Glazed Corned Beef (points), Sauteed Cabbage

St. Paddy's Day Dinner Revisited: Glazed Corned Beef, Cabbage and Colcannon (Irish Mashed Potatoes)

It all starts with a slow cooker.  I gathered together all of the ingredients for a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner and prepared it in my crockpot.  After that I separated the components and made three separate dishes with them.  My Corned Beef was baked in a delicious apricot-spicy mustard glaze.  With some of the cabbage, onion and potatoes, I made Colcannon enhanced with nice thick bacon, purchased from Harter House Supermarket.  Then I used the rest of the cabbage and sauteed  it with more bacon!

The great thing about this dinner is that most ingredients are already cooked in the slow cooker once, so preparing the individual dishes hardly takes any time at all.  You can even do it all in advance and refrigerate until you are ready to make the individual recipes. Also, you can cook all the bacon for the Cabbage Saute and the Colcannon at once and divide it for each dish.

Tricked Out St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Apricot-Mustard Glazed Corn Beef

Ingredients

1 large sweet Onion

4 Medium Potatoes

1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 cups water

Garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

2 Tbl sugar

2 Tbl Apple cider vinegar

1 (3 lb.) Corned beef brisket point

1 large or 2 small heads of cabbage, cut into wedges

For the Glaze

Directions

Place the onions and potatoes in a 5-Qt slow cooker.  Combine broth, water, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, vinegar and pour over vegetables.  Top with Brisket and cabbage.  Cover and cook on Low for 8-9 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Carefully remove corned beef from the slow cooker and place in a shallow roasting pan.

Mix all glaze ingredients together in a bowl.  Pour over corned beef.  Bake 30-40 minutes, until glaze is nice and bubbly.

Slice corned beef on a diagonal and serve.

Sauteed Cabbage
4-5 Slices thick cut bacon
1/2 of the reserved cabbage from the slow cooker, sliced into strips
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 TBL Cider Vinegar
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to tast

Place bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium high heat until evenly browned.  Place on a plate lined with paper towels and cut up into small pieces.  Set aside.
  

In about 2 TBL of the reserved bacon drippings, (save the rest for later) Saute the onion until very soft.  Add cabbage and the rest of the ingredients and saute until liquid is absorbed and all is heated through.  Serve.

Colcannon  (Irish Mashed Potatoes)
Ingredients
Reserved potatoes from slow cooker
1/2 of the reserved cabbage, cut into small chunks
4 strips of bacon
1 large sweet onion
1/2 Cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 TBLs butter

Directions
Place potatoes in a large bowl. Smash them up a bit and set aside.
Place bacon in a large deep skillet.  Cook over medium high heat until evenly browned.  Drain, reserving drippings and set aside.  In the reserved drippings, saute onion until very soft.  Add the cabbage for the last few minutes and continue to saute so the cabbage absorbs some bacon flavor.

Mix the half and half into the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Fold in the bacon, cabbage, and onions, then transfer the mixture to a large serving bowl.  Make a well in the center, and top with butter.
Serve immediately.