Tuesday, March 20, 2012

St. Patrick's Day 2012


This year, like every year before, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day by staying in.  No green beer at the pub for us!  This year I decided to make the best corned beef and cabbage ever.  In years past I would  just stick the hunk of meat in the crock-pot with some potatoes and carrots.  But you know what?  That is not good eats!  It's a side of greasy beef and limp veggies THAT'S what that is!

I looked around the 'net and came to the conclusion that crock-pot cooking is not the way to go but low and slow in the oven might do the tasty trick.


So gather up some sliced yellow onion, your favorite beer (or your significant other's favorite beer if your like me and have no clue about what a good beer is because you think beer is icky), a corned beef with seasoning packet and some water (not pictured).



Place your hunk of meat into a roasting pan.  Trim off fat as best you can.  Raw meat always looks grody.  Sorry!

 

Sprinkle seasoning packets over the top of the hunk of meat.  If yours did not come with the packets sucks to be you I'm sure you can find what spices to use via google.  I think there might be juniper berries and peppercorns involved but don't quote me on that.



Place onion slices over top of meat hunk.  I used half of a large onion.


Pop open your brewski and pour over hunk of meat.  Mmm, fizzy.


Add two cups of water.  You want to make sure you have plenty of liquids going on in that roasting pan so that the lovely meat hunk doesn't dry out.  Be sure to check a few times as it is roasting later.


Cover roasting pan tightly with foil.  Place in 300 F degree oven for 3 hours.  Check every once in awhile to make sure there is plenty of liquid in the pan.  I didn't have to add in any additional water but you might have to.


Let meat rest for a little bit before chopping it up.  That will help keep the juices innit.  I much prefer this cooking method than the ole standby crock-pot method.  It was much more tastier.

The next recipe I want to share is adapted from an Alton Brown recipe I saw on Good Eats one night.  Prior to discovering this recipe I hated cabbage and so did my husband.  Now my husband begs me to make this for him.  It's very tasty and much more appetizing than boiled cabbage.  No offense to anyone that likes their cabbage mushy and watery.


This recipe is very simple.  Cabbage, 1/2 stick of butter, bread crumbs and some ground mustard.


Core and chop half a head of a small cabbage.  Alton's recipe said to shred it but I thought it was much too thin to use in this recipe.  My food processor gave it a cole slaw sized shred.  I didn't even try to cook it like that.


Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar.  Dump in chopped cabbage and cook for 2 minutes.  Drain and drain well.  Try to get out as much water as possible.  If you have a salad spinner now would be a good time to give it a spin.

 

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter.  Add bread crumbs and mustard powder.

 

Cook crumbs till brown and nutty smelling.


Add your well drained cabbage and saute until warmed through.  Add some salt and pepper to taste.


I also added i some bacon that I had left over from breakfast.  It put this recipe over the top.  So good!


I also served up some roasted potatoes.


Roasted carrots with a honey balsamic glaze.  Recipe courtesy of Beth from Budget Bytes.  This was our first time testing out this recipe and it is now on the list.  Never eating carrots any other way ever.


Looky, my sweetie set the table!  I also made some biscuits.  I know traditionally you should made soda bread but I think it taste woonky!  Biscuits covered in butter and honey oh so good.


Look at those boys dog in.  Good thing too because I have a secret.  I don't particularly care for corned beef.  I'd rather have a piece of grilled steak.  My favorite part of this meal was sitting down at our kitchen table to eat together.  It was a beautiful day.

Slow Roasted Corned Beef

1 3-lb Corned Beef with seasoning packet
1 dark brewed beer
2 cups water
1/2 large onion sliced thinly

Trim fat off of corned beef.  Place in high sided roasting pan.  Sprinkle on seasoning packets.  Top with sliced onions.  Pour in beer and water.  Place in 300F degree oven for 3 hours checking occasionally to make sure it isn't drying out.  Let meat rest before carving.


Butter Crumb Cabbage

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 pinches dry mustard
1/2 small head cabbage, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the salt and sugar to the boiling water and cook until dissolved. Place the cabbage in the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes.  Drain cabbage very well.

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add bread crumbs and the mustard. Stir over medium heat until the butter browns and smells nutty. Remove skillet from heat.  Stir in cabbage till mixed through.

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