The Healthy My Ass Cookbook

Pressure Cooked Corned Beef and Cabbage

The pressure cooker makes this St. Patrick's Day classic tender in no time.

Ingredients:

Directions:

Place a shallow rack or basket in the bottom of the pressure cooker just to keep the meat off the bottom.  Thoroughly rinse the Corned Beef under cold tap water.  Place the meat into the pressure cooker and if it came with a spice packet, add its contents as well.  Combine the Water and Beef Base then add to the cooker along with the Beer.  Begin to bring it to a boil over high heat.

Meanwhile, peel the Garlic and cut each clove in half.  Add the garlic and Bay Leaves to the cooker and if you used a basket, placing them inside the basket with the meat will make it easy to remove them.  Close the cover securely.  Bring the cooker to full 15psi. pressure over high heat.  Reduce the heat to the lowest possible temperature to maintain pressure and cook for 90 minutes, or 30 minutes per pound of meat.

Meanwhile, if you bought a whole Cabbage, remove the outer leaves from the cabbage and cut it in half through the core and save half for another use.  Cut the remaining half through the core into 2 equal wedges, then cut each of those wedges in half through the core leaving a portion of the core intact with each wedge.  Similarly, peel and quarter the Onion through the core.  Usually the Baby Carrots are already peeled and may not need anything other than a rinsing.

When the meat cooking time is up, remove the cooker from the heat and allow the pressure to drop on its own for 10 minutes, then use the quick release method before removing the cover.  Remove the meat, cover it with aluminum foil and either keep warm in an oven on its lowest temperature or cover the foil with a double layer of thick towels (not paper) to insulate it and let rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the vegetables into the pressure cooker with the broth.  Securely cover, return to 15psi. pressure and cook for 3 to 6 minutes, depending on whether you want your vegetables crisp or tender.  Use the quick release method to cool down the pressure cooker.

Thinly slice the Corned Beef against the grain and onto a warm platter using an electric knife.  Transfer the vegetables either to the platter with the meat or a separate platter or serving dish.  Moisten both the meat and vegetables with a little broth just before serving.  Serve with broth on the side in a gravy boat.  Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers in broth.

Notes:

* If you substitute Beef Broth for the Water and Beef Base you should either add 1&1/2 teaspoons of Beef Base for the 1&1/2 cups of beer or omit the beer and use 4 cups of broth.

If you are wondeing why you do not see any Onion or Carrots in the picture, that's because I added them later and keep forgetting to update the picture.

If you are asking, "What about the potatoes?" which are typically included, I omit them for two reasons.  One, they don't get as tender as I prefer in the same amount of cooking time as the Cabbage, Onion and Carrots, and I'm not adding a third pressure cooking step mostly because of Two, I didn't really care for their taste.

Serving Suggestions:

Some like to serve this with Horseradish Sauce or Mustard.  I'm not one of them but wasn't it kind of me to mention it.