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Champ Delivers More Than Mashed Potatoes by Kat Behling A traditional Irish peasant dish, Champ is a simple mixture of mashed potatoes and scallions or chives. It’s served in a mound with a well of melted butter in the center and eaten with a spoon, starting from the outside and dipping each tasty spoonful into the buttery center. It’s a quick and easy side dish. Ingredients: 6-8 unpeeled baking potatoes (i.e. Yukon Gold or Russets) 1-1/3 cup chopped fresh scallions or chives 1-1/2 cup milk, cream or half & half 8 tablespoons butter salt and fresh ground pepper to taste Instructions: Boil unpeeled potatoes until tender. In a pot, cover scallions or chives with cream and bring to slow boil; simmer 3-4 minutes then remove from heat. Meanwhile, peel and mash potatoes. Mix potatoes with cream mixture. Beat in 4 tablespoons butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, spoon the champ into a deep serving dish or four individual bowls; make a well in center and top with remaining butter. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings. To reheat: Place in an over-proof dish, cover with foil and reheat in 350 degree oven. www.irishfireside.com |
Beetling Irish Champ
In the days before electric mixers, champ was mashed with a heavy wooden pestle called a “beetle.” The pounding of potatoes was traditionally reserved for the man of the house, while the woman tended to the boiling. A common folk custom was to leave a bowl of champ beneath a Hawthorne tree for the faeries at Halloween.
An Irish Nursery Rhyme There was an old woman that lived in a lamp; she had no room to beetle her champ. She’s up’d with her beetle and broke the lamp, and now she has room to beetle her champ.
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