Corned Beef and Cabbage with Parsley-Mustard Sauce
Since both my parents worked full-time, when I was 2 weeks old they hired a seemingly proper English lady to take care of me. But Ammie was not the mild mannered woman she appeared to be. In fact, she turned out to be the quirkiest third parent you could ever imagine. She fed us forbidden chocolate (despite her belief that chocolate actually “made your blood boil”), and she let us watch TV when my parents were out of town (very illegal). Ammie was nothing if not opinionated. She displayed the nationalist zeal of an expatriate and was completely obsessed with the royal family. She was so pro-British and anti-Irish that every March 17 she would thumb her nose at her enemy by sending my sister and me off to school dressed completely in orange, in honor of the British monarchy. Needless to say, corned beef and cabbage was not a food ritual in our household. I didn’t discover it until I moved back east to college, where I sampled it at the homes of many of my Irish-American friends. The Lucques version is an updated rendition of that classic one-pot Irish meal. Traditionally, the vegetables are cooked alongside the meat for hours, producing dull, mushy carrots and sad, gray turnips. To keep the vegetables bright, I cook them separately in the beef broth. The parsley-mustard sauce (great for sandwiches the next day) cuts the richness of the corned beef and perks up the entire dish.
Ingredients
Parsley-mustard sauce
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Step 2
Place the corned beef in a large deep pot and cover with cold water by 6 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Step 3
Cut the onions in half lengthwise, peel them, and poke one clove into each half.
Step 4
When the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add the onions, bay leaves, thyme, and chiles. Cover the pot with aluminum foil and a tight-fitting lid if you have one.
Step 5
Cook the corned beef in the oven 4 to 4 1/2 hours, until it’s fork-tender. (Carefully remove the lid and foil and pierce the meat with a fork. If the fork doesn’t penetrate easily, the corned beef is not ready.)
Step 6
While the beef is cooking, peel the carrots, leaving 1/2 inch of stem. Cut the carrots in half lengthwise. Trim the turnip tops, leaving 1/2 inch of stem attached. Cut the turnips in half through the stems. Cut the potatoes into 1-inch chunks. Remove any tough outer leaves from the cabbage and slice it in half through the core. Cut each cabbage half into three wedges, leaving the core intact to hold the leaves together.
Step 7
When it’s done, remove the meat from the oven, let it cool a few minutes, and transfer it to a baking sheet.
Step 8
Turn the oven up to 375°F.
Step 9
Return the meat to the oven for about 15 minutes, until it browns and crisps on top. Let the corned beef rest 10 to 15 minutes before slicing it.
Step 10
Meanwhile, skim the fat from the broth. (There probably won’t be very much.) Taste the broth. If it tastes good—not too salty but nicely seasoned and meaty—set half of the liquid aside in a medium saucepan. If the broth is salty, add a little water before setting half of it aside.
Step 11
Add water to the broth in the large corned-beef cooking pot until you have enough liquid to poach the vegetables. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down to medium, and add the potatoes to the pot. Simmer 5 minutes and then add the cabbage, turnips, and carrots. (If your pot is not big enough, divide the broth into two pots, adding more water if needed.) Simmer over low heat 15 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are very tender. Test each type of vegetable occasionally, and if one is ready before the others, use tongs or a slotted spoon to take the vegetables out of the broth.
Step 12
Taste the reserved broth and the vegetable-cooking broth. Combine them to your taste. If the vegetable broth tastes best, use it for the finished broth. If the vegetable broth is watery but has good flavor, add a little of it to the reserved broth, to your liking. Or, if you like the meat broth best, use it by itself.
Step 13
Place the cabbage on a large warm platter. Slice the corned beef against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the meat over the cabbage. Scatter the other vegetables over and around the platter. Pour over a good quantity of your chosen broth, and drizzle with the parsley-mustard sauce. Pass the extra broth and sauce at the table.
Parsley-mustard sauce
Step 14
Place the shallots, vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl, and let sit 5 minutes. Pound the parsley with a mortar and pestle and add it to the shallots. Whisk in the mustard and olive oil, and season with a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of pepper and a pinch more salt, if you like. Be careful not to overseason, since the corned beef may be on the salty side.
Note
Step 15
Timing is an important aspect of this meal. While the meat is resting, finish cooking the vegetables. Though you can prep the vegetables in advance, it’s best to wait and cook them at the last moment. You could also cook the corned beef a day or two ahead, slice it when it’s cold, and then reheat and crisp the slices in the broth.
Step 16
In most non-Irish neighborhoods, this large, brined hunk of meat is a special occasion item and not always kept in stock. Call your butcher ahead to make sure you can get one.
