SLAINTE!

Just like the French toast, “Santé”, the Italian toast “Salute” and “Salude” in Spanish, the Irish toast, “Slainte”, (pronounced “slawn-che), means “Health” and I can’t think of a more appropriate toast after the year we have just lived through. So here is to your health and to a spectacular St. Paddy’s Day celebration. Though most, if not all, of us are still staying socially distanced and aren’t celebrating yet in the company of friends, I have some great ideas and recipes to help make your Saint Patrick’s Day a spectacular one.

Corned Beef, Cabbage and Roasted Vegetables

I love this dinner and have prepared it for years, but never has it been as tender and delicious as when prepared in this way. The reason I decided to break away from my customary routine and instead, use the sous vide, was a practical one. Corned beef takes several hours to cook on the stove top, which means that one needs to be near the kitchen the entire time. We planned to entertain friends for dinner, but decided that we wanted to hit the slopes for the day. By using a water bath to cook the meat, we could leave while it was cooking and not worry about burning down the house.

Course Holiday Fare, Main Course

Cuisine Irish

Keyword Cabbage, Corned Beef, St. Paddy's Day Dinner, Vegetables

Equipment

Sous Vide

Ingredients

Corned Beef & Vegetables

1 package corned beef
new potatoes red, white, gold or a combination
1 head green cabbage cored and thickly sliced
6-8 carrots peeled and cut into pieces
1-2 apples Pink Lady or Granny Smith both taste great
1 Walla Walla Sweet or Mayan onion halved and thickly sliced
Olive oil extra-virgin
Butter, salt, pepper, fresh parsley to taste

Guiness Mustard Sauce

½ cup course-grained mustard I use Trader Joes
2 tbsp regular Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Guinness Stout
1 tbsp shallot minced
1 tsp light brown sugar

Instructions

Prepare Corned Beef

Rinse the corned beef before placing it in a vacuum sealed bag. Seal the bag and place it in a preheated 180° F sous vide water bath.
Leave to cook for 10 hours, adding additional water when needed.**
**You can serve this up the day you cook it OR, I prefer cooking it a day ahead and letting it sit in the refrigerator over night. (It is much easier to slice this way).
Half the new potatoes and place in a large pot filled with well-salted room temperature water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender.
**If corned beef has been chilled over night in the refrigerator, slice and warm the slices in a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, placed over the pot of potatoes.
While potatoes are cooking, place vegetables on a large rimmed cookie sheet. (Use two if needed so as not to crowd the vegetables.) Drizzle generously with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
Place vegetables in a 400° F preheated oven and roast 20 minutes, turning half way through. (I cook until browned and the carrots still have a slight snap).
Stir potatoes into melted butter and season with salt, pepper and freshly chopped parsley.
Serve alongside roasted vegetables, slices of corned beef and plenty of Guinness mustard sauce.

Guinness Mustard Sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl to blend. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Can be made 2 days ahead, keep refrigerated.

Notes

Learn more about the wonders of SOUS VIDE cooking

Why We Eat Corned Beef and Cabbage on St. Paddy’s Day

Historically, Ireland has exported salted meats since the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, for most of the Irish population, beef was an unaffordable luxury. As a suitable substitute to beef for religious holidays and other celebrations, many turned to pork as a more affordable option.

Upon arriving to America, The Irish immigrants discovered, to their delight and surprise, that beef was more affordable than pork! With this new reality, they turned to corned beef–which they could afford AND it was a food their homeland had once been famous for. SCORE! The growing Irish-American population paired the corned beef with cabbage, a traditional accompaniment to salted pork – and there you have it.

Erin go Braugh--Ireland Forever!

St. Paddy’s NOT St. Patty’s

Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. The reason that ‘Paddy’ is the acceptable spelling is because the D’s in ‘Paddy’ comes from the Irish spelling of the name Patrick, which is spelled Pádraig… (Patty is short for Patricia).

A DRY Holiday

Saint Patrick’s Day was considered a religious holiday in Ireland for most of the 20th century which meant that the nation’s pubs were closed for business on March 17. To the delight of many, the beer ran freely again when the day was converted to a national holiday in 1970.

A Patron Saint Who, According to Legend, Drove the Snakes Out of Ireland

Though there is no evidence of snakes ever existing in Ireland, Saint Patrick is one of the country’s most celebrated figures. Interestingly, he wasn’t born Irish and his birth name wasn’t Patrick, it was Maewyn Succat. He was born in Roman England around the year 390, kidnapped into slavery at age 16 and brought over to Ireland. He escaped to a monastery in Gaul (around present day France), where he converted to Christianity. Here, he became a priest and then eventually a bishop and changed his name to Patrick. He returned to Ireland in 432 as a missionary and played a major role in converting the Irish to Christianity. He was named Ireland’s patron saint after his death on March 17, 461 AD.

Blue or Green?

Everyone SHOULD be wearing blue, not green. A light blue became associated with the Order of St. Patrick, an 18th century era order of knights, perhaps to create a shade of blue for the Irish which was different from the English royal blue. St. Patrick’s blue was considered symbolic of Ireland for many centuries and the Irish Presidential Standard is still blue. So….why do we wear green to avoid being pinched? Historically, the color green has been associated with a number of Irish rebellions.

The use of green for nationalistic reasons was seen during the violent Great Irish Rebellion of 1641, when displaced Catholic landowners and bishops rebelled against the authority of the English crown, which had established a large plantation in the north of Ireland under King James I in the early 17th century. Military commander Owen Roe O’Neill helped lead the rebellion, and used a green flag with a harp to represent the Confederation of Kilkenny, a group that sought to govern Ireland and kick out the Protestants who had taken control of that land in the north of Ireland. (They were ultimately defeated by Oliver Cromwell.)
–Timothy McMahon, Vice President of the American Conference for Irish Studies.

Wearing green in the US for Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations date back to the 19th century when Irish immigrants came to America after the Great Famine of the 1840-50s. They wore green and carried Irish flags along with American flags as a point of pride for their home country.