Happy (early) St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!
I’ve actually been looking forward to sharing this recipe with you all for quite some time. It’s funny how I have been waiting on March to get here to share it and then March got here and it had to wait on me to actually get this all together and cook it.
Such is life, I guess.
This meal is very special to me. Not only is it the meal my mom would make for us every St. Patrick’s Day’s, it’s also the meal my mom would make for me for special occasions — like when I was home visiting from college, when I got my choice on a special dinner and other good times like that.
I have considered this my favorite meal for a very long time — really, for as long as I can remember.
Oddly enough, I’ve never made it for myself. I guess I just always associated it as my mom’s Corned Beef and Cabbage that I love so much.
Well, given my recent move to Austin and my mom’s address in California, I came to realize I needed to make this special meal for myself if I wanted it any time soon. And I did.
I chose to put together my own spice combination, rather than use the spice packet that usually comes with the corned beef in the package — just to see if I could enhance the flavors a bit. If you’d like to use the spice packet instead, that’s fine too. Other than that, this recipe pretty closely follows what I consider to be my favorite meal.
I hope you all enjoy this Corned Beef and Cabbage and have a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day as well!
Here’s to good times, great food and warm memories!
- 4 lbs corned beef untrimmed
- 6-8 cups water
- spice mixture see below
- 8 small red potatoes unpeeled and cut into quarters
- 5 carrots unpeeled, halved and cut into thirds
- 1 head cabbage cut into 8 wedges
- 1 medium onion cut into eighths
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- 5 tbsp yellow mustard
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp whole mustard seeds
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Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
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Rinse corned beef under running water and pat dry. Rub with spice mixture (recipe listed above) and place in dutch oven or deep oven-proof pot, fat-side up. Add water (enough to cover the beef and then some). Heat over medium-high heat on stove until boiling. Once the pot has reached a boil, skim off any scum that collects on top and then transfer, covered, to the oven.
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Braise for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until very tender.
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In a small bowl, mix together the coconut sugar and mustard until smooth. Set aside.
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Remove the corned beef from the water and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Allow to cool slightly. Carefully remove the fat from the top of the beef using a sharp knife and slicing horizontally. Discard the fat. Generously coat the top and sides of the corned beef with the coconut sugar-mustard mixture.
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Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.
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Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves from the water in the dutch oven. Add the vegetables (cabbage, carrots, onion and potatoes) to the dutch oven, adding additional water to raise water level to about 1/2 full if necessary. Cover and place over medium-high heat on the stove. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 15-25 minutes.
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Place the glazed corned beef back in the oven and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes, until glaze is bubbly and crackling. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes on a cutting board.
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Once vegetables are tender, remove from heat and drain the water.
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Slice corned beef across the grain (see photo above) into 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch inch slices. Plate a few slices of corned beef, a cabbage wedge, some carrots, potatoes and onion for each serving.
Need to do this again too!
This looks sooo good. Awww I’m craving for Macs now. Pity I dont have a bag of English muinffs and corned beef to make a delicious breakfast like yours. Yummy!