Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Mikey and I had a St. Patrick’s Day party on Saturday and we served this traditional corned beef hash for breakfast. People started showing up around 10am and didn’t stop until 8pm. Needless to say this hash was a great base for what turned out to be a fun day filled with friends, games and copious amounts of Guinness and Irish whiskey. I mean, who doesn’t love a day that starts with Bailey’s in your coffee and ends with a messy apartment covered in Lucky Charm’s crumbs?

 

St. Patrick’s Day is probably Mikey’s favorite holiday. He is half Italian half Irish and therefore looks forward to March all year (although that’s mostly because he is obsessed with March Madness). He also loves St. Patrick’s Day because it’s the only time of year I make corned beef. Aside from spaghetti and meatballs it’s his favorite dish in the world.

Even our cat, Norman, loves corned beef!

Although he hid in the closet for most of our party he was on top of our table every opportunity he got.

I was a super picky/stubborn child and refused to even try corned beef until I was 18 and someone forced me.I quickly realized it is the single greatest food in the world and shed a tear thinking about all those years I wasted sitting at the table crying, picking at my potatoes and carrots while my Dad told me it just meant more corned beef for him and my Mom told me I wasn’t allowed to leave until I ate my vegetables.

I hope everyone had a great weekend celebrating and I wish you all the best luck this wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!

P.S. If you’re looking for something sweet, I highly recommend these Guinness and Irish whiskey cupcakes I made a couple years back!

Recipe: Corned Beef Hash

Makes 4-6 Servings

1 1/2 – 2 Pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes (3-4 Cups, Cubed and Cooked)

1, 4 Pound Corned Beef Flat Cut Brisket, Cubed

3-4 Onions, Diced

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

6 Eggs

2 Cups Chicken/Beef/Vegetable broth (only if making ahead of time)

Directions:

Corned Beef: 

I had a 5 lb corned beef brisket that I baked in the oven (by far the best tasting. Boiling/crock pot causes the meat to lose a ton of the flavor, in my opinion). Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line a 9×13 pan with foil. Place brisket into pan and fill about half way up the sides of the pan and meat with water. I sprinkled about 1/2 the flavor packet onto the brisket, you can use it all though. Then cover tightly with aluminum foil and place into oven for 4 1/2 hours. Do an hour a pound. If you have a 3 lb do it at 300 for 3 hours. You don’t want to let any of the steam out so do not open the foil to check your meat until the end of your cooking time. You want an internal temp of about 150-160.

Once your meat is done cooking, let rest for at least 10 minutes. I let mine rest for about 25 since I was saving mine for the next morning to make corned beef hash for a party. I tightly wrapped it in foil and put it in the refrigerator overnight. If making hash right away just let rest and then dice into small pieces and set aside.

Potatoes:

Since I was making this ahead of time for an early morning St. Patrick’s Day party, I wanted to prep everything as much as I could. I used about 7 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of corned beef and 8 onions to serve about 20 people. And I could have made 10 more pounds of meat!

For the potatoes I scrubbed and removed any dark spots and then cut them into uniform pieces and placed them into a large pot with cold water. Once I was done chopping I turned on the pot of water and covered the potatoes until they came to a boil. I then removed the lid and tested them about every minute to make sure I didn’t overcook them. As soon as you realize they are ready or close to ready, strain out the water and place back into the pot. They will keep cooking for a few minutes because they are so warm. I let them cool and then placed them into the refrigerator overnight. (This is also a perfect way to cook a potato for potato salad!).

If you’re making your hash right away you can add potatoes directly to skillet with corned beef and follow the directions for the hash below.

I also prepped all my onions by dicing them up and then putting them in the refrigerator over night.

Hash:

When you are ready to make the hash, brown your onions in some olive oil with salt and pepper, about 10 minutes. I was able to fit about 4 cups of onions in my pan at a time. Once browned, put in a bowl off to the side and add potatoes with some olive oil to your skillet. I added about 1/2 cup chicken broth throughout my cooking/mashing process until I liked the texture of my potatoes. After you have added the potatoes add an equal or 1/2 cup less of cooked corned beef as well as the browned onions, adding salt and pepper to taste(I had about 3 cups potatoes, 2 cups corned beef and 2 cups onions in my skillet). Mash with a potato masher until you reach a desired hash and then turn off heat. Since I was making this “to order”, I placed my hash in a large aluminum roaster and covered it with foil in the oven on warm. I made about 2 1/2 batches of hash (that was all I could fit in my skillet at a time) and the longer it sat in the oven covered the tastier it became!

You can serve topped with a fried egg depending on what you prefer and you can also add braised cabbage if you want. I didn’t add the cabbage to mine because I didn’t think everyone would like the cabbage. Mikey and I are cabbage fiends so I made a head of braised cabbage and just let that sit in the oven to keep warm as well.

Recipe: Braised Cabbage

Makes 6 Servings

1 Head of Cabbage

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Cup Chicken/Veggie Broth

Salt and Pepper

Peel off outer layer of cabbage and throw away. Cut your cabbage into quarters and remove and dispose of hard center core. Slice into 1 inch strips.

Place cabbage into a large pot with about 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Add broth and cook over med/low heat, stirring occasionally until cabbage has wilted and is a bit translucent. Salt and pepper to taste and serve warm with corned beef and hash or dice and mix into hash!