Corned Beef and Cabbage

It’s been a while. I haven’t been inspired to write anything that doesn’t seem repetitive.

But, I’m back to trying to find new material.

Like food. We can always return to food, and cooking. Making something different, maybe. Or digging into the origins of favorites.

Today let’s talk about corned beef and cabbage. I made it for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. I don’t believe I have ever made the New England boiled dinner in my 48 or so years of cooking. I have made corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot but never the boiled version.

This one was definitely an improvisation when it came to the potato, and I liked this method. I thought I had red potatoes in the basket on the counter but nope, none there. I did have baking potatoes so they were made separately and served with the finished dish.

I got my corned beef at Boarman’s last week. They have all sizes and I picked up a smallish 2 1/2 pound one. I used the recipe from an old cookbook, The New Basics, by the authors of The Silver Palate.

Simple. Boil the corned beef for three hours in a pot with carrots, celery and a clove studded onion. Discard all those mushy vegetables and save the broth for step two. Cooking the cabbage in the broth with leek, carrots and potatoes but I didn’t have leeks. I used scallions and shallots. I did the potato in the oven since it was a russet potato for baking.

Added the caraway seeds, salt, pepper and parsley. Voila! An excellent meal, with leftover broth to make a cabbage soup today.

I also bought a freshly baked loaf of Irish Soda Bread at Martin’s the other day. A perfect side for the dinner, served warmed up.

The cookbook called for horseradish cream so I stopped on the way home from Westminster and found this gem at Bullock’s.

This stuff is wonderful. It will be used on roast beef sandwiches, and as a side when I make a London Broil from my meat share. It has a slight kick to it. By the way, Bullock’s meat market on 32 near 97 is one of the best around. I picked up a few goodies to use this week, like short ribs.

Our dessert for St. Patty’s Day? A few Irish potatoes. Cinnamon and coconut. Yum!

They were also at Martin’s. We used to get these often at my MIL’s in Shenandoah PA. They are not that common in our area.

Finished the day with a toast to my Irish relatives. A wee bit of Tullamore Dew. Sláinte!