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| Corned beef and cabbage is delicious cooked with beer and brown sugar |
On St. Patrick’s Day even those of us who aren’t Irish enjoy celebrating, and for a lot of people, the festivities include a delicious meal of corned beef and cabbage. It’s actually not a traditional Irish dish; by many accounts it’s an Americanized version of Irish bacon and cabbage. It is tasty though, and in our family we also serve it for good luck on New Year’s Day (with kale and black eyed peas). One of our favorite preparations is to slow-roast the corned beef in the oven with beer and brown sugar. I make it with dark beer, and I'm partial to Victory Brewing Company's Storm King Imperial Stout; it gives the corned beef a bold beer taste without being overpowering or bitter. My version of the recipe is after the jump.
CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE WITH BEER AND BROWN SUGAR
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 4 hours
Servings: 4
INGREDIENTS:
One 3-4 pound corned beef brisket
One head cabbage, cut into wedges
6-8 carrots
6-8 small potatoes
2 medium onions, chopped
One 12 ounce bottle stout beer
¾ cup brown sugar
Spice pack from meat or your own blend (garlic, cloves, mustard seed, bay leaves etc.)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 300˚. Rinse corned beef, pat dry with paper towels. Slice a little bit of the fat layer off, put in stock pot, add 3-4 quarts water, bring to boil, and reduce to simmer for a few hours. You can throw in a clove or two of garlic if you like. This is the liquid you’ll be using to cook the vegetables (some people just put the veggies in with the corned beef, but I don’t make mine that way because I think it makes everything taste exactly the same).
2. Coat the corned beef brisket – top and bottom – with brown sugar, press it into the beef with the back of a spoon, place in baking dish. Sprinkle spice blend over the top of the beef.
3. Pour the beer around the corned beef, then spoon the beer over the sugar and corned beef. Be careful not to put too much too fast – you don’t want the sugar to run off.
4. Bake covered for 4 hours, turning over at the halfway mark. Once it’s done remove from the oven and let it rest 5-10 minutes before slicing.
5. When you have about 30 minutes cooking time left on your corned beef, start the vegetables. Simply remove the corned beef fat from the pot of water, add the vegetables (I usually leave my carrots and potatoes whole), bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes until tender.
We rarely have leftovers from this dish, but sometimes I save a few slices to make corned beef and eggs for breakfast or a corned beef special sandwich for lunch (corned beef, cole slaw and Russian dressing on rye).
Recipe and photo ©Glamorosi 2013
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Posted on Sunday, March 17, 2013
