The Irish Dinner That Almost Wasn't

It's time to talk about Stay at Home Date Night, AKA Date Night Dins. What do you do when the stores are running low and your spirits even lower but it is Date Night, a family favorite "food holiday" and a quarantine all at once...You stay on track, keep things as normal as possible, and eat corned beef!

In the welcome post, I introduced you to my husband, Buhbah. He is my rock, the one that keeps me sane, the one that can drive me more nuts than anyone, and the one that is capable of bringing me up from the lowest of the low points. He is a man of very few words but very big actions, with a creative spirit that can crack s a bit of sunshine into the gloomiest of my days.

Date Night Dinners- many of you familiar with my family know about our sacred Saturdays, also known as Stay at home Date Night, or simply DATE NIGHT. But do you know this is NOT my creation? Stunning, I know, since I tend to take all the credit, I am selfish like that, just #keepingitreal.

It is time for a full confession: The big guy started Date Night Dins!

Many years ago, in the foggy "pre-JR days" Bob simply said, "What if we just decided to not to make plans for Saturdays anymore? Let's just say "no" to everything with the exception of the truly exceptional, and put our time first. We will stay in, hide out and hang out"

I am, of course, totally paraphrasing here, because there is no way he used that many words, but you get the gist. And just like that, my big man created what, a DECADE later, has become our favorite night of the week!

Plans for #stayathomedatenight begin almost immediately on Monday.

We text, chat and email through the week, plotting and planning for "our" night.

Through the years, Buhbah has made this fun, challenging, sweet, sometimes ridiculously hysterical, and one time, through no fault of his own, a complete and total horror show (this is why Chicken sandwiches are banned from Date Night forever, and I will share this story with you all, one day when I am strong enough, and the PTSD has lessened, but it isn't for the faint fucking hearted, I can tell you that.)

Last weekend, per our yearly traditions, we were planning on having the standard corned beef and cabbage #DateNightDins, complete with Irish Car Bombs, over the top food and general shenanigans.

Then the bottom dropped out.

I went down sick, being joined quickly by Red, and as we laid pitifully around the house, Buhbah attempted to grocery shop, he came home pretty empty handed, and I just rolled over and went back into my Nyquil fog.

I came out of the fog into a strange new world of quarantines, lockdowns, bare grocery stores and apparently, a massive country-wide toilet paper shortage.

Thankfully, I am a pretty damn good food hoarder, so we hung in there until I could get to a freshly stocked store (still woefully bare) in time to grab one of the last corned beef briskets, some veggies (plenty of produce to be found as everyone stocked up on junk food... yay for 'Merica!) and a 6 pack of Guinness. Exactly what was needed to have our IOU St. Patricks Day Date night!

If you missed it too, or just want a re-do because things haven't exactly been celebratory recently, hang around, because this was an EPIC Corned Beef Dinner. You are going to want to try this! I mean, just look at this!! Look at it!

Ready? Yes, you are ready. This is no ordinary Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner! This is cooked twice, glazed with a stunningly delicious and totally addicting, sweet and salty sauce that comes together really easy, and brings the whole dinner up a big notch.

Relax, even if you have never made corned beef, this is so damn easy you are going to wonder why you have been eating boiled meat and vegetables all this time. This is a game changer, people!

Come hang out in the Ginger Kitchen while we make Date Night Dins!

On the menu:

Twice Cooked Corned Beef with Guinness, Mustard and Brown Sugar

Quick Roasted Cabbage, Carrots and Onions

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Dill and Garlic Sour Cream

Warm Up:

Preheat your oven to 450

Equipment:

Pressure cooker- 6qt or larger

13 x 9 Baking dish

Sheet Pan

Assemble Your Crew:

For the Corned Beef and Veggies:

Corned beef brisket -I used a 5 lb for this recipe, I also used a point cut, which is not my typical choice, I prefer flat...but stupid fucking quarantine meant I was lucky to snag this one, let alone have freedom of choice, but we are rolling with it here, you should too. Don't sweat the small stuff.

3 cups water

1 medium head of cabbage

3 cups of baby carrots

2 Yellow or Sweet Onions

1/4 cup stone ground mustard, or you can use brown or dijon, whatever floats your boat

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 cup of Guinness (about 2/3 of the bottle, give the rest to your hubby and throw him a wink, it's date night baby!)

Spice Packet from Brisket

For the Potatoes

5 medium sized Russet Potatoes - already baked

3 Tbsp EVOO

Kosher Salt

1 cup Sour cream

3 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Dill

2 cloves of garlic-finely minced

1 tsp Seasoned Salt

Get your Date Night on!

Remove the corned beef from package, put aside the spice packet and rinse brisket under cold water. Pat dry. Place on a trivet in pressure cooker, add 3 cups water, seal pot, and set to cook on high pressure for 90 mins.

While the corned beef is feeling the heat, let's show your veggies who is boss.

Using a good sharp chef's knife, cut the cabbage in half and cut out the core. Cut each half into about 4-5 wedges and put aside.

Peel and thinly slice 1 1/2 of the onions and dice the remaining half into a small dice. Place the sliced onions in the bottom of your baking dish, setting aside the diced onions.

Give the carrots a firm stare, you may not be getting to them yet, but their time is coming. Just kidding. Rinse them off and pat them dry. Set aside.

Make the glaze:

In a large bowl, combine, the mustard, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, diced onion, spice packet from the corned beef and the beer. Whisk well until combined and set aside so they can all mingle and get to know one another.

Grab your baked potatoes (I always bake extra potatoes, because they take a long time, and just doing 2 never makes sense to me, so I usually do a bunch, you should too! I am going to have lots of ways for you to use them up, I promise!) cut each of the potatoes in half long way. Put the cut side down on your cutting board and using something heavy (I used this meat mallet thingymabob) and gently smoosh them a bit to flatten. You don't want to demolish them, just push them down until they are about 1/2" thick and the sides crack slightly.

Drizzle 2 TBSP of EVOO on to your baking sheet. Using a pastry brush or paper towel, coat the sheet in oil. The using a spatula gently transfer your smooshed taters on to the baking sheet. Dizzle with another TBSP of oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake the potatoes in the oven at 450 until crispy and browned, about 20 mins. Remove from the oven and set aside.

**Note: Once your Corned Beef is done, you are going to need to let the pressure naturally release, do NOT do a quick pressure release, or your brisket will be dried out and no one wants sad brisket anytime, but certainly not on #datenight Remember! I have failed so you don't have to!**

When your corned beef is done, and pressure has been release, carefully transfer the brisket to the baking dish, putting it on top of the sliced onions. Snugly tuck the cabbage wedges in around it, and then scatter the carrots in as well, like tucking in a perfect and soon to be delicious baby.

Pour the glaze over the brisket and veggies.

Bake uncovered for 20 minutes until brisket is browned and caramelized, then cover and bake another 15 minutes until the carrots are soft.

Remove from oven, let brisket stand at room temp for 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, and while it is resting, throw the potatoes back into the warm oven to warm back up.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, dill, garlic, and seasoned salt, whisk well until the sour cream is liquefied a bit and good for dollopin'!

Slice Brisket on the diagonal, place on serving platter and surround with the roasted veg, pour any sauce remaining in the pan, over top. Garnish with fresh chopped dill if you are in to that thing. We are totally into that kind of thing.

Place potatoes on platter, and serve with sour cream on side.

Enjoy with your favorite people and dragons.