Pictures of St. Patricks Day Dinner & A Friends Yummy dinner.

Our St. Patrick's Day dinner turned out great.  The lamb chops were marinated in olive oil, basalmic vinegar, garlic and rosemary.  The potatoes, were "smashed" by my youngest and loaded with butter, garlic and whole milk, and the peas were steamed.  Here's how it all turned out:

And now for some mouthwatering pictures of my friends St. Patrick's Day Dinner - She's recently discovered cooking her corned beef in a slow cooker - Seems it turned out perfect.........

You can fined the recipe for the Slow Cooker Corned Beef with Horseradish Cream, Carrots, Red Potatoes and Cabbage here at Yumsugar
And here is a picture of the Irish Onion Soup that I hope to be making myself soon.  It looks incredible! 

Doesn't that make you hungry looking at it?
If you feel the need to make this for yourself you can find the recipe here at Yumsugar.

The lovely lady who made this delicious dinner has a wheat free family, so she made this recipe her own by substituting her homemade almond flour focaccia for the regular crusty bread this recipe calls for.  I'll be trying to get that recipe from her and post it here for anyone who is interested in a wheat free option.
Hope everyone had a lucky and delicious St. Paddy's Day - Happy Spring!

2011 St. Patricks Day - Not like any other for me

Last year, I pulled out all the stops and put on an amazing St. Patricks Day dinner.  I brined my own beef brisket, cooked it up with potatoes and cabbage and made my favorite bread pudding recipe for desert.  I love brining my own Corned Beef, it's far superior to anything you can buy, and you can skip the nitrates.  But, this year is a whole different situation.  I have since left my married life and I'm living as a single mom off and on as I share custody with my ex.  A full corned beef would be a crazy amount of food for me and my girls.  But I figured, what the heck - plenty of sandwiches later.  But, the economy being what it is, and the divorce doing what it has to my own personal economy, I can't justify buying an entire brisket to corn when I have just $60 to make it to the next paycheck.  So what to do.

I decide, while I'm feeling sorry for myself, to pick up one of my favorite books, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day.  Angela's Ashes.  Frank McCourt's memoir of his extremely challenging and poor childhood in Ireland and the U.S.  This book always makes me feel grateful for what I have, and points out to me the hell that human beings can survive.  After re-reading the part in chapter three about Frank's mother, Angela, managing to get a pig's head for Christmas dinner.  That's all they could afford, and they were lucky to get it.  To top it off, there isn't enough coal to cook the pig's head, and the boys and their father have to go out on the streets to scrounge for coal to get their Christmas dinner cooked.  I won't even begin to go into the hell that their living conditions were.  I will just say, that's enough to make me stop whining about not being able to have corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. 

So - I decide to thoroughly go through my pantry and figure out just what we can have for St. Patrick's dinner - I have managed to find 6 lamb chops left from the 4-H sheep Cordelia raised a couple of years ago, and I decided to take with me when I left my married life - tightly wrapped, and due to be used.  There are 3 potatoes in the bottom of my fridge needing to be boiled up and mashed up with some butter and milk, and, hello!  A bag of frozen peas in the back of my freezer.  Voila!  St. Patrick's day dinner is good to go, and I'm counting my blessings!  Lamb chops!  Yum! 

Hmmm - and desert?  I know apple pie doesn't sound Irish - it's all American right?  Well, apples were a big part of the Celtic diet, and I already have the apples sliced and frozen in my freezer.  I just need to make a pie crust, put the apples in it with sugar, butter, cinnamon and a little lemon zest, all of which I have on hand, bake it, and we have a traditional Irish desert for St. Patrick's day. 

Hopefully I'll pull of of this off, and hopefully everyone else out there will have a wonderful, nourishing, and plentiful St. Patrick's Day. 

'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!'
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

P.S. - when the money situation lightens up a bit, I still plan to corn that brisket and have myself a belated St. Patrick's Day dinner. 

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Two years ago I "corned' my own beef for St. Patricks Day and was very pleased with the result.  I wanted to do it again the following year, but was unable to find a brisket to corn anywhere.  The story I got, was they were all sent out to be corned for St. Patrick's Day.  This year I was bound and determined to get a brisket to corn.  The smallest one I could find was well over 6 lbs, but no way was I going to pass it up considering my challenge in not being able to find one the year before.

I have a great book called Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn that gave me the idea to try this.  The same year I got this book I also found a Bon Appetit Magazine (March 2008) that had a "cooking class" article on brining your own corned beef.  Between the two and a few other recipes I found I came up with my own herb mix to go with the brine, which came out surprisingly good.

So to brine the brisket I poured 6 cups of water and a Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale into a deep pan, added 1 1/2 cups kosher salt and stirred until dissolved.  You can use Insta Cure #1 at this point.  I didn't.  This is what will make your corned beef red.  Then add 1 cup packed golden brown sugar and stir until dissolved them mix in pickling spices. I made a mixture of my own pickling spices which consisted of 2 bay leaves, a couple fresh sprigs of thyme (from my garden) 1 tsp mustard seeds, 10 juniper berries, 10 crushed peppercorns, tsp coriander seeds, tbsp red pepper flakes, tbsp allspice berries,  1/2 crushed cinnamon stick, tsp whole cloves and a tsp of ground ginger.

I placed the beef in this pot, made sure it was submerged ( you can place a heavy plate on it to do this) and let is set until the morning of the 17th.  (6 days)

The night before St. Patricks Day I made the bread pudding I make almost every St. Patricks Day for the last 10 years.  Chocolate Chip and Raisin Bread Pudding with Bailey's Creme. This is a Bon Appetit Recipe from 1990 that I have finally become real consistent with, especially with the Creme Anglaise.
Here's the recipe:

1 1lb loaf cinnamon swirl raisin bread, ends and crusts removed, bread cut into cubes ( I used a cinnamon vanilla raisin bread this time)
1 1/2 cups milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
1/3 cup Bailey's Original Irish Cream liquer
1/4 cup dark rum ( I used Sailor Jerry's spiced rum)
1 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1 tblsp grated orange peel
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Bailey's Creme Anglaise - recipe to follow

Place bread cubes in large bowl.  Whisk milk, eggs, cream, liquor and runin another bowl.  Mix in chocolate, raisins, orange peels and vanilla, Pour liquid over bread cubes and mix.  Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter 9 inch springform pan.  Wrap outside of pan with foil (if you don't all that liquid will pour right on out.)Pour pudding mixture into prepared pan.  Bake until bread pudding is set in center about 50 minutes. Serves 8 2 1//2 cups)

Cook to lukewarm, Run small knife around pudding and release pan sides - serve war with sauce
(8 servings)
Bailey's Creme Anglaise
Makes about 2 1/2 cups

1 1/3 cups whipping cream
2/3 cups milk 2/3 cups vanilla bean splip lengthwise

Baileys Creme Anglaise ( makes 2 1/2 cups)
1 1/3 cups whipping cream
1/3 cups milk
2/3 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
 1/4 cup Baile's Original Irish Cream Liqueur

Scald cream and milk with vanilla bean in havey medium saucepan.

Meanwhile, whisk yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend.  Slowly whisk in scalded mixture.  Return custard to saucepan and stir over low heat until mixture thickens and leaves a path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about  6 minutes; do not boil or mixture will curdle. Strain into medium bowl.  Stir in liqueur. Cover and chill. ( Can be prepared 1 day ahead)

St Paddy's morning I pulled out the brisket and rinsed it thoroughly.  I put it in a crock pot and poured one Guinness Stout over it and covered it with water.  I then put in 4 bay leaves, 1 tbsp of coriander seeds, 2 whole allspice berries, and a tbsp of red pepper flakes. I left it to cook for the day. When I got home I peeled and quartered 6 turnips, peeled 6 carrots and chopped into 2 inch pieces, 2 parsnips peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces, quartered a head of cabbage and quartered 2 red onions and 6 white potatoes.  All of these I put in another pot with some of the juices from the Corned Beef, some more Guinness and water.  That was left to cook for a little over 1/2 hour.  In the mean time my husband and I made a stout mustard.  It consisted of 1/2 cup coarse grained Dijon. 2 Tbsp regular dijon, 2 tbsp Guinness Stout,  1 tbsp minced shallot and 1 tsp golden brown sugar.

It all turned out very delicious and I wish I  give you the pleasure of smelling what I cooked.  It was absolutely delicious.  I hope to keep doing this every St. Patricks Day from here on out.

 May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

St. Patty's update, better late then never

There it is! My wonderful corned beef, corned personally by me. And man was it good! It didn't have that red coloring that you get when you buy one in the store, because I didn't have any of the insta cure no. 1. But it didn't look as disturbingly gray as I thought it would. It just looked like a beef brisket (purchased locally at Loleta Meat Market). It also wasn't as dry and tough as the ones I've had from the store. It was more tender, and the texture was softer. Another difference is, I didn't just cook it in pickling spices like you do with the ones from the store. I brined it with pickling spices, but I used a boquet garnis, or a spice bag filled with bay leaves, coriander seeds, allspice, and a dried chile. It gave it a subtle but distinct difference from store bought. That slight taste of allspice really made it unique. Another thing a friend of mine pointed out, is that it still tasted like beef. She noted that the ones from the store taste like pickling spices, and you don't really taste the meat, in mine, you could still taste the meat. I would say that's a good thing.
I got the idea for brining my own corned beef from Bon Appetite (you should be able to find the recipe at epicurious.com). I made my brine slightly different from theirs. I borrowed a few things from the brine method out of Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman.
Otherwise I followed Bon Appetite's recipe for cooking it on St. Patty's. I cooked it in Guiness Stout with the spice sack I mentioned above, turnips, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. I made the horseradish cream and guiness mustard from Bon Appetite as well. It was all worth every minute of my time, and was topped off by my Bailey's Bread Pudding topped with a hard cream sauce. YUM!
Then the next weekend it was off to Chico to spend Easter with the in-laws which I got to do no cooking, but enjoyed every bit of food, as the scale will attest.
Unfortunately the only food picture I have of the Easter feast is this one:


These turned out to be some very comforting and delicious scalloped potatoes that went along great with the ham asparagus and rolls.
Then the next weekend was John's birthday. I made my Mom's potato salad recipe (sweet pickles, not dill)and I boiled corn on the cob, while John made his own special rub and BBQ'd pork ribs, which he later doused in Stubbs BBQ sauce. The first set of ribs came from a pig our friend raised locally. John helped with the culling ( a story you don't want to hear). Those ribs came out incredibly good. Slightly spicy, the fat was crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and the meat tender. The other ribs came from a wild boar that John and his friend Pat had killed the year before.

We still haven't got the hang of cooking wild boar. The meat fibers are shorter, and it's way too easy to over cook. They would have been wonderful, if we had teeth like a lion.

Then, the next reason it has taken me so long give an update on my brisket, is that one of our 3 pregnant goats decided to have her kids the next weekend. This will (hopefully) be the next adventure in our culinary experiences. I'm planning on learning a few goat meat recipes in the future. These cute little kids:



will be ending up on the menu in the future. I know, how could you eat such a cute thing? But believe me, when they get big and have horns and start butting you and your children, it's not so hard. They start to look mighty delicious! So, bon appetite, hopefully it won't be so long until I post again.

Corned Beef

Saint Patrick's Day is coming! My once o' year chance to eat Corned Beef and Cabbage. I know that Corned Beef isn't actually the traditional meal eaten in Ireland for St. Paddy's day. Corned Beef is an every day food, the food of the working class. The Irish are far more likely to eat a good Lamb Stew, which sounds good too, and I'm always tempted every year to make Lamb Stew instead, but I always break down and do the Corned Beef and Cabbage, because it's the one time of year I eat it, and it is incredibly delicious comfort food.
This year, I have decided to take the Corned Beef to a new level. I happened to see a Bon Appetite magazine for the month of March, and there was this mouth watering picture of a corned beef sandwich on the front. The image drew me to the magazine and made my stomach growl. I had to buy this magazine, I couldn't be stopped! It must be mine! I was so excited when I got home

So, I saw the recipe for brining your own corned beef, and thought, "I can do this!"

The Bon Appetite Recipe was simple. A 6 lb Beef Brisket being brined in beer, water, sugar salt, pickle spices, and, if available, Cure Number 1, which of coarse was not.
Thankfully, the cure is not necessary. It's merely the agent that makes the corned beef red. So, my corned beef will be gray, not red.

Ruhlman's recipe (from his new Charcuterie book that I recently bought) was also simple. The only difference was that he did not include beer, he called for a little more salt, white sugar instead of brown,garlic, and the cure was not optional in his recipe. So, when he said cure for 5 and Bon Appetite said 8, I went with 8, since I couldn't get the cure. Just a safety thing I guess.

So Kim's recipe is: a 5 1b brisket brined in 4 cups water, 2 cups Bass Ale, 1/4 cup pickling spices, 2 garlic cloves 2 cups course kosher salt, 1 cup brown sugar. I would have put in the cure if I could have acquired some in time for starting the cure. Oh Well, A gray brisket is better than no brisket.

So, the brisket is currently out in the garage fridge brining away. This is day two ( and the garage smells like Corned beef! It's Awesome!). On Wednesday I'll take it out, and stir up the brine and turn over the brisket and let it brine for another 4 days. Sunday it should be done, which means time to cook it up with potatoes, carrots, turnips, and, of course, cabbage Monday afternoon.

I'm so excited to see what my cured corned beef tastes like. Will it be similar to what I buy, or very different, and if so, how will I feel about that? I'm not sure what to expect. So we shall see. I hope it's good.
So, I'll let you know, and in the mean time. Top O' the Mornin' to ya'

And in the words of Yeats:

"Irish poets learn your trade
Sing whatever is well made.
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after"
Porter-drinkers' randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indominitable Irishry.

W.B. Yeats, Under Ben Bulben