Corned Beef & Cabbage with a Tangy Glaze

I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me, though I've been all over Ireland and I've kissed the Blarney stone. Maybe that's why each March I crave Corned Beef & Cabbage? All I know is that this traditional American-Irish dish, in honor of St. Patrick's Day has been on my mind for over a week!

Making Corned Beef & Cabbage is a no-brainer. Seriously, over the last 30 or so St. Patrick's Day Dinners, I've faithfully bought a package of Corned Beef. I've simply read the directions on the package, that includes a seasoning packet. Per the directions, I always added potatoes, carrots and whatever vegetables sounded good. Sometimes I added beer to the water. How easy can it be? Then, one of my dear Food Bloggers, Cathy of "Wives With Knives" posted her mother's own recipe for Corned Beef & Cabbage. I love Cathy's photos, because they make me want to have a taste of whatever it is she's posted. I especially liked the way Cathy talked about how she spreads a mixture of brown sugar, Dijon, cloves and red wine vinegar on the brisket, before serving. Now, why hadn't I ever thought of that? Cathy uses a slow-cooker, and think that's a great idea. The problem is, when it's 1:00 in the afternoon, and I'm craving Corned Beef & Cabbage on a Sunday afternoon-- I had to improvise.

First, I rinsed and drained the brisket (this is a 3-pound flat-cut piece of brisket. After trimming off the excess fat, I simply opened the seasoning packet and set it into a Dutch Oven. I covered the brisket with water and simmered it very slowly for about 3 hours.

I had almost completely forgotten about these Cippollini onions! They're cute, and a bit sweeter than yellow onions. I peeled some carrots and quartered some red potatoes, and of course I quartered a head of green cabbage.

Preheating the oven to 350F, I removed the brisket (reserving the liquid) and I improvised a glaze of my own, remembering one I use for my Glazed Meatloaf recipe. I used brown sugar, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and ketchup.

I love the taste of this glaze! I placed the brisket into the oven, and began cooking the carrots, onion and potatoes until fork tender (about 20 minutes.) I wanted to broil the glaze, at the very end, for a minute or two, but I had bread baking at the same time (I wish I had two ovens at times like this.)

In the last five minutes of cooking, I stacked the cabbage onto the vegetables and liquid, put a lid on it and let it steam.

The brisket was ready to be sliced, and it looked very juicy...

I'm on a glaze kick, if you haven't noticed!

Dinner is served!

TASTING NOTES: The glaze is a wonderful alternative to either a horseradish or mustard sauce. My boys don't like horseradish (though, I do). I like to splash a little cider vinegar on my cabbage, and the glaze has the perfect balance of sweet, tangy and a slight tomato flavor. In retrospect, I wish I had added tossed the potatoes and carrots with butter- but, I'm trying to cut some calories wherever I can. Then again, there's always room for a glass of cold Harp Beer to wash this down.

Cathy, thanks for inspiring me to add a little more pizazz to corned beef, with a glaze by posting your lovely recipe idea. A printable version of how I made this is at the bottom of this post.