The Creative Suspects

Saint Patrick’s Day Feast

This time every year people start preparing to make their annual Corned Beef Brisket in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day. Usually cooking corned beef and cabbage is kind of a pain, taking 3+ hours to cook. But if you have a pressure cooker you can go from fridge to table in less than an hour. If you don’t have a pressure cooker I can’t recommend one enough. You can make soups and stews in less than 15 minutes. Rice and risotto comes out perfect every time.

I know that some people worry about exploding pressure cookers but as long as you are using a modern style pressure cooker (e.g. one made in the last 20 years) there is no way this will every happen. The only thing you’re in danger of is saving a ton of money because you’ll be eating out less with one of these babies!

So what happens in a pressure cooker is that once it’s been filled with whatever you’re going to cook, pressure builds up inside until the temperature is hotter than boiling. The food inside is being braised and steamed at the same time, dramatically shortening the cooking time. The thing to remember is that you must be cooking something in a liquid so you can create the steam. This means soups, stews, chili, pot roast etc. A stew that would cook for 2 hours only takes 8 minutes to cook. Soup is done in less than 10 minutes. The tamale recipe I developed originally called for steaming the tamales for 2 hours. In the pressure cooker they cook in 15 minutes.

So here is my killer recipe for Corned Beef. If the Guinness glaze doesn’t sound like your thing leave out the brown sugar, onions and Guinness and replace with 2 cups water and the little packet of pickling spices included with the brisket.

Start off with a corned beef brisket weighing around 4 pounds. Rinse it and discard the packet of pickling spices. Put one of those cheap metal steamers in the pressure cooker and pour in the Guinness. Rub 1 cup of brown sugar into the brisket. Place the brisket on the steamer. Cover with 2 quartered onions. Place the lid on the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure. Lower heat to maintain pressure and cook for 45 minutes. Take off the heat and let the pressure come down naturally. Carefully remove the brisket and place in a covered casserole dish in the oven to keep warm.

Now place in the steamer 1 cabbage head, cored and cut into wedges, 8 small red or yellow potatoes cut into wedges and 5 large carrots, quartered. Add 1 cup of water. Put the lid back on and bring up to pressure. Lower heat to maintain pressure and cook for 5 minutes. Quick release the pressure, remove the veggies with a slotted spoon and you are ready to serve!

Alex