Well I had every intention of posting my Irish recipe on Sunday (the day before St. Patrick’s Day) but that obviously didn’t happen.  Then I had to go out of town for work on Monday and Tuesday so now here we are on Wednesday and I’m finally getting it out there.  I figure you will all want to make this during the hot summer months anyway…

Oh lordy this is a good one…corned beef and cabbage is so freaking easy to make that it almost annoys me that I don’t have mess with it more in order for it to taste amazing.  I had all the boys over and everyone loved it…then I went on the road and was served Papa John’s pizza and other disgusting food for two days.  They ordered us a new pizza called “the double cheeseburger” for lunch, instead of pizza sauce they use american cheese sauce.  Can you say GENIUS?!…someone is getting a promotion for sure.  There were also pickles on the pizza (I love pickles so I was sort of intrigued by that, not enough to eat that disgusting pizza though).


I was pretty happy this year because I was able to get my corned beef from Whole Foods where it isn’t laced with Nitrites and sodium benzoate…and it was on sale for $5.99 a pound, score!

I also knew this was good because it was the “First Cut”…I don’t know what that means but it sounded legit.  The drunk leprechaun in the right corner also had me sold.

There’s two ways to buy corned beef, this way which has the seasonings already in the package of meat…or the other way which has a seasoning packet that you add yourself.

Open the meat and put it down in the bottom of your stock pot or dutch oven…you need a LARGE pot for this if you’re feeding more that 4 people.  I was feeding 3 adult men, 3 child men, and me….so I had a 5.5 lb piece of meat.  I read somewhere that some people rinse the meat which is absolutely absurd but whatever.  I did remove some of the tough fat with a knife, I do this once it’s already in the pot (less mess).  Don’t worry, you can’t possibly trim all of the fat off this thing.

Now pour a bottle of dark stout beer (Guinness works well) over the meat.  Our liquor store was out of Guinness (I’m serious) so Jason picked up this…

It has 10.5% alcohol…I drank one…it was fun.

If your bottle of beer doesn’t cover the meat entirely, add some water until it is covered. Put the lid on and put the pot over a medium flame.  Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and let it go for a few hours.  I do 45 minutes per pound of beef.

About an hour before the meat is ready, cut some red potatoes in half and throw them in…

and then chop some peeled carrots into 3 inch segments and throw those in.

Then about 15 minutes before it’s done I add a head of cabbage that’s been cut into wedges.

After I did that my pot was pretty full, I had to work a little to get the lid back on…

When the meat is done you need to get it out of the pot and let it rest for a little bit.  This is a bit tricky because all of the veggies are on top of the meat, see…

  

I removed some veggies and got the meat out and then dumped the veggies back in the pot…that’s called thinking on your feet.

Here is the meat resting comfortably…

While that is resting, slice up some fresh bread…WF was out of Irish soda bread so I got the old world rye.  This completely devastated my brother, it was a crushing blow…I guess he really wanted that soda bread, but who cares if your brother is pissed.

I also prepared some horseradish which isn’t really Irish but in this family, beef and horsey sauce go hand in hand…am I right Arby’s?!

This is two ingredients…horseradish and sour cream (and a little salt)

Now it’s time to cut the meat…you can cut the slices as thin or thick as you want, just make sure you cut against the grain.  For more on cutting against the grain…google it.

Now get the veggies out of the pot and arrange everything on a nice platter.  I take some of the sauce out of the pot and spoon that over everything.

Ok, it’s done…eat it now.

The men were pleased with the outcome, I’m such a good womanly servant…

Well, I’m really sorry that I didn’t get this post up earlier but being late is the story of my life.  Just save the recipe for next year, or make it this weekend…and then make someone else clean up the mess while you drink more of that beer.

Cheers!

The Good Cooker