A Catholic St. Patrick's Day
I haven't really celebrated St. Patrick's day since I did as a child by wearing green and as a college student by drinking alcohol. As an adult, it has just been another day for the last few decades. But this year, it happens to fall on a Friday of Lent when we Catholics abstain from meat. Not a problem for me. But word came that our Bishop sent out a decree saying that because it was a feast day for a saint, we could eat meat on this St. Patrick's day. I didn't think too much of it at the time but have since read, that only 70% of the bishops in the U.S. are doing so and it definitely isn't a decree issued by the pope.
"We" decided to take advantage and my wife slapped a chunk of beef on the counter and told me to corn it. So I dutifully made a corned beef using our crockpot. I have never done so in my life but it came out super tender and delicious. Not really wanting a houseful of cooked cabbage odors to go with it, I opted to use fermented cabbage instead and made Ruebens out of it. I've never had one before but now I know that I've made a mistake in my life by not having more of them. They were delicious!
As you might suspect since all these pictures are available at 5 am, all this happened more than a week and a half ago because my wife didn't realize that St. Patrick's Day was that far away. I, not wanting to keep the corned beef in the refrigerator for two weeks before consumption, went ahead and cooked it. As I write this, the corned beef is consumed and St. Patrick's day is still a few days away and I have timed my post to publish on the morning of it.
I'm not sure what we will be doing today (as you read this) if we will eat more meat or just do our usual abstaining from it. My hope is that my wife will return again from the store with another chunk of beef for me to corn and we can have a second round of corned beef on rye bread with swiss cheese, sauerkraut and thousand island dressing.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I love Reuben sandwiches! Great idea to use fermented sauerkraut too. And I know what you mean about not trying something and later discovering what you've been missing. I still remember my first slice of apple pie at 10 years old and sincerely regretting that until then I'd been saying I didn't like pie.
ReplyDeleteLiving in rural Iowa, there isn't a large self acknowledge Irish population so I guess my chances for trying it were limited. But I do admit I've seen it on many a restaurant menu over the years and skipped over it for something else.
DeleteIn England, St Patrick's Day is celebrated far, far more than St George's Day - St George being England's patron saint. It's rather bizarre and I have always felt uncomfortable about marking St Patrick's Day. Tonight many pubs will be decked out in green Irish bunting with balloons and gifts etc..
ReplyDeleteHere too in America, it is mostly a bar thing to bring in more patrons for a night.
DeleteP.S. Your reuben sandwich looks scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteIt was outstanding! I've had several of them.
DeleteMeanwhile, we here in west-central Missouri are enjoying a white St. Patrick's Day with a skiff of snow on the ground. Cliff and I both enjoy Reubens, although I've only made them once myself. We do sometimes order one when we are out and about.
ReplyDeleteWe got the same skiff of snow too, along with enough frozen water to coat anything concrete. I'm not looking forward to the winds and temps forecasted today and tomorrow.
DeleteI love Reuben sandwiches (and I make my own sauerkraut and Reubens sounds like a mixture of Irish and German culture). I have never prepared corn beef. Sadly, I'll admit to either buying it in a deli or a can. I'm curious as to how you do it.
ReplyDeleteMy secret is to buy a chunk of beef that has already been corned. I just cut open the package, put it in the crockpot, rub the seasoning over the top and add an inch of beef broth and cook on low for 8 hours. I think my wife found it at Aldi's which is a German grocery chain that is scattered around here. Not sure if it extends out your way or not.
DeleteThere's an Aldi in Mt. Airy and in Christenburg, so I will have to look for it. I prefer shopping there, than regular stores and we make at least one trip a month there.
DeleteOh that looks so delicious!
ReplyDeleteIt was very tasty.
DeleteCan I come over if you do round 2? Looks absolutely fantastic, Ed. Nice work and happy St. Patrick's Day!
ReplyDeleteRound two was actually cooked yesterday. There might be some leftover if you get an early flight tomorrow! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you too and I hope you can get by drinking green tea today instead of the usual.
DeleteI would love your Reubens since you do them the right way with Thousand Island type dressing. And nice looking corned beef. Sometimes the ones in restaurants have very fatty meat which makes them hard to eat. I buy some slices of it at the deli and make sure that it is meaty and not gristly. For a week or so many years ago my late husband wanted nothing but Reubens since they tasted good to him when many things didn't due to chemo. I became an expert at making them!
ReplyDeleteThey certainly vary. The one in this post wasn't very fatty but the second one had quite a bit more fat to it. None of it was gristly or hard to eat though. We ran out of Thousand Island dressing with the second cooking so my wife made some cabbage infused mashed potatoes which went very well with the remainder.
DeleteThat looks delicious! I loved corned beef back in my carnivore days. I also love St. Patrick's Day. I've got a lot of Irish blood in me and enjoy wearing green. 😉 I might even add a few drops of green food coloring to a beer this evening.
ReplyDeleteI'm only 4% Irish, so perhaps that is why I never celebrated very hard.
DeleteI didn't know you could "corn" your own beef. I always bought corned beef in the cellophane wrap. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what exactly is the act of corning. The beef my wife bought came in a thick plastic wrap with a thick red substance all around it and a packet of some sort of spices to put on top. I'm guessing the thick red substance was what "corned" the beef.
DeleteI hope you got your wish. Not being Irish or Catholic, we had a roast. But it had nothing to do with St Patrick.
ReplyDeleteSort of. I did end up with another small chunk of corned beef that I cooked in the crockpot and which we had the day before St. Patrick's day. However, despite the Bishop's allowance, we didn't eat any meat yesterday. I do however have great plans for another round of corned beef leftovers today!
DeleteOK, now you've done it! You've made my mouth water. This looks awesome. You CORNED your own beef? I didn't even know you could do that. I love corned beef and cabbage, but this year we somehow forgot with all the craziness we were going through. We did wear our green today though. After all, my daughter-in-law and sister-in-law happen to be Irish!
ReplyDeleteFor your comment, I had to google it. Essentially corning is just soaking it in a brine for up to a week before cooking it with pickling spices. This beef came raw but in the brine. So I just put it and the leftover brine in a crockpot, added the pickling spices (that came in a packet with the beef) and some beef stock and cooked it. I'm not sure if that makes me the "corning" person or just the cooking person.
DeleteYou are definitely amazing, Ed!
DeleteThat beef looks incredible!
ReplyDeleteIt was quite tasty. A few days after St. Patrick's day, the grocery store had a dozen more of them marked 50% off so I have a couple more in the freezer to celebrate throughout the year.
DeleteThanks for the clarifying comments above re. "corning" beef. I didn't understand that either! At any rate, it sounds delicious. I love reuben sandwiches, though I must confess I usually order them made with turkey.
ReplyDeleteTurkey is no doubt healthier. Less fat in it.
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