St. Patricks Day is Right Around the Corner!

And whether you celebrate it or not you are going to want to head to the butcher shop this year and get your hands on a corned beef brisket!  Now I know that not everyone is a fan of corned beef and cabbage but I have a recipe to help you switch it up this year! Technically, corned beef and cabbage is not really traditionally Irish, so that means there is not harm to the holiday by putting a south of the border spin on things 🙂

Now if you are stuck on tradition, go ahead and have your corned beef and cabbage, just make sure you get a really large brisket so that you can have this for leftovers the next day.

So what are we making?

Corned Beef Tacos!

If you have leftover corned beef, then you are already half way there!! If not here is how you get started!

1. Go to the Butcher Shop
   • Buy Corned Beef Brisket
   • See what else looks good
   • Buy a doggie treat for your furry pal, because once you start cooking the corned beef the house is going to smell really good and you don’t want to have a pooch under your feet while you are cooking.
2. Cook the Corned beef Brisket
   • Find your Crockpot (if you dont have one that is fine you can boil it on the stove but a slow cooker works great!!)
   • Remove the packaging and put your brisket in the pot, add some pickling spices if you would like, and then fill with water.
   • Now you cook it!! So here is the deal, the slower you cook it the more tender it will be, so try to get this started early in the day, you will want to cook it on low-med for about 8-9 hours. you can reduce the time by turning up the temperature, but you might make the brisket a little dry/tough.
   • If you have not given your pooch the fresh doggie treat you got him yet, now is a good time!
3. When the brisket is done cooking you will remove it from the pot and turn it into shredded corned beef by using two forks to separate it. Then toss it all in a skillet to crisp it up a bit. *** Quick tip, use the broth leftover from cooking the brisket to make some yummy rice!!

While the brisket is cooking you can get the rest of it ready since you will have plenty of time…

You need some Salsa! We have a few local Salsa’s that you can pick up at The Butchershop, but if you are feeling feisty, here is a simple recipe for you!

• 5-6 medium sized Tomatillos
• 1/2 a White Onion
• A handful of Cilantro
• 1 Tbsp Garlic
• 1-2Chile peppers ( you can use any pepper you like and add more or less depending on the level of spicy you like, jalapeno, serrano, *habanero)
• a pinch of Cumin

You can adjust these ingredients depending on your flavor preference. So here is how you make the salsa. Remove the husks from the tomatillos, wash them and then roast them, you can do this on your stove top in a sauté pan, or in the oven. Just lay them on a cookie sheet and broil them for a few minutes, they will start to get a nice toasty look to them. You can roast the peppers right alongside the tomatillos to give it a nice smoky flavor.

Now the fun part! So depending on your kitchen equipment you will want to make sure that the rest of the ingredients are chopped adequately, then toss the lot of it into a blender or food processor, and give it a whirl! You can also use an immersion blender to turn it onto a sauce. Tomatillos are naturally acidic and kind of salty so make sure you make your salsa first taste it and then add salt if you still need it!

The rest is just Lincoln logs! Build your taco! These tacos go best with corn tortillas, so warm up a few, add the corned beef and the Salsa Verde that you just made, garnish with a little chopped onion, fresh shredded cabbage(it is St. Paddy’s day after all), some radishes for color, maybe a little more cilantro and a squeeze of lime!