Corned Beef and Cabbage Tree

photo by Alan Titchall

When we sent the postcard containing the seeds for the New Zealand Native Cabbage Tree back to Ireland, we congratulated ourselves for so cleverly writing, ‘we heard that upon blooming flowers give off a scent of corned beef with mashed carrots’. We gleefully imagined the garden blooming with corned beef dinners and permeating an aroma of the faint tinge of boiled meat.

So imagine my surprise when I was invited to André’s to a dinner of cabbage tree. ‘Shall I bring the corned beef?’ I joked. ‘That would be lovely!’, said André.

Righto.

The inevitable problem with corned beef is that it is salty, rubbery, and synthetic tasting. This is of course if you buy your corned beef from the supermarket as I do. For the CRAZIES out there who corn their own brisket for days and weeks and months, I can only say you are a more patient and better cook than I. However, for those of you who purchase silverside out of a vacuum packed container in the middle of your meat aisle, there are other solutions.

The way to solve this is to place the meat into a ‘reverse brine’ that will leach much of the artificial salt out of the corned beef while infusing it with moisture and flavour. After which you set out to simmer it in a broth of yummy. The result is a moist, delicious, tender corned beef. Not the same as a brisket you corned yourself but you also don’t suffer from that meat smell that invades your house when you just plunk it into boiling water either.

Brined Supermarket Corned Beef with Parsley Sauce

Reverse Brine
3 T honey
Small handful of peppercorns
3 Bay Leaves
1 small bunch of fresh Parsley
Several sprigs of fresh Thyme
1 T of Red Chile Flakes
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
NO SALT
1.5 kg (ish) of silverside corned beef
Water to cover meat.

Set aside in a coolish place and let it rest at least overnight.
Ours brined for about 18 hours. But it could easily have gone longer.

Corned Beef with Parsley Sauce
2 carrots peeled and chopped
2 onions chopped
Small bunch of parsley
Few springs of thyme
1 T of peppercorns
1 T of Red Chile Flakes
1 Bay leaf
1 T salt

Drain corned beef and place in pot. Place all other ingredients. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, skim, and then cover and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Drain and slice. Serve with Parsley Sauce

Parsley Sauce (modified from Saveur Magazine)
2 T butter
2 t finely chopped yellow onion
2 T flour
1 1/4 c of the broth from the corned beef
1/4 c milk
1 tsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 T english mustard
Large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (be heavy handed with your seasoning because of the corned beef is less salty now).

Serve with hearts of cabbage tree boiled and in a salad with vinaigrette.