The first time I ate real corned beef, I thought that I could never go back to canned. I learned to cure meat (for ten days), cook it and serve it in different ways.
But curing a large slab of beef brisket for ten days in the fridge is… well, it takes up so much space. And then, there’s the issue that the beef smell can cross-contaminate other food items in the fridge. Like pastries. So, I don’t make corned beef very often.
The time came when I missed corned beef so much but didn’t want to go back to canned. I tried frozen, but I found them either too watery or too bland or just plain inscrutable (some looked more like dog food than corned beef). After a while, I just ignored them when I saw them in the grocery.
Then, Aguila Meat introduced their frozen corned beef. I’ve been a fan of Aguila products for years (this is not a sponsored post). I love their ham and sausages, and we’re rarely without one or the other. When I saw Aguila corned beef in the grocery, I was hopeful. Excited, really. I had not eaten an Aguila product that I did not like. Maybe, their corned beef would be nothing like the mediocre ones I had tried in the past. And Aguila did not disappoint. Loved the corned beef so much (especially the jalapeño variant) that I now order directly from their website.
I thawed the last pack of corned beef from the freezer this morning and this was how I cooked and served it. Note that I used just one frying pan from start the finish. The rice, leftover from last night, was reheated in the microwave.
I heated just enough oil so that there shouldn’t be any left by the time the cooking is done. I know that sounds mysteriously vague but when you’ve been cooking for a long time it’s not that hard to eyeball a few things.
I calculated that I needed about a quarter cup of oil to cook the potatoes and eggs, and still have tablespoon or so left to combine the fried potatoes with sliced onion and the thawed corned beef. In that quarter cup of oil, I spread potato cubes so that each piece was touching the hot oil even if only partially. And I let the potato cubes cook, with occasional tossing, until I could see that most edges had browned.
The potato cubes were scooped out and four eggs were fried one after the other.
By the time all the eggs had been fried, there was just enough oil left in the pan to soften sliced onions. When the slices showed signs of browning, I tossed in the potato cubes.
The fully thawed 500-gram (1.1 pounds) pack of corned beef went in and everything was stirred and tossed until everything looked evenly distributed, and the meat was heated through.
Rice, egg and corned beef with potatoes and onion were plated and breakfast was served. It’s not a silog dish because that’s not fried rice that you see in the photo. It’s just leftover rice reheated in the microwave.
Is this how I always cook store-bought corned beef? No, not always.
Sometimes, I make an omelette. Instead of frying eggs sunny side up, I whisk them in a bowl and pour them over the corned beef, potato and onion mix. I let the egg set and then cut the omelette into wedges.
Then, there’s my variant of this omelette, my corned beef and potato quiche.
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