Hello Amy, thank you so much for hosting me on your blog today as part of the Wild Rose Blog Tour! It’s very cold with snow on the ground here today in Ireland, very Christmassy! And I’m here today to share one of my favourite Christmas recipes – Spiced Beef.
Spiced beef is a real local speciality here (I live about 14 miles from Dublin) and you can buy it ready to cook in all the supermarkets, but I always spice the beef myself with this recipe passed down from my mother. The suggested marinade time of 15 days can be modified, I often only marinade for 9 days, and it takes just as wonderful.
So, Take 5 ½ lbs of corned beef (also called ‘silverside’ here) and put it in a large plastic bowl. Rub it with 4oz of soft brown sugar cover the bowl with a tea towel, and put it in the bottom of the fridge for 24 hours.
In a pestle and mortar, crush:
1 ½ oz black peppercorns¾ oz allspice berries
½ cloves
½ oz cardamom seeds
And mix these in a bowl with 6 oz sea salt and 2 crumbled bay leaves.
Pat this dry mixture all over the beef, cover with the tea towel, and put in the bottom of the fridge. Turn the beef every 2 days.
The day before you want to serve the spice beef, remove it from the bowl, place it in a giant saucepan, and cover with cold water. Simmer gently until cooked (usually around 2 hours).
Then remove the beef from the cooking liquid, wrap in greaseproof paper, and put it on a plate and flatten with the heaviest weights you’ve got, and leave it in the fridge.
The next day, serve the spiced beef in wafer thin slices cold. It is wonderful with baked potatoes and Christmas vegetables!
In order to be in with a chance to win my prize of a Swarovski necklace and matching earrings in either festive red or holly green (you choose!), please do follow my blog here I have Caroline Clemmons guesting on my blog today – so do pop in and read her recipe too!
Sally Clements – Catch Me A Catch
Book Blurb:
She had the perfect life - and all she wanted was to escape it.
Artisan chocolatier and reluctant matchmaker Annie Devine wants to survive the annual Durna Matchmaking Festival without messing up. She's useless at relationships, and the whole village know it. They've known ever since the day she was left at the altar in her wedding dress.
When Jack Miller, charismatic head of Miller Advertising is forced to make an emergency stop on his transatlantic crossing, she mistakes him for a love-lorn bachelor, and sparks fly.
Jack's in Ireland to discover his roots, while Annie's desperate to escape hers. Annie longs to win the coveted Chocolate Oscar competition, and claim the ultimate prize, her own shop in Dublin. But with the deadline for Jack's return to New York looming, is she making the right choice?
Blog Link:
Thanks you so much for having me here today, Amy.
You're welcome and I have to say, both your book and recipe sound fantastic!
