Recipe for a friend - Corned Beef and Cabbage

Homestyle Corned Beef and Cabbage

2c. water
1/4 c. honey
2 tb. Dijon mustard, divided
1 medium cabbage head, cut into 8 wedges
3 tb. butter, softened
1 1/2tsp. fresh dill, chopped or 1/2 tsp dried
2 1/2 lbs. corned beef brisket

Place brisket and water in Dutch oven; cover tightly and cook 1hr. at 350 degrees. (It is very important to simmer the meat slowly because boiling will cause meat to become tough.) Turn brisket over and continue cooking, covered, 1 1/2-2hrs Or till meat is tender. Remove meat from cooking liquid and place flat side up on rack in broiler pan. Combine honey with 1 tb. mustard. Brush half of mixture over top of brisket. Put in broiler with meat about 3-4 in. from source of heat and broil about 3min. Brush again with remaining mixture and broil again for about 2min. or till meat is glazed.

Meanwhile steam cabbage 15-20 min. or till tender. combine remaining mustard with butter and dill, spread over hot cabbage wedges. Carve brisket diagonally across the grain into thin slices and serve with cabbage.
Serves 6.

This is my friend Boo's recipe. Ive adapted my own recipe to this now the only differences were I cooked mine on top of the stove and added the spice pkg. that comes with it to the water. I also put in potatoes, carrots and the cabbage when the meat was done and cooked them till tender. When done I drained all of it and glazed the corned beef. While that was glazing I made the mustard dill butter-doubled to put on the veggies.

Now I have another way to do it. As you all know I'm moving soon and am cleaning out my freezers. Its been really hot here and yet I wanted to cook corned beef. So rather than heat up my kitchen I decided to try it in my pressure cooker. I never made it that way before but I can say it came out tender, delicious and fast! So here's that adaptation too.

Seas Pressure cooker Corned Beef and Veggies

1 corned beef brisket about 3 1/2lbs. plus the spice pkg.
2 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
water
3 potatoes
4 carrots
1 pkg. of frozen Brussels sprouts
1/4 c. honey
2 tb. Dijon mustard
6 tb. butter, softened
1/2 tsp. dried dill

Remove meat from pkg. and rinse well. Place in pressure cooker (mines electric, so adapt to what you have). Cover with water and empty spice pkg.in to it. Add garlic cloves (no need to peel) and bay leaves.Put on lid and seal. Set timer for 50min. For those with regular cookers........use this time for after it comes to the boil. Mine doesn't start timing till then either.

Peel and cut up veggies while meat is cooking.

When done, test, it should be tender. Add all veggies and reseal. Cook for 8min. more.

(I decided to slice mine first this time and glaze so glaze can seep into everywhere, we love it)

Drain all. Put meat on broiler pan and finish as above. Drain veggies and put in casserole, top with dill mustard butter and keep hot till meat is glazed. Serve.

I used brussels sprouts that day because I didn't have any cabbage in the house. Since I'm emptying my freezer anyway that was a really good substitute and one that I will do again.

Split Pea Soup

I know not everyone likes Pea Soup. I never did as a kid. My mom would make Campbell's pea soup for lunch and it would make me gag and she would get mad cuz I wouldn't eat it. So I never thought Id grow up and end up liking it. But when you make things yourself you can add lots of flavor to make it better so this is my version. I use a pressure cooker for it. I splurged a couple years ago and bought an electric one since I had no clue how to use one. Some of you have grown up with moms or grandmoms using a stove top one, I never did. And Ive heard horror stories of them blowing up so I wanted no part of that. I figure an electronic one has alot more safeguards built in them so that's what I did. Of course one new toy leads to more and since I didn't have a clue what to do with this new thing I ended up buying some cookbooks about it. A few good ones I believe are important to use as a reference for whatever you want to make.


SPLIT PEA SOUP serves 8

2 c. (1lb.) dried green or yellow split peas, picked over
2 tb. olive oil
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 cloves, garlic , minced
1 lg. potato, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 ham bone or 1 ham steak, trimmed of fat and diced
2 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
8 c. water
S & P to taste

Rinse peas under water in a colander and pick thru. Sometimes there are small stones and such missed when processed. Heat olive oil in a pressure cooker over med. heat. (Mine has a browning function button for this) Add onion and garlic and saute till soft. Add potato, carrots, celery, ham bone and ham, marjoram, salt and pepper.


Cook for 2 min. Add the split peas and water. Stir well. (I save my ham bones from other dinners in the freezer and make sure they are really meaty, this is what makes this soup good. I add extra ham if the ham bone looks pretty bare).For this soup here I added the ham bone and whatever leftover frozen ham I had from it.....probably about a pound.



Cover and bring to high pressure over high heat. (I leave the browning feature on till the water gets hot, then switch over to pressure cooker). Lower the heat to stabilize the pressure. (At this point I make sure its all locked down and the proper pressure level is set and the timer is set too, then hit start)

Cook for about 30-45min. ( I let mine go to 45min, we like the meat falling apart). Let pressure drop till cool enough to handle and uncover pot. Taste and add more S & P if needed. Stir well to incorporate all the ingredients as they tend to settle to the bottom.



This soup gets really thick the next day. I often freeze it in 1 serving containers to eat for lunches and such. I add extra water to thin it when I reheat it.