April 13, 2014

Beef Brisket

dani@slyrooster.com Beef beef brisket, Easter, Passover 1 Comment

Over the past several days I’ve been fielding friendly requests for Passover and Easter recipes and have been coming up blank. “Come on Sly Rooster, what have you got for me?” the repeated refrain.

While my family celebrates both holidays (or EVERY holiday, as Gary would claim), I am sad to say that we don’t do either Passover nor Easter very well. Yom Kippur–with authentic bagels, assorted fish salads, sturgeon, lox, Toddy’s egg salad (anyone from the Five Towns gonna chime in on that one?), I’ve got break the fast covered. Christmas–give me a country and I will deliver an authentic meal (our tradition of replicating traditional Christmas dinners from around the world). Cinco de Mayo–coming your way soon!

Passover, though, that’s intimidating and I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve shied away. Haggadahs, seder plate, lamb shank, afikomen. Oy vey. And Easter. It’s hard to say no to sweet, smiling faces asking to open “just one more” candy-filled, pastel egg. Who needs brunch or lunch, or dinner for that matter, when you have chocolate? Besides the fact that we always seems to be driving home from Spring Break on Easter Sunday.

But you have inspired me to deliver and so I sit here typing with Todd’s Modern Day Brisket cooking away in the oven. My house is filled with aromatics, teasing my family with a meal that won’t be served yet another day. Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef and does best cooked low and slow, a day before serving.  The resulting meat is tender to the point of falling apart and highly seasoned with whatever braising liquid you’ve used. Brisket is traditional on the Passover table and maybe less so for Easter. But if you want to veer away from ham, or possibly serve an additional meat, beef brisket is a nice alternative. Hey, you can even serve it in slices alongside your spiral cut ham with the same country buns, but now we are unimaginably un-Kosher.

This recipe is taken from The New Jewish Table by Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray.  The cookbook tells of a love story between Gray and Kassoff Gray and the marriage of their vastly different backgrounds as it relates to their love of food.  As Todd explains, “I took the traditional Jewish braised brisket and added techniques from my French arsenal to come up with a modern, elegant version of this beloved meat dish.” While most Jewish mothers have their brisket that has been passed down through generations, I encourage you to try this approach.

So, get cooking the day before your holiday and serve on Monday (First Night), Tuesday (Second Night) or Sunday. Happy holidays to all!