Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Corned beef and cabbage

SERVES 6 TO 8

Use flat-cut corned beef brisket, not point-cut; it’s more uniform in shape and thus will cook more evenly. When slicing the cabbage, leave the core intact or the cabbage will fall apart during cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 (4- to 5-pound) corned beef brisket roast, rinsed, fat trimmed to 1/4 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 cups water
12 carrots, peeled (3 chopped, 9 halved crosswise)
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
1 head green cabbage (2 pounds), cut into 8 (2-inch) wedges
Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine beef, broth, water, chopped carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, and allspice in Dutch oven. Cover and bake until fork slips easily in and out of meat, 4½ to 5 hours.

2. Transfer meat to 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, discard solids, and skim fat from liquid. Pour 1 cup cooking liquid over meat. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, return remaining cooking liquid to Dutch oven, add butter, and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and simmer until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add carrot halves and cabbage, cover, and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer vegetables to serving platter and season with pepper to taste. (Reserve cooking liquid for making Creamed Chipped Beef using leftover corned beef; recipe at right.)

4. Transfer beef to carving board and slice against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Serve with vegetables.

NOTES:

  • This was really outstanding!  I started with a better than average piece of meat from Costco, so there was less fat to begin with, but even so, letting it rest while the veggies were cooking made it easy to slice nicely without the falling apart tendency I get when I cook it in the crock pot.
  • I did not add carrots to the beginning step (to be discarded later)
  • I also did not add the extra spices called for, since the spice packet with the meat seemed comparable. 
  • In particular, cooking the vegetables later made for really great texture and a not over salty flavor.  
  • I'd definitely do it this way again.
  • Source: Cook's Country

Sunday, March 9, 2014

A Water Upgrade

In a moment of weakness and dire thirst, I recently decided it was worth the buck and a half to get one of these delicious MetroMint products.  They really are very good, but when I got home and still had a partial bottle left over, I tried a little (very little) experiment and made my own version.  In a side-by-side taste test, I couldn't tell the difference.  Since then, I've been making this "recipe" pretty regularly, even to the point of washing out the bottle and reusing it for the rotation (one batch there and another in my beloved water bottle - one always cooling in the fridge and the other travelling with me).


Note: the only remotely "hard" thing about this process is measuring one drop.  I do have a bottle of doTERRA's Wild Orange with a convenient dropper lid, and I've tried a variety of things with the mint including covering the bottle opening with my finger, tipping it and then just sticking my finger in the water.  "Home Economist Sue" does not recommend this.  "Practical, I'm only making it for my own consumption Sue", does.