Page’s Platefuls: The Durham Coddle

This year, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday—the perfect day to cook a warming dish that soaks up the flavours of our local winter produce! To celebrate, Chef Alex Page is dishing up the Durham Coddle—a riff on the Irish classic, the Dublin Coddle. This hearty stew is slowly simmered with local ingredients from Pingle’s Farm Market, including sausages, bacon, cider and winter root vegetables.

Serve this traditional Irish dish with some of your favourite ciders from Banjo Cider Co. or a pint from Town Brewery, some fresh bread from Little Thief Bakery Co., and of course, great company! Sláinte!

Durham Coddle

Ingredients (serves four):

• 454 g Willowtree Double Smoked Bacon, cut into one-inch pieces
• 4 Willowtree Farmer’s Sausages
• ½ green cabbage, cut into one-inch pieces
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into one-inch pieces
• 3 small turnips, peeled and cut into one-inch pieces
• 12 mini red potatoes, halved
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 ½ cups Pingle’s Apple Cider
• 1 ½ cups chicken broth
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• Handful of Mighty Harvest Pea Shoots for garnish

Instructions:

1. Place diced bacon in a large sauce pot over medium-high heat and slowly render out the fat. Once bacon is golden and crisp, and fat has rendered out, using a slotted spoon, remove to a bowl and reserve. Add sausages, and cook three to four minutes per side, or until golden brown. Remove sausages to the bowl with the bacon and reserve.
2. To the pot, add the cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and onion. Season with a large pinch of salt and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring often, or until vegetables are golden brown. Add the garlic and bay leaves, stir, and cook for an additional two to three minutes, until fragrant.
3. Add the cider and chicken broth, and stir using a wooden spoon—being sure to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Increase heat to high, until simmering. Add bacon and sausages back to the pot, ensuring the sausages are nestled almost completely beneath the surface of the cooking liquid. Season again with a pinch of salt, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook over gentle heat for one hour, or until sausages are cooked through and vegetables are just fork tender.
4. Uncover, stir through mustard, slightly increase heat to medium-low, and cook for an additional thirty minutes, or until liquid has slightly reduced.
5. Remove sausages to a small plate. Add vegetables and cooking liquid to a large serving bowl, top with sausages and garnish with pea shoots. Serve immediately.

Note: Alternatively, you can cut sausages into one-inch pieces to stew, however Chef Alex Page recommends serving the sausages whole as it’s easier to portion the meal amongst your guests.

Where to get your ingredients:

Pingle’s Farm Market is a family run, year-round farm market, located in Hampton, Ontario that offers 100 per cent Canadian foods and goods. By partnering with other local farms, the market is able to carry a variety of Ontario-grown produce year-round, produce from neighbouring farms in Durham Region like Willowtree Farm, as well as the fields and orchards right at Pingle’s Farm.

Although this recipe was prepared with fresh local ingredients from Pingle’s, you can visit our Local Food page for full list of farm stores in Durham Region.

This recipe was created in partnership with Chef Alex Page as part of a series focusing on field-to-fork meals using local ingredients from local businesses in Durham Region.