Brigid’s Feast: A Holiday Meal for Imbolg

For more than 15 years I’ve been celebrating Imbolg with a holiday meal I call Brigid’s Feast, which is based on ancient recipes, harking back more than a thousand years, to a time when all Britain was Pagan, and Brigid was much adored for the Goddess that she is.

Each year the menu changes slightly, but the ingredients are based on what we imagine we would find in our larders as we approach the end of winter. So, potatoes, onions, kale, oats, a bit of cheese, perhaps some salmon or a bit of lamb that we might have preserved and saved especially for this holiday feast. Most years we include colcannon, which is similar to clapshot, but includes kale. We also usually include a dessert made with apples.

Here are the recipes from my first Brigid’s Feast, in 2009! I wish I could remember where I originally found these recipes. If anyone knows the sources, please let me know & I’ll credit them.

The Menu

Oatmeal and Onion Soup
Salmon Steaks in Oatmeal
Clapshot

Oatmeal and Onion Soup

1 large knob of butter
1 large onion, chopped
Dulse flakes
Pepper
1/2 Cup pinhead, or Scottish, oats (steel cut will work)
2 Cups broth
1 Cup fresh milk
Parsley

Saute the chopped onion in butter. Add oatmeal, dulse flakes and pepper & cook for a few minutes. Slowly add broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for half an hour, stirring every few minutes. Add milk and heat through, but do not allow the soup to boil again. Garnish with parsley & serve!

A “knob” is about a teaspoon of butter, so a “large knob” is about a teaspoon and a half.

Dulse is a red seaweed, that washes up on the coasts of the Isles, and has a flavor similar to salt, though it is much more nutritious. I sometimes keep a bowl of dulse flakes on my dining room table, and rarely use salt at our house.

Pinhead, or Scottish oats are chopped whole groats, and are very nutritious. Many people who are gluten-intolerant (including me) find that they are able to eat Scottish oats without any problems. My theory on this is that many of us gluten-sensitives are of northern European ancestry, and we evolved eating oats, so this is what our digestive systems are prepared to process. Wheat, on the other hand, doesn’t come from that part of the world, and we haven’t evolved eating it, so difficulties ensue.

For the broth, I use a vegetable stock that I had on hand. I think you could use chicken stock, or even water. If you use water, you’ll probably want to increase the amount of dulse flakes you use for flavoring.

Ewe’s milk is especially sacred to Brighid, but any fresh milk will work in this recipe. I used goat’s milk. Imbolg means “in the belly”, and is the beginning of the lambing time. It represents, then, a return to the availability of fresh milk for our ancestors.

Imbolg is the midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, so the larders are getting bare. Potatoes harvested last fall are still edible, but perhaps getting a bit wrinkly. Clapshot is a wonderful, filling dish that turns very little into something fit for a true celebratory feast. It’s a perfect dish to celebrate the fact that we did, indeed, have enough food stored to get us through the winter, and now we can see the promise of Spring as it approaches!

Clapshot

4 or 5 large potatoes, diced
1 or 2 turnips, peeled & diced
1 onion, chopped
2 knobs of butter
2 tsp Dulse
Pepper to taste
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch dried parsley
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese

Boil potatoes, turnips & onion in lightly salted water until soft. Drain. Mash vegetables with both knobs (a knob is about a teaspoon) of butter, dulse, pepper & nutmeg. Spread evenly in a pie plate. Cover with grated cheese & parsley. Bake at 400F degrees (200C) for about 15 minutes, until cheese is golden brown.

The other dish we had for our first Brigid’s Feast was a delicious salmon, prepared in a traditional way. This can be easily prepared over a fire, or stovetop, and doesn’t take long. So, when the clapshot goes into the oven, start the salmon!

Salmon Steaks in Oatmeal Crust

1 Salmon steak per person
2 beaten eggs
Pinhead, or Scottish oatmeal (chopped groats)
Butter for frying

Place salmon steaks in beaten eggs and flip to coat. Lift out, one at a time, and roll in pinhead oats, covering the entire surface. Saute in hot butter until cooked through.