Corned Beef & Cabbage

The first time my husband and I planned on having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day didn't go as planned. We got everything ready for a fun festive feast on this fabolous holiday, but ended up not getting a chance to taste it until 2 days later! Monkey decided to enter the world on St. Patrick's Day. So corned beef and cabbage is always a special meal for me because it reminds me of the birth of my first kiddo.

I love this recipe because it tastes SO good and it is so simple to do. I use a crock pot to do the entire meal. I know you can get fancy and saute the cabbage or make fancy spice mixes for the corned beef, but I don't. St. Patrick's Day is a busy day for me so I want an easy but delicious meal for dinner.  And, of course, you can't forget to make some Irish soda bread to serve with the meal! Now, I will share these recipes so you can have a little bit of magic on St. Patrick's Day.

Note: those who like to see pictures of the step by step process can find them at the end of the post

Corned Beef & Cabbage
*I like to cook my corned beef all day (~8 hours) so it is super tender

Ingredients:

• 1 package of corned beef
• 1 head of green cabbage, chopped
• water

Steps:

1. Place corned beef into the crock pot. Open the provided spice packet (comes with the corned beef) and sprinkle over the meat. 
2. Pour enough water to cover most of the corned beef (you can cover it if you want).
3. Allow the corned beef to cook for 5 -6 hours on high. You can check the tenderness of the meat by piercing it with a fork.
4. Two hours before you want to eat the corned beef, place the chopped cabbage into the crockpot. You can chop the cabbage as big or as small as you want.
5. Serve with Irish soda bread and enjoy!

Irish Soda Bread
*Recipe from Liz the Chef (this is a REALLY good recipe)

Ingredients:

• ½ teaspoon unsalted butter and 1-2 tablespoons flour for preparing pan
• 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1¾ cup buttermilk

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Lightly butter and flour a round cake pan.
3. Using a large bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt and buttermilk. Turn out onto a floured surface and lightly knead, just for a minute or two.
4. Shape the dough into a round, flat shape, place in prepared pan and cut a cross into the top of the dough.
5. Cover the pan of dough with another round cake pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove top pan and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
7. Enjoy warm, toasted or at room temperature with some good Irish butter.

Recipe with Pictures

1.  Place corned beef into the crock pot. Open the provided spice packet (comes with the corned beef) and sprinkle over the meat.
2. Pour enough water to cover most of the corned beef (you can cover it if you want).
 

3.  Allow the corned beef to cook for 5 -6 hours on high. You can check the tenderness of the meat by piercing it with a fork.

4. Two hours before you want to eat the corned beef, place the chopped cabbage into the crock pot.

5.  Serve with Irish soda bread and enjoy!