Monday, March 12, 2012

Weekly Menu 3/12 - 3/17/12 and Corned Beef

Our kitchen is busy this week preparing for a big St. Patrick's dinner this coming Saturday. My mom is a Murphy who's family came to New York during the Potato Famine, so of course I need to celebrate my Irish roots!
Making Corned Beef
Yesterday, Matt began the process of making corned beef from scratch. He is using the recipe from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Bryan Polcyn. For our 3 1/2 pound brisket he made a brine of 3 1/2 quarts water, 1 tablespoon pickling spice, 1 1/3 c kosher salt, 6 tablespoons sugar, 2 cloves garlic and 1 tablespoon pink salt. Pink salt is the only tricky ingredient to find and we ordered our online. He heated the brine until the salts and sugar dissolved, let it cool and then submerged the meat. Now, it'll sit in our fridge until we are ready to cook it Saturday. That day, he will be rinse the brisket and add it to fresh water where it will simmer for about 3 hours with another tablespoon of pickling spice. This is our first time trying it, so I hope it's good.

We'll be starting our St. Pat's dinner with gougeres made with cheese flavored with Irish stout and a tasting of Irish and Irish-style beers. The corned beef will be served with colcannon, a traditional potato and cabbage dish. Finally, we will have an Irish whiskey cake for dessert. I'll share more details later in the week.

One to Menu Planning Monday...

Potato, Bacon and Corn Chowder

Thyme and Sea Salt Turkey Burgers with green beans

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Breast with dal and rice

Brats with sauerkraut

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6 comments:

  1. JessMarch 12, 2012 at 5:27 PM

    I bought my husband this book for Christmas! The brine's cooling as we speak and I dropped a shocking chunk of change on a brisket at the co-op. This is going to be delicious!

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  2. katMarch 12, 2012 at 5:50 PM

    Oh yeah, brisket can be pricey. We bought our at the last Kingfield farmers market this year & it was a great deal.

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  3. Alicia FoodycatMarch 13, 2012 at 2:14 AM

    Once you've tried home-pickled salt beef you will never go back!

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  4. D Toshio WilliamsMarch 13, 2012 at 3:01 PM

    Is the pink salt you mention the meat curing combination of sodium nitrate and salt?

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  5. katMarch 13, 2012 at 3:06 PM

    D Toshio - Yes, it is. That type of salt is used in curing meats.

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  6. LoriMarch 16, 2012 at 9:18 PM

    I must try this at some point! I need to check out that cookbook too. Fortunately, we have a butcher/farm market here who uses local, grass fed meats to make it so we'll be buying some this year. I will make it sometime though! :)

    ReplyDelete

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