Thursday, March 14, 2013

Irish Nachos

Irish Nachos

It's almost here!  How are you planning your St. Patty's Day get together?!  I've got my green ready and my kitchen stocked.

I've never been much of a fan of the extreme saltiness of corned beef, but I do love beef stews, Irish cheeses and just about everything else.

These little nachos are SO easy to make and so much FUN to eat!  You can use the traditional corned beef brisket if you like, but I opted for the lower fat of the bottom roast and some of the traditional corned beef seasonings without all the salt.  In all the recipe research I did, most of the recipes called for allspice, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.  You can use a tablespoon of each of those and alter it to your taste, or you can just use pumpkin pie spice, which has all those and some nutmeg too.

You will have TONS of meat left over with just a spoonful on each of the little green shamrock chips, so I topped the leftovers onto some of my leftover Colcannon, and it was DELICIOUS!

Irish Nachos

Prep Time: 30 minutes / Cook Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes / Servings: 10-12

Shamrock Spinach Tortilla Chips
Ingredients:
  • 1 package of large, spinach tortillas
  • 1 shamrock shaped cookie cutter
  • olive oil cooking spray
  • 3 lb. beef bottom roast
  • 3 large carrots, chopped
  • 1 large leek, chopped
  • 16 oz. low-sodium beef broth
  • 2 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 6 bay leaves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp. cardamom
  • 1 tbsp. ground mustard seed
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 6 oz. Irish cheddar or Dubliner cheese, shredded
  • 6 scallions, chopped
Steps:
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Cut out 5-6 shamrock shapes from each of the spinach tortillas.  Place the cutouts onto a large cookie sheet and spray both sides with olive oil cooking spray.  Place in the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 5-6 minutes, until crisp.  Remove from heat and cookie sheet and set aside.  Repeat in batches until all the chips are baked. 
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on high heat.  Add the roast and brown on all sides for 2-3 minutes until completely browned.  Transfer to a large crock pot.  
  4. Deglaze the pan with about 1/2 of the beef broth and transfer it to the crock pot.
  5. Add the beef broth, carrots, leeks, pumpkin pie spice, bay leaves, cardamom and mustard seed.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Combine by stirring and turning and making sure all sides of the roast get some seasoning and broth.  Cover and cook on high heat in the crock pot for about 3 hours.
  6. Shred the meat with a fork and continue to cook for 1 hour.  Adjust the seasoning as needed to your taste.
  7. When the meat is done, spread the chips out onto a large serving dish.  Place a spoonful of the meat onto each of the chips.  Top with shredded cheese and scallions, serve immediately.

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