Brown Butter Colcannon

There’s not a form of mashed potato that doesn’t speak deeply to me, but this Colcannon with Brown Butter is just on another level. The colcannon itself doesn’t really veer from the traditional Irish dish of mash and kale or cabbage, but instead of having a melted pool of golden butter on top, along with the also traditional scallions (that’s to say, spring onions) I brown the butter first, so that it is deep, caramelly and nutty. But then, brown butter is one of life’s great joys. It’s easy enough to make: all you need to do is heat butter in a (preferably light-coloured, such as stainless steel) pan until it turns the colour of a hazelnut, which for the amount here should take around seven minutes. And yes, there is a lot of butter, and feel free to reduce it if it appals you, but do remember that colcannon is not just a dish that celebrates potatoes but also exults in, not apologises for, the butter. I wish I could use good Irish potatoes, such as Kerr's Pinks or Golden Wonder for this, but I can’t get hold of them where I live. So I use Roosters instead, and wonderful they are, too — and for those of you Stateside, I would recommend Russets. Ideally — and this is not always easy, I know — you need potatoes of around the same size and you boil them unpeeled and whole; this stops them from getting waterlogged. I don’t ever bother to peel the potatoes before mashing them; you’re folding cooked kale in so it’s not going to be a smooth mash anyway. Finally, you brown the butter, mix the spring onions with it, beat some into the mash, and pour the rest over, letting the butter leave scallion-flecked, brown-speckled pools of deep delight on top. This is divine enough with just some rashers of bacon on the side, though frankly I can eat it in a bowl just by itself. But I have to commend to you now alongside your Christmas ham, or to bring bolstering warmth to a plate of cold cuts in those post-Christmas days.

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