St. Patrick’s day. My feast day. A day that the family has traditionally gathered for a corned beef and cabbage dinner. The first one without Kim.
Kim loved these dinners, and she would have particularly loved this one. I had purchased a packer CAB (brisket) – the biggest I’ve ever seen – from Sam’s club about two weeks ago. I cut it into points and flats and had them brining in the basement refrigerator all week. Yesterday afternoon, I pulled the largest of these and sealed it up for a 36-hour sous vide. I kept the brine to add to the vegetable boil so that they would have that nice corned beef flavor we crave on this day as if they boiled with the meat in the traditional fashion, and the strategy worked perfectly. To all of this, I added my signature beef sauce and a loaf of soda bread.
Unfortunately, Jeanette had to work, and Jessica wasn’t feeling well, so it wasn’t a full house as I had planned, but Kim’s dad made it over and enjoyed both the meal and the company. The meal was great – the flavor of the meat was a little cardamom-heavy, but the color was perfect. Surprisingly a little tough for sous vide corned beef (likely a facet of the quality of the meat). But otherwise, perfect!