We're All a Little Irish

I've worn green. I've tried green beer (ick). Heck, I am more Irish than I am anything else. But until now, I've never prepared or eaten a "traditional" Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day. Disclaimer: I may be wrong about this...and my mom will read it and want to correct me. Except she seems to have errors when trying to comment on my posts. So she can't. Ha! (Seriously though I don't remember ever having this...)

So now that I'm officially a grown up I decided to take the celebration beyond the tired old green shirt (and certainly no green beer).

Irish Ale Corned Beef with Cabbage, Potatoes and Onions
Serves 4

Ingredients:

3-4 lb corned beef brisket
6-8 petite redskin potatoes, halved
1 large onion, cut into 1 inch wedges
4-6 carrots, cut into 2 inch chunks
1 small head green cabbage, quartered
1 12-oz Irish Ale (such as Killian's or Smithwick's)
2-3 cups water
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 teaspoon black pepper corns
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

This is about as easy as it gets. Put the brisket, fat side up, along with the potatoes, onion, garlic and carrots into a slow-cooker with the juices from the corned beef, 1 bottle of beer, and enough water to cover everything. Add the peppercorns, mustard and coriander seed, and salt to the top of the brisket. Cook everything on high for 5 hours. After 5 hours are up, quarter the cabbage, removing the core and add it to the slow-cooker for one more hour.


Once you've cooked everything for around 6 hours, remove the corned beef and slice it. Yummmmmy.


In case your husband feels like you may not have enough potatoes, boil a few more, drain, and toss with butter and fresh parsley.


Anecdote: we though we wanted to try Irish Soda Bread as well with dinner but didn't have this revelation until about 2 hours before dinner time. Due to our lack of planning, I ran to the supermarket to pick some up as we wouldn't be cooking any. Little did we know it had fruitcake type stuff in it. Strange. Not bad, just strange.


Our Irish feast! Serve the corned beef with stone ground mustard and horseradish.


Sláinte!!!