks

Here I am again, watching the rain fall, which has made food shopping challenging. I think I mentioned before the fresh-premade meat and fish dishes that Field’s offers (and, I’m told, makes fresh every day). I’ve tried a couple now, and they’re uniformly tasty and well-prepared.

And then I had a brainstorm. The meals as sold need only to be baked to be ready to eat, and are already nicely marinated (not too salty, not too overwhelmingly spiced), which makes them a perfect candidate for a slightly more elaborate dish—half your work is already done.

This is especially important when you're working with a tiny kitchen like my Irish one!

My Slide and Hide oven

 I happened to have watched recently a show in which Mary Berry was gallivanting around from place to place sampling restaurant dishes. One involved prawns and oyster mushrooms and leeks in a light sauce. Well, I had no prawns and haven’t even sighted oyster mushrooms in a market, but I could find leeks, so I decided to improvise my sautéeing the boned chicken breasts and giving them a nice bed of lightly cooked sliced leeks. You could use heavy cream as a sauce (as Mary did), or a lightly thickened chicken stock, or nothing at all. You could serve the dish with orzo, which I often think of as fake rice, but a bit easier to cook.

[As a slightly relevant aside, my neighbor who lives behind me was born in Ireland but spent most of her adult life in England before moving back. She mentioned that on one occasion when she was house-hunting for her family, she toured what was then Mary Berry’s house (although she didn’t buy it). It had two complete kitchens.]

Now, what do I call this? I’ll take the easy out: Marinated Chicken and Leeks.

Chicken and Leeks:

(serves two)

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, boneless

3 large leeks

Bread crumbs (white or brown)

Instructions:

Marinate the chicken breasts, covered, in the marinade of your choice, for a couple of hours (or buy them pre-marinated).

Butter the inside of a round or oval roasting pan. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice the leeks thinly. If they seem to be a bit gritty, rinse them in cold water after slicing, then let drain and pat dry.

Melt some oil and butter in a saucepan and saute the leeks gently until they are soft but not browned. Spread them in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Here’s where you have to decide if you want a sauce with your dish, clear or creamy, or just skip that step.

In the same pan, melt some more butter with oil at medium heat, and sprinkle the breasts with salt and pepper and saute them, turning once, until they are lightly browned (you don’t need to cook them through).

Lay them over the layer of leeks. Sprinkle to top of the dish with breadcrumbs.

Place the dish in the preheated oven and cook for half an hour, or until the bread crumbs are lightly browned.

And there you have it—a quick and simple meal (if you’re lucky enough to have a Field’s nearby!)

Coming in January 2020

Did I mention I found a ring fort right down the hill from my cottage? 

Ruth Reichl's Pasta and Scallops

This is a simple tasty pasta dish with fresh scallops. I started out looking for an apple recipe of some sort, and this popped up in Ruth Reichl’s book Comfort Me with Apples, but I wanted to save the apple recipe for my next post, since apples mean the harvest season is beginning (and my early apples in the front yard are ripening), but the scallop recipe was so easy (even with no apples!) that I decided to give it a try. It’s not plagiarized, I promise! Even Ruth acknowledges that the recipe passed through several hands before she got to it.

Pasta and Scallops

Ingredients:

1 cup fish stock

1 cup heavy cream

½ pound scallops (bay or sea—your choice)

Salt and pepper

½ pound fresh linguine

1 Tblsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Fresh herbs to garnish, if you want

Instructions:

Note: You should follow the steps in the order given. (1) make the sauce—it takes a little time to cook, but it will hold its heat while you prepare the other parts of the dish. (2) Sautee the scallops. They will still be tender, but they will cook a little while longer while you go on to the next step. (3) Cook the pasta (dry or fresh—dry will take a bit longer. (4) The final step: add the sauce (and lemon juice) to the hot pasta. The pasta must be hot in order to soak up the sauce, which is why it’s next to last. Then dish up, scattering the scallops over the top of the pasta for each serving.

Boil the fish stock in a large pan until it is reduced to 1/4 cup (this won’t take long). Add the cream and simmer until the mixtures is reduced to 1/2 cup (do not let it boil, and be patient!)

To cook the scallops, pat them dry and season them with salt and pepper. You can grill them quickly (I thought it seems kind of overkill to heat up a grill for 2-3 minutes of cooking, although I’m sure the flavor would be good). So for those of us who are lazy, lightly oil a saute pan and toss the scallops until cooked (1-2 minutes per side). Remove from the pan and set aside to keep warm.

Cook the linquine in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain in a colander. Return the pasta to the pot and toss with the cream sauce (you could also save a little of the pasta cooking liquid and add that) and lemon juice. Taste for flavoring.

Serve the pasta on a plate or shallow bowl, and top with the scallops and any remaining sauce. Add a few herb leaves or sprigs for color. (You could also add a sprinkling of cheese of you want.)

 Serves 4.

 www.sheilaconnolly.com

I should be giving you lovely pictures of coming books, but the next one won't be published until the fall, or maybe January. Or the holidays.

Besides, I'm just a wee bit distracted by moving and such, but that should be over in a month or so.

My Irish collage in Garryglass
(in Irish it's An Garraí Glas)
which means Green Gardenwww.sheilaconnolly.com