Irish Dinner

Dining Room
Originally uploaded by Snappy Shop

Here's a picture of my dining room. Some friends came over yesterday afternoon. Since it's March, and My Irish hubby's birthday is this week, I made homemade corned beef! Yum. I like to make it with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. We also had rye bread & butter on the side. It was a small group, only 5 of us. But it was really nice, delicious and fun.

I cooked the corned beef in the oven. It's so easy. Here's how I did it.
Chop:
1 onion
3 small carrots
5 or 6 cloves of garlic

put these on the bottom of a large roasting pan

add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp each
whole black pepper
coriander seed
dry basil
dry oregano
celery seed
3 or 4 bay leaves, broken apart

I was experimenting with a few of those. The oregano, basil and celery seed aren't super important, but you definitely need the coriander, pepper and bay leaf.

Open two of those packages of corned beef with the salty brine. Place the meat on top of the spices and veggies, discard that salty brine. They say you're supposed to use it , but I think it's too salty. Also, if the meat came with a little packet of spices, add those to the pan too.

Now mix the stuff around a bit, place some of the veggies and spices on to the top of the meat.

Cover the roasting pan with parchment paper, followed by a couple sheets of foil to seal the edges of the pan.

Place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 3 hours.

At about the three hour point, add about 4 large carrots, cut in quarters. Cover the pan, and put back in the oven.
Now peel 6 or 7 potatoes, I leave some of the clean peel on, but get rid of the eyes and any dirt. Cut the potatoes in half, add those to the pan, put it back in the 350 oven, covered.

Now have a beer with your friends while those potatoes cook. About 1/2 hour 45 minutes later, cut a small cabbage up into big chunks. Open the parchment and foil one last time, take out the meat to rest on a plate, and add the cabbage. This only needs to cook for about 15 minutes more.
Once the cabbage is soft, you're ready to serve your Irish Dinner! Slice the meat across the grain. Serve with rye bread, butter, and stone ground mustard.
Enjoy!