In The Kitchen: Tradition prevails for St. Patrick's Day with Corned Beef and Cabbage

It's been a tradition in our house for years – corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. So for this edition of In the Kitchen, we decided we weren't going to stray away from that tradition. It's such a simple dish to prepare, but we decided to do something a little different. 

Usually we boil or slow cook some green cabbage, but this time around we used Savoy cabbage instead. The waffle-knit texture of this cabbage makes your dish look striking. So we picked up some corned beef at our local market and tossed it in the slow cooker along with 1/4 cup coffee, 1/4 cup white wine and rubbed the beef down with some whole-grain mustard. And 8 hours later it is ready.

We boiled whole cabbage leaves and transferred them into iced water and dried them off. Laying the leafs out we put a nice cut of the corned beef on one side along with onions, mustard and a splash of lemon juice and tightly rolled them up. Violá.

The beverage pairings were pretty easy. For the beer, we grabbed a couple North Carolina Kölsch-style beers. The first was a Kreamsicle Kölsch from Rail Walk Brewery and Eatery out of Salisbury. And the second was a traditional-style Kölsch from White Street Brewing Company out of Wake Forest. Both were light, refreshing and crisp and paired well with the fattiness of the corned beef.

For the wine, we selected Jones von Drehle's Viognier. The hints of floral notes and apricot on the nose cut down the salt of the meat and paired better than we originally thought it would. 

For dessert, we decided to stay on the healthier, yet festive side. We made No Bake Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Squares. This dessert is billed as low carb and sugar free. Very easy to make, these cheesecake squares were just sweet enough to end our St Patrick's Day feast. For the recipe, click here.

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