INEXPLICABLE: FORGOT to photograph the fine dinner Cook made Thursday night, for St. Patrick's Day. Inexcusable, too, because it was a first for her: she made the traditional corned beef brisket all by herself.
Our son had provided the beef, raised either by him or a neighbor of his, I'm not quite sure. I found some curing salt (pink with sodium nitrite) at a local butcher shop, and she made a brine with that and a number of herbs and spices, soaking the brisket under weights for five days in the refrigerator. (It helps to have a connection with a walk-in refrigerator: thanks, Downtown Bakery and Creamery!)
There were seven of us at table, and we managed to eat damn near all of the brisket: only a few shreds survived for another day. With it, cabbage, of course, and potatoes; afterward, lemon mousse with whipped cream.
YESTERDAY WAS FISH day: Alaska cod, bought Wednesday on a trip to Berkeley, fresh and flaky. Cook dredged it in flour and cooked it in butter. Meanwhile I made one of my favorite vegetable dishes: a couple of good carrots, split lenghwise, and three or four spring onions, ditto, cooked in butter, olive oil, and enough water to keep it from sticking. One cabbage leaf was left from the previous day, so I sliced it into strips and threw it in the pan too. Delicious.
THEN TONIGHT we harvested the shreds of the corned beef. Cook made a fine hash of it, sweating onions, then the beef shreds, and adding potatoes. When ready to serve, she topped it with a poached egg. Look at that! A little leftover cabbage as well! A fine way to send St. Patrick on his way into spring…
☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016 2015
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