After a long winter’s nap, Newport starts to shake off the hibernation and come out for the St. Patrick’s parade. The parade weekend is known for the unofficial/official opening of the Newport season. The 64th St. Patrick’s Day Parade was supposed to happen today, however, with the emotional roller coaster our nation is on with the Coronavirus, it was officially called off the 1st time in its’ history. We are in crazy times and I don’t need to tell you all that.

With the parade canceled and the concerns of this virus, we used this day to clean up the garden and prepare our St. Patrick’s Day meal. Matt is in charge of the corned beef and I am taking care of the potatoes and the traditional quick bread - Irish Soda Bread. So last year, I made a different Irish Soda Bread recipe without currants and believe me when I tell you that there are plenty of traditionalists out there that let me know that I DID NOT MAKE Irish Soda Bread. So fret not, I prepared it this year’s with Ina Garten’s Irish Soda Bread with currants and I do have to agree with you I am in love with how it turned out and I have become a traditionalist. ;) Say yes to the currants! Thank you Jillian for my now go-to Irish Soda Bread and thank you of course to Ina!

Okay, so how did I incorporate our sea salt?? I took the Kerrygold unsalted butter whipped it into a golden frenzy, sprinkled our flaky pure sea salt and zested the rest of the orange into the blend and YUM!

Visit Ina Garten’s Recipe for Irish Soda Bread here. I added an extra tablespoon of sugar because that is how we roll here.

Sea Salt Orange Zested Butter

4 ounces of Kerrygold Unsalted Butter

1 tsp of Newport Sea Salt pure sea salt

1 tsp of orange zest

Directions:

Take the 4 ounces of cold unsalted butter and cut into chunks. I placed the butter pieces into a Kitchen Aid Mixer and whipped on high (stop and scrape butter down a few times). Continue to whip until you are satisfied with the consistency. Then take a teaspoon of Newport Sea Salt and sprinkle in with the teaspoon of freshly zested orange and fold in together.

Cut a thick warm slice of your freshly baked Irish Soda Bread and spread on the golden sea salted orange speckled butter on top and voila you have stepped up your Irish Soda Bread Game!

Stay healthy, stay well!

xo Tami

PS: Of course, Matt had to add his special ingredient…..;)