Maybe is the teeny bit of Irish I have in me, but I really enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Green beer, shamrocks and little leprechauns...how could you go wrong when all of those things are involved? But there is another side to St. Patrick's Day, and that is the traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage. I am embarrassed to admit that the first time I ever had this meal was 5 years ago with Matthews family, and the first time I ever attempted to cook it was 2 years ago when I mistook corned beef for roast beef...not my finest moment!
But this year I was determined to whip up a grand St. Patrick's Day feast, and I started with home curing my own corned beef. It was a fairly easy process, and after throwing everything together all I had to do was flip the meat daily for a week and voila! Home cured corned beef:
I took that picture after unwrapping the meat, but then I ran into a problem. I knew I was supposed to rinse the meat, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to save the spices or not. I decided to scrap the spices off into the cheesecloth, rinse the meat, and then rinse the spices that were left in the cheesecloth bag. Then I hit another little snag as I wasn't sure how to actually cook the darn thing. A quick Google check yielded way to many choices, so I decided to wing it again and throw it into a cast iron dutch oven with the loose spices (next time I will use a spice bag!). Then I went all crazy and poured in a pint of the good stuff:
Everyone knows St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be the same without a dash of Guinness! I added enough water to cover the beef by an inch, brought the water/beer to a boil, reduced the heat and let it simmer for 2 1/2 hours (next time, I will do just 2 hours). Meanwhile, my brother came over with fixings for Black and Tans! They are a mix of a pale ale and a stout or porter (most often Guinness). The pale ale is poured into the glass first, and then with a spoon placed upside down over the glass, the darker beer is slowly poured into the glass:
The result is one really cool looking drink, which the guys were happy to consume in the name of holiday spirit:
After a couple hours of the corned beef simmering in the dutch oven, I added some potatoes, carrots, shallots and celery (all chopped small) into the pot. About 20 minutes later we added the cabbage, and that simmered with everything for another 20 minutes. After a quick run to the store to get the forgotten horseradish, we were ready to sit down to our St. Patrick's Day feast:
The few times that I have eaten corned beef, I have never been terribly impressed with it...until now! This was easily the most flavorful and delicious corned beef I have ever had, and Matthew and Mike said the same thing! I was thrilled that curing it myself had turned out so well and after tasting the difference, we will definitely never go back to store bought corned beef again. We had great conversation, delicious food and lots of yummy beer...there is nothing more that this Irish girl could ask for. Happy St. Patrick's day!
But this year I was determined to whip up a grand St. Patrick's Day feast, and I started with home curing my own corned beef. It was a fairly easy process, and after throwing everything together all I had to do was flip the meat daily for a week and voila! Home cured corned beef:
I took that picture after unwrapping the meat, but then I ran into a problem. I knew I was supposed to rinse the meat, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to save the spices or not. I decided to scrap the spices off into the cheesecloth, rinse the meat, and then rinse the spices that were left in the cheesecloth bag. Then I hit another little snag as I wasn't sure how to actually cook the darn thing. A quick Google check yielded way to many choices, so I decided to wing it again and throw it into a cast iron dutch oven with the loose spices (next time I will use a spice bag!). Then I went all crazy and poured in a pint of the good stuff:
Everyone knows St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be the same without a dash of Guinness! I added enough water to cover the beef by an inch, brought the water/beer to a boil, reduced the heat and let it simmer for 2 1/2 hours (next time, I will do just 2 hours). Meanwhile, my brother came over with fixings for Black and Tans! They are a mix of a pale ale and a stout or porter (most often Guinness). The pale ale is poured into the glass first, and then with a spoon placed upside down over the glass, the darker beer is slowly poured into the glass:
The result is one really cool looking drink, which the guys were happy to consume in the name of holiday spirit:
After a couple hours of the corned beef simmering in the dutch oven, I added some potatoes, carrots, shallots and celery (all chopped small) into the pot. About 20 minutes later we added the cabbage, and that simmered with everything for another 20 minutes. After a quick run to the store to get the forgotten horseradish, we were ready to sit down to our St. Patrick's Day feast:
The few times that I have eaten corned beef, I have never been terribly impressed with it...until now! This was easily the most flavorful and delicious corned beef I have ever had, and Matthew and Mike said the same thing! I was thrilled that curing it myself had turned out so well and after tasting the difference, we will definitely never go back to store bought corned beef again. We had great conversation, delicious food and lots of yummy beer...there is nothing more that this Irish girl could ask for. Happy St. Patrick's day!