An Irish Country Wedding (47 page)

Spread the champ over the top of the cooked beef mixture, dot
the top with butter, and put into a preheated oven at 400°F / 200°C
/ gas mark 6 for about 25 minutes. The topping will have browned nicely. This should feed four very hungry people or six not so.

I am forever being asked what the difference is between cottage pie and shepherd’s pie, and the answer is that you use lamb instead of beef to make a shepherd’s. This is very good too and reminds me so much of my childhood and a man called Connor MacTaggart, but you’ll have to read
An Irish Country Girl
to find out why.

F
ISH
P
IE

450 g / 1 lb. mixed fish such as salmon, cod, snapper, or haddock

110 g / 4 oz. shrimp or prawns

110 g / 4 oz. scallops

600 mL / 1 pint / about 3 cups milk

1 or 2 bay leaves

Salt and black pepper

15 g / 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

50 g / 2 oz. / 1 stick butter

15 g / 2 tablespoons flour

Bring the milk, seasonings, and bay leaves to the boil in a pan and add the uncooked fish and shellfish, omitting the shrimp if it has been precooked. Simmer very gently for about 3 minutes. Cover with a lid and leave until you have prepared the topping.

Topping

You can either use the champ topping on page 411 or make this very simple one.

900 g / 2 lbs. potatoes

150 mL / ¼ pint light cream

25 g / 1 oz. butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Mash the boiled potatoes with cream and butter and season to taste.

Sauce

Drain the milk from the fish and discard the bay leaves. Remove any skin or bones from the fish, break into bite-size pieces, and spread over a greased pie dish with the shrimp. Melt the butter in a saucepan and carefully stir in the flour. Cook gently for a couple of minutes without letting the
roux
(a fancy French word for the flour and butter mixture) brown. Now add the milk to the
roux
very gradually with the seasoning and parsley. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring all the time. Then pour the sauce over the fish.

It’s time now to cover the fish and the sauce with the potato topping, and dot it all over with butter or a little grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C / 400°F for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

O
RANGE AND
C
HOCOLATE
S
OUFFLÉ

200 g / 7 oz. plain dark chocolate

Grated zest and juice of a large orange

5 eggs

85 g / 3 oz. sugar

1 sachet gelatine

55 mL / 2 oz. water

85 mL / 3 oz. cream

Dissolve the gelatine in the orange juice according to the instructions on the packet. Separate 2 of the eggs and place their whites in a bowl to use later. Put the rest of the eggs and the sugar into another bowl and place this over a pan of simmering water. Now you whisk the mixture for about 10 minutes until it becomes thick and creamy. Set this to one side.

Take a third bowl, break the chocolate into it, add the water, and place over a pan of hot water. Stir until the chocolate has melted and become smooth and runny and add the orange zest.

While this is cooling beat the 2 egg whites until quite stiff.

By now the chocolate mixture should have cooled down. However, if it has not, you could accelerate this by placing the bowl into cold water and stirring the chocolate around. When it is cold, you stir and fold it together with the gelatine into the egg and
sugar mixture. Now all you have to do is mix the beaten egg
whites and the whipped cream carefully through the chocolate and egg mixture.

Pour into a serving dish and chill for 2 to 3 hours.

Decorate with orange segments and grated chocolate.

The house to the left facing the reader is where Patrick Taylor grew up in Bangor.
Original etching by Dorothy Tinman

G
LOSSARY

I have tried to be faithful to my characters by setting them as accurately in time, place, and contemporary attitudes as memory and extensive reading allow. Some of my characters’ daily speech is the dialect of my native Ulster. While colourful and often highly descriptive, Ulsterspeak can be impenetrable to the nonspeaker. Where an explanation in the text did not interrupt the story I have used that convention, but on some occasions I have had to trust that the context was explanatory. To those I have confused, I offer this glossary.

abdabs, screaming:
Diarrhoea and vomiting, severe D and V.

acting the lig:
Behaving foolishly.

almoner:
Archaic term for what is now called a medical social worker. One of the almoner’s original tasks was to distribute charity, alms, to the poor.

anyroad:
Anyhow.

asking after:
Making concerned enquiries about.

away off and feel your head/bumps:
How can you possibly be so stupid?/A reference to phrenology, the study of personality by examining the shape of a head.

backward in coming forward (not):
Certainly not reticent.

Bakelite:
One of the first synthetic plastics. Used in telephones because of its nonconductive properties.

barrister:
A lawyer who by dint of different training than a solicitor (see under S) argued cases in superior and higher courts.

beagle’s gowl:
The beagle dog’s gowl (not howl) or baying can be heard over a long distance. Not to come within a beagle’s gowl is to miss by a mile.

bee on a hot brick:
Running round distractedly.

bide:
Wait, patience implied.

biscuits:
Cookies.

bleeper:
Pager, usually called a “beeper” in North America.

blether, blethering:
An expression of annoyance, talking nonstop trivia.

bletherskite:
Someone who never stops talking.

bollix:
Testicles, or more accurately the impolite “balls.” Used to imply rubbish. Used about a person, “You are a right regal bollix,” implies uselessness

bonnaught:
Heavily armed Irish mercenary. First appeared in
the fourteenth century.

bowler hat:
Derby.

boys-a-boys/a-dear:
Expression of surprise.

’bout ye/how’s about ye?:
How are you?

brave:
Very.

brave stretch of the legs:
A very long way.

brill:
Brilliant, meaning perfect.

bullock:
Castrated male bovine. Steer.

burroo:
Corruption of “bureau,” the government department that dealt with issuing unemployment insurance.

bus conductor:
Person on the vehicle who collected fares.

can’t
 
… for toffee apples:
Is utterly inept at the described act.

casualty:
Emergency room.

caubeen:
Soft, floppy brimless bonnet.

chissler/chisler:
Infant.

chuffed:
Pleased.

clatter:
An indeterminate quantity.

cod:
To make fun of.

colloguing:
Chitchatting.

collywobbles:
Rumbling in the guts used often to signify butterflies in the stomach or nervousness.

come on on on in:
Is not a typographical error. This item of Ulsterspeak drives spellcheck mad.

coming down with:
Having too many of, or being in the earliest stages of, an illness.

council house:
Low-income subsidised housing provided by the local authority, usually a city or county council.

cracker:
Acme of perfection.

craic:
Irish. Pronounced “crack.” Fun. Good conversation. A very good time was had by all, often fueled by several drops of the craytur.

crannóg:
Irish. Pronounced “crannohg,” literally “little wood.”
Fortified, often man-made island usually constructed with
wooden pilings.

craytur/craythur, a drop of:
Creature/a drink of spirits, usually whiskey or
poitín
.

cup of tea in your hand:
A cup of tea taken informally as opposed to sitting down at a tea table.

currency:
In 1965, prior to decimilization, sterling was the currency of the United Kingdom, of which Northern Ireland was a part. The unit was the pound, which contained twenty shillings, each made of of twelve pennies, thus there were 240 pennies in a pound. Coins and notes of combined or lesser or greater denominations were in circulation, often referred to by slang or archaic terms: halfpenny (two to the penny), threepenny piece
(thruppeny bit), sixpenny piece (tanner), two-shillings piece
(florin), two-shillings-and-sixpence piece (half-a-crown), ten-shilling note (ten-bob note), five-pound note (fiver). Most will be encountered in these pages. In 1965 one pound bought nearly three U.S. dollars.

dab hand at
…
:
very skillful at a given action

dander:
To stroll, or horse dandruff. To get one’s
dander up
was to get or be made angry enough to be ready for a fight.

dead brill:
Very brilliant. Perfect.

dead on:
A strong affirmative, excited acceptance of good news or a measure of complete accuracy. “I totally agree,” “That’s marvelous,” or “Absolutely correct.”

decline (going into a):
Becoming depressed.

desperate/ly:
Serious/seriously.

doddle:
Short walk or easy task.

doh-ray-mi:
Corruption of “dough,” money.

dosh:
Money.

dote (n):
Something or somebody adorable.

dote on (v):
Adore.

doting (gerund):
To be wrong because presumably you are in your dotage.

dulse:
Edible seaweed.

duncher:
Flat tweed cap.

dunt:
Blow with something blunt.

eejit, buck:
Idiot, complete idiot.

elected:
Everything’s coming up roses.

every happiness:
Traditional wish on hearing of a couple’s engagement. “Congratulations” was not used.

fecking:
Euphemism for the “F” word. Liberally thrown in for emphasis, particularly in Dublin.

ferocious:
Very severe.

fillums:
I have deliberately avoided the phoenetic rendering of
words, but two instances are so Ulster I couldn’t resist. “Fillums” for films and “northren” for northern.

Fir Bolg:
Irish. Pronounced “feer bollug.” One of the early races believed to have inhabited Ireland. Probably invaders of the Belgae tribe from Gaul.

fire away:
Carry on. Useful except in front of a firing squad.

fit to be tied:
Very angry.

fly your kite:
I have not the slightest interest in your influence in this affair or, simply, go away.

footering:
Fumbling about with.

fornenst:
Near to.

full as a goat/ as a lord:
Drunk/very drunk.

gander:
Look at.

gansey:
From the Irish
geansaí
, a jumper (sweater). Used in the Anglicised version by Irish and non-Irish speakers.

gerroff:
Get off. Usually said to over-affectionate animals.

Gestetner:
An early copying machine dependent upon a stencil technology. Replaced by Xerox photocopiers after 1959.

git:
From “begotten.” Bastard, often expressed, “He’s a right
hoor’s [whore’s] git.” Not a term of endearment.

giorria (mór):
Irish, pronounced “geara (more).” Hare (big).

glipe:
Idiot.

gobshite:
Dublin slang; literally dried nasal mucus. Used pejoratively about a person.

good man-ma-da:
I approve of what you have done or are going to do.

good skin/head:
Decent person.

grand, grand altogether:
Well. Very well.

great gross:
Very large quantity.

guff:
Verbal abuse.

gulder:
Roar.

gurrier:
Dublin slang. Street urchin, but can be used pejoratively about anyone.

half-un, wee half:
A single measure, usually one ounce of spirits, usually whiskey.