And More Things

Running Scared is back up, and I am no longer pissed off at Powerblogs. Turns out we both made mistakes, although I believe that I made fewer than they did.

I was right, no one could make it to the first seder. No worries, I stuffed everything in the fridge and freezer and we had a lovely time last night. Brisket just gets better when you let it sit, anyway.

Only one of my personal projects is done, ugh.

I hope to get back to the point of writing political opinion any day now, but in the mean time, I feel like sharing the brisket recipe I used. I started out with the recipe by Emeril from the Food Network site, but when I saw that his called for ketchup, chili sauce & brown sugar, I decided to deviate.

Tami's Brisket
1 beef brisket, mine was 4.7 pounds
4 cups broth or stock, I used chicken broth, because it's what I had
Garlic cloves - lots of garlic cloves
1 medium onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
Lawry's seasoned salt
Onion Powder
Dried Thyme
Coarse ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

(like I said, I start out like Emeril)
Using a paring knife and your fingers, make holes in the brisket and stuff them with whole garlic cloves, all over. I recommend making the hole then stuffing, rather than making multiple holes and trying to figure out where they were when you go back.

Place brisket in baking dish/pan, and put in oven to brown (about 5 minutes)
Turn brisket over and brown it on the other side.

Turn the oven down to 350.

Add enough liquid to go to about 1 inch deep in the pan (don't remove the brisket). Tent with foil. Continue cooking about an hour.

Heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then add the onions. Adjust heat so that they're cooking slowly, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until they're carmelized, about 20 minutes. Remove onions from heat.

(this is where I broke away from the recipe)
When the hour is up, add the carmelized onions and the rest of the spices to the meat. Replenish liquid if necessary. Turn the brisket over, season the other side, and return to oven, 1 hour.

After an hour, turn the brisket again. Tent if it looks like it's drying out. Add more liquid if necessary. Return brisket to oven.

After another hour, test the tenderness level of the brisket with a fork. If it's still too firm, continue cooking, and check every 20 minutes or so. I took mine out at the 3-hour 40-minute point. Your brisket should not be so tender that it falls apart, or you won't be able to slice it.

Let brisket rest 10 minutes, slice it (against the grain). Reserve pan juices to serve with the meat.

Brisket can be served immediately, but invariably tastes better if it's chilled for at least a day and then served re-heated.

Everybody liked the meat. I especially loved the way the garlic cloves looked when I sliced it up.