When we were growing up, our dad made corned beef and cabbage every so often if he got a craving. I was always excited to see that it was for dinner because it was such a rare treat! I’ve never made it myself (yet!) but when I came across the Pot-au-Feu recipe in the Zuni book it immediately brought to mind my dad’s “boiled dinners” and I got really excited to make it. These sorts of one-pot dinners are wonderful not only because they’re easy to make and clean up, but also because the flavor is so much better than just a sum of the parts! What’s more humble than a few hunks of chewy meat, some potatoes, carrots, and cabbage? Not much. And yet when you taste this, I promise the last thing you’ll think is “humble” . . . it’s absolutely delicious!
And there’s only one pan to wash after dinner.
Like I said, humble ingredients. This kind of dinner is a wonderful way to make a dent in the CSA veggie stash, you can put almost anything in there and it’ll come out great! These carrots, potatoes, and leeks (not pictured) were from our share.
In her introduction to this recipe, Judy Rodgers talks about how she’s loyal to a few key techniques when making a “boiled dinner.” The most surprising of the ones she mentions is blanching the meat: I’d never even considered doing that before! But I took her word for it and set the short ribs to blanch:
And after a few minutes gasped, horrified, at the water:
The amount of gunk stuck to the side of the pot after draining out the water was also shocking:
I rinsed each piece of meat, then rinsed out and wiped the pot, and set to the actual cooking of the dish. A bit more of the “impurities” came out in the first 15 minutes of cooking, but after that the liquid was mostly clear.
Other than this key step, making this dinner couldn’t be more straight forward. All the ingredients are simmered in broth/water in one big pot,cooking the slower/tougher ingredients first and adding the quicker ingredients along the way to the finish line. All in all you need about 2.5 to 3 hours to make this, but there’s literally no active cooking after the blanching steps. Just set your timer to come back when you need to and go do something else while your dinner cooks itself.
Modified Pot-au-Feu
Inspired by the Pot-au-Feu recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook as a stepping stone
Serves 6-8
- 6 pounds short ribs
- 3 quarts beef stock
- 2 yellow onions, peeled & halved
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 whole cloves
- 1 tbsp whole peppercorns, lightly smashed (not ground)
- 2 branches fresh thyme
- 5 carrots, peeled
- 2 leeks, trimmed to just above the white part and sliced lengthwise
- 2 medium white turnips, peeled
- 1 head white or green cabbage, quartered
- 3 pounds smallish potatoes (about 2″ in diameter), peeled
Note: Judy Rodgers, as anyone who’s ever read one of her recipes already knows, is a huge advocate for pre-salting. I didn’t do it for this recipe because I didn’t plan ahead, but I believe it would really help the texture and flavor of the meat. In the future I plan to pre-salt 2 days ahead like she recommends!
Blanch the meat:
Fill stock pot half-way with warm water and set over medium heat. When water is hot, add meat and salt. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 2 minutes. Drain the water, rinse the pieces of meat under cold water, then rinse the pot out and wipe it down to get rid of the grime.
Start simmering:
Put the meat back into the same (now clean) pot and pour stock over to almost cover. Add cold water on top to cover by a few inches. Don’t add too much liquid or your meal will be bland!
Bring to a simmer, uncovered, and skim off any last gunk that rises to the top. Taste liquid for salt and adjust. Add onions, bay leaves, cloves, pepper, and thyme to the pot. Stir. Simmer, uncovered, on med-low for 1 hour.
Skim again. Add everything but the carrots and cabbage, then cover with more water to cover the vegetables (if needed). Stir and bring back up to a simmer. Taste for salt again. Simmer for30 minutes.
Add potatoes and cabbage and keep simmering until cabbage is cooked but not mushy and potatoes are cooked through, about 30-45 more minutes. Skim again.
To serve:
With tongs, remove everything from the broth and put in serving dish. Pour a bit of the broth over the top and serve with mustard and pickles on the side.
DO NOT THROW OUT THAT BROTH! It’s amazing for soups and can be frozen for later.
