Kiss me! I’m (pretending to be) Irish!

(From the cooking blog archives)

What’s on your menu for this evening? Are you feasting instead of fasting?

Same here!

Corned beef and cabbage is very easy to make. Have you tried it? No? You must. All I did was boil the corned beef for 30 minutes (to reduce its saltiness) with half the contents of the little spice pack that comes with it.

Then I popped it in my Le Creuset Dutch oven (which I love) and drizzled it with olive oil. I added a handful of carrots, (peeled and chopped) and a handful of onions (also peeled and chopped in large sections so the kids can avoid them). A little salt and pepper, a couple pats of butter, and into the oven it went.

I cooked mine for about 3 ½ hours at 325 degrees and it was so very good—crispy on the outside and very tender on the inside.

Oh, and I added the cabbage about an hour and 1/2 into the baking. You don’t want mushy cabbage.

You know.

The second recipe I got from my sister. I phoned her up to see how she was preparing her corned beef & cabbage, (because I just knew she’d be making corned beef & cabbage), and she told me about this funky Irish side dish they were having.

“It’s in the new Centennial Cookbook that I’m editing for our parish,” she said. It’s called ‘Thumblededore’ or ‘Dumblededoop’ or something like that.”

She was close. : )

Rumbledethumps is actually its Scottish name. In England, this dish is known as Bubble and Squeak; in Ireland, colcannon.

The names didn’t much matter to my kids, although they did like saying “Bubble and Squeak.” Even more than that, they liked eating it.

Here’s the recipe: