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.

 

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

This greenest of holidays all year seems to cry out for an Irish dish. Corned beef and cabbage is the traditional, of course, and I’ll be fixing a pot, though I’ll sauté the cabbage in butter, rather than boil it, and then finish with salt, pepper, and a good dollop of sour cream. And I’ll share it with my younger son, the one who will eat cabbage with me.

Other dishes you might try to mark the day include shepherd’s pie—the English version of this ground meat and mashed potato pie is made with beef and called cottage pie, but the Irish put their own twist on it by using ground lamb and calling it, appropriately enough, shepherd’s pie. Otherwise, not much difference in the two, but if you make it with lamb, be aware there will be quite a bit of grease to pour off the meat.

The Irish are also fond of colcannon, in which boiled cabbage is added to mashed potatoes, along with a bit of sautéed onion. Irish stew is always a good choice—made with lamb rather than beef. The Irish have their version of that universal dish, potato cakes, called boxty and made with grated raw potatoes. And any good Irish meal should have bannock—that flat loaf of quick bread, usually not yeast-rising, that is served in wedges like a pie.

I have a St. Patrick’s Day child—Jordan’s birthday is March 17. Trouble with that is she wants her corned beef in a sandwich, wouldn’t touch cooked cabbage, and thinks shepherd’s pie is often “too heavy.” So what can I serve her? Reuben dip. She and Christian, neither one of whom would eat sauerkraut on a bet, love this dip. I’m working up to trying a Reuben meatloaf on them. Meantime, the dip will do. Note: instead of the mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish and relish, you could use an equal amount of Thousand Island dressing. I prefer to avoid the prepared version and make my own.

Reuben dip

8 oz. cream cheese

½ cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. ketchup

1 Tbsp. bottled horseradish

1 Tbsp. dill relish

2 cups Swiss cheese, grated (about 8 oz.)

2 oz. deli corned beef, chopped

¼ cup sauerkraut, well drained

Grease a baking dish, pie plate, whatever will fit your toaster oven, and spread dip in it. Bake 350° for 20 minutes. Nice to use pumpernickel cocktail bread or rye to dip.

Have some of your homemade Thousand Island dressing left over? Use it to make a Big Mac Salad—crumbled hamburger, a bit of dill pickle, tomato, grated cheese, chopped lettuce. Toss with the leftover dressing for a great lunch salad, because I can almost guarantee you won’t have left-over Reuben dip. You can pretend Big Mac is Irish.

And don’t forget the green beer! It’s simply beer with green food coloring in it, easy to do at home. In my hometown of Chicago, they dye the Chicago River, which runs right through downtown, a bright green at nine in the morning and the color lasts several hours. I don’t like to think about how much food coloring that takes! But sure ‘n it’s a lovely sight.

An Irish proverb:

There are only two kinds of people in the world: the Irish,
And those who wish they were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A supper for St. Paddy's Day

My youngest daughter’s birthday is today—shh! I’m not saying how old. She’s getting sensitive about it. I always thought corned beef and cabbage would be appropriate for her birthday, but from her youngest days she had another idea: tacos! Make them yourself tacos! I got so tired of chopping tomatoes and onions and lettuce for twenty of her nearest and dearest (they varied over the years). This year she’s requested cheese enchiladas (she’s making them), beans (from a local restaurant), fruit salad (I’ve cut up a whole pineapple, cantaloupe, mango, 2 lbs. strawberries, washed pint of blueberries—I always get the chopping!).

Her menu leaves me with no Irish food to celebrate the day, so last night I fixed an Irish supper for a friend. I wasn’t quite up for the heaviness of corned beef and cabbage so I made a Reuben casserole—with some trepidation, I must admit, but it was really good. Then I worried about salad—coleslaw didn’t sound right for a dish with kraut in it, neither did a green salad. Besides, I realized you have to have potatoes with an Irish meal. My friend told me that once in Ireland her husband ordered assorted vegetables—they turned out to be mashed potatoes, hash browns, and one other potato dish! So I made what the Web assured me is an Irish potato salad (above). I’m a little late with these recipes for St. Patrick’s Day this year, but save them for next. Also I forgot to take a picture of the casserole until after we’d eaten, so please pardon the picture of a half eaten casserole. It works in a way because I thought I was making just enough for two—I ended up with about half the casserole left.

 Reuben Casserole

 About 6 oz. corned beef, diced (I had the deli counter thick slice it and then I diced)

1 cup sauerkraut, drained and then squeezed dry
Four green onions, mostly white part, chopped
½ c. grated Swiss cheese
½ c. grated cheddar cheese (I used sharp)
¼ cup Thousand Island dressing (I always make my own—equal parts ketchup and mayo, in this case about 3 Tbsp. each with 1/2 teaspoon pickle relish and a dash of Worcestershire)
3 Tbsp. mayo

Mix all together and put in a casserole dish. The more shallow the dish, the more room for crumb topping.

For topping:

2 slices rye bread—crumbed in food processor

2 Tbsp. butter, melted
 
Mix and spread over casserole. Bake at 350^o for 40-45 minutes. Topping should be crunchy and browned.

Irish potato salad

2 baking potatoes, peeled, sliced and boiled until tender, then cooled (do not overcook so that they fall apart)

4 green onions
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Equal parts mayo and sour cream (I used ¼ c. each), mixed

Spread a layer of potatoes in serving dish, cover with mayo/sour cream sauce, sprinkle with bacon and green onions. Repeat layer. Refrigerate until chilled (3-4 hours)

 Serve with green beer—or a nice wine. No green wine, please.

 Slainte!