TtoE Irish Japanese Halloween Mash-up

While researching sharing Halloween’s origins and traditions with Japanese friends and colleagues, I revisited a recipe for a traditional Irish dish, colcannon. I’m not Irish, but it’s familiar to me because my Scottish grandmother made something like it when I was a kid growing up. Here’s my Japanese “mash-up” of this Irish Halloween potato dish.

My bento box lunch of sweet and sour chicken, steamed broccoli, and Japanese-Irish colcannon

For mine, I used floury Hokkaido potatoes, cabbage, hakusai, naganegi, butter, garlic, soy sauce, and ground pepper.

Ingredients for my fusion colcannon

It’s easy to make. Peel, boil, and mash the potatoes like you would mashed potatoes. Fry the garlic and naganegi in the butter until fragrant, and add the two kinds of cabbage. Cook them until they wilt and glisten. Return the mashed potatoes to the pot, and combine all the ingredients.

The recipe on the Irish Food&Wine website includes milk to make it smooth, but I didn’t have it on hand and didn’t miss it.