The ICA Book of Christmas

Aoife Carrigy introduces The ICA Book of Christmas - an evocative book that should be somewhere on every family’s gift list!

It was such a pleasure to edit The ICA Book of Christmas, the fourth such book published by Gill & MacMillan with the Irish Countrywomen’s Association in as many years. It felt like quite the privilege to sift through hundreds of submissions from women of all ages from all corners of the island, and gather together their collective homage to a uniquely Irish Christmas as it has been known and loved in their family homes over the decades. The resulting book is a collection not just of favourite festive recipes and crafts, traditions and memories but also of seasonal stories and poems, carols and songs.

To spend time with The ICA Book of Christmas is to gain an insight into an Ireland of yesterday, of today and of tomorrow – and to discover many surprises among the enduring traditions that we know and love so well.

I learnt so much through the vivid first-hand recollections of these women: of the annual ‘big shop’ to ‘bring home the Christmas’ and of the beloved Christmas Box, a gift from local grocers to thank customers for their loyalty through the year; and of the Wren’s Day traditions as played out in Dingle, Cavan and Roscommon, amongst so many other regional corners; and of the historical origins of the wonderful tradition of Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Christmas.

And I came away from the book with second-hand memories of turkeys in the post to England and the thrill of the American parcel, and of Christmas bread once cooked over a turf in Cahirciveen and now enjoyed every year in Vancouver – all these little slices of other people’s lives that now have become part of my own sense of what an Irish Christmas is.

Here’s a little selection of some of my favourite pages from the book...

Speculoos Biscuit Tree Decorations

MIRIAM MURPHY, BLANCHARDSTOWN GUILD DUBLIN

These Dutch spiced shortbread biscuits are traditionally served on St Nicholas's feast day on 6 December. They also make lovely tree decorations, if they last that long. Children love making (and eating!) them and the baking aromas evoke everything that is warm and festive about Christmas.

Makes 10-15 biscuits

200g (7oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
150g (3½ oz) soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon milk
I50g (5½ oz) butter, at room temperature

To finish

10-15 pieces of ribbon, about 35cm (14in) long
You will also need
baking tray
baking parchment

Preheat oven to 180ºC/250ºF/Gas 4.

1. Line the baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Sieve the flour, spices, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the brown sugar, breaking up any lumps with your hands. Add the milk and butter to bring the mixture together into a dough. Transfer to the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

3.Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll to about 5mm thickness. Cut out the biscuits with a cookie cutter of your choice, or into whatever shape you like. If you wish to hang them on the tree, use a piping tip nozzle with a 3-4 mm opening to cut out a hole at one end of each biscuit. These holes will be used to thread the ribbon through when the biscuits have been baked and cooled.

4. Place the biscuits on the lined baking tray with a gap of at least 2-3cm (1 in) between them. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

5. Thread the ribbons, if using, through the holes in the biscuits and tie the ends together before hanging on your Christmas tree.

6. These biscuits will keep well for up to a week in an airtight container.

ICA Tip

In the Netherlands a textured or patterned rolling pin is traditionally used to imprint patterns on the dough when it is rolled out.

Mulled Wine

PATRICIA CAVANAGH, BALLINODE GUILD, MONAGHAN

Each year since the new millennium, on the Sunday before Christmas, my local walking club in Knockatallon on the Monaghan-Tyrone border meet up with the Togher Valley walkers. Our annual ‘mulled wine walk' takes us up to Knockmany Cairn, an ancient passage grave situated on a high hilltop. There we sing carols and share flasks of mulled wine with homemade mince pies and shortbread.

Serves 12-15

1 lemon, unwaxed if possible
1 large orange, or two mandarin oranges
4 dozen cloves, approx.
150g (6oz) brown sugar
12 sticks cinnamon
2-3 star anise (optional)
1 bottle red wine
½ bottle ruby port

Garnish

thin slices of orange and lemon
Sprinkling of grated nutmeg (optional)

1. Pare the lemon and the orange (or mandarins) thinly and remove the pith.

2. Stud the peeled fruit all over with cloves, and add to a large saucepan with 570ml (1 pint) water. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and star anise, if using. If you are using unwaxed lemons or oranges, you can add the peel too.

3. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for about an hour to give the flavours time to combine. (Even better, you can prepare this a day in advance to really give the flavours a chance to blend, and simply reheat it before the next step.)

4. Strain and discard the fruit and spices. Return the infused liquid to the saucepan and add the red wine and port. Reheat to bring almost to the boil.

5. Serve hot with orange and lemon slices and a sprinkling of nutmeg if desired

Nanny's Christmas Bread

MARY CURLEY, LUCAN GUILD, DUBLIN

My grandmother Sheila O'Connor used to bake this bread in an oven hanging on a crook over an open turf fire with a hot sod of turf on top of the lid. My sons can’t get enough of 'Nanny's Bread’ and it's now being baked and enjoyed in Vancouver, far from that turf fire in Cahirciveen.

Makes 1 loaf

85g (3 oz) butter
675g (1½ lb) plain white flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar (e.g. Bextartar)
1½ teaspoons mixed spice
110g (4oz) Demerara sugar
1 fistful currants
1 fistful raisins (muscatels, if available)
1 fistful sultanas
110g (4oz) mixed peel
110g (4oz) chopped glace cherries
110g (4oz) flaked almonds
3 eggs
3 tablespoons treacle
500ml (l8floz) buttermilk, plus a little extra if needed

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

2. In a large mixing bowl, rub the butter into the flour to make a crumb-like consistency. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and the fruit, peel and almonds.

3. Beat the eggs in another bowl, add the treacle and mix well before adding the buttermilk. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well, adding more buttermilk if needed to bring together into a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly for a few minutes.

4. Shape into a round and place on a floured baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until the base sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out onto wire rack to cool fully before slicing.

THE TURKEY’S IN THE POST

“I grew up on a farm and have fond memories of Christmas preparations. My mother used to hang the Christmas puddings, wrapped in muslin cloths, from the ceiling in the kitchen from the time they were made until Christmas Day.

But I always knew Christmas was approaching when the poultry was being prepared for the post. Each year my mother sent a turkey to my uncle in London and a chicken to a cousin in Liverpool. The poultry were killed and plucked hut not drawn (cleaned out), and then wrapped up with head and feel intact. This task took up the entire kitchen table and both my parents' wrapping skills.

First the bird was wrapped in greaseproof paper, then several pages of the Wicklow People, then strong brown paper (probably saved over the year from meat purchases), and finally robust string. Plastic bags and Sellotape simply weren't available. The two parcels were then taken into town to the post office.

In the mid-1950s the cousin from Liverpool wrote thanking my parents for the chicken. She stated that she noticed chickens had become more plentiful to buy in her locality, and although they certainly wouldn't taste anything like the Irish chicken, she felt it wasn't necessary for any more chickens to be posted to her.

The turkey was still despatched to London until, in one New Year's letter, my uncle wrote to say that the turkey had arrived safely but had 'gone off slightly’! This was probably a combination of a mild December and the introduction of heating in the sorting office. All was not lost, however, and they had managed to salvage enough of the bird which, having been roasted extra well, provided a hearty dinner without any ill effects.

Needless to say, this all happened long before refrigeration, EU regulations and best before dates.”

- Heather Evans, Clonakenny Guild, Tipperary

The ICA Book of Christmas is published by Gill & Macmillan, price €22.99. Available from bookshops, and online from Easons (http://www.easons.com/buy/The-Irish-Countrywomens-Association)

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Chairwoman of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild, Aoife Carrigy is a freelance food and wine writer and editor. She is a regular contributor to FOOD&WINE Magazine, The Irish Independent, The Herald and Cara Magazine, amongst others, and was co-author of The Ard Bia Cookbook and general editor of The ICA Cookbook, The ICA Book of Home and Family, The ICA Book of Tea & Company and, most recently, The ICA Book of Christmas. In 2015, she teamed up with Great Irish Beverages to launch the inaugural Dublin Wine Fest and Irish Cider & Food Day.