Corned Beef At Whole Foods And Alfalfa's

It fortunately has been years since I've bought a prepackaged corned beef filled with nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and other nasties for my Saint Patrick's Day feast. I've opted instead for the marvelous in-house brined brisket that Whole Foods always offers, and have always loved it. This year is an experiment; having been at Alfalfa's yesterday for their St. Paddy's Day preview celebration, I decided to pick up their own in-house brined brisket for a change (it's $8.99 a pound at both Whole Foods and Alfalfa's). Interestingly, while the ingredient lists from both stores contain only things that might come from your own garden (with the exception of the brisket, unless you happen to be a rancher), the list on the Whole Foods corned beef is much longer, with items like clove and mustard seed not mentioned in the Alfalfa's list. Thinking I might be disappointed in my new purchase, I took a peek under the wrapper, and while not as heavily coated with seasonings as the Whole Foods ones are, it definitely looks to have everything I want.

By the way, the Saint Patrick's Day celebration at the Boulder Alfalfa's was a bit of a bust yesterday, at least while I was there. They were certainly selling tons of the Odell's beer bangers at $1 each, but there were no Irish dancers (possibly a schedule conflict as they were dancing at the Shortest Parade a few blocks away, and maybe turned up later), and Irish samples promised throughout the store were nonexistent, unless chips with salsa and caramel popcorn are somehow Irish. But I did hear from a friend that the Louisville Alfalfa's did somewhat better with their Saturday celebration, and that the Irish dancers were great there.

Alfalfa's Previews St. Paddy's Day

Alfalfa's is celebrating St. Patrick's Day early with Irish dancers, $1 Odell beer bangers, and free samples this weekend. The Louisville store will go at it tomorrow from 1 to 3 p.m., while the Boulder store will do Sunday, noon to 2. If Thanksgiving and Christmas were any indication, Alfalfa's does the finest holiday tastings in town. They will also start offering their house-brined corned beef starting Sunday (the 13th), and I'd bet its ingredient list will be as pure as Whole Foods. Will definitely look into it, since I'll be there for those $9.99 a pound grassfed ribeyes (and maybe a tasting or two).

Saint Patrick's Day Ideas

It's not too soon to start thinking about what you might want besides/instead of corned beef and cabbage next week. I think I've also posted previously about how the Irish themselves couldn't afford corned beef in this country for many years, thinking themselves lucky to have a bit of salt pork to flavor that cabbage. And in Ireland prior to the famine, most people really lived on potatoes. In any case, if you are looking for more celebratory fare for Saint Paddy's day, check out Let's Have the Best St. Patrick's Day Ever! from Bon Appetit, or St. Patrick's Day Recipes from Food and Wine magazine. And by the way, it's supposed to be Paddy, not Patty for the day.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Hope you are wearing your green and avoiding any culinary catastrophies like green beer associated with the day. If you are still looking for something for your table, here's a reminder of the guides I previously posted.  On a very bummer note, I'd checked out a copy of the Irish Heritage Cookbook from my local library to find further inspiration, only to find that a vandal had sliced out the most salient pages I wanted, like the section on sauces for salmon, and of course the page for corned beef and cabbage. People, please don't do that.

Time For Corned Beef

With Saint Patrick's Day falling on a "school night" Tuesday, today's our day to do the lengthy simmering required for corned beef and cabbage, in this house fleshed out to what's classically called a New England boiled dinner that includes the addition of things like potatoes, onions, and carrots. I've always primarily followed the recipe for it in another classic, my old copy of The Joy of Cooking. For fun this morning, I compared that to the one in my favorite read, the 1896 edition of the Fannie Farmer Cook Book. Coming from the Boston Cooking School, I thought Fannie would be uniquely qualified to describe a true "boiled dinner," and it's interesting that the recipes between the two books are essentially the same, except Joy of Cooking also adds parsnips to the veggies that go into the pot. Ever entertaining, Fannie's commentary regarding corned beef opens with: "Corned beef has but little nutritive value. It is used to give variety to our diet in summer, when fresh meats prove too stimulating. It is eaten by the workingman to give bulk to his food." So fun to watch how historical foods morph into holiday traditions.

Saint Patrick's Day Coming Up Shortly

How March is flying by (happy Friday the 13th), and Saint Patrick's Day is almost upon us next Tuesday. Having had the great fun of visiting Ireland last spring, I'm viewing it through a different lens this year, but that probably won't change much from my standard menu based on the extraordinary corned beef brined in-house at the Pearl Street Whole Foods. You can't do better than a beef brined with the most basic of ingredients like peppercorns and mustard seeds clinging to it. If you need a degree in chemistry to decipher what you are cooking, you probably shouldn't be eating it. In any case, if you are looking for some ideas for the menu, here are a few guides to help you out: St. Patrick's Day Menu Inspiration from Whole Foods, Best Irish-Inspired Recipes from Epicurious, and St. Patrick's Day from Food and Wine magazine. It runs a tad counter to the Americanized Saint Patrick's Day customs, but my experience last spring was that the Irish have the finest dairy products, bacon (rashers), ham (bacon there), and the freshest fish in the world (maybe excluding New England for that fish). And potatoes. Everything I'd ever heard about the prevalence of potatoes was correct. So however you plan to do it, enjoy the wearing of the green.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Turns out I'll actually be able to do our corned beef and cabbage today, instead of yesterday as planned, and the leftovers will do us well for the coming week. If you are still trying to figure out what to do, here's a reminder of the guides I previously posted. But I'm still interested in pursuing true Irish cuisine, with its emphasis on fresh fish and local produce and meats.

Weekend Dinner Ideas

With such good specials at the new Lucky's Market in Longmont, one shopping trip there is driving my thinking for the whole weekend. Apologies that I simply don't have time to compare the Longmont and Boulder Lucky's prices, but past experience has been that the Longmont Lucky's is still way less on meat, usually equal on fish, and Boulder excels on organic produce.

For tonight, the Alaskan cod fillets I see in the Longmont Lucky's flyer for $7.99 a pound (also a red rock cod for $6.99, both wild harvested) are prompting me to think of cod with Mediterranean salsa from Gourmet magazine, although it might just morph into fish tacos instead.

The Lucky's Market in Longmont also has antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breasts for the eye-popping price of $1.97 a pound this week (all sales through Wednesday), so something I haven't made for quite a while, chicken paprikash from Cooking Light is looking good. Rather than cholesterol-laden egg noodles, this is best done in my opinion with the wide yolkless noodles available at Lucky's Market or in the Kosher section at Whole Foods. The Longmont Lucky's also has conventional asparagus for just 87 cents a pound for a side.

Sunday has been the day that has really been driving my thoughts to the Longmont Lucky's, since that will be our Saint Patrick's Day eve dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Lucky's Market, where their meat department promises "never ever" standards of "antibiotic free - humanely processed - no preservatives," has ready to cook corned beef for $3.97 a pound, while this week's sale price at Whole Foods is $6.99 a pound. Considering all the shrinkage that happens with corned beef and the size of the hunk of meat you begin with, that makes a pretty noticeable difference. CORRECTION, AND IT'S A BIG ONE - I swung by the Longmont Lucky's to pick up that sale corned beef and found sodium nitrite among other things on the label. I asked the butcher about it, and he said the standards only apply to their in-house meats (this corned beef was packaged with the label of some firm). So I followed my original plan of buying my corned beef at Whole Foods as usual, and need to learn much more about just what meats fall under Lucky's "never ever" standards. Live and learn.

Saint Patrick's Day Quickly Approaching

It seems closer to Easter with these spring-like temperatures we've been having, but there's still Saint Patrick's Day to celebrate a week from today. I'm getting increasingly curious about real Irish cuisine, as aside from traditional pub fare, it seems there's quite an emphasis on fresh fish and local produce, so I must do more exploration. However as far as it goes for a few days from now, we'll stick with the tried and true corned beef and cabbage, with in-house-cured corned beef from Whole Foods and the rest put together via the recipe in my ancient copy of The Joy of Cooking, the classic boiled New England dinner. This will more likely happen on St. Patrick's eve on Sunday, as a corned beef requires quite a bit of time to cook at a simmer, rather a difficult weekday meal. If you are looking for more innovative ways to celebrate, here are a few guides to help you out (although I don't believe I'd mess with glazing a fine piece of halibut with Guinness, much as I appreciate the nod to fish): Saint Patrick's Day Party Food and Drinks from Epicurious, St. Patrick's Day Feast from Cooking Light, and F&W's Ultimate Guide to St. Patrick's Day from Food and Wine magazine.