LEARNING TO GET IT RIGHT

I’m usually a pretty good cook; but my Irish cooking suffered terribly because of my husband’s preconceived notions about how corned-beef and cabbage should be prepared.

He kept me continually frustrated. 

This went on year-after-year.

Each St. Patrick’s Day I would get totally psyched-out with chasing down the best Irish recipes.   In my house I have a whole china cabinet dedicated to holding nothing but special, collectible, best-of-the-best cookbooks.

These cookbooks have been known to lead me to blue-ribbon recipes.  Armed with this knowledge and a little patience I’ve cooked in ways that always win the show.  However, this fact is not so with corned-beef and cabbage.

Each year I would search and search until I thought I had found the perfect recipe.

I would carefully select the ingredients and spend hours in the kitchen making sure they were cooked to perfection.

Carefully proceeding, I selected all the best seasonings.  Slowly I cooked them in all the best pots and pans.  My corned beef and cabbage was always prepared with every delightful, unique twist of flavor imaginable.

Each year my husband would take one bite; then only pick at his food. He would eat his other sides and leave the corned-beef and cabbage on the plate.

This was so FRUSTRATING!!!!

He NEVER liked my corned-beef and cabbage; no matter what I did to make it wonderful.

MY NEVER-ENDING SEARCH FOR PERFECTION

Every passing year I would ask him why he didn’t like what I had so carefully prepared. He would say “it just isn’t what I am used to eating; that’s all.”

Apparently his mother had made some really wonderful corned-beef and cabbage.  Unfortunately for me,  she had moved to heaven long before I met my husband.  I couldn’t ask her for the recipe.

After years of trying to figure out what he liked different, I finally hit on the very thing that was wrong. He said he liked for his corned-beef and cabbage to be “creamy.”

Ah-ha!!

I had been preparing my dishes similar to a pot roast with carrots and onions thrown in with the corned-beef and cabbage. He just wanted the corned beef and cabbage; and he wanted it all to be “creamy.”

Frantically, I searched through my cookbooks again.  Looking through all of the best ideas, I combined a lot of recipes in the process. 

At last; I came up with this:

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE SOUTHERN CASSEROLE STYLE

Ingredients:

1 large head of cabbage, washed, cored and cut into chunks, then steamed

¼ cup melted butter plus 1/3 cup melted butter (separate uses)

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 packet dry ranch dressing

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 pounds cooked and sliced corned-beef

1 onion finely chopped

1 cup grated cheese

Directions:

Wash and prepare the cabbage.  Set aside.  Chop the onion.  Set aside.  Cook the corned beef.  It is best wrapped in foil with the ranch dressing and garlic rubbed over it.  Cook in the oven on 350 degrees for 3 – 4 hours until done.  You can also cook the corned-beef slowly on low in a slow-cooker for 6 – 8 hours.

When the corned-beef is done and cooled; chop it into bite sized pieces.  Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish with Pam cooking spray.  Place the chopped, steamed cabbage inside the dish.  Sprinkle the top with a spoon full of sugar. Set aside.

Place a boiler on the stove-top on medium heat and melt the first ¼ cup of butter.  Stir in the chopped onions and the corned beef.  When the onion is translucent and the corned-beef is slightly browned; pour them into the casserole dish over the cabbage.  Set aside.

In a medium-sized sauce pan with the stove-top on medium heat, melt the other 1/3 cup of butter.  Whisk in the flour and slowly pour in the heavy whipping cream.  Continue whisking for about five minutes, or until the mix is simmering and has thickened.  Pour the sauce over the corned beef and cabbage.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until everything is bubbly.  Add the shredded cheese on the top if you like for a finishing garnish.  (We like it without the cheese.)

THE FINAL VERDICT

So did he like it?

HE LOVED IT!!!!!

I get requests to make this every St. Patrick’s Day.  Also people request it at other times during the year.  My family loves it on cold winter nights when we are simply at home sitting by the fire.  It goes over really well at pot-luck dinners and church gatherings too.

So go get your Irish on!

Make this Southern style corned-beef and cabbage!