St Patrick's Day 2015: Corned beef (salt beef) with green bean salad

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

This is an ideal dish for when you've got people coming over for lunch or dinner, as you can prepare ahead - you'll need to start at least the day before, soaking the beef overnight.

Typically eaten in the US on St Patrick's Day with cabbage, the green beans are a great summery alternative. The salt beef (known as corned beef in America) has layers of fat running through it, which makes the meat melt in the mouth.

Salt beef and green bean salad recipe

700-800g salted beef brisket or salted ox cheeks, soaked overnight in cold water
2 onions, peeled and quartered
2 carrots, peeled and trimmed
10 black peppercorns
4 garlic cloves, peeled
A few sprigs of thyme
100g French beans, trimmed
2 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped

For the vinaigrette

1tbsp good-quality tarragon vinegar
2tsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled
3tbsp olive oil
3tbsp vegetable or corn oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the vinaigrette, put all of the ingredients into a jar. Shake it and leave to infuse overnight at room temperature.

Rinse the salt beef and put it into a saucepan with the onions, carrots, peppercorns, garlic and thyme. Cover well with water, bring to the boil and skim off the scum from the surface, then simmer, covered, for about 2 hours, topping up the water if necessary. It's difficult to put an exact cooking time on cuts of meat like this, so check it after 2 hours and if it's not tender, cook for another half an hour or so. Leave to cool in the liquid, but don't refrigerate.

Cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes until tender, then drain well. Remove the beef from the cooking liquid and carve into 5mm-thick slices, breaking these up into bite-sized pieces. Mix with the beans and shallots, season to taste and dress well with the vinaigrette.