Apricot-Mustard Glazed Corned Beef

Ah...St. Patrick's Day. When we celebrate all things Irish—Guinness, green beer, shamrocks, Irish cream. And corned beef. I haven't had corned beef in a long, long time and suddenly had a craving for it. And what better time to make it than right around St. Patrick's Day?

I took a shortcut and bought my corned beef from the market, which already came pre-packaged with the spices. Some butchers will pack the spices separately so that you can choose not to use it if you don't want to. I decided to just throw everything, beef and spices, into my dutch oven.

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Cook Like a Gold Medal Plate Chef, Part II - Quail Challenge

As part of the "Cook Like a Gold Medal Plate Chef" challenge, hosted by foodiePrints, Whisk: A Food Blog and Rachelle Eats Food in honour of the Ottawa Gold Medal Plates that was held last week, bloggers were invited to create their own interpretations of Chefs Matthew Carmichael and sous chef Jonathan Korecki (of Restaurant E18hteen) two dishes they had created in last year's "black box" competition as part of the Canadian Culinary Championships. For the first half of the challenge, I made pan-fried Arctic char with cauliflower puree and fennel confit.

The other main ingredient that was found in their black box was quail. Chefs Carmichael and Korecki lacquered the birds with Indian Pale Ale and soy sauce, served with risotto and garnished with cubed dragon fruit. Us home cooks were allowed to substitute the dragon fruit for a hard Asian pear, which is what I opted to do in order to incorporate more texture and flavour to my dish.

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