Corned Beef & Colcannon

I love me some corned beef. Oh, yeah, just the thought of some salty red shreds get my mouth watering.

Watching foodtv last week, I saw Alton Brown actually MAKING corned beef from brisket. An admirable feat, no doubt. And I do like making things so that I know exactly what's in it--no preservatives, no msg, no nitrates, no added sugars or corn syrup, no abominations of any kind.

BUT...

There are just times when I'm not going to make it myself. Like hot dogs. And bacon. And corned beef.

So I did the next best thing. I followed Alton's recipe for cooking that hunk-o-store-bought-corned beef, and not without a good bit of hesitation. I mean--allspice? Bay leaves? The only times I've made corned beef in the past I used the little balls of included spices in the meat package. But he'd never let me down before, so I put my trust in Good Eats.

Boy am I glad I did. Yum with a capital Y! Okay--the only difference is that I cooked the corned beef overnight in the crock pot. Wow, wow, wow. It was perfect.

And in my house, corned beef goes with colcannon.

The first time I had colcannon I was on a business trip to New York City where I stayed at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel. Room service offered a lovely colcannon that changed my life. No more boiled corned-beef-and-cabbage for me!

I can't say that it's much of a recipe, however. I just peel & coarsely cut up as many potatoes I want and dump them in a microwave-safe bowl (I use a jumbo glass bowl) with about 1/4 cup water. I top the bowl with a double-thick dampened paper towel that drapes over all the bowl's top and nuke until the potatoes are fork-tender (I start with 6 minutes on high and go from there). I drain off any remaining water and mash the potatoes with butter, salt, pepper and 2% milk until mashed & creamy. It's better to have a slightly firmer mashed potato mixture for colcannon, because you'll add the cooked cabbage, which brings extra moisture.

Cabbage is equally as easy. Now I did use savoy cabbage this time--it has a milder taste and I was hoping I could get Mr.W to give cabbage another try. Chopped coarsely but fairly small (maybe 1/4" by 3" slices), it's perfect to throw in a large skillet with 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of salted butter and about 2 cups of water, salt and pepper. Just let it go until the cabbage is wilty and soft.

Then I set aside some mashed potatoes for Mr.W without the cabbage before mixing the rest with the cooked cabbage.

Served in bowls with hunks of corned beef stirred in, this is a deeeeeee-licious way to satisfy your corned beef cravings.

Oh... and Mr.W said the savoy cabbage is something I could carefully sneak into other foods, but in small amounts. Because it still tastes like cabbage.

And that's a bad thing how?