Corned beef and cabbage a St. Patrick’s Day staple in Petaluma

Petaluma has plenty of places to celebrate the March holiday.|

Corned beef fans take heart - your options for the traditional St. Patrick’s Day fare have never been better. From restaurants to food trucks to do-it-yourself options, corned beef lovers can rejoice over this simple yet tasty dish, and all the great left-overs that come from it.

Corned beef and cabbage is a rich part of Irish-American heritage. Irish immigrants of the past two centuries lived, worked, and dined alongside New York City Jews, which is where they were first introduced to corned beef. Pork was the meat of choice in their native land, however, in the new world it was prohibitively expensive. Cured similar to their beloved Irish bacon, corned beef was a cheap alternative to pork. A cheaper alternative to potatoes, cabbage was cooked in the same pot as the meat, and so took on the desirable salty beef flavor.

Corned beef feeds

Leading off the Corned beef and cabbage season is the Penngrove Social Fireman’s March 10 feed. Serving dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Penngrove Clubhouse, tickets are $15 for adults ($7.50 for kids under 12) and are available at JavAmore Café.

The following weekend, the Elks Lodge #901 holds their St. Paddy’s Day feed on Saturday, March 17, starting at 6 p.m. with a live performance by Irish dancers. Tickets are $20 per person, and will sell out fast.

Restaurants

Our local restaurants have really stepped up to the plate when it comes to offering corned beef specials, starting with Crocodile, serving corned short ribs with fingerling potatoes and a sweet and sour cabbage. I have had both their short ribs and their sweet and sour cabbage soup before, so can attest to the fact that words cannot do it justice.

Where better to get corned beef than at McNear’s, where as luck would have it, they reopened back in 1989, on St. Paddy’s Day.

Pongo’s Kitchen & Tap will serve corned beef all weekend, while it lasts, along with live music by Frank O’Connor at the piano bar starting at 8:30 p.m. on March 17, with the kitchen staying open until around 9:45.

Sarah’s Eats and Sweets special for the week is pulled corned beef sandwiches with cabbage slaw and aioli. They will also be serving a whiskey glazed corned beef and cabbage plate, with carrots and potatoes, as well as Irish ale and cheddar soup.

Petaluma Foodie member Sharon McKillop Monticello says the Aquarium’s corned beef dinner is so amazing that she is hesitant to speak up about it because each year it gets more and more crowded.

Pub Republic has always had great slow cooked dishes, and surely their slow braised corned beef brisket, apple sautéed red cabbage, roasted red potatoes, creamy mustard sauce, and Guinness Irish caviar will wow those lucky enough to order it.

Chef Matthew Elias of The Bodega – CA food truck promises to incorporate corned beef into some “fun street food situation,” so keep an eye on their Facebook page for their menu and location, as they change daily.

Others offering St. Paddy’s Day specials include Palm’s Grill, Willowbrook Alehouse, and masters of down-home country comfort food, Sax’s Joint.

If you want to avoid the mess of cooking it yourself, but do not want to leave the house, pre-order with Chef Laura Longuevan Lee (cheflauralee.com) and/or Bellyfull Dinners, both of which will have corned beef specials.

Do it yourself

A few years back, we corned our own beef, and although educational, it was expensive, time consuming, and did not produce anything special, especially considering there are great corned beef options available already.

Since that time, it is not unusual for us to purchase 12 corned beefs from Petaluma Market, so we are set for the whole year. Department manager Travis Miller and his crew receive voluminous praise for all they do behind the meat counter, with their March exclusive corned beef being one of the highlights. Using a 20-year-old secret recipe, it takes 15 days to brine their briskets.

At $4.99 per pound, theirs is less than most pre-packaged corned beef. Petaluma Market’s hot buffet will also be a wee heavily influenced by the Irish from Friday, March 16 through Sunday, March 18, with corned beef, Irish bangers, Guinness braised pork stew, and all the veggies to match.

Stemple Creek Ranch also offers their special grass fed and finished corned beef. They cure their premium round in a special blend of traditional Irish seasonings made by Roberts Corned Meats, the oldest corned beef company in San Francisco, tracing their beginnings all the way back to 1910. Visit StempleCreek.com to place your order for this very limited delicacy.

Local TV celebrity chef Laurie Figone offers up an unconventional way of cooking your corned beef in her cookbook “Cooking with Laurie Figone.” All you need is a corned beef and a half-cup of your favorite hot sauce. In her case, she sticks local, with her favorite - F.A. Nino’s Mango Habanero. Visit lauriesfood.com for her recipe, which takes much less time and clean-up than the normal crockpot method.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.