My husband, hungering for corned beef and cabbage like his mother used to make, popped a corned beef brisket in the shopping cart that I hurled into the freezer when we got home. It’s no where near St. Patrick’s Day and making a boiled New England dinner held no charm for me.  Still, he is my husband and I know he’s going to buy me a whole bunch of stuff I want :D  So, as a compromise, I tried to think of another way to make corned beef without boiling.

Many years ago, to my surprise, I learned that pastrami was just corned beef coated with a spice rub and smoked.  I reasoned that if you could smoke a corned beef brisket, then you could off flame grill it which is way more interesting than boiling one.  I adore off flame grilling :)

First, to remove some of the salt, I boiled the brisket for about 3 minutes.  I then ground the included spice packet to powder, added olive oil, rubbed it on the meat and refrigerated it overnight.  Originally, I was thinking of just tossing the brisket on the cold side of a 300F grill and grilling for 3 hours but I was super worried that it would dry out, so I tented it in aluminum foil, added 1/2 cup of water to the tent and then grilled for 2 hours, removed the foil and continued grilling for another hour while basting with a honey mustard glaze.  Fabulous!

Worried about the possible results of my impromptu recipe; would it be too salty, too dry, I rummaged in the refrigerator and made a soothing snack featuring sliced leftover pork rib on a flour tortilla, then assembled a Japanese potato salad.

This is Jade’s favorite potato salad.  I like that it’s easy to make and contains both crunchy cucumber and cooked carrot.

I’ve always thought it could use some mustard but then it would be Texas-like potato salad and it’s fine the way it is :)

Honey Mustard Glazed Grilled Corned Beef

1 3 lb package corned beef brisket w/spice packet

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup water

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp melted butter

Remove the brisket from the package and rinse.  Bring to a boil in water to cover, simmer for 3 minutes, then remove, rinse and pat dry.

Grind the ingredients in the spice packet to powder, mix with the olive oil, then rub on the brisket.  Cover the brisket in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the grill, then turn off half the burners until the temperature in the closed grill reaches 300F.  Prepare an aluminum tent for the brisket, adding the water to the bottom of the tent, then tightly seal, place on the cold side of the grill, top down for 2 hours.

Remove the aluminum foil and place the brisket directly on the cold side of the grill, turning and basting occasionally with the mixture of mustard, honey and butter for an additional hour, top down.

Japanese Potato Salad

1 1/2 lb potatoes

2 carrots

1/2 of a long, winter cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

3/4 cup of mayonnaise

Salt and pepper

Boil the carrots and potatoes together until tender.    Cube the potatoes and thinly slice the carrots.   Put in a mixing bowl with the chopped eggs, cucumber, onion and mayonnaise.   Add salt, pepper and mix well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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