Monday, March 15, 2010

The St. Patrick's Day Feast

Here's the thing: I'm not Irish.  Not even a little bit.  Never been there, boat didn't dock there on the way over from Russia way back when, all the red hair in my family is bottle-born.

But here's the other thing:  I love corned beef and cabbage.  Like, I LOVE it.  I can honestly not get enough of boiled cabbage.  And really, who LOVES boiled cabbage?  And it's not just the cabbage, either.  It's the Irish soda bread and salty boiled potatoes and carrots and mashed turnips.  Yes, that's right, I, of no Irish heritage in the least, just admitted to having a deep and honest love for mashed turnips.  Go figure...

Anyway, I used to date this guy who had a thing for corned beef and cabbage (he was Irish, and red-headed, it make sense for him), and he would make it once or twice a year and therefore, he was the master of the corned beef and cabbage recipe.

This year we weren't so much speaking 'round corned beef and cabbage time, so I had to wing it.  In other words, I made TWO corned beefs this year!

The one yesterday- which was the authentic New England style, flat-cut, gray corned beef- turned into shoe leather about 90 minutes in.  I have no idea why or how it happened, but it now sits in my fridge wrapped in cling wrap waiting the allotted two or three months to go by before I will inevitably throw it away.  I did cook the baby potatoes, carrots and cutest little head of cabbage with it though.  Today, I cooked a 2.5 lb red corned beef (along with another head of cabbage because of the aforementioned unnatural love of boiled green things), and it was AMAZING.  I hate to say it to the hardcore Irish out there, but I am red corned beef all the way now.  I guess there is more Eastern-European Jew in me than I thought.


Adding to the confusion that is my non-Irish heritage-loving-Irish-food St. Patrick's Day is that it has now become a little tradition for my parents to come over for my boiled dinner delicacy.  My mother brings the Irish Soda Bread (from the kosher bakery, of course) and we chow down on the goodness.  Pictures below...
 
Boiled cabbage
 
Mashed turnips
 
Delicious red corned beef
 
Potatoes and Carrots on the table.

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