Gotta do the Corned Beef and Cabbage on the 17th...you just gotta! This was super fun, easy and thanks to my friend Shelly a great display of teamwork in the kitchen. Here's the rundown of what you need:
1 Pre-packaged brisket of Corned Beef
Carrots
Potatoes (I prefer the baby red ones)
Green Cabbage
Horseradish
Vinegar
Seasonings (Shelly suggests caraway, fennel seed...we made do with the spice blends I had from Penzey's)
When I searched for recipes on how to cook corned beef, they all suggested boiling it. That made me raise my eyebrows, but trust me..it's the traditional way and it turned out very nice.
Take your corned beef brisket and a big dutch oven and cover it with water. Add any spice packs that may have come with the corned beef to the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and let it go on low for the rest of the day. I cooked mine "low and slow" for about 5 hours. Remove the brisket from the water and wrap in aluminum foil to rest.
Take the residual flavorful corned beef water and get the funky gicky stuff out of it. Place in another pan that you can use your steamer basket in. Cut the cabbage into wedges and remove the core. Add preferred spices- seasoned salt, pepper, caraway seed, fennel seed, etc to the cabbage. I boiled the peeled carrots and not peeled potatoes in a separate pot with corned beef water.
The key is cutting the corned beef on a bias. You have to be patient and cut it thin. I give kudos to Shelly for an excellent slicing job. It was so tender! Serve with horseradish, spicy mustard and vinegar for the cabbage if you so desire.
