cook: corned beef dinner

I had bought this corned beef in March. The weather then turned summery, and remained warm so that I just never got around to making a St. Patrick's Day dinner. Finally, the weather 8 months later is blustery and cool, and preparing a corned beef dinner seemed like a pleasant Sunday afternoon activity. I rinsed the beef very well, covered with water, added the corned spices and simmered medium to low for 3 hours. I peeled a russet, a red and a Yukon gold potato and put all in a pot with water. In retrospect, I wonder if I should have poured out water of the beef pot and poured in more fresh water to make it less salty. I swear COVID is making everything taste saltier.   

I also set out a package of heirloom baby carrots as well as 3 stalks of celery which I cut into the same size as the carrots to add to the pot the last 45 minutes of cooking.

 

While the beef simmered, I sliced half of a medium head of green cabbage thinly and put it into a pan into which I melted a few tablespoons of butter.

  

I then put the sautéed cabbage on low and began boiling the potatoes. And then lashed those potatoes with lots of butter, cream and a bunch of chopped scallions.

 

When the corned beef was done simmering, I put the meat on a board to rest. I strained the vegetables from the boiling broth, added butter and chopped chives to coat.

 

Instead of serving the mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage separately, I folded the two into a Colcannon.

Dinner done! I was in a mood to serve the meal in stainless steel and set out the mustards I had in the fridge and jar of horseradish.

Corned beef is not Patrick's favorite, but he did declare this meal was kinda good.

I think I cook a boiled dinner differently by trying not to boil all the color out of the vegetables and add pops of emerald green in the scallions and chives. I'm still testing positive for COVID, and so it's still gonna be a few days before I can go to the grocery store to buy rye bread to make a Rachel--a corned beef sandwich on rye with coleslaw and Russian dressing.