It's Ireland's most important day of the year on Wednesday, March 17, so why not celebrate with Recipe Finder's top 20 Irish dishes.

20. Champ
This budget grub is made from mashed potatoes, chopped spring onions (which they call "scallions"), butter and milk. The Irish sometimes describe less intelligent people as being "as thick as champ"! Try making your own champ variation this Wednesday by adding ham, parmesan and leeks.

19. Brown lemonade
When workers at old Belfast shipyards were banned from drinking alcohol on their lunch breaks, they avoided looking "girly" by filling up pint glasses with lemonade and adding brown colouring, creating a great ale imitation.

18. Skirts and kidneys
Poorer 17th-century folk would use crusty white bread to mop up the juices of stewed pork backbone trimmings and kidneys, while the more expensive cuts of meat were sent off to more lucky British Empire society.

17. Irish farls
Flat pieces of bread cut into quarter circles, Irish farls are still used to mop up sticky yolks from greasy Irish breakfast plates today.

16. Bacon and cabbage
Because most families reared their own pigs and grew their own veg, it was common for them to serve boiled gammon with mashed spuds and cabbage. Extra-hungry ones added a white parsley sauce and turnips too.

15. Goody
This Irish dessert, which was traditionally eaten on St John's Eve, is made by boiling bread in milk with sugar and spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg.

14. Steak and Guinness pie
What could be more Irish than steeping steak in their world-renowned stout? Braised with mushrooms and carrots and topped with a billowing pastry hat, this dish is common fodder on cosy Irish pub menus. Try it this St Paddy's Day with horseradish mash and peas!

13. Corned beef supper
Similar to bacon and cabbage, this dish consists of mashed potato, corned beef and cabbage and is the yummy offspring of an Irish-American blended food culture.

12. Boxty
These Irish potato pancakes made from grated and mashed potato, flour, baking soda, buttermilk and egg were often fried in butter. A poem written about them claimed: "If you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man"!

11. Coddle
Consisting of layers of sliced pork sausages and rashers of fatty bacon with potatoes and onions, this Dublin dish is the ultimate in Irish comfort food and is fondly immortalised by literary masters such as James Joyce.

10. Soda bread
Superstitious cooks in the 1800s would add a cross to the top of this quick white buttermilk bread to ward off evil or let the fairies out. Damper is an Aussie version of soda bread brought here by Irish immigrants.

9. Drisheen
Drisheen is a black pudding made from a mixture of pig or sheep's blood, milk, breadcrumbs and fat. It is boiled, sliced, then fried and often served as part of a traditional Irish breakfast. Not everyone is brave enough to try it!

8. Barmbrack
Raisin bread barmbrack (meaning "speckled loaf") is still served piping hot with fast-melting butter at afternoon teas. At Halloween, the Irish bake objects such as coins and rings into the loaf for luck.

7. Crubeens
On returning from the local pub, many booze-hazy Irish individuals would tuck into these salted and braised pig's trotters with their bare fingers.

6. Dublin lawyer
Lobster smothered in butter, Irish whiskey and cream was and is still regularly seen on more affluent dining tables in Ireland.

5. Oatmeal biscuits
Although oatmeal used to be seen as a "peasant" food in Ireland, it is still used to make rolled oat biscuits and cookies, ideal for celebrating St Patrick's Day.

4. Ulster fry
Ulster fry fans need monster appetites! This traditional breakfast consists of bacon, eggs, sausages, farls, mushrooms, baked beans and pancakes.

3. Irish coffee
After a hearty dinner, many Irish diners wash down their food with this cocktail made from hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar and thick cream.

2. Colcannon
Colcannon, which is basically mashed potato with kale or cabbage, used to be served with coins inside it, giving scoffers little cash treats between mouthfuls. A song about this dish describes it as "like a picture in a dream".

1. Irish stew
Irish stew is a traditional winter-warmer made from lamb or mutton slow-cooked with potatoes, carrots, onions and parsley. Try dunking chunks of wholemeal bread into the meaty broth.