Champ

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb peeled, cooked potatoes, still hot
1/2 cup milk
2 bunches green onions, green and white parts chopped
butter
salt
white pepper

Directions:
Mash the potatoes, salt, pepper and milk together until fairly uniform in texture. Stir in the green onion. Arrange in a tall pile on a plate then make a well in the middle and top with a pat of butter. Eat from the outside in, dipping bites into the well of butter.

My thoughts:

I wasn’t familiar with champ until I saw it on the menu of James Joyce Pub. It didn’t come with my meal, so I never found out what it was. Some time after that I was reading a book set in Ireland and from the description, I realized that champ was mashed potatoes with green onions! I also read that champ is some times known as poundies, because “champ” is also a colloquialism that means to bruise or smash and you mash (pound) the potatoes. I had some potatoes sitting around so, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I made champ. It is really simple but satisfying, and I like having butter on top, rather than mixed in. We made mashed potatoes this way when I was a child (no green onions, though!) and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed them.

10 Comments

  1. LOVE….! Trying using your champ, with some white cheddar or Dubliner cheese mixed in and then used as a topping on your Shepherd’s Pie…! Oh Yeah…St. Patty’s Day’s coming up and it’s on my menu!

  2. i’m recently discovering all these additions for mashed potatos! wow, something so simple and comforting can be made [sorta] good for you with the addition of veggies. thanks for the idea, and Irish food lesson

  3. Lovely!

  4. I make my potatos this way and they are delicious

  5. i LOVE champ….can you get any better than this ?

    Thanks Rachel!

  6. I never knew this was called champ…

    Surprising since I’m of Irish Descent, and I’ve had mashed potatoes made exactly this way forever. Now I know what to call them!

  7. Ooh, those look yummy. I didn’t realize there was a name for them! Thanks for enlightening us!

  8. Those Irish! They can think of a thousand ways to use potatoes. It is great to have an excuse in our carb-averse world to eat champ…. after all, I am celebrating my heritage!

  9. One word: Yes! That looks divine.

  10. Rachel- Lovely, classic version of champ. I added it to my colcannon post. Thanks!