Luck of the Irish?

Ever since I was little my mom's used the phrase "luck of the Irish" in so many different ways. And when St. Patty's day rolls around, she uses it constantly. But i'm not sure if she would say it was with me or against me today.

As mentioned in my last post, I attempted to make corned beef for my family today. This was at my mom's request "because we never eat anything relating to her heritage" mainly because they find things like haggis to be appetizing

So anyway, I tried to make a nice meal for my mother. Traditionally, corned beef is boiled with cabbage for a couple of hours, drained of the water, and served just like that, with some potatoes on the side. Now, I absolutely despise anything from the cabbage family once its been boiled. Cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, you name it, I find it disgusting if you submerge it in water. I'm also not found of meats, particularly beef, and my sister can not stand potatoes. Along with all of that, I'm on what my family is referring to as a "health food kick", which is simply an attempt at trying to get them to eat better. As you can imagine, a nice traditional Irish meal is difficult for this family.

So we compromised, and while the meal wasn't exactly traditional, everybody loved it.

Yes, that is a Valentine's Day tablecloth. We don't have a St.Patty's cloth, so it stays there until Easter

The meal included a glazed corn beef, steamed green beans, potato wedges, coleslaw, Irish soda bread, and as a special treat, we made some Shamrock Shakes for dessert.

All was good, and then I majorly screwed up. 

The glaze for the corned beef is realtivly simple, unless you have a tiny kitchen, two children chasing each other in it, a teenager resting her head on your shoulder, and you're completley unorganized.

So for me, it didn't go that well at first.

Somehow, with all the fuss going on around me in the kitchen, I forgot that I had butter melting in the stove and walked away from it. If you've ever melted butter in a saucepan, you can already see the disaster forming. 

In the couple of minutes that I was away from it, the butter completley burned to the bottom of the pan, to the point that it was starting to smoke. How nobody noticed, I'll never know. 

Once somebody did notice, I took the pan over to sink immediatley and put it under some cold water which is a BIG no-no. Of course, the water started to spit, and the first time a drop of the boiling water hit me, it startled me, and I dropped the pan. Onto the counter. The whiter counter. Which know has a brown circle and a black hole right in the middle of it.

Needless to say, my mom was not amused.

Other than that, everything went great. Once we cleaned up the pan, I put the teenager in charge of the glaze, sent the kids outside to play, and went about organizing my kitchen.

So now, a quick tutorial (with recipes!) on glazed corned beef, potato wedges, and Irish soda bread:

Irish soda bread might actually be the easiest, yummiest bread to make. It has baking soda and baking powder in it, so there's no reason for it to need time to rise, but be warned: I do not believe it counts as unleavened bread.

For Irish soda bread, you're going to need:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup rasins

2 Tablespoons caraway seeds

3/4 cup milk

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

The first step is to mix the vinegar and milk in a small bowl. Then just set it aside. 

Then you're going to mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cube the butter and cut it in with a fork until the mixture resembles cornmeal.  

Once you'vegot all that mixed together, add your raisins and caraway seeds. I usualy mix this up until the flour causes the raising to seprate out of their little clumps. 

Make a well in the middle of the bowl and add the milk and vinegar mixture. Blend with a fork until all the dry ingredients come together.

Grease a flour a round pan (I usually use an 8 inch cake pan)
Then, flour a flat surface and flip the dough out of the bowl on to it. Dist a little bit of flour on top and shape it into a circle. Transfer the circle into the pan and move it around until it fills the pan.
Cut an X into the top with a knife
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean

This is not my picture, I forgot to take one so the internet helped me out with an example

Alright, on to the corned beef. This seems a little tricky, but it's actually very easy, and of course, very yummy.

In order to make this, you're going to need:

1 corned beef brisket with the spice packet (I used a 3 to 4 pound brisket, and it fed 7)

1 medium onion, sliced

1 celery rib. sliced

1/4 cup of butter, cubed

1 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup of ketchup

1/3 cup of white vinegar

2 tablespoons prepared mustard*

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish*

To start, you're going to put the corned beef into a dutch oven with the contents of the seasoning packet on top.

 This is what the spice packet looks like

And this is all you're going to do with the meat and spice packet to start

Once you have that all set, you're going to chop up your onions and celery, and put them in the pot. Then you're going to completely cover the meat with water.

I cut my onions and celery into cubes because they're easier for me to handle

Once that's all set, you're going to put it on the stove on high, and wait for it to boil. Once the waters boiling, you turn the heat down and let it simmer for 2 1/2 hours. I didn't have any problems with the water level being low, but it's a good idea to check it every once in a while, to avoid any problems.

As those 2 1/2 hours are winding down, you're going to need to fix the glaze. In order to do this, you just melt some butter in a small saucepan (do not walk away from it!), then add the sugar, vinegar, ketchup, mustard, and horseradish.

*We actually didn't have any mustard or horseradish, so I just used Dijon mustard, and it turned out pretty good

Once that's all done and the time on the boiling meat is up, you dump out the water and dispose of the vegetables. I know this seems like a big waste, but after boiling for so long, they;re limp and mushy and tasteless.

Grease a wire rack and metal pan and place the corned beef brisket in it. Then pour the glaze on top. Personally, I prefer to brush it on the top of the meat and the sides in order to make sure it's completely covered. Also, it seems like such a waste to have all that glaze sit on the bottom of the pan. So I brush the meat and then save the glaze for anyone who wants it.

After you've put the glaze on the meat, the whole thing goes in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

And then you're done!

Now the potato wedges are probably the easiest thing I've ever made. Even my littlest sister can fix them. We happened to have some little Idaho red potatoes sitting around, so I fixed them like you would baked potatoes, and then I cut them into little wedges. Once you've made the wedges, put all of them on a big pan (I used a cookie sheet) and pour a little bit of olive oil on top (just enough to make then kind of shiny) after that you sprinkle some seasoning on top (I used basic Italian seasoning) and throw the whole thing in the oven at 350 until they're slightly crispy. 

Voila! Potatoes, Irish soda bread, and corned beef and hopefully no burnt countertops