Colcannon

The story

Colcannon, mashed potatoes mixed with kale or cabbage, butter and cream, shares its origins with an older Halloween tradition. In Irish folklore, small tokens were hidden in the bowl of colcannon (a coin for wealth, a button for bachelorhood, a ring for a wedding soon to come), much as they later were in the Christmas pudding. It has survived to Christmas as a simple, comforting side for boiled ham, with butter worked in so that a little pool forms in the center for dipping each bite of potato, an almost ritual way of eating that every Irish family considers "the only right one." The name comes from the Irish "cál ceannann," roughly "white-headed cabbage," and the split between families who use kale and those who use cabbage is often a matter of region, not taste. For Irish Americans, colcannon is one of the few recipes that needs no ingredients hard to find in the United States, which has made it one of the most durably handed-down dishes across generations of immigration.