Yes Buckytom can certainly help out on the bacon and cabbage with spuds and also could throw in the receipe for soda bread but would have to ask mother in law bout the corned beef!
I'm from the home of Irish Rugby, Munster down south. You really are going to be doing a lot of travelling when you come here! Hope the summer turns out to be a bit better than last years! think it rained everyday from May - September!
Soda Bread
Ingredients
450g (1lb) plain white flour, preferably unbleached
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (Bread soda)
400ml (14fl oz) buttermilk
Directiosn
1. Preheat the oven to 230º Centigrade/400º Fahrenheit /Gas Mark 9. (must be very very hot!!!!)
2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large, wide bowl, and make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk. (I don't always use all the milk, start off with half amount and add slowly till its not too wet) Using the fingers of one hand, stiff and oustretched like a claw, stir from the centre to the edge of the bowl in concentric circles. The dough should be softish, but not too wet and sticky. When it all comes together, turn out on to a well-floured work surface.
3. Pat (with cleaned hands!!!) the dough into a tidy shape and flip over gently, then pat it into a round about 4cm (1 and 1/2 inches) thick. Gently transfer to a floured baking tray. Cut a deep cross into the loaf and prick the centre of each quarter to 'let the fairies out'.
4. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200ºC/370ºF/Gas Mark 6 and bake for a further 30 minutes or until cooked. If you are in doubt tap the bottom of the bread: it should sound hollow. Cool on a wire rack. Soda bread is best eaten on the day it is made.
It also freezes very well!!!!!
Did take me a couple of times to get it right but an old master told me that my oven wasn't hot enough!