Stout Braised Corned Beef and Cabbage

St. Patrick’s Day is coming, and what says St. Patrick’s day better than beer and corned beef and cabbage? Other than bedecking yourself with green leprechaun hats, buckled shoes, and carrying around fake pots of gold, not much. The recipe as I made it has gluten in it, because I used Guinness since I can have wheat, and I also used Beef Reduced Sodium Better than Bouillon to cheat and make my beef broth, which also has gluten in it. To make the recipe gluten free, try Pacific Natural Foods Organic Beef Broth which is gluten free, dairy free, wheat free and soy free, and Green’s Endeavor Double, which is a stout-like gluten free beer.

Stout Braised Corned Beef & Cabbage

• 1 large dutch oven
• 2 – 12 oz bottles of Guinness (or Green’s Endeavor Double, gluten free beer)
• 2 cups of beef broth (if you use commercially made, make sure it’s gluten free and dairy free)
• 1 Tablespoon of pickling spice (I used Penzey’s pickling spice blend) or use spice packet that came with corned beef if it’s safe for your allergies

  

• 1 bulb of garlic, cut as shown
• 1/2 a medium or large onion, or one small onion, peeled and sliced
• 3-4 lb corned beef (the one I used was Freirich Certified Angus Beef® Corned Beef Brisket, Mary Kate was awesome and called the company and the natural flavorings were only spices, and they verified that it was dairy, soy and gluten free)
• enough to water to cover corned beef in dutch oven
• 1-2 Tablespoons of bacon fat, shortening or cooking oil
• 4 red skinned potatoes, scrubbed and trimmed, but not peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3 carrots, peeled and trimmed, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
• 1 small turnip, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3-4 stalks of celery, de-stringed, and cut into 3/4 inch pieces
• 1 large onion, skin removed and cut in half and then each half into quarters
• 1 small head of cabbage

Preheat oven to 300°F. Place dutch oven on large burner on top of stove. Add beer, beef broth, pickling spice, sliced onion, and garlic bulb to dutch oven. Stir to combine all ingredients. Carefully place corned beef into dutch oven, so as not to splash the beer mixture all over yourself like I did. If necessary add enough water that corned beef is covered with liquid.

On the stove top, bring to a boil over medium high heat. When you have a big rolling boil, turn the burner off, place the lid on the dutch oven and put it in the oven.

Bake in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours, and then flip the corned beef over carefully in the dutch oven, add more water to cover if necessary, and bake for another 1 and 1/2 hours. You may need to add more time if your corned beef is larger than the one called for here.

Once the corned beef is cooked, take it out of the braising liquid and put in an oven safe dish, cover it with a lid or foil, and place it back in the oven, turning it down to 200°F just to keep it warm until the veggies are cooked. Using a strainer, strain out 4 cups of braising liquid from the pan (removing the bits of onion and pickling spice) and set it aside.

If you have not already prepared the vegetables, now’s the time. Cut the potatoes into 1 inch pieces. Remove the ends and skin from the onion, then cut it in half, and then each half into quarters. If the carrots need to be peeled, peel them and then cut in to 3/4 inch pieces.  String the celery and cut into 3/4 inch pieces. Peel the turnip and chop into 1 inch pieces. Cut the cabbage into halves and then each half into quarters.

Once the vegetables are chopped, take a frying pan and melt some of the bacon fat (or shortening or cooking oil) over medium low heat. In smaller batches, brown the vegetables, do not crowd them too much or they won’t get golden brown.

Once you have browned all the vegetables, place all vegetables in a stock pot. Deglaze the fry pan with some of the reserved braising liquid, and then using the strainer, strain the deglazed liquid into the stock pot with the vegetables along with the remainder of the 4 cups of reserved braising liquid in the pot.

Bring to the vegetables to a simmer over medium heat and cook about 20 minutes or so until vegetables are tender. Once they are ready, turn the heat off, and slice the corned beef against the grain.

Plate corned beef with cabbage and other vegetables, and some of the braising liquid used to cook the veggies. Enjoy!!