peace in my pans: Boiled Beef & Cabbage

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!
(a day late, I know)

This meal was very simple and all I had to do was buy the packaged corned beef w/ spices and cook it in a pot of water. To give it some character, I added a sprig of basil, half an onion, and carrots while it braised in the pot. I also wanted the dinner to be fun and not boring so instead of serving boiled cabbage on the side, I decided to do corned beef rolled in cabbage. You'll see. :)

I bought this brand at my local supermarket. I was very happy with it since the corned beef was plenty fatty just the way I like it. Don't worry, you can trim off the fat.

Here's the beauty (fat attached) w/ sprig of basil, onion, and carrots. I refuse to trim off fat before eating. I just refuse. I also cooked it on very low heat (around 4-5) for about 2.5 hours. The broth had such a nice aroma to it... ahh.

While that is cooking. Prep your cabbage. This is the hard/annoying part about pulling apart cabbage leaves without tearing it. I recommend that you have at least 2 cabbage heads just in case you tear most of them. If you don't, don't fret yet - you can just layer the cabbage.

I found slicing the bottom part off first then pulling it apart from there to be easier. You will also need to trim the stem.

Here's my layer of cabbage cups. It felt like peeling an egg but trying not to break the skin.

Once the corned beef is done, remove it and allow it rest before we carve into it. I am going to cook the cabbage in the same broth the corned beef was cooked in.

Allow the cabbage to cook until it's translucent then put it in a colander to drain excess liquids and cool a bit before rolling.

Carve your hunk of meat. ;)

I didn't do a very pretty job...

Set your cabbage on a plate. I had to layer mine. Can you tell?

Put some meat in - closer to you than center (like the egg rolls). Then roll it. I didn't bother closing in the sides b/c my cabbage leaves and set up was not large enough plus, you'll be eating it with a fork and knife so no need to worry about it falling out on the sides.