Corned Beef and Cabbage- A St. Patrick's Day Dish a la Crock Pot

The Corned Beef and Cabbage dish was in the dishwasher.. ;)

Chop up yo veggies!

St. Patrick's Day is upon us!  Here in our city, nicknamed 'Canada's Most Irish City', it's a pretty big to do.  Green beer flows, people gather at local Irish pubs, they wear green clothing.. and eat Irish inspired dishes. From green cupcakes to green pancakes, my Facebook feed is flooded with green food!

With two boys under the weather today, my green baking didn't come together, but I made up for it with a traditional Irish dish: Corned Beef and Cabbage.  While I didn't corn the beef myself this year ( I reaaaalllly hope I can say differently once we are on the homestead!), I did the rest from scratch and I'm going to share it with you!  I made it in the slow cooker this year, so it was a super simple meal.  This is a pretty flexible dish, so for veggies you can choose your favourites.  I generally stick with potatoes, celery, carrots and of course, coarsely chopped cabbage.  We were out of carrots, so they didn't make the cut into this year's dish.  Sorry, Carrots, maybe next time.

After you've chosen your veggie team, chop 'em all up.  Except Cabbage.  Cabbage waits until close to the finale.

Moose Light, beer

Put your corned beef in your slow cooker and add a can or bottle of your favourite unflavoured beer.  Here in our Irish City, Moose Light is pretty popular, so it made the team today.  On top of this, place all of your chopped veggies.  You can add seasonings if you want, or you can let the beef and beer flavour your veggies.  Today, I added a few peppercorns, a couple cloves, and some coriander seeds.  Cloves are very strong tasting, so be sure to add them sparingly, if you use them at all.

Now, to cook this beast.  The rule of thumb is 50 minutes on high per pound.  I gave my small 1.5 pounder 4 hours, so the veggies could cook well and all the juices could flow. It smelled pretty good in here this afternoon!  Around the last hour of cooking, add in your chopped cabbage. Did you know that cabbage is ooooh so good for you?  Well it is!  

"Cabbage has the highest amount of some of the most powerful antioxidants found in cruciferous vegetables – phytonutrients such as thiocyanates, lutein, zeaxanthin, isothiocyanates, and sulforaphane, which stimulate detoxifying enzymes" -http://foodfacts.mercola.com/

So here's the recipe ingredients at a glance:

1 Corned Beef Brisket, sized to suit your family or guests
Potatoes
Onion
Celery             } or add your fav's
Carrots
Cabbage
1 can or bottle of unflavoured beer (you can also use water or beef stock/broth)
Preferred spices, such as coriander seed, mustard seed, peppercorn, cloves, and more.

It's a pretty versatile recipe!

This year's St. Paddy's celebrations may be over, but now's the time to add that reminder to next year's calendar to pick up those veggies, locate a corned beef brisket, and serve up this old fashioned traditional meal next March 17th!  OOoooooooo.....