A St. Patrick's Day Feast

The Tradition Done Not So Traditionally

Dinner

My Thoughts

Every year either on, or at the very least near to St. Patrick's Day we have a get together with our neighbors and prepare our own takes on the traditional corned beef and cabbage.

I have to say, my take is also my personal favorite - I may be biased but Murphy says it's okay, I'm right. Instead of the usual slow-cooker approach you get crispy seared corned beef (think thick, juicy pastrami), creamy sweat and spicy cabbage slaw, and crunchy fried bread. Eat it with a knife and fork or make it a sandwich (I call it the O'Ruben - well, it's kind of the same, pastrami-ish meat, creamy/spicy cabbage, and toasted bread). The dipping sauce is the same as the sauce for the slaw, so just save a little out and you have yourself a great St. Patrick's Day meal. Oh, and it's great with a Guinness!

The How To Do It

  1. Follow the instructions on each recipe.

Crispy Corned Beef Brisket

  1. Place the corned beef brisket into a Dutch oven or large stock pot. Discard (just throw them away) the packing liquid and seasoning packet. You won't need them.
  2. Fill the pot with three bottles, or two cans, of stout beer (we use Murphy's around here, wonder why?) and enough water to cover the brisket by at least an inch.
  3. Bring the pot to boil and continue to boil the brisket for at least three hours, checking every 45 minutes or so that there is still enough liquid in the pot. If there's not, refill it with water.
  4. Once the brisket is done boiling and is very tender, place the brisket on a cutting board or other surface and cover to let it cool.
  5. Once the brisket is cool, you can either refrigerate it over night or cut it into thin slices. Take special care to cut it across/against the grain. This ensures that it is not stringy and chewy. I usually boil the brisket the evening before and refrigerate it because it 1) takes so long to get it cooked and 2) it is easier to cut it into then slices if it is cold.
  6. Heat a cast iron skillet (or a stainless steel pan) over medium high heat with about two tablespoons of avocado or canola oil.
  7. While the skillet is heating, mix the smoked paprika, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl.
  8. Coat the slices with olive or any other oil you want to use and sprinkle the seasoning mix you just created over both sides of each slice.
  9. Working in batches, sear the brisket slices until they start to crisp up around the edges (they'll start to turn a slightly darker red). Once they are crispy on one side, flip them and crisp the other. Repeat until all the slices have been in the skillet.
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Fried Sourdough Bread

  1. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
  2. Take 8 slices of sourdough bread. I use San Fransisco-style, pre-sliced, sourdough from the grocery store bakery. You could bake your own, but I haven't done that yet. With the exception of the soda bread elsewhere on the site, I really don't bake breads much.
  3. Once the oil is hot, briefly place 4 of the slices into the hot oil.
  4. Quickly flip the slices and let them fry on the other side until they start to turn golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. I do this flip so that the first side doesn't soak up all the oil. Now, when we flip them over again, to fry the first side, they already have oil on them.
  5. Flip the and fry for another 1-2 minutes and remove them from the pan.
  6. This is sort of a lather-rinse-repeat sort of thing. Add another 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet and repeat steps 3-5.
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A Slaw For All Seasons

  1. Thinly slice the cabbage into very thin strips. You want them to be very thin, so you're really shaving off bits of the cabbages. That's how thing you're going for. You can also use a food processor with the slicing attachment (I actually don't know what that blade is called. I never use it.) If the strips are too long, give them a rough chop to get them to a more manageable size
  2. skin the carrot, and shred it using a box grater, or what ever shredder you have. You can also buy the carrots cut into "matchsticks" at the grocery. That usually leaves me with way more shredded carrots than I really want. One carrot is cheap and it doesn't take that long to grate it.
  3. Place all the wet ingredients, except for the oil and vinegar, in a bowl and mix the together thoroughly.
  4. Now add each of the dry ingredients, one at a time, mixing it into the mixture thoroughly. You can mix them together all at once, but you run the risk of getting lumps in it.
  5. Now add the vinegar in and mix well. The reason for adding this in here is, at least for me, is that adding it in before the mixture is mostly created seems to make the mayonnaise almost curdle. I'm not actually sure if it can curdle, but it basically forms little mushy lumps and I've found that adding it last gives a creamier result.
  6. Slowly drizzle in the oil. Kind of like with the vinegar, this is done last to make it easier to get a smooth sauce. If you dump the oil in all at once, with everything else, you'll end up whisking a lot more. The oil doesn't want to combine with the other ingredients and doing it slowly at the end just makes life easier.
  7. Combine the sauce with the slaw. I usually add about a half cup of the sauce to the slaw, but I spoon it in so that I can get the vegetable-to-sauce ratio just right. The perfect amount is the amount that you like best so add it a little at a time until it is where you want it.
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Ingredients

A St. Patrick's Day Feast
4 lbs
Cooked Corned Beef
1 bowl
Sweet Spicy Cabbage Slaw
8 slices
fried sourdough bread
Crispy Corned Beef Brisket
3 lbs
corned beef brisket
33 ozs
stout beer
2 tbsp
canola oil
2 tbsp
olive oil
1 tbsp
smoked paprika
1 tbsp
granulated garlic
1 tsp
kosher salt
1 tsp
black pepper
Fried Sourdough
8 slices
sourdough bread
4 tbsp
olive oil
Sweet And Spicy Slaw
½ med
green cabbage
½ med
red cabbage
½ cup
shredded carrots
2 tbsp
ketchup
1 ½ tbsp
honey
1 cup
avocado mayo
2 tbsp
dijon mustard
2 tbsp
hot whole grain mustard
½ tsp
hot sauce
2 tbsp
Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp
extra hot horseradish
1 tsp
granulated garlic
½ tsp
celery salt
½ tsp
kosher salt
½ tsp
black pepper
2 tbsp
red wine vinegar
½ cup
avocado oil
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