Corned beef with cabbage, veg and mash pie

 

Corned beef with cabbage, veg and mash, a sort of cottage or shepherds pie good enough for Kings and even better for peasants.

I think this is a Celtic dish worthy of the hillside and coastal race from Strathclyde, Cumbria, Wales and Cornwall, the race that knows that supermarkets sell ready cooked mashed potatoes in containers and grated cheese in sachets but for the life of them can't understand why.

There are other recipes on this blog dedicated to corned beef, the 'king' of tinned meat. You see, since you are here, you know that there is nothing quite the same as that tin, that tin has that key. As we pick it up we all show hesitation as we all know that tin has taken many a cooks blood, those who have interpreted it's intonation incorrectly have sliced thumb or forefinger on pure steel, long before the question of, 'do you want pickles with this' donned their lips. Even the final act of expousing trapped corned beef requires a dexterity worthy of a Celt and a blade to expel it into service onto a plate.

So peel and put some spuds on with the intention of mashing them, parboil a lot, and I mean a lot of cabbage, parboil some sliced carrots and parsnips also.

In a large Pyrex dish place your drained steamed cabbage (I pan fried it too) add a layer of steamed carrots and parsnips, then cover with chicken stock, season it and add a bay leaf. The put a layer of thinly sliced corned beef, then mash your pots and chop in some spring onions, mix in cubes of cheddar and spread on top add more cubes of cheese a few dabs of butter and put in the oven at 180 for about thirty minutes and or well browned.

To serve

Pour Cumbrian real ale into tall glasses and expand to those troffing how it is a historical fact that King Arthur is Cumbrian, stand and command all to stop shovelling,  and raise a toast to your forebears