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I was faced with an interesting challenge recently. A publicist asked me to participate in a food show and feature a seductive, Irish date night menu inspired by St. Patrick’s Day for the ultimate stay-at-home St. Patrick’s Day date.

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What do you cook for a St. Patrick’s Day date?

Now, I teach couples cooking classes, I own a company that throws intimate soirees for duos and my current book project is entitled, “Party of Two.” So in honor of the holiday, I offer you this menu of traditional food from Ireland I’ve dubbed my Romancing the Blarney Stone menu.

Nobody loves a reason to party as a passionate pair more than I do. But a holiday celebrated with drinking orgies, corned beef and tiny green men; I was stumped.

I mused about building a “Kiss the Blarney Stone” menu, treating the rock as a kind of Irish mistletoe. But ponder this for a moment: A ritual involving thousands of lips pursing and drooling over an impossible-to-reach stone. Somehow, that just didn’t seem sexy.

TO TRY: An Easy Recipe for Irish Champ

Finally, it came to me: St. Patrick’s Day is a glorious way to celebrate the coming of spring. After all, it’s the most sumptuous season, bursting with sensuality and bloom. Associated with the vernal color, green, it ties in a festive way to welcome seasonal change. Around this concept, I could build a menu of Irish food dishes!

The rich roots of Irish heritage include delicious, wholesome food like North Atlantic seafood, farm-raised lamb and beef and organic root vegetables. (That, of course, includes the ubiquitous potato.)

Farmers’ markets are intoxicating this time of year, with vivid green peas, earthy leeks, and emerald artichokes. These are all inspiring ingredients common in Irish dinner recipes. And the good news for lovers? Many traditional foods of Ireland are aphrodisiac fodder.

Irish aphrodisiac ingredients

Salmon, cod, and lobster are the fruits of Aphrodite. These traditional Irish foods have beneficial contents of phosphorous, iodine and zinc, essential for testosterone production.

Leeks were favored as a love enhancement by the ancient Greeks and Romans. So much that Emperor Nero was said to have eaten leek soup every day.

Even the lowly potatoes’ lore includes a history where Amazonian women ate them to stimulate their sex drive. Potatoes are said to have the same effect on the body as chocolate; they increase serotonin levels, enhancing a feeling of well-being.

How to set the scene

Celebrating Irish foods should incorporate a nod to their festive libations. This includes Irish whisky and the heady stout, Guinness.

And when planning your romantic St. Patrick’s Day dinner, you shouldn’t forget their incomparable, spirited music that ranges from rock and folk music to Celtic sounds: U2, Enya, Van Morrison, Damien Rice, The Cranberries, The Chieftains and the Young Dubliners.

Of course, everyone loves an Irish toast, ranging from sage to witty. It’s easy to see how this element of their heritage can fit into the plan for a date night Irish dinner experience.

My recommendation is to keep this as a chic and light-hearted affair. And don’t think you’re limited to serving this traditional Irish dinner just on St. Patrick’s Day. If your lover has a passion for Irish flare, you could use this menu of seasonal and seductive Irish ingredients any day in spring.

The recipes

I admit that setting the scene for seduction on St. Patrick’s Day is an unusual experience. That’s why I recommend starting your night by sipping an unusual libation, the Black Velvet. This Irish cocktail combines Guinness with Champagne or sparkling wine and it happens to be my favorite sexy, Irish drink.

The Black Velvet Champagne Cocktail

Print Recipe

Cookbook author and aphrodisiac foods authority Diane Brown offers this Black Velvet cocktail recipe as the perfect accompaniment to a romantic Irish-themed meal.

Course aperitif, cocktails

Cuisine Irish

Dish Type Cocktail

Seasonal spring, St. Patrick's Day

Ingredient Champagne

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings quart

Author Diane Brown

Ingredients

1/2 pint Guinness
1/3 pint Champagne or sparkling wine*

Instructions

Fill 2/3 or a pint glass with Guiness. Top with Champagne and serve chilled.

Notes

If you don't want to splurge for Champagne, I recommend using a Brut-style Cava in the $10-15 range, such as Freixenet.

Then sup on Irish stew with an elegant twist, North Atlantic salmon with a buttery sauce. Spin Irish music like Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks or Enya’s Shephard Moons. And raise your glass to share a toast: Here’s to me, and here’s to you, and here’s to love and laughter. I’ll be true as long as you, and not one moment after.

For the rest of the menu, click on the links to my favorite (aphrodisiac) Irish recipes below:

Irish Leek and Potato Soup with Stout

North Atlantic Salmon with Irish Butter Sauce

This article was updated in March 2024 with updated images and links.

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Diane Brown

Diane Brown is the author of The Seduction Cookbook: Culinary Creations For Lovers, (Innova Publishing 2005). She is a personal chef as well as a freelance food writer. Her work has appeared in publications including Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Sunset, Veggie Life, Chile Pepper and Wine Enthusiast. She has taught aphrodisiac cooking both in person and on tv and radio, including appearances on The Other Half, Fox News “Ask the Expert” and Leeza at Night. A champion of CSA's, Diane writes the blog Family Farm Box, where she showcases the use of local, fresh produce.

Menu for a Romantic St. Patrick’s Day Date Night