Corned beef is a classic country cooking kind of meal and was certainly not my favourite meal when I was growing up. I always found it so salty, but when I had a delicious corned beef sandwich years later I started to rethink my opinion on corned beef. I wonder whether the method of corning the beef has changed in that time because I just don’t get the intense over-the-top salty flavour I remember as a kid. I cooked one myself for the the first time just a couple of years ago and have done it several times since. When I got the slow cooker this was one of the dishes I thought would work really well in it, but it’s taken me until now to try it out.
I used a fairly tradition recipe and it was very, very simple to prepare.
Ingredients
A piece of corned silverside (I always get the biggest one I can find because the left overs are great, but I guess it depends how large your slow cooker or pot is)
1 brown onion, chopped roughly
1 carrot, chopped roughly
1 celery stalk, chopped roughly
10 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon vinegar (preferably malt vinegar, but I’ve used others)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Water, enough to just cover the meat
Rinse the silverside and pat dry with paper towel.
Place everything in the slow cooker and cook on low for at least 8 hours.
See I told you it was simple. I served it with a parsley white sauce, boiled potatoes and steamed greens (asparagus, beans and peas). It was meal of simple but enjoyable flavours, eaten before I thought to take a photo.
I had about half the meat left after the meal was eaten, plus a lot of white sauce (I cannot make a small quantity of white sauce it seems). About half the left over meat (so a quarter of the total piece) was chopped up along with the carrot, celery and onion from the cooking liquid and a couple of pieces of potatoes and added to the white sauce. Finally I added about 3/4 cup of frozen peas and this then became the filling for some individual pies. Spoon the filling into ramekins, cover with a square of puff pastry, brush with a beaten egg and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
The rest of the meat was sliced and added to some home made bread rolls with a sharp cheddar cheese, some whole egg mayo and spicy cucumber relish. Even better would have been some caramelised cabbage or sauerkraut, but I didn’t get around to making that.
In the end that one piece of meat made two dinners for the family, plus one left over pie for lunch and nine rolls for Mr Good to take to work. Now that’s the sort of cooking I appreciate!
The New Good Life 
I made corned beef the weekend just gone. It must be the weather for it! I like the sound of your pies and might try them next time. Thanks for the idea. A hunk of corned beef can go a long way, can’t it?
Apart from serving it with the usual vegies and parsley sauce, another night I also used it for some ‘Ruebens’ sandwiches – corned beef together with swiss cheese, saurkraut and Russian dressing on Atlantic special rye (my favourite!) then toasted in the electric frypan. Sounds a little like yours,
I’ve also made hash patties with the leftovers but forgot about them this time around. Oh and as well as what you add when cooking, I throw in some cloves, as well.
I love the idea of the Rueben sandwich which is sort of what I was going for in my attempt, but perhaps not quite. I have a recipe for a corn beef hash that I think I’ll try next time. And I might the cloves next time too. Thanks for the suggestions.