Corned Beef, Cabbage & Potatoes

Photo-illustration courtesy of Google Image Search. I forgot to take a picture of our corned beef dinner before we ate it. Oops.

While St. Patrick's Day was this past Friday, we ate corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes today. (We had friends over for dinner on Friday who don't eat beef, so I baked up some fish and chips. Don't be impressed -- I bought them frozen at BJ's).

The thing I love about corned beef is that it's dead simple to make; it doesn't even merit an actual recipe.

Place your corned beef in a large pot and cover with cold water. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook corned beef until tender, about 50 minutes per pound. (My corned beef was 3.5 pounds, so I cooked it for about 3 hours.)

When your corned beef is tender, toss in some potatoes (I cut up red potatoes to speed up the cooking) and cook until almost tender. At this point, remove the corned beef and cover with foil, allowing it to rest for approximately 20 minutes.

With the potatoes, toss in a head of cabbage, chopped into thin wedges and cook until tender (I like it a bit crunchy).

When ready, drain the potatoes and cabbage and toss with butter. Serve with corned beef slices cut against the grain. You'll probably want to sprinkle the cabbage and potatoes with salt and pepper and eat the corned beef with a spicy mustard (like Gulden's -- save the wussy flavor of French's for another dish).

Grade: A+

UPDATE: A great way to reheat leftover corned beef is to simmer it in beer. As for the potatoes and cabbage, just pop them in the microwave. Dinner in a flash!