This is not company food. This is comfort food, plain and simple. Oh wait, I do serve it to company. Never mind. No one has ever complained. If you've never had brisket, it's worth a try. It's a cut that needs long cooking and not much attention, in short, the perfect cut for the remodeler. Corned beef is made from the brisket cut, but you want plain brisket for this recipe, not the corned beef brisket, which is marinated.
Kitchen needs: an operational range or, if you want to omit the browning, just a slow cooker
Serves: 6-8
4-5 lbs. beef brisket (note: NOT corned beef brisket)
2 medium white onions, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 c. flour
1 bottle of fruity red wine, such as Merlot
2-3 c. beef stock or chicken stock or water
2 bay leaves
2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped (or 1 T. dried)
1/3 c. dried cranberries
If you are using a slow cooker, just add all the ingredients and turn it on. Cook for the first hour on high, and several more hours on low.
For a conventional oven (recommended), preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brown the whole roast in a dutch oven over medium high heat in a couple tablespoons full of hot fat. I used butter and oil, but salt pork or bacon drippings would be good, too, if you are even less health conscious than me. Remove roast and set aside. Brown the onions in hot fat. When onions are golden brown and cooked-looking, turn down the heat to medium low, add three or four garlic cloves, chopped, and flour. This is called making a roux, a thickener, but in the very lazy way. Mix and cook for a few minutes, until the flour starts to change to a golden color. Don't burn the roux.
Remove the pot from the burner and return the brisket to the dutch oven, brisket fat-side down. Pour in 1/3 bottle of a fruity red wine (maybe Merlot? I used two-buck Chuck Cabernet, which tastes like a Merlot), stock, herbs, salt and pepper. Then the key ingredient: a good handful of dried cranberries. I use the off-the-shelf sweetened Craisins ones. You can also use a scoop of cranberry sauce (too sweet for me) or a cup of cranberry juice (ditto). Add some orange juice at your own discretion. A bit of cinnamon might be good too.
Cover dutch oven and braise in the oven for about 3 hours. Take out pot after about an hour and a half and breathe in the delicious vapors. Flip the brisket over so the fat side is up. I don’t know if this matters, but it did look roasty and nice when I finished. Drink a tiny bit of the juice and think meaty thoughts.
When the brisket is soft and pliant, take out of the oven and add about a 1/2 cup (or more?) of red wine to brighten up the color and make it taste more like cranberryish. Let cool enough to handle.
Take the brisket out of the pot and slice it across the grain in long, thin slices. Note to brisket virgins: this is important. If you cut it in chunks or shred it, you will look like a caveman at a mastadon roast trying to eat it.
Place the slices back in the delicious gravy. This dish improves when left to sit overnight. Serve with egg noodles, mashed or roasted potatoes.
2 comments:
Ok you have me drooling here. I've just added beef brisket and wine to my shopping list - this is a must-try recipe. Thanks for sharing it!!
Though I must point out that there seems to be an error in the recipe. Where's the part where the cook pours herself a large glass of the wine before preparations begin, another when it goes into the oven, and another when it's time to eat? ::grin:: I think that you need to specify the 1.5L bottle of wine in order to accomodate this.
Aha! I thought no one would notice I took out the line "drink the rest of the wine."
Enjoy the brisket! If you like mushrooms, some shiitakes or chopped portobellos are a good addition at the beginning of cooking, as well.
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