A pair of lucky recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

Everybody, it seems, has at least a drop of Irish blood flowing through his or her body on March 17. Chances are your celebration will involve a glass or three of beer or maybe a car bomb or shot of Irish whiskey. But you’ve got to eat, too, if you want to wake up with a clear head the next morning.

To that end, we offer two dishes with Irish roots – one savory, one sweet.

The first pairs homemade pork sausages with the classic Irish potato-and-cabbage dish known as colcannon. It’s great for breakfast or, reheated after a long night out, for soaking up whatever alcohol hasn’t yet made it into your bloodstream.

The other is a simple but still elegant two-layer cake flavored with coffee and cocoa. It’s from Galway chef JP McMahon’s new tome, “The Irish Cookbook,” and was inspired by a cake his great-aunt Betty used to make when he was a child. Garnished with toasted walnuts and roasted coffee beans, it’s sure to become a family favorite.

HOMEMADE PORK SAUSAGE WITH COLCANNON AND APPLES

Makes 4 servings. Rachel Allen via BBC Food

Colcannon, which marries mashed potatoes with sauteed cabbage, is a classic Irish dish. It goes perfectly with homemade sausages and applesauce.

The sausage links are fairly mild, so feel free to add a little dried sage, brown sugar or a pinch of red pepper flakes to the mix. I also allowed the colcannon to brown a little longer in the pan, creating a crispy crust.

• For sausages

1 pound fatty minced pork

2 ounces breadcrumbs

1 free-range egg, beaten

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley or marjoram

3 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• For colcannon

3 pounds floury potatoes, such as Russet, scrubbed

3 1/2 ounces butter, divided

1 pound green cabbage, outer leaves removed and discarded, inner leaves sliced

9 ounces hot milk

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

For apple sauce

1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon water

2 ounces sugar

Make sausages: Place all ingredients except olive oil in a bowl and mix thoroughly, then season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Fry a tiny bit of the mixture in a hot pan with a little olive or sunflower oil to check the seasoning. Add more if required.)

Divide mixture into 12 pieces and shape each one into a sausage. Place on a baking tray or plate and set aside. (Chilling them for a day in the fridge is fine, or you can freeze them.)

To cook sausages, heat frying pan on a low to medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive or sunflower oil and gently fry for 12 to 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides and completely cooked through.

Prepare colcannon: Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain off three-quarters of the water and continue to cook over low heat until tender. Drain remaining water. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and mash with half of the butter.

Heat pan until hot and add remaining butter, 2 tablespoons of water and sliced cabbage. Cook over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until just cooked through.

Add cabbage mixture to potatoes, then add most of the hot milk and parsley, keeping some of the milk back. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Beat until creamy and smooth, adding more milk, if necessary, to achieve preferred consistency.

For apple sauce: Place apple in a small pan with water. Cover with lid and cook over gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until apple has broken down to pulp. Add sugar to taste.

To serve, place a spoonful of colcannon onto each plate with a dab of butter on top. Add three sausages to each plate and a spoonful of warm apple sauce alongside.

IRISH COFFEE CAKE

Makes 1 cake. “The Irish Cookbook” by JP McMahon (Phaidon; February 2020)

If you can’t find coffee extract, mix 2 tablespoons of instant coffee with 2 teaspoons of water as a substitute. I thinned the icing with a little cold coffee, adding even more coffee flavor.

• For cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Pinch of sea salt

2 1/4 sticks (9 ounces) butter, plus extra for greasing pan

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

5 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons coffee extract

• For icing

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) butter, softened

2 tablespoons coffee extract

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Handful of walnuts, toasted and halved, for garnish

Roasted coffee beans, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 12-inch cake pans.

Sift flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt together in a large bowl. In separate bowl, cream butter with sugar, then gradually add eggs and coffee extract.

Fold wet mixture into flour mixture. Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans and bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, turn out and cool further on a wire rack.

Make icing: Cream butter with coffee extract in a bowl and gradually fold in sugar.

When cakes are cold, sandwich together with some icing. Spread the rest of the icing over top and sides, if desired. Garnish with walnuts and coffee beans.