Slainte! Welcome to the first tour stop on my world wide food trek where I actually have a familial tie, Ireland. My mom's family, the Brooks, are Irish and we wear our heritage with pride. It's a country that I've always wanted to visit myself, so tonight is hopefully just a precursor to a time where I can actually go there.
I kept it relatively simple tonight, and went with a dish that I've made before but since it's so good I couldn't pass it up this time around. To start things off, we had a pretty rad appetizer...
1 bottle of Guinness
1 glass
Open bottle. Pour in glass and allow for nice head of foam. Enjoy while contemplating the mysteries of the universe.
Traditional Irish Dinner
1 corned beef loin, about 3 pounds
6 yukon gold potatoes, chopped
5 carrots, chopped into inch wide pieces
1 onion, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
1 bottle of beer, (I used a lighter lager)
Water to cover all ingredients
Slow cooker
This was probably the easiest recipe to follow so far this month (I'm betting it'll be the easiest all month). Many of you out there probably have made this before, but if you haven't, here's what I did:
First, I chopped up all of the ingredients:
The potatoes...
The carrots...
The onion...
And the half cabbage...
Then, I put the corned beef loin...
...into a slow cooker. I added the veggies layer by layer, and then poured over the beer and the water. I set it on low for about 6 hours.
Or so I thought.
After about 2 hours, I went to check on my progress. As I said earlier, I had made this before. This one was in the bag. Unfortunately, the thing about slow cookers is that you actually have to plug them in for them to work...
I had made a crucial (and just stupid) error, and to rectify it, I plugged in the crockpot and set it to high in a panic. There it remained for about 3 hours, when I took everything out of the crockpot and put it in a larger pot and set it to boil because it wasn't heating the vegetables fast enough.
Or so I thought.
After about 2 hours, I went to check on my progress. As I said earlier, I had made this before. This one was in the bag. Unfortunately, the thing about slow cookers is that you actually have to plug them in for them to work...
I had made a crucial (and just stupid) error, and to rectify it, I plugged in the crockpot and set it to high in a panic. There it remained for about 3 hours, when I took everything out of the crockpot and put it in a larger pot and set it to boil because it wasn't heating the vegetables fast enough.
The result...
...looked the part. It smelled the part. It even had some of the right flavors. But because I had not cooked it properly (low and slow wins the race here), the corned beef was just chewy. I blew it.
It was bound to happen, and in the end it really wasn't that terrible. Elizabeth and I were both still able to enjoy it (dousing the beef in spicy mustard was a recipe saver in this case). But still, a bonehead mistake (plug things in that need power...) led to me screwing up something that I had made many times before. My ancestors are rolling in their graves now. Luckily, I still have enough Guinness to drown out their, and my own, sorrows.
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