Join Martha Stewart for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration featuring classic Irish flavors! She prepares a perfect holiday lineup, including tender corned beef, hearty barley stew, and perfectly baked soda bread, so whether you're hosting a family feast or just craving some Irish comfort food, these recipes bring that authentic taste.
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00:00Homemade corned beef is arguably the iconic Irish dish, but I feel it deserves more attention
00:06and love than just on St. Patrick's Day.
00:09This recipe for corned beef is an anomaly.
00:12It's not quite a braise.
00:13It's somewhere between a braise and a poach.
00:15Now corned beef really is a brisket cut of beef, which is cured in a salt brine.
00:23One cup of salt, a half a cup of sugar, and a slightly unusual ingredient, one tablespoon
00:33of pink curing salt.
00:36This salt contains a very small percentage, about 6% of sodium nitrate, to be exact, 93%
00:43of salt.
00:45Pink salt can also be referred to as cell rose or curing salt.
00:49And the reason we're using this little bit of nitrate is to prevent bacterial growth.
00:56We're going to be curing the meat for about two weeks.
01:01It also helps keep the meat a nice color.
01:05Curing salt has been dyed pink so that butchers can tell the difference when they're preparing
01:09meat.
01:10You don't want a lot of it, but just that little bit will help.
01:14And I'm dissolving all those ingredients in two quarts of water.
01:18Bring it to a boil and it will make a nice salt solution.
01:22And then, in a mortar and pestle, we're going to grind up one teaspoon of black peppercorns,
01:30one teaspoon of coriander seeds, one teaspoon of mustard seeds, eight whole cloves, these
01:39are common spices, a cinnamon stick, this is a pretty hard one, and four dried bay leaves.
01:50What smells so good when you start to crush those spices.
01:55That works very well.
01:57And if you don't have one of these, you could put it in a spice grinder.
02:03And now just add these to the water.
02:09Turn it off and cool it before you pour it over your cut of meat.
02:14And here we have a really beautiful piece of brisket.
02:18This is from the breast of the cow and it is a really nice lean piece.
02:26And now we pour over that our brine.
02:34So this is going to stay in the brine.
02:40I like to put a piece of parchment on and two plates just to keep the meat underneath
02:47the liquid.
02:48You can wrap this very loosely with some plastic wrap and put in your refrigerator for two
02:54whole weeks, 14 days to be exact.
02:57So here's our corned beef.
02:58It's been taken out of the brine.
03:00It's been rinsed and it's been put into a beautiful cast iron casserole, enameled cast
03:07iron that is the perfect size to hold the meat.
03:10And now add cold water.
03:15And peel a carrot, cut it in half, a peeled onion cut in half and a stalk of celery.
03:25And these are added to the pot.
03:28Okay, so this now goes on the stove.
03:34So now I'm going to bring this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and
03:41let cook for three to three and a half hours.
03:45Now here's the meat after three and a half hours.
03:49It does reduce in size, but it is tender and really beautiful.
03:55And it will be easy to slice if it stays here and rests.
03:59This is called tenting.
04:00A piece of parchment with a piece of foil over that.
04:04That'll keep it warm and it will also let the beef rest.
04:09And now here we have the broth.
04:12The solids, the carrots and the onions have been removed.
04:15And we are going to put into that broth, which is flavorful.
04:18I just tasted it.
04:19It is very good.
04:2112 sprigs of parsley, one pound of red potatoes.
04:26Don't peel them.
04:27They go right into the liquid.
04:31And one whole head of cabbage.
04:34Now I've just trimmed the core.
04:37This is cut into wedges and you can just place the wedges right in the liquid.
04:42So now bring this again to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes
04:48or 25 minutes.
04:49And then we're going to add a few more vegetables.
04:53So now the cabbage is cooked.
04:55It's nice and tender.
04:57The potatoes are tender.
04:58Add about a pound of white turnips.
05:02These have already been steamed separately, so they don't impart a whole lot of flavor
05:07to the broth, but they can absorb some of that flavor.
05:12And a pound of carrots, also steamed.
05:16So each vegetable has its own flavor, its own taste, but so pretty all together.
05:24Now we can cut the meat.
05:28And I like to arrange the meat on a big platter like this.
05:32I like to serve the meat with grainy mustard, homemade beet horseradish, oh this is so good,
05:40and that's fresh horseradish, and sea salt.
05:44Nice flaky sea salt.
05:46And here's the brisket.
05:47You always want to cut brisket against the grain.
05:51So you can use a fork if you like to hold it down, and slice the meat a little less
05:56than a quarter of an inch thick.
05:59Use a nice sharp knife.
06:01But look at that.
06:02Isn't that beautiful?
06:03Oh my gosh, this is so great.
06:07Arrange the vegetables as artfully as you can.
06:10So you see why you need a big platter?
06:12Yes indeed.
06:14So this is a perfect meal for eight to nine people, I would say.
06:19Hungry people.
06:21So serve this corned beef with a warm rye bread like this, and your condiments, and
06:30you will be a heroine, or a hero.
06:34This hearty one-pot meal is so good that you'll be getting requests to make it all year long.
06:40Not just on St. Patrick's Day.
06:42Enjoy.
06:43Corned beef with rye bread is very easy to make, and very delicious to eat.
06:47And I serve it every single St. Patrick's Day.
06:51So to one and a third cups of whole milk, add one third of a cup of apple cider vinegar.
07:02If you watch closely, the milk starts to bubble immediately, and starts to curdle, to acidify.
07:11And into a big bowl, three cups of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of baking powder.
07:20Make sure that it's fresh, hasn't expired, you haven't had it hanging around in your
07:25cupboard for a year.
07:28One teaspoon of baking soda, two and a half teaspoons of salt, and I'm using kosher salt,
07:36and you can whisk this together.
07:38Now you can add another essential ingredient to this, and it's called coarse bran.
07:45This is the outer coating of the wheat, comprises about 14% of the wheat by weight, and it is
07:54where a lot of the nutrition in the wheat berry is.
07:58And it adds a very nice flavor to the Irish soda bread.
08:03So we're making it healthier and better for you.
08:08So here's our dry ingredients, into which we cut four tablespoons of butter, and just
08:13cut your butter into the dry ingredients.
08:16It's a very easy one bowl bread.
08:20You want it to look like coarse meal, like you always say in the recipes, coarse meal.
08:25Let's see how the milk is doing.
08:27Oh my gosh, it is already curdled.
08:31It's like magic.
08:32It really works, and it's flavorful and fragrant.
08:37Now we're going to add to this our raisins, one cup of dark raisins for this recipe, but
08:47you can use golden raisins.
08:49Make sure I kind of pack in the raisins.
08:51I love raisins in this bread.
08:53So add your raisins, and you can do this by hand, and very important to have lots of caraway
08:59seeds.
09:01This is the essential ingredient for rye bread.
09:05It's an anise flavored seed.
09:08One quarter cup we're going to add, gives a crunchiness and an extraordinary flavor
09:13to the soda bread.
09:17And then we're going to stir in the buttermilk, your homemade buttermilk.
09:25And that's it, really easy.
09:30Stir it in, moisten every particle of flour, but don't overwork.
09:37And I must tell you, the apple cider is very, very fragrant.
09:42And now on a lightly floured surface, form your ball of bread.
09:53Flour on the crust does not hurt.
09:54In fact, oftentimes if you buy soda bread, you'll see it's very white and floury.
10:00Use a bench scraper, give it just one or two light kneads, and put this right on parchment
10:08lined baking sheet.
10:11You can dust it with a little bit more flour on the top.
10:17Cut a big X in the surface of the bread.
10:21And pop this into your 350 degree preheated oven and set your timer for an hour and a
10:27quarter.
10:28And now I think our Irish soda bread is done.
10:33It certainly looks done.
10:35Let it cool on a rack and you can cut it while it's still slightly warm and serve it with
10:39Irish butter or wait till it completely cools and give it to your friends.
10:45This is Irish soda bread.
10:47I'm making a beef barley soup.
10:50This is a delicious soup, especially wonderful in cold weather.
10:54And I'm browning two pounds of beef.
10:57It's good to use a beef shoulder.
11:01Cut into half inch cubes.
11:04And I'm using just about a tablespoon of clarified butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in which
11:11to brown the meat.
11:13That's our first batch.
11:15Has a nice color to it.
11:16And here's the second batch.
11:20Let's do this over kind of a medium high heat.
11:24Use as lean beef as you can find.
11:26Oh, and don't forget to lightly season the beef with a little bit of salt and freshly
11:32ground black pepper.
11:35And while that's browning, I'll finish cutting up the vegetables.
11:38We have three carrots that are cut into half inch pieces.
11:42They're peeled.
11:43Three parsnips that are also cut up into half inch pieces.
11:47And an assortment of mushrooms.
11:48We use about a pound of mushrooms.
11:51And you can cut these into quarters.
11:54This is the plain white button mushroom.
11:56If they are a little bit dark, take off the end of the stem.
12:00We have two onions that are also peeled and chopped.
12:06And let's see.
12:07Let's use maybe a couple of these chanterelle.
12:11Here's another one.
12:17These have been brushed clean.
12:19Here's some cremini, which are a very nice color.
12:23Altogether, one pound.
12:27And there are some black trumpets.
12:31Those are kind of wonderful looking.
12:33Those two can be just chopped.
12:36There's a little purveyor of mushrooms in New York City called Marche Eau Delice.
12:41And they have a beautiful selection of fresh mushrooms.
12:44Oh, maybe a piece of this hedgehog.
12:48What exotic names for exotic wild mushrooms.
12:52Okay, that's good.
12:57Stir up the beef.
13:00It takes about five to seven minutes to get the beef the right color.
13:06And we need also a little bouquet garni.
13:09Just a little bit of thyme, a little rosemary, and one bay leaf.
13:13Just tie it in a little bouquet.
13:16And you also need three quarters of a cup of pearl barley.
13:21This is what barley looks like.
13:23A very beautiful grain that gets a nice texture when it's cooked.
13:30Well here I think our beef is dark enough.
13:33Maybe we can add that to our other beef.
13:36And then brown the onions right in this same pan.
13:40Cook the onions until they are translucent and taking on a nice golden color.
13:46Good healthy soups are really very easy to make and quite a joy to make.
13:52The onions will start to sweat a little bit and exude a little bit of their own natural
13:56moisture.
13:57So you don't have to add any more butter or oil.
14:01If your stock is well flavored, then you don't have to really worry too much about
14:07adding salt or pepper until the soup is completely finished.
14:17Don't burn the onions.
14:22And now when you think the onions are done enough, you can add the meat back to the onions.
14:35And then pour in your stock.
14:49Let this simmer for approximately one hour.
14:52And then an hour before you want to serve the soup, add the rest of the vegetables,
14:57the barley and the herb bouquet and simmer for another hour.
15:01So if you're going to do this for your family or your friends, you can just bring the big
15:05hot pot of soup, this wonderful cauldron to the table and serve it with a salad, a crusty
15:14French bread, a glass of hearty red wine, and you have a really healthy soup.
15:23A one-dish meal.
15:26Beef-barley soup.
15:29And it's delicious.
15:30With just a few easy steps, these smashed potatoes are a cinch to make.
15:35These golden potatoes are crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, and in my opinion,
15:40one of the best ways to enjoy potatoes.
15:43We've steamed the potatoes for the other recipes, but for this recipe, we are boiling
15:49them.
15:50And it only takes about eight to nine minutes for uniform potatoes such as these.
15:54Use potatoes that are no bigger than an inch and a half across.
15:58And we're using white potatoes, which are really yellow-skinned.
16:02We're using red bliss potatoes, which are red-skinned.
16:06And we're using a little blue potato, which is purple-skinned.
16:11Inside the flesh is blue.
16:13And we put this in a pot of water that's over a high flame and bring to a boil and
16:19cook until the potatoes are soft to the point of a sharp knife.
16:24That's going to take somewhere about eight to nine minutes.
16:27You'll drain them and let them cool until they're not too hot to smash with the heel
16:33of your hand.
16:34Now, we have some that are already done, so I can just proceed with the recipe.
16:39Fill a baking sheet like this with olive oil.
16:44And here's our potatoes.
16:46And you just take your hand like that and smash, just like that.
16:51A white one, a purple one, and here's a red one.
17:00And these can be put quite close on the baking sheet.
17:03They're not going to grow or expand or do anything like that.
17:09And just, they look like little flowers, kind of smashed flowers on the baking sheet.
17:16And they heat in the oven so nicely, they roast now.
17:21And if they're too hot, use a little towel, a little piece of towel over the potato.
17:25But it's better, I think, to let them cool enough so that you can handle them.
17:31There's just two pounds of potatoes here.
17:33They should all fit on this baking sheet.
17:40And then just sprinkle a little tiny bit more olive oil on the tops.
17:46Sprinkle with a little bit of salt and pepper and some thyme leaves.
17:57Put them in a 425 preheated oven and roast for, oh, about 25 minutes.
18:09Now just strip the leaves off the stems and sprinkle, making sure that each potato has
18:14a little bit of thyme on it.
18:17So there, these go straight into your oven.
18:20Now you could substitute rosemary or parsley if you prefer those herbs to thyme, but I
18:27love potatoes and thyme.
18:34Twenty-five minutes, 425.
18:37So you can arrange these on a serving platter.
18:41You can just dump them on a serving platter if you like, but I think they're so pretty
18:46that they should be treated with tenderness.
18:52And these are so crispy and pretty.
18:55During the baking, you can turn them over.
18:57These were turned over once, but you can see the different colors.
19:02And you can serve these plain like this, or if you like, with a dollop of sour cream and
19:09sprinkle with chopped chive.
19:12Now that is a pretty platter of smashed potatoes.