Glazed Corned Beef with Root Vegetables

Neither my husband nor I are the tinniest bit Irish, but we love this meal nevertheless.  I have never deviated from the way I first learned to cook it–that is, as a complete meal all cooked together in a large pot of liquid that first cooked the corned beef, then the vegetables that are added in the last hour.  Everything comes out well seasoned because they “borrow’ each other’s flavors and it all melds together.

This year’s dinner was just a little different.  My piece of corned beef weighed about 3 pounds, and I started cooking it early, so it would be nice and tender.  When I added the vegetables, however, I removed the meat and placed it in a baking dish.  I made a glaze from brown sugar, orange zest, mustard and a pinch of cloves.  I spread that all over the meat and put it into the oven to bake while the vegetables continued to cook in the cooking liquid on the stovetop.  Since the meat was already tender, the baking time in the oven was simply to melt the glaze ingredients and seal the exterior of the meat.  Once sliced, each piece of corned beef got just a rim of the glaze around the outside of it.

The glaze gets all melty and brown in the oven.

I got idea to do this from a handwritten note I had jotted down and tucked away in my recipe box.  So I don’t know what the original source of it was.  I’m just a little sorry that I hadn’t done this sooner.  This new flavor, mild as it is, added a new dimension to the meat, and I think I will continue to do this in the future when I cook corned beef.

GLAZED CORNED BEEF WITIH ROOT VEGETABLES

Yield:   4 – 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 piece of corned beef, about 3 pounds
• 4 potatoes, ( white or red-skinned), quartered
• 4 – 6 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 small head cabbage, trimmed and cut into wedges

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Procedure:

1.  Start cooking the corned beef.   I usually allow about 1 hour/ pound of meat;  so approximately 3 1/2 hours or more before your meal, put the meat into a large kettle along with any spices that were packaged with it.  Add cold water to cover the meat and turn the heat to medium.  Bring slowly to a boil, and once boiling, reduce the heat so the meat is just barely simmering.  Maintain this heat and check periodically to be sure the meat is not cooking too fast.

2.  In the last hour of cooking time, add all the vegetables to the kettle, and remove the meat to a shallow baking dish.

3.  Preheat the oven to 350*F.   In a small dish, mix together all the glaze ingredients.  With a knife or off-set spatula, spread this mixture all over the surface of the meat.  Put into the oven, and bake for about 1/2 hour.  Remove and let meat “rest” before slicing.  Serve with a mixture of the vegetables around it.

Served with soda bread biscuits, and Irish Stout. It sure was good!!

SOURCE:   Unknown