Someone's in the Kitchen With Dinaaahhh!!!

I lifted this recipe from the Blog d'Elisson a while back, and tried it yesterday.

Wow.

I'm going to reprint the original here (since I sometimes use this category as my virtual cookbook), and then add my notes at the end about what I did differently. I don't know if this was entered in a previous Carnival, but it doesn't matter. All credit to Elisson for this wonderfulness.

Braised Brisket

5-7 lb beef brisket, trimmed of some of its fat
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano, even better)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 medium yellow onions, sliced
2 bay leaves
3½ cups chicken stock or broth
1 28 oz can diced or chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine the salt, pepper, paprika, and oregano in a small bowl and sprinkle generously over the meat, rubbing it in well.

In a large, heavy pan with a close-fitting lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat and brown the meat, about 10 minutes on each side. [I used our big turkey roasting pan - RJ] Remove the meat and place on a platter to hold. Pour the excess grease out of the pan and add the chicken broth, tomatoes, and bay leaves, stirring and scraping to deglaze the pan. Put the meat back in the pan and smother with the chopped garlic and sliced onions. (If you're using fresh oregano, which I recommend, it doesn’t hurt to throw another small handful in at this point.) Cover the pan and put it in the oven to braise for 1 hour.

After an hour, remove the cover from the pan and continue to braise another hour.

Push the onions and garlic into the braising liquid and cover the pan. Braise for 1 or 2 more hours - however long it takes to make the meat nice and tender. After one hour, check the meat for doneness by sticking it with a fork - when it’s done, take it out.

You can serve the meat right away, but for best flavor, let cool, refrigerate, and let it sit 1-2 days. This also makes it easy to scrape off any excess grease. Reheat thoroughly in a 350° oven. Remove the meat from the braising liquid, slice against the grain, and arrange on a platter. The braising liquid should, at this point, have cooked down to a nice sauce-like consistency. If it’s too thin, put the pan on the stove on medium-high heat and reduce the liquid to the desired thickness. Remove the bay leaves and spoon the sauce liberally over the meat.

Notes: When I went into the pantry, I discovered that my big can of diced tomatoes was a big can of pureed tomatoes instead. I did have a smaller can of diced on hand, so to compensate I added two small cans of V8 vegetable juice to the liquid. Also, the family aren't onion fanatics like me, so I only used one onion, sliced fairly thin. Finally, since they hate bay leaf (geez, I live with some picky damn eaters), I went for a sweet and spice undertone by adding about 3/4" of peeled and sliced fresh ginger root to the sauce, and balancing the acid of the tomatoes by adding 4 diced prunes.

Oh man, was that good eating. At that link above, Elisson provides a nice idea for leftover brisket too. Not that there was much of it left.

On the side we made roasted parsley potatoes and some corn. I think next time I'll pull out the bread machine and have a fresh loaf of warm sourdough ready instead of the spuds, and maybe a crunch salad.

Oh yeah, I'll be making this again soon.

Posted by Ted at February 27, 2005 01:12 AM | TrackBack