Everyone is a Little Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

If you haven’t figured it out, I’m Italian through and through. My personal chef business specializes in Italian cuisine and American fare but once a year I try and create a delicious meal honoring my wife’s Irish heritage. See, my wife’s family is as much Irish as mine is Italian. So, once a year, I make corned beef and cabbage. While I love a good corned beef sandwich I’m not a fan of boiling meat and cabbage to the brink of tastelessness.

This year I tried a new slower cooked recipe that utilizes a slow cooker set on low. Placing only onions and carrots in the bottom of the cooker I added about a cup or two of water then the 4 lb corned beef on top. After putting the included spices over top, I covered the entire beef with a stout beer and closed the lid. I cooked this for about 9 hours before lifting the corned beef and adding quartered potatoes to the bottom of the vessel, replaced the corned beef back on top, then put in my cabbage. I then made sure most of the cabbage was submerged in the liquid left in the crock pot. After cooking about another hour, the vegetables were perfectly cooked and the corned beef amazingly tender!

So, maybe I’m a convert. I just may have to make this recipe more than once a year. Really looking forward to some corned beef sandwiches this weekend!