Today’s a fun comfort food. I went ahead and got my Irish food fill during a couple of out-of-state trips to some Irish bars. Followed up by a trip to the motherland and here we go. I love me a boxty, and we’re going to try to do it proud. I’ll also do something I don’t know I’ve ever done – a proper boiled corned beef. Let’s see how it goes!
The Prep Table
Ingredients are pretty straight forward – we’re going to whip up our potato cakes, make a russian dressing and dunk a brisket flat. I know, I kinda cheated by buying the pre-beef, but I’ve done a few pastrami posts where I make my corned beef, so this time we’re going cheap. We’re going to make these boxty’s two ways: What I think is traditional, and then quesadilla style. I ate ’em both, I’ll tell ya what I liked better at the end.
The Process
Smoked and grilled hundreds of pounds of meat, but don’t know if I’ve ever boiled my corned beef. Kinda bizarre, I know.. but I thought why not. MrsForensicBBQ was out traveling, so I had free reign of the home. While we let this boil for a bit, let’s get started with the boxty’s.
Fun side note: When I saw “traditional” boxty’s are made with leftover mashed potatoes, I stayed true to form. I whipped up some taters the night before and had ’em with some chicken nuggets. Flashed back to 6 year old ForensicBBQ – and it was delicious and familiar. So I had my leftover mashed before I got going today.
That being said, it was time to shred up a tater. I did just that, and used one of MrsForensicBBQ’s kitchen towels to squeeze the shred ball. She wasn’t happy that I ruined one of the towels in a later post.. but wasn’t really all that unhappy because I was cleaning. So anyway, shred and press and we have our browns. Egg/Milk/Flour to the potatoes and get ourselves a thick batter.
When that corned beef is good and cooked, we’re taking that outside as well.
The Result
Gave the flat a hearty slice – taste-tested a number of pieces to ensure consistency, and it’s time to fire up the blackstone and get to the boxty.
The first one we made was quesadilla style. Or one big ass potato pancake. Tried to get it as thin as I reasonable could, because this thing was going to be a gut bomb for sure. Just one of these is a complete dinner, if not two.
The other boxty’s are the more identifiable ones. Typical pancake style. Get some nice color on there. A lot of potato!
Went ahead and chopped up some of the corned beef, and then threw some cheese and russian dressing on half of it. Tossed some green onion in there and sauerkraut and continue to cook it like a quesadilla.
I tried to drizzle the dressing, but it turned out to be just a couple of drops. Photo fail, Instagram won’t be impressed – but we’re going to disappear from there anyway. Anyway, when I took my first bite of this one, I was taken aback at just how heavy this was. I shouldn’t have been, I put all the ingredients on that plate.. but nonetheless, it just sat like a brick in my stomach. But the taste was good!
Far and away was my favorite of the two styles was “traditional”. Couple slices of corned beef, topped with kraut and a (better) drizzle of dressing on there and it was perfection. Highly recommend doing this over the quesadilla boxty – or cheat with the mix and make it super crepe-thin or something, or else you’re resigned to the couch for the evening.
I’m back from my summer travels for a little bit – if I met you a week or two ago, leave a comment and say hi – send me an e-mail info@forensicbbq.com – love to know who picked up one of the stickers! Got a few posts in the hopper as we get ready for fall, so stay tuned!