Corned Beef

I meant to make a post for St. Patrick's Day on March 17, but again, life got in the way of blogging and I lost track of time before you knew it. Even the photo on the left was haphazardly shot just before we ate.

Although we are not Irish, my Filipino mother raised us celebrating St. Patrick's Day. No we don't get all decked out in green clovers or nothing like that, we just partake in this traditional Irish fare of boiled corned beef. Now here is another dish that just about every culture in the world, it seems, has a version of. It is a classic boiled dish with meat and vegetables.

So to continue the tradition, I started cooking this on St. Paddy's day for my girls too. Plus, during this time of year, the grocery stores put this cut of meat on sale. That is always a good thing, I say. It's also a perfect time to pull our the slow cooker and let it simmer all day, and dinner is ready by the time I come home from work. Although most cooks let the meat potatoes and vegetables simmer all day, I always wait to cook the vegetables just before we get ready to eat. My girls just won't have any overcooked veggies. So when I got home from work, I took the meat out of the broth to slice, and put the broth back on to boil. To this I added the potatoes and when they were almost tender, added the green beans and then the cabbage. Traditionally, root vegetables such as carrots and turnips are also added but I didn't have any turnip roots and my girls won't eat cooked carrots. So for added texture, I added some green beans instead.

Of course, I ate mine with rice :-P