Shamrock Day

The day of the green seems to be the one holiday we all embrace whether Irish or not and we were no exception. Afterall we can't let St. Patrick's Day go by without having corned beef and cabbage now can you.

I know I've shared this corned beef recipe with you before (last year in fact), but it's too darn good to pass up and while some of you may cringe at the cup of soy sauce in the mix, I swear the end result is not overly salty at all. Easy for me to say but we've cut back substantially on the salt we eat in this house and if we're not reaching for more beer, it must be OK. Along with the extra pickling spice, peppercorns, dry mustard and garlic, it yields a far from ordinary hunk of boiled meat with plenty of leftovers. I bet you can guess what's on tonight's menu!

We enjoyed some oven braised cabbage with our beef and a recipe thanks to Molly Stevens who wrote the fabulous book "All About Braising". I don't know about you, but I mostly cook cabbage in butter on top of the stove, but this method requires a slow oven, a touch of liquid, onion and carrots to yield a richly flavored veg that went extraordinarily well with our corned beef. I changed up her recipe enough that I feel comfortable giving it to you here but believe you me, her books are worth purchasing.

The only advice I'll give you is to watch the cooking time. Obviously my oven runs hot because in our case the cabbage was way overcooked, and while wonderful, could have benefited from less time in the oven - like about a half hour less, at least. Don't ignore it like I did and check your veg after an hour.

JBug’s Corned Beef

1 brine cured whole corned beef brisket (or more to fill the pot)

3 bay leaves

2 Tablespoons mixed pickling spice

2 garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon dried mustard

1/2 cup whole black peppercorns

1 cup soy sauce (make sure its good stuff – Kikkoman is good)

Remove corned beef brisket from package and rinse well under running water. Place in large pot & cover with water. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly for 1 hour per pound, or until fork tender. Remove from heat and cool brisket in liquid. When cooled remove from liquid, wrap well & refrigerate or freeze as desired. Slice thinly and serve warm or cold. Download Jbugs-original-corned-beef

Oven Braised Cabbage (adapted from Molly Stevens))

1 medium head green cabbage (2 pounds)

1 large yellow onion cut in wedges

1 large carrot or a handful of small peeled carrots

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and coarse ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray. Remove outer leaves from cabbage and cut into 8 wedges, leaving the core intact. Arrange in casserole dish. Top with onion wedges and carrots. Add white wine and olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and pepper flakes. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Fifteen minutes before the end of the cooking time, increase heat to 400, remove foil cover and roast until cabbage starts to brown.  Serve warm. Download Oven Braised Cabbage

 

 

Comments

[Nanan]

Proud or you - it was National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day yesterday!!!!! Of course - we didn't go there HA! That looks good to me. I am finding out the more veggies I try on the hubs - the more veggies he just won't eat - heavy sigh... We had pan seared & braised pork, sherried mushrooms and spinach with a bit of garlic and rice (gotta have the rice for that Colombian!) and I am amazed I got him to eat the cooked spinach - HA! I did a fabulous simple spaghetti squash with a hint of freshly grated nutmeg recently - one bite and he said - I don't like this... oh well...

[June]

Lea - what is it with our guys and vegetables? Good for you with the spinach. I've found if I add bacon, onion and garlic and put out the hotsauce, the big guy will eat almost anything. As for spaghetti squash, I'd side with sweet William on that one. Tee,hee.

[pam]

I can't believe, I went through St. Paddy's day with no corned beef.

[June]

Pam - that's such a shame. We'll be enjoying the leftovers for a while.