Recipes

Dublin coddle with pearl barley

Donal Skehan’s Dublin coddle with pearl barley

Donal Skehan
Fri Mar 10 2017 - 12:00
Serves: 4
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 40 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves 4
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 6 slices of thick streaky bacon rashers, roughly chopped
  • 2-3 large waxy potatoes, peeled and cut in 1cm slices
  • 8 butchers’ sausages
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 100g pearl barley
  • A good handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
  • Sea salt and ground black pepper
  • A generous knob of butter

Traditional Irish food is all about comfort and nothing proves this more than Dublin coddle. Purists will have to excuse the frying of the sausages, but I’m sorry, I can’t bear a nude sausage sitting in my coddle.

Do seek out the best butchers’ sausages and streaky bacon you can get your hands on, for a simple dish like this, it makes all the difference.

Preheat an oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Place a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and add a drop of oil. Fry the bacon and sausages until golden brown on all sides. Remove to a plate lined with kitchen paper.

Place the onions across the base of a casserole dish, layer up with the bay leaf, bacon and sausages, pearl barley and finish with a layer of potatoes. Pour the stock over the top and place the pot, covered, on a high heat and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and dot the potatoes with butter. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper and transfer to the oven and cook for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes turn golden brown.

Serve generous ladles of the stew in deep bowls, sprinkled with parsley, and with crusty bread to mop up the juices.

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