St. Patrick’s Day is coming and I’m starting to get into a festive mood. I’ve had the “Sounds of the Season” music channel on all week long and I decided to make some corned beef. Every year in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia St. Patrick’s Church holds the Church Hill Irish Festival the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a fantastic festival full of music, food, and all sorts of other activities. The proceeds from the Irish Festival benefit St. Baldrick’s Foundation and a few other charities. My dad is one of the many volunteers that helps to make this event happen and I miss being able to attend since I moved.
One of the mainstays of the food offerings is Irish Lasagna, prepared each year by the Ladies of St. Patrick’s. It’s basically a casserole made of corned beef, cabbage, and mashed potatoes, among other things. Those ladies guard the recipe very closely, but one thing I do know is that Guinness is one of the ingredients and I imagine that they use it to cook the corned beef. So taking inspiration from the ladies of St. Patrick’s I decided to make a corned beef and potato meal of my own. Yes, I am leaving out the cabbage. I know, not very Irish-American of me, but I don’t love it. Shocking, I know, since my dad was making cabbage and potatoes when I called him on Friday to discuss this recipe. And I didn’t use Guinness (gasp). I know. It’s a long story, but I went with another dark stout.
Ingredients
- 1 corned beef brisket
- 1 yellow onion (diced)
- 1 bottle stout beer
- 1-2 Tablespoon flour (if you want to make gravy from the drippings)
- 2 Tablespoons butter
1. Put the corned beef brisket in the crock pot. Make sure the fat layer is up. Toss in the onion. Then poor over the beer. Cook on low for 8 hours, until it is tender.
2. Take the corned beef out of the crock pot and trim the fat off the top of the meat. Discard the fat.
3.Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in 1-2 Tablespoons of flour and cook while whisking for about 5 minutes.
4. Take 2 cups of the liquid out of the crock pot and gradually pour into the saucepan while whisking. Bring up to a boil and keep boiling 2-3 minutes until the gravy thickens.
I made the Pioneer Woman’s mashed potatoes and some green beans to go with the meat. I only made a half recipe of the mashed potatoes. This is my absolute favorite mashed potato recipe and it went perfectly with the corned beef. The corned beef didn’t really need a gravy, but it’s always fun to have it with potatoes. We’ll use the leftover corned beef to make Reubens.
Feel free to ask any questions and let me know if you try the recipe. Do you have any favorite St. Patrick’s Day recipes?
*Oh, and yesterday I was featured on Totally Tutorials. If you’ve never been there before, check it out. It’s full of tutorials on all manner of crafts and food.
Cat is a teacher turned stay-at-home mom of two boys. She shares crafts, DIY projects, kids’ activities, and a little bit about life in Ohio. Learn more about her and the blog on the About page.