Traditions: they’re the things we do to keep memories and ideas moving from one time, one place, one person to the next. Sometimes they’re small gestures between family members or friends. Sometimes, they’re bigger—like, “dumping 40 pounds of green food dye into the Chicago River for St. Patrick’s Day” bigger.
As a Midwesterner, I always get a good chuckle mid-March each year as I see another aerial shot of the Windy City’s winding river turning into a shamrock-colored soup. What does this have to do with the patron saint of Ireland? The answer’s not important; what matters is the tradition behind it. It’s a bit silly, true, but the act adds to a day of celebration we sorely need as our blustery winter weather begins to subside. This is precisely why I, as a child, started my own silly St. Patrick’s Day tradition: dyeing a glass of milk green to match the Chicago River. As I learned how to make more meals on my own, I experimented with greening more of our annual grub: baked potatoes, carrots, loaves of beer bread, and even the corned beef once! That last one didn’t work out very well.
Years later, I love sharing this tradition with my kids as they help me out in the kitchen, little glasses of green milk in tow. Though my spouse prefers that we keep the dye out of most of our meals at this point, we still have plenty of traditional Irish meals to share with the family. Feeling lucky? Here's a four-leaf clover's worth of special recipes to try at home this holiday.
A classic staple of St. Patrick’s Day, this one’s easy to make at home thanks to our Presto® 8 Quart Pressure Cooker. We start by pouring 2 cups of water into the cooker before setting up our steamer basket inside. Then, we get to work with a generous 3 lb corned beef brisket, coating it with a garlic powder rub across the whole surface. Once thoroughly seasoned, we can place the brisket into the basket alongside the seasoning packet included in the brisket packaging. From there, all we have to do for this phase is close the cover, put the pressure regulator over the vent pipe, and turn on the stove to high heat to begin cooking. This next part will take a bit--about 55 minutes--so while we wait, we can get started on the next dish.
Now let's say, hypothetically, you have a situation where you want to pass on all of these traditional recipes, but one of your kids tells you they hate corned beef...right after we place it into the pressure cooker. Well never fear, because there's still more we can make! This Shepherd's Pie recipe takes a hodgepodge of hearty meat, veggies, and potatoes to form a feast my kiddos won't soon forget. Best part is, almost all of this can be whipped together in a single dish. Start by preparing some mashed potatoes either from scratch or a box mix. Then, we prepare our Options® Multi-Cooker by preheating to 325°F then tossing in butter, onions, and garlic to cook for 2 minutes. Then, add a pound of ground beef or turkey to multi-cooker, alongside a mix of seasonings: garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper & Italian seasoning. Mix them all up until the meat is browned and fully coated by our spice amalgam. Once ready, we lower heat to 200°F to make a gravy for the pie "filling" composed of flour, tomato paste, beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes to keep everything evenly mixed, then toss in your favorite frozen veggies. I typically just use a mixed vegetables medley bag for the variety, but we'll at least want peas, corn, and carrots in there. Lastly, we can spoon in our mashed potatoes to form an even, smooth outer layer on the top of our Shepherd's Pie, complete with shredded cheese. You can even add more flavor to the top with some smoked paprika, provided your picky eaters don't mind a little heat like mine do. Cover and let sit on WARM for 10 minutes, and you'll have a set, savory entree ready to serve straight from the multi-cooker pot. Sure enough, this was my middle child's favorite recipe of the bunch. Phew!
Back to the Beef
Since we’ve finished up our shepherd's pie in the Options® cooker, it’s time to return to our corned beef in the pressure cooker. Once our 55-minute cook time has concluded, we can quickly de-pressurize the cooker by running it under cold water in from the kitchen sink. Then we pop open the lid of the pressure cooker, take a moment to enjoy the salty-tangy aroma of the cooked red brisket, and add our quartered head of cabbage, potatoes, and carrots (kudos to my kiddos for peeling those while we were preparing the shepherd's pie!) After we lower our new ingredients into the Corned Beef mix, we close the cover again and start another 5 minutes of cooking time. This will get our potatoes and veggies nice and tender. All that's left is another pressure release before removing our cooked corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots from the cooker, ready to serve!
But what to do with our newly-cooked corned beef? It's delicious on its own, sure, but also ripe for use in a grilled Reuben sandwich. This one’s a shoe-in for a satisfying lunch. Start by heating up a griddle to 350°F. I use a Presto® 20-inch Cool-touch Griddle so I can fit all of the sandwiches for my family on at once, and because the cool-touch sides help me feel better about having my kids working alongside me in the kitchen. Start with a two slices of rye bread, then layer with Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese, slices of our corned beef brisket and 1/4 a cup of sauerkraut. We can then top it off with one more slice of cheese and the other slice of bread. Then, just butter the outsides of both rye slices and get it to the griddle! With a wide griddle surface, you can cook multiple Reuben sandwiches at a time while keeping an eye on each. It only takes about 4 minutes per side to achieve that toasty golden crust and melty layer of cheese. Enjoy those leftovers long after March 17th's come and gone with this tasty recipe.
That's a big enough feast for our family to enjoy this time. With any luck--and there's plenty of that to go around this time of year--you'll find a new favorite among these recipes to enjoy. Maybe you'll even get a new tradition to share with friends or kids at home while making these takes on classic Irish dishes.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a chilled glass of green milk waiting in the fridge. Cheers!