Brisket

Now that I am veering toward wellness I am going to take you all back one High Holiday to Yom Kippur and my standard Jewish holiday main dish, brisket. This year I had a small group of friends over for a break-fast meal. Almost all of us had fasted, including D. who was fasting and attending services for the first time after marrying a nice Jewish girl last year.  He was finding fasting much easier than the rest of us and then he mentioned that he thought it might have something to do with the cafe mocha with whipped cream he had in the afternoon. Apparently, everyone forgot to tell him that drinks were out too. I, for one, was so hungry that I carved up most of the brisket before I remembered to take a photo.

When not enjoying brisket southern BBQ style I go for the slow and low braise of my childhood. Not only that ,but this is one of the rare recipes in which my general disdain for processed foods gets overridden by nostalgia. Yes, I admit it… I use the dry Lipton onion soup mix as brisket seasoning.

Recipe after the jump…

Using the soup mix makes this easy as can be…

Holiday Brisket

• 1 brisket
• 1 package dry onion soup mix
• 2-3 yellow onions sliced in thick rings
• 2 large spoonfuls of brown sugar
• salt & pepper

pre-heat your oven to 325 F. Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with about 2/3 of the onion slices. With the brisket fat side down sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and rub in a sppon full of brown sugar (enough to coat the meat. Place the meat fat-side up on top of the onions and repeat the salt, pepper and brown sugar, rub on the fat side. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the top of the meat and then top with the remaining onion slices.  Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30 minutes per pound of meat. In the last hour of cooking you can add some sliced or baby carrots for any easy side dish. After removing from the oven let the meat rest for 15 minutes and then slice and serve with the pan juice on the side.

potato gratin

apple cobbler

In true heathen style I also served along with my brisket and carrots, a super creamy potato gratin, and an apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Post dessert we engaged in enough lashon harah to begin repenting all over again.

potato gratin

apple cobbler