St. Patrick's Day is the perfect time to try corned beef and cabbage

Who doesn't love traditional corned beef and cabbage for a little luck of the Irish?

Sous vide corned beef with Irish fried cabbage is a delicious and stress-free twist on a classic St. Patrick's Day dish.

The sous vide cooking method guarantees a juicy, flavorful, and melt-in-your-mouth corned beef every time with minimal effort. Add fried Irish cabbage, perfectly caramelized in a single skillet, for a delicious and impressive meal.

What is sous vide?

Sous vide, pronounced "sue-veed" translates from French to "under vacuum."

It is a cooking technique whereby food is vacuum-sealed and slow-cooked in a water bath to a precise level of doneness. Because the focus is on precise temperature control, sous vide produces perfectly cooked food without fail.

Upscale restaurants have used the sous vide technique for some time to produce perfectly cooked meals in what may appear to be a fraction of the time normally required. Why? Because the items can be cooked to the precise temperature utilizing sous vide and quickly seared to produce the flavorful Maillard reaction.

The most important piece of equipment that is needed for sous vide is an immersion circulator.

An immersion circulator is a piece of electrical equipment immersed in a water container. It circulates and heats the water to a precise, consistently maintained temperature.

You also need a large deep container to hold the water and your vacuum-sealed food item.

Finally, you need time. Once the corned beef is vacuum-sealed and immersed in the water bath, it cooks undisturbed for 10 hours. That might sound like a lot. However, the corned beef’s tough muscle structure is broken down with low, slow cooking. The result is tenderized meat that can rival expensive cuts of meat.

I’ve used the sous vide technique for a number of years for not only corned beef but also other cuts of beef, pork, and chicken. The results are consistently amazing.

So, for this St. Patrick’s Day, do yourself a favor and make this restaurant quality sous vide corned beef with Irish cabbage. You and your family will be amazed.

Sous vide Corned Beef with Irish Fried Cabbage

Serves 6

Equipment Needed

Immersion Circulator

Large container to hold the water and the corned beef.

Ingredients

Sous Vide Corned Beef

3 to 4 pounds of corned beef brisket, rinsed well, patted dry

Irish Fried Cabbage

4 slices thick bacon, about 5 ounces, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

1/2 small head of cabbage, chopped or shredded (about 4 cups)

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

Sous Vide Corned Beef

Vacuum seal the corned beef brisket. Submerge it in a temperature-controlled water bath at 180°F. Cook for 10 hours. Remove from the water bath. Either refrigerate for another day or remove from the vacuum seal package. Rinse well and pat dry. Remove the fat layer, slice, and serve.

Irish Fried Cabbage

Cook the bacon in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crispy brown, about 10 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels; set aside. Pour the grease from the skillet.

Return one tablespoon of the bacon grease to the skillet. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until the onion begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the cabbage, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cabbage begins to soften, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle cooked bacon on top of cabbage and serve.

Yield: 6 servings.

Recipe tips and tricks

Don't be tempted to sous vide the corned beef in its packaging from the grocery store. The packaging isn't designed to withstand the heat from the cooking. I like to discard the liquid in the package and the packet of spices.

The best cut of corned beef is the flat cut. It's long and thin with a thick layer of fat that keeps the meat moist when cooking. The flat cut is the most likely cut you will find at the grocery store and is best for slicing.

Before cooking, I don't remove any of the fat from the corned beef. Once the corned beef has cooked, scraping the fat off the top is easy.

I often refrigerate the sous vide corned beef once it comes out of the water bath. When I'm ready to serve the corned beef, I remove it from the vacuum-sealed bag, rinse and pat it dry, wrap it in aluminum foil, and heat it in a 375°F oven for about 20 minutes to take the chill off.

I like adding steamed creamer potatoes, carrots, along with Irish Guinness Brown Soda Bread for a memorable meal.

For a special treat, serve the corned beef with creamy horseradish sauce (1/2 cup low-fat sour cream, two tablespoons prepared horseradish, 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar, 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt, and pinch of freshly ground black pepper).

The leftovers are just as good and make amazing sandwiches and appetizers!

Chula King is the blogger behind PudgeFactor.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: St. Patrick's Day recipe makes a juicy corned beef and cabbage