Guinness-Braised Beef Brisket - An Early St. Pat's Day Feast

We had an early St. Patrick’s dinner last night because I will be teaching on Wednesday. Corned beef may be Connor’s favorite meat. May be even more than a filet. He says could eat it every week, and I believe him. This recipe is great because you throw it in the slow cooker and forget about it. And the house smells divine. When Connor got home from work, he said even the garage had the aroma of corned beef. Since it’s such a rare treat, I splurge and get Straub’s Kobe corned beef. It’s kind of funny when I think about it that corned beef is the only Kobe beef I’ve ever tasted. It does make a difference. Since corned beef is brined, the brown sugar in this recipe counterbalances the saltiness of the brine, and the Guinness imparts its unique body and creamy, caramel taste. Plus the little ball inside the Guinness can is pretty cool. The meat is fall-apart, fork tender, in a beautiful dark pink color.

I served it with two sauces, both from Bon Appetit, a Horseradish Cream (favorite of the two sauces) and a Guinness Mustard (would be tasty on any sandwich), champ (Irish mashed potatoes made with butter, warmed milk, and green onions), the Barefoot Contessa’s sautéed cabbage, green beans with bacon (for the non-cabbage eaters, Craig and Emily), and a pudding cake made with rhubarb I had left in the freezer from last summer.

I doubled the recipe since my brisket was almost six pounds with plans of having Rachel sandwiches on Wednesday for dinner (not Rueben’s since my guys don’t like sauerkraut), but I’m not sure with all the grazing that’s gone on that we will have enough to do that.

Erin go Bragh!

Guinness-Braised Beef Brisket (Adapted from Cooking Light)

1 cup water

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 can Guinness stout
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 14 ½-oz can low-salt beef broth
6 black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
1 3-pound cured corned beef brisket, trimmed

Combine first 11 ingredients in a large electric slow cooker, stirring until well blended; top with beef. Cover and cook on HIGH 8 hours or until beef is tender. Remove beef; cut diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch slices. Discard broth mixture (BTW - I love picking out the slightly mushy, oh-so-flavorful carrots).