Hi Everyone,

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I hope all is well and you all recovered from the weekend of “Daylight Savings Time” – losing an hour is tough.

Anyway, I wish you a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day with many blessings!

Bob and I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day yesterday which was unplanned but sort of fell into place like this…...

We had a lot of appointments starting very early yesterday morning and decided to save some time and get a quick breakfast on the way home.

We walked into the local bagel store and there in front of me in the showcase were baskets full of green bagels for the upcoming holiday and I just had to have one. I added some scallion cream cheese to my bagel just to add even more “green” to the meal.

I haven’t had a bagel store bagel in so long that it was a bit of heaven with each bite. This bagel was so huge I could only eat half and now I have the other half for the official St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.

I mentioned to Bob that I wanted to celebrate a day early and not wait until the actual holiday because now I was in the mood to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day just because of this one green bagel.

My darling husband went into the basement for my St. Patrick’s Day dishes. These dishes are melamine and manufactured by the company “Upware” and they make an appearance once a year on my table.

I started taking out all my grocery items to get my St. Patrick’s Day meals in order.

When I ordered my groceries this week, I ordered the traditional corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread, Guinness beer and I also ordered some shamrock-shaped ravioli that caught my eye. This would be perfect for lunch.

When lunchtime came around I made a quick pesto sauce to go along with the ravioli (keeping the green theme) topped with pine nuts because I was pressed for time but I was originally thinking of making an “Irish Vodka Sauce” for these ravioli.

I listed both sauce recipes below if you are interested in trying either one of them.

Basic Basil Pesto Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of fresh basil leaves (no stems), washed & dried in between paper towels
• 1/3 cup of pine nuts (walnuts or pistachios can be substituted)
• 2 large cloves of garlic
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Combine basil leaves, pine nuts, salt, and garlic in a food processor and process until finely minced.

With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and process until the mixture is smooth

Add the cheese and process very briefly to combine. Store in the refrigerator or freezer*.

Cook’s Note: * if you freeze the pesto, I will add the cheese before you serve the sauce and not freeze with the cheese added.

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Irish Vodka Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. butter
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1/3 cup of Irish Vodka
• 1 can (28 oz) of crushed tomatoes
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion in butter until lightly golden.

ADD the vodka slowly to the pan and simmer for 10 minute

MIX IN the crushed tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes

Pour in the heavy cream and cook for another 10 minutes on a simmer and season with salt and pepper

Cook pasta in boiling water as per package directions and drain. Spoon the sauce over the pasta and enjoy.

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After lunch, I started to prepare the veggies and get my corned beef prepped. I usually prepare this meal in the slow cooker but this year I search for a recipe for the Instant pot and found a great recipe from the website, “Striped Spatula”.

I want to thank the author Amanda Biddle for not only her great recipe but for all the time she saved me with this meal.

I copied her recipe below for your convenience so you don’t have to look it up.

Instant Pot Corned Beef

courtesy of Amanda Biddle from Striped Spatula.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 28 minutes

Pressure Build and Release Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 48 minutes

Servings: 4 to 5 servings

Estimated Calories Per Serving: 706kcal

Author: Amanda Biddle

Ingredients

• ▢1 small yellow onion , sliced (use 1/2 if large)
• ▢4 cloves garlic , peeled and lightly smashed with the back of a knife
• ▢2 tablespoons pickling spice
• ▢2-1/2 cups water
• ▢4 pound corned beef brisket , rinsed
• ▢12 ounces lager-style beer (nothing too bitter)
• ▢1 pound tiny potatoes (about 1-1/2 inches in diameter), or red-skinned potatoes cut into 1-1/2 inch wedges
• ▢1 head cabbage , cut into 8 wedges
• ▢1 pound baby carrots
• ▢1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley , for garnish
• ▢2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted (optional)
• ▢grainy mustard , for serving (optional)

Instructions

• Combine onion, garlic, pickling spices, and water in the insert of a 6-quart Instant Pot. Place the corned beef brisket, fat side up, on a rack on top of the onions. Pour beer over the brisket.
• Seal lid and set the unit to HIGH pressure for 85 minutes. Let pressure release naturally for 20 minutes, then manually release the remaining pressure.* Remove corned beef and place on a dish or a cutting board, spooning a bit of the cooking liquid over the top. Cover with foil to keep warm.
• Strain cooking liquid and discard solids. Return 1-1/2 cups of liquid to the Instant Pot and add potatoes, carrots, and cabbage wedges. (Reserve remaining cooking liquid.) Seal lid and set the unit to HIGH pressure for 3-4 minutes, depending on how soft you like your vegetables. Quick release pressure.
• Slice corned beef against the grain. Spoon a little bit of the reserved cooking liquid over the corned beef slices on your platter. Sprinkle parsley over the vegetables, and if desired, drizzle with melted butter. Serve corned beef with mustard. 

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Notes

*Since the beer foams up in the pressure cooker during the corned beef cooking process, you might find that the initial force of manually releasing the steam (after the 20-minute natural release) causes some liquid to spray out of the valve. Sometimes it’s happened to me, other times, it hasn’t. 

A little bit of liquid is fine, but if you release the pressure and find that too much liquid is coming out, re-seal the valve, and try releasing the remaining pressure again in another 5 minutes. Or, release the steam more slowly by turning the valve just until you hear a hissing noise and carefully holding it in that position (be sure to wear a heat-proof glove).

Read more about gradually releasing the steam in this article, section #3.

Some have recommended covering the lid/valve with a towel while releasing the pressure. Do not do this, as obstructing the vent can damage your pressure cooker and cause a safety issue.

To Glaze The Corned Beef (Optional)

This corned beef is also delicious served with my Irish Whiskey-Mustard glaze. The ingredients and directions can be found in my recipe, Beer Braised Corned Beef with Whiskey Mustard Glaze. After fully cooking the corned beef in the Instant Pot (instead of Dutch oven braising), follow the directions to “Glaze and Serve”.

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Our delicious meal……. the corned beef was wonderful in the Instant Pot.….. the store-bought Irish soda bread was a little dry and I am going to try making my own and if I do, I will post the results and the recipe….stay tuned.

After dinner, there is always room for dessert, and Bob and I had shamrock-shaped Linzer tarts (they are my all-time favorite cookie.)

Have a fabulous day and now we start the countdown to St. Joseph’s Day on Saturday and more great traditional food…..

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

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