Corned Beef with horseradish sauce and glazed carrots

Wednesday, 1st February 2012

This old favourite is not fashionable at the moment but given a little twist is still as delicious as ever.

Ingredients (for 4)
- 1kg (2 lbs) Corned Beef (tail end is the best cut)
- 1 Onion
- 6 Black Peppercorns

Sauce;
- 30g (1oz.) Butter
- 30g (1oz.) Flour
- 2 scallions finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon horsradish sauce

Carrots;
- 500g (1lb) Carrots
- Salt and Pepper
- 2 Teaspoons sugar
- 60g (2oz.) Butter

Method
Put the beef in a pot and cover with water. Peel the onion and add it and the peppercorns to the pot. Bring the beef up to the boil and then simmer very gently until tender. (About 1 1/2 hours-cut off a slice to test.) Leave the beef in the water in the pot.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the chopped scallion. Cook the scallion gently for about 5 mts until soft. Stir in the flour and blend with the butter. Add enough stock from the beef to make a sauce (about a cup full). Stir in the horseradish and simmer the sauce for a few minutes to finish it.

Peel or scrub the carrots and cut them into slices along the length. Cut these slices into strips making long thin chips. Put these into a frying pan and barely cover with water. Add the butter, the sugar and the salt and pepper to the pan. Bring these to the boil and boil quite briskly until nearly all of the water is evaporated. Taste the carrots, if they’re tender they are ready now, if not add another cup of water and taste again when that has gone. They should end up covered with a shiny glaze.

Carve the beef thinly and serve with the carrots on the plate and some plain boiled potatoes and the sauce trickled over Keep the beef stock as if there is any left over beef it keeps beautifully moist if kept covered in this in the fridge. Left over corned beef makes very good sandwiches.