St. Patrick's Day

Homemade Corned Beef with Vegetables

Here, the traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage is supplemented with turnips, carrots, and boiled potatoes. Serve it with a loaf of freshly baked Irish soda bread.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 8.

• FOR THE BRINE

• 2 quarts water

• 1 cup canning salt

• 1 tablespoon Morton's Tender Quick

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed

• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, crushed

• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed

• 1 cinnamon stick, crushed

• 4 dried bay leaves, crushed

• 8 whole cloves

 Make the brine: Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add salts, sugar, and spices; remove from heat, and stir until salts and sugar dissolve. Let cool. 

Make the corned beef: Place brisket in a nonreactive container just large enough to hold it. Pour cooled brine over meat. Place 2 small plates on top to keep meat submerged; cover, and refrigerate for 2 weeks.

• FOR THE CORNED BEEF

• 5 pounds flat-cut beef brisket

• 1 medium carrot, peeled, halved

• 1 pound baby turnips, peeled, trimmed

• 1 pound baby carrots, peeled, trimmed

• 1 medium head cabbage, cut into 8 wedges

• Dijon mustard, and plum sauce for serving

 Rinse brisket; discard brine. Place in a large pot. Add enough water to cover by 2 inches. Add onion, celery, and halved carrot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until very tender, 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile take 4 or 5 tablespoons of plum jam and 2 tablespoons Guldens spicy brown mustard and a teaspoon of water and melt all together in small sauce pan. Pre heat oven to 350 º Remove brisket and place on platter. Brush some plum sauce over top of brisket and place in oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove corned beef from oven and let set, covered another 15-20 minutes while finishing vegetables and soda bread.

Place onion, cut in 8ths and bella mushrooms in large skillet with butter and salt and cook over low heat until onions are soft.

Peel and cut up parsnips, turnips, carrots and place in water/broth that corned beef was cooked with and bring to a boil, add sliced cabbage on top and cook/steam for 15 minutes.  Remove cabbage to serving tray and keep warm.  Place drained parsnips, turnips and carrots in skillet with onions and mushrooms and sprinkle with a little bakers sugar.  Add more butter if needed and toss until heated through and sugar melted.

Serve at once.  We had strawberry short cake for dessert but used angel food cake instead of short cake.  Strawberries were tossed with sugar to make liquid to pour over angel food cake. 

Soda Bread  Note about soda bread, it always is uncooked in the middle even though left in the oven for longer than directions.  Maybe next year, I will roll it out and cut it in biscuit size patties and cook that way.

3 cups bread flour

1 cup cake flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 Tbsp butter

1 cup raisins

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 cups buttermilk

1 Preheat oven to 425°. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.

2 Using a pastry cutter or two knives, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then stir in raisins.

3 Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add beaten egg and buttermilk to well and mix in with a wooden spoon until dough is too stiff to stir. Dust hands with a little flour, then gently knead dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to work with, sprinkle in a little more flour. Do not over knead! Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a round loaf.

4 Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased cast-iron skillet or a baking sheet. Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about 1/2'' deep in an "X" shape. Transfer to oven and bake until bread is golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped with a knife, about 35-45 minutes. Check for doneness also by inserting a long, thin skewer into the center. If it comes out clean, it's done.

Hint 1: If the top is getting too dark while baking, tent the bread with some aluminum foil.

Hint 2: If you use a cast iron skillet to cook the bread in the oven, be very careful when you take the pan out. It's easy to forget that the handle is extremely hot. Cool the handle with an ice cube, or put a pot holder over it.

Transfer bread to a rack to let cool briefly. Serve bread warm, at room temperature, or sliced and toasted.

Adapted from Saveur Magazine.