I’m an Irishman, but with St. Patty’s day coming up that’s irrelevant, because on that most glorious of days we’re all Irish.  Like any good celebration you need more then just booze and friends, you need good food.  On that day many Americans will think of two things when they think if Irish food, fish and chips and corned beef and cabbage.  Today I will be sharing with you my recipes for the latter.

I like this corned beef and cabbage recipe for a celebration because its a braised item, meaning the bulk of the cook time you don’t have to be in the kitchen, you can be out celebrating and enjoying the festivities of the day.  All it will take is a little preparation before the event and you can prepare an awesome meal for you and yours without being stuck babysitting a pan or a grill.

 Hardware

• A large disposable roasting pan (make sure its deep, at least four inches)
• A large pot (at least 8 quarts)
• A good knife

 Software

•  1 corned beef brisket (the raw whole brisket, most supermarkets carry them around this time of year,  NOT the canned bullshit)
• 2 large onions
• 2 large carrots
• 1 bunch of celery
• 1 quart of beef stock
• 1 beer (NOT Guinness)
• 1 cup of whole grain mustard
• 1/4 cup of pickling spice
• 1 tbsp of caraway seeds
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 3 heads of cabbage

 Do Work!

1. The day before do all the knife work and prepare the beef to be braised (see step 2).  Julienne one of the onions, cut the other into quarters.  Slice half the celery ribs and cut the others into thirds.  Grate half of a carrot and cut the rest into two inch pieces.  Cut the cabbages into quarters, cut the cores out and then chop them into roughly 1″-2″ pieces.
2. Take your large pot and add in the beef broth, the beer, the mustard, the pickling spice, the quartered onion, the large pieces of celery, and the large pieces of carrot.  Bring this to a boil and simmer for ten minutes.  While its cooking open your brisket up, toss out that wheesh little seasoning packet and place it in the baking dish.  Once the braising liquid has simmered turn off the heat, add in about two cups of ice. Add in salt at this point.  Taste the liquid as you do so, you want to add enough salt that it tastes overly salty.  Once the ice has melted and the temperature has dropped, pour the liquid over the beef.  Wrap the pan tightly with aluminum foil (not listed) and refrigerate it till the next day.
3. Early on the day you plan to serve the brisket turn the oven to 300F and place the prepared brisket inside.  This will take about 3 hours to cook, maybe more, maybe less.  Check it at the two hour mark and then every thirty minutes after that.
4. Once the brisket is nice and tender remove it from the oven and take the beef out of the pan.  You can discard the left over braising liquid and vegetables.
5. While the beef rests take your large pot again and put it over medium heat and melt the butter.  While the butter is melting add in the caraway seeds.
6. Once the butter is melted add in the onions and celery.  Cook for about 4 minutes, just until you start to see the onions getting a little brown.  Dump in the cabbage, turn down the heat to low and place a lid on the pot.  If you don’t have a lid us a metal bowl, a frying pan, or anything that’ll fit.  You want to trap in the steam.
7. After about 3 minutes give it a good stir, you want to get the still mostly raw cabbage on the top onto the bottom, and the wilted cabbage from the bottom on the top.  At this point add about a teaspoon of salt.  The salt will help draw out the moisture in the cabbage, helping speed up the cooking process.  Cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Keep stirring and covering the cabbage until its cooked thoroughly and tender.  Season with salt and pepper.
8. Slice the brisket thinly across the grain, server over top of the braised cabbage.