Champ and Colcannon

by Laura Donnelly — March 14, 2007

Our third offering for a St. Paddy's day menu is a potato dish known as colcannon, which is traditionally served with thick slices of boiled ham. Champ is a variation on the same recipe. The source for the name "colcannon" is obscure, but "champ" derives from a traditional Irish limerick:

There was an old woman who lived in a lamp
She had no room to beetle her champ.
She's up with her beetle and broke the lamp,
And then she had room to beetle her champ.

The beetle referred to is a wooden pestle, once used in earlier times to mash vats of mashed potatoes. Champ, of course, is what she was beetling.

Serves 4

1 and 1/2 lbs. Idaho potatoes (or other floury type potato), peeled and diced
10 scallions, chopped, including the green ends
1 and 1/4 cups milk
4 Tablespoons butter
3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (optional)
salt and pepper

1. Boil potatoes in salted water till tender, about 20 minutes. Drain well.

2. In saucepan, simmer the milk and scallions about 5 minutes, then set aside to steep for 10 minutes.

3. Mash potatoes, then beat in scallion-milk mixture, add butter and taste for seasoning. If using blue cheese, add it on top at the end.

To make colcannon, instead of scallions, boil and steep 2 cups chopped cabbage or kale with the milk. And to make lighter versions of each dish, you can use 1 or 2 percent milk and omit the cheese. But for such a small amount, the blue cheese infuses the potatoes with a lot of flavor. Leftover potatoes can also be made into little cakes and sautéed.