Top of the morning to you Disney fans!! Well … March has
certainly been … Interesting here in Central Ohio. Ohio is truly one of the
only places I know that can go from 70 degrees and sunny to 32 and snowy all in
the course of two weeks! It’s been a crazy spring so far … Hopefully it’ll calm
down with summer just around the corner!!
March is the month of going green. The springtime around the
corner and seeing patches of green grass under the snow, clearing out the dust
from winter and “greening” out the apartment or home, and celebrating the saint
of my namesake, Patrick. Normally I don’t get behind the partying surrounding
St. Patrick’s Day, but I will say, celebrating every now and again is a lot of
fun. Who can resist the novelty of drinking a Green Beer or indulging in some
Irish Pub Fare while singing Irish tunes with your mates?
For this month’s Disney and Dinner what more appropriate
film to choose than Darby O’Gill and the Little People? This 1959
classic (starring a very young Sean Connery) shows us a little bit of Disney
film magic before we had the technology. My favorite Disney film technique from
these early days of live action films is the use of matte paintings for scenery.
In a nutshell, the technique involves painting portions of the scene on a pane
of glass in front of the camera. This technique was used in many of the early
films including Treasure Island and Mary Poppins (think of the
beautiful scenery of London while Mary, Bert and the Banks children are on the
rooftops). In Darby O’Gill the matte painting technique was used to
create ancient castles on top of the loch and the ancient village that Darby
resides. This film included other film techniques like the use of forced
perspective to create the little people and using mirror’s to create the
illusion of Darby walking into the King of the leprechaun’s lair. I admittedly
don’t possess the language to describe film techniques … My language is a
little better suited to cooking. But if you want a low down of some of the film
techniques check out “Matte Shot – A Tribute To Golden Era Special FX” blog
here:
Well shall we move on to the recipes?
St. Patrick’s Day just wouldn’t be complete without a few
things: Stout, Cabbage, Corned Beef, and Potatoes. So this month I’ve
incorporated all of those things in the menu.
·
- Salt-Crusted Fingerling Potatoes
- Crockpot Corned Beef with Root Vegetables and Stout Gravy
- Chocolate Stout Cake
The first recipe I had with some friends over Easter brunch.
When I asked him how to make it I didn’t believe how easy it was. But these
salt-crusted potatoes I keep for special occasions and formed the foundation
*literally* of my menu.
Here’s the method.
I started with the potatoes because they could take the longest
to cook through. Here are the ingredients:
·
1lb fingerling potatoes
·
½ to ¾ cup of salt
Put your potatoes in a pot with salt and add enough water to
just cover the potatoes. Put on high heat until the water starts to boil. Once
water is boiling turn heat down to medium low and simmer with the lid off. You’ll
know the potatoes are done when the water evaporates and leaves a thin crusting
of salt on the surface of the potatoes.
For the corned beef, I turned to my two trusty kitchen
companions: my crockpot and YouTube. I found a great recipe that I modified
slightly on YouTube. Here’s what you’ll need:
·
Corned Beef Brisket (mine was about 6 lbs.)
·
Half a head of cabbage, chopped (place this in a
bag and put in the fridge. We’ll put this in the crockpot one hour before
serving)
·
6-7 Ribs of celery, chopped
·
2 cups of Baby carrots
·
Half a large onion, chopped
·
4 cups of water
·
6 oz. of stout (approx. ¾ of a cup)
With your handy dandy crockpot nearby, place the celery,
baby carrots, and onion in first. Then add the water. On top of your vegetables
place your brisket then pour the stout (or any beer of your choosing) over the
brisket. Most corned beef packages some with their own spice packet; spread the
spices on top of the brisket after pouring the beer over it. Put the lid on the
crockpot and set to high. Let it cook for 7-8 hours. An hour before cooking put
the chopped cabbage in the crockpot and let it cook for another hour.
After the brisket is done cooking, take it out of the
crockpot and cut across the grain. My brisket was tender is literally fell
apart so I opted to take two forks and pull the brisket apart instead.
To serve I opted for one large serving dish and a layer of
St Patrick goodies for ease of serving.
I started with a layer of the salt-crusted potatoes:
Then added the vegetables and finally added the brisket on
top:
As a little extra bonus, I took some of the juices from the
crockpot and mixed in two tablespoons of corn starch. When the cornstarch was
fully dissolved, I poured the slurry back into the crockpot and whisked it into
a light gravy for someone that wanted a little extra on top of their meal.
Well how do you top of a dinner like that? With some
chocolate stout cake of course!! One of my favorite stores is a funny little place
called Five Below. Everything in it is priced at $5 or less and truthfully … I
love to go shopping in it. On one such occasion I just happened to find an
Irish Cooking book … and being $5 I can’t help but give it a try. That’s where
I found this recipe:
Chocolate Stout Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
·
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
·
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
·
1 tsp baking soda
·
¼ tsp salt
·
¾ cup butter, softened
·
1 cup packed brown sugar
·
½ cup granulated sugar
·
1 tsp vanilla
·
3 eggs
·
1 cup Irish stout (like Guinness), at room
temperature
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9-inch back pan
with nonstick cooking spray. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a
medium bowl; set aside. Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar with
electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add
eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately
with stout, beating after each addition. Pour batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack.
FROSTING:
·
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
·
¼ cup butter, softened
·
4 cups powdered sugar
·
1 tsp vanilla
·
1 to 2 Tbsp milk
Beat creamcheese and butter with electric mixer at medium
speed until creamy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
Add enough milk to make frosting easy to spread. Spread on cake.
Let me tell you what we got was the densest, yummiest cake I’ve
had in a good long while!!
Well all I hope you give these recipes a try and I hope you
come back again in April for our next Disney and Dinner. Next month I’ll be
going back to some classic Disney animation and creating an Italian dinner.
What movie you may be asking? None other than Lady and the Tramp!
As always everyone, Have a Magical Day!! – Patrick A.
Corned Beef video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2MJABXS1xk
