Top of the morning to you!

 

Sure, and what’s for supper tomorrow night? Why, yes, corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick celebrating most anything Irish you want to celebrate, starting with the country’s patron saint.

We all know how to cook corned beef and cabbage—put the corned beef in a crockpot, add pickling spices and vegetables—onion, potato, carrot—cover it with water and let it cook on low all day. About 45 minutes before serving, lay wedges on cabbage on top and let them cook gently. I was all set to do this last Sunday when my younger son was due for supper, but then I remembered that I had cooked a much-better-than-usual corned beef supper last year. I dug out the recipe I’d adapted from kitchn, the daily food newsletter that I think is a treasure of hints and recipes. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

One corned beef brisket, 3-4 lbs.

1 Tbsp. pickling spices

2 tsp. sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 8 oz. bottle dark beer

Water as needed

1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

4 large carrots, scraped and cut on the diagonal into chunks

1 lb. potatoes, peeled and cut into one inch chunks

1 small onion, cut into wedges

1 tsp. dried thyme

½ small head of cabbage

Some notes on the ingredients: You can corn your own beef, if you start days ahead. It’s supposed to be much better. Directions are online. A packet of pickling spices came with the meat, but I had some in bulk from Central Market; I suspect they were fresher. As for the beer, I had a bottle of stout and used that—made the best tasting potatoes! The recipe called for 6-8 cups of water, but I barely used 4 cups. The recipe also called for fresh thyme—I don’t know about you, but I rarely have that on hand (hope to have it when I can plant a spring garden, which won’t be this weekend); I used dried. The recipe also called for savoy or napa cabbage, which is much more expensive. A plain old head of cabbage worked fine.

A note on herbs and spices: if you live near a Central Market  or someplace else that sells bulk spices and haven’t discovered spice drawers—run, don’t walk. Bulk spices are much fresher; you can buy smaller amounts so they don’t get stale in your cupboard; and they are a fraction of the cost.

Directions:

Heat the slow cooker to the low setting.

Put the brisket in the slow cooker fat side up and cover with spices, sugar and salt. Add the beer and enough water to cover the brisket. Then add the vinegar.

Add the vegetables and the thyme in no particular order. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.

About 45 minutes before serving, lay the cabbage on top of the vegetables.

When ready to serve, remove brisket to a cutting board. Let it rest and “collect itself” for a few minutes, and then carve against the grain into thin slices. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the vegetables out.

Serve with mustard and/or horseradish sauce.

Leftover corned beef? Here’s Christian’s favorite cocktail spread (it always amazes me that he likes it so much, because in anything else he would never touch kraut):

Warm Reuben spread

Ingredients:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ cup Thousand Island dressing (you can find directions online for making your own)

¼ lb. corned beef, chopped

¾ cup well-drained sauerkraut

8 oz. Swiss cheese, chopped

Directions:

Mix together cream cheese and Thousand Island dressing. Stir in remaining ingredients and spread in a 9-inch pie plate or shallow pan. Bake at 350^o for 20 minutes.

Serve with rye crackers or, if you can find them, small pumpernickel or rye cocktail breads. Triscuits would be good too, but this is not the dish for veggie dippers.

 

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

May the rains fall soft on your fields, and

Until we meet again, may the Good Lord hold

You in the palm of his hand.—traditional Irish blessing

An alternative:

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.