(Close enough to ...) St. Patrick's Day 2014

Once upon a time (12 years ago) a friend and I devised a most ingenious plan ... we would drink a lot Guinness and Jameson on St. Patrick's Day (yep, not the most imaginative of plans).  A few years after that I realized that while drinking all day is fun and easy in college, I should probably add some food.  And so my Irish party gained traditional Irish fare.  Over the years I hosted this party on 3 continents, and at one point cooked as much as 30 lbs of Corned beef in a day.  These days the party is infrequent, due to trave it hasn't happened the last two years ... but I still like to cook a little corned beef.

Five years ago I had a revolutionary idea, I started small (3 lbs out of 30), that I would start roasting the corned beef, pulled pork style, instead of boiling or slow cooking it.  I was used to my corned beef going quickly, but that 3 pounds disappeared faster than anything I had ever seen before.  So I started to change the ratio until I finally didn't bother boiling anymore.  I roast the corned beef at 350F for 3 hours, wrapped in foil with a little bit of olive oil and pickling spices.

Corned Beef, First Cut, coming out of the oven

Roasted corned beef brisket on the cutting board

Today was just Shells and I eating as I have to get on a plane tomorrow morning so I couldn't have a good old fashioned party (well, I didn't mind but Shells didn't want to have to clean it up by herself). The best part about it just being the two of us, was that I was free to have some fun with the brisket tonight.

Tonight I started with brisket quesadillas.  I threw some corn tortillas on the cast iron with a little Dubliner cheese and some of the brisket.  Tasty.

Next I decided to do roasted oysters and clams au brisket.  I'm still working on the name, but the end result was totally worth it.  I used a combination of oysters and clams, topped them with shredded brisket and then Dubliner cheese.  Roasted at 350F for about 20 minutes, they came out with a melty and cheesy topping.

The final item on the dinner list was a twist on an old favorite ... meat pies.  I made these pies with corned beef, veggies & a Guinness sauce.  Once assembled (see above) it was time to go into the oven. The pie was actually quite simple to put together ...

Corned Beef & Guinness Pie

1/2 pound brisket (cooked as noted above)

12 mini carrots (chopped)

7 shiitake mushrooms (rough chopped)

1 small yellow onion (diced)

1 cup beef stock

1 cup Guinness

2 cups peas

1 tbsp flour

1/2 cup Dubliner (shredded)

1 pkg puff pastry

1 egg

Start a saute pan on medium high heat ... put the brisket, carrots, mushrooms, onion, stock, Guinness & peas in and bring to a boil.  Continue cooking down at a boil, adding the flour a little bit at a time, until the liquid is mostly evaporated.

Roll out the puff pastry, and line two 5 inch pie pans with it.  Fill the pies with the meat and veg mixture.  Add half of the cheese on top of each mixture before putting a sheet of pastry over the top of the pie, crimp the corners well to avoid separation.   Beat the egg and brush over the two pies before baking. Put a little knife slice into the top of each pie to prevent an oven explosion.  Cook the pies in a 350F oven for 35 minutes.  I topped mine with mashed potatoes (Australian meat pie style) and served them with braised dandelion greens and a pretzel roll.

Oh, and of course I enjoyed them with a few nice, frosty, Guinness Stouts.  Enjoy!!