Last Monday, our neighborhood market had fresh corned beef again. So I bought one and froze it for the weekend, to try the method I used for a recent Sunday roast and add some turnips and cabbage.
(All photos by Tamara Keel.)
(All photos by Tamara Keel.)
A lot of turnips and cabbage. So much so it needed an overwrap to close up the roasting pan.
It cooked down well.
The corned beef was nice.
With the cabbage set into a covered dish, the remainder of the vegetables are revealed: potatoes on the bottom with turnips, carrots and celery on top of them, followed by little sweet peppers and exotic mushrooms.
It plated up nicely!
It turned out every bit as good as I had hoped. About an hour in, I was worried the beef was getting a little too done. Adding a little water with balsamic vinegar in it solved that -- a neat trick, though it's very much a matter of experience and informed guesswork.
It cooked for three hours total. All of the vegetables except the cabbage wedges and mushrooms went in with a little over an hour left; and they were added with 45 minutes to go. I could have probably added them all right at one hour or just under. Seasoning was what comes with the corned beef, plus a couple of bay leaves. You don't add salt to this; there's plenty in the corned beef and it does the job on the vegetables.
It turned out every bit as good as I had hoped. About an hour in, I was worried the beef was getting a little too done. Adding a little water with balsamic vinegar in it solved that -- a neat trick, though it's very much a matter of experience and informed guesswork.
It cooked for three hours total. All of the vegetables except the cabbage wedges and mushrooms went in with a little over an hour left; and they were added with 45 minutes to go. I could have probably added them all right at one hour or just under. Seasoning was what comes with the corned beef, plus a couple of bay leaves. You don't add salt to this; there's plenty in the corned beef and it does the job on the vegetables.
6 comments:
I (nearly) followed your previous posting to make our St Pat's Day lunch. I actually cut the corned beef tri-cut into 40-60 shares, refreezing the larger. The remaining chunk, I rinsed in running water. As we no longer have a grill and I had just cleaned the oven, I used one of my crock pots. When I added veggies (including turnip), on the bottom, I added about 1/2-cup of the packaged brine diluted 1:1 with water. Forgot to add the cabbage; but, the results made a great meal. Thanks for the suggestions, R X.
So THAT'S what was under the foil. Be sure to thank roomie for the pictures; it looks delicious.
With three hours of cooking time outdoors, how do you prevent a horde of appetatious neighbors from leaning over the fence, drooling? Seriously though, would this work almost as well in the oven since the pan is pretty well covered and mostly sealed?
Thanks for posting this; our local grocery store is closing out their corned beef cuts in a post-St-Paddy's sale.
Cop Car: I'm happy to see my sort-of recipe was useful to you!
Blackwing1, this should work fine in the oven or, as Cop Car did, in a crockpot with some liquid. Low and slow either way -- probably at 300 degrees in the oven, but I'm guessing and a meat thermometer will help. Not less than 275 and I think 350 would be too high.
I have had neighbors ask what we're cooking, but a closed roasting pan doesn't produce lots of aroma. Steaks, now, those get a few comments. It's all tall privacy fences in my neighborhood (good news for a less-than-organized person like me), so grilling just sends up gentle smoke signals and it's not always easy to tell who's cooking.
Madame X:
I picked up a flat-cut brisket this morning at the store, along with the necessary taters and miscellaneous other veggies. I darned near didn't get the sale price when the grocery-store computer failed to mark it down; fortunately my wife goes over the receipts before we leave and she spotted that right away; we got it for $3.99 a pound.
I brought the large-diameter crock-pot up from the basement this evening. I'll prep up all the veggies and then follow some of the recommendations off the web for going low-and-slow in a crock-pot (8 to 9 hours on the slow setting) with the potatoes on the bottom.
Since neither my wife nor I like cooked cabbage there won't be any in there. But with potatoes, onions, carrots and mushrooms I'm figuring it should still work out well. I'll fire it up first thing in the morning and try to forget about it until the early evening.
Thanks again for the inspiration.
Blackwing1: You may want to start out with just the brisket in the crockpot, and add the vegetables a little later. You'll be cooking at a lower temperature, so I'm not sure just when. The meat should turn out very tender with this method -- mind that it doesn't dry out when cooked alone.
I would consider a stalk of celery, too. Unless you don;t like the stuff. :)
Blackwing1: The Crock Pot that I used has a 6-quart container and has but 2 settings. I used "low" but, at that, had to turn it off for a few minutes every hour to keep the heat in check. You can gauge your own container and brisket - may not have a problem. For the smallish chunk of meat that I had, I should have used the 2-quart Crock Pot. I gave away the only temperature controlled Crock Pot as it was too large for just my husband and me to use. Perfect for granddaughter's family of four.
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