Balsamic-Braised Brisket

The Silver Platter is a Jewish cookbook, but it's not what you might think of as Jewish cuisine. By that, I mean that if you made any recipe from this book and served it to friends and family, no one would identify it as Jewish in particular.

They're just good, solid recipes that happen to follow the dietary rules.

There are recipes like vegetable soup with spaghetti squash noodles, roasted beets with a lemon-basil dressing, sweet and sour Chinese chicken, apple cranberry couscous, spiced cauliflower ... and of course there are desserts, like almond cookies, flourless fudgy-wudgy cookies, and chewy raspberry oatmeal bars.

Deciding on a recipe to publish was difficult - so many great choices.

The weather was cool, and brisket sounded like a pretty good idea, but read the recipe before you begin - you need to plan this one in advance.

The brisket marinates for at least an hour in the onion-tomato mixture - but hey, you might as well let it rest overnight. Then you cook it. Then you refrigerate several hours - or overnight again.

So, if you make this, you could do it in one long day, or you could make it over three easy days. I opted for the three easy days, which meant that the brisket had a lot of time to marinate.

The onions get very soft and the sauce gets almost jammy while the brisket is fork tender and the whole thing is insanely delicious. I served it with mashed potatoes and fried green tomatoes for a wonderful comfort food dinner.

Typical of me and comfort foods, the food was soooo much better than my photographs. But, hey, you get the idea, right?

Balsamic-Braised Brisket
Recipe from The Silver Platter by Daniella Silver with Norene Gilletz
Reprinted with permission from the copyright holders: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications
meat | passover | gluten-free | freezes well | yields 8-10 servings

1 beef brisket (4-5 lb /1.8-2.3 kg)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 can (6 oz/170 g) tomato paste
2 Tbsp honey
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup dry red wine or water

1. Coat a large roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add brisket; sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Rub brisket with spices to coat on all sides.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onions for 5 minutes, until softened. Stir in parsley, tomato paste, honey, bay leaves, vinegar, and wine. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool.

3. Pour sauce over, around, and under the brisket. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight, turning occasionally.

4. Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake, covered, for 3-3½ hours or until meat is fork-tender. Calculate 45 minutes per pound to determine the cooking time. Discard bay leaves. Let cool.

5. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Discard hardened fat from gravy. Trim excess fat from brisket. Slice against the grain to desired thickness.

6. Reheat, covered, in pan gravy at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.

Norene’'s Notes

• Slow Cooker Method: Season brisket and prepare sauce as above; add to slow cooker insert coated with nonstick cooking spray. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Place insert into slow cooker; cook on on low for 8-10 hours.
• Ask your butcher to cut a very large brisket (8 lb/3.6 kg) in half. Total cooking time will be the same as for one 4 lb/1.8 kg brisket.
• Brisket should be cooked “"low and slow,”" with lots of onions. The internal temperature should not rise above 180°F on a meat thermometer; after it reaches 200°F, the brisket will become dry.

Self-Crusting Pumpkin Pie

The latest book to reach my hands from my Cook My Book group was The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook. Originally published in 1981, the book has a nostalgic feel, and the pumpkin pie recipe is no exception.

Based on the "Impossible" pies made famous by Bisquick, this pumpkin pie is a little lighter, creamier, and fluffier than the typical super-dense pumpkin pie.

I have a few cracks and wrinkles on top of the pie, so it wasn't the prettiest thing in the world - but let's face it, once it's sliced, no one will know - particularly if you serve it with whipped cream. And, your pie might be prettier, since I live at high altitude and baking results can be different from what you'd get closer to sea level.

While the recipe claimed that this pie made its own crust, don't be looking for something as thick as a typical crust. But, amazingly, it was enough crust to keep the slices of pie together. While I love flaky pastry crust, I thought this was a nice departure from the usual.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie
Adapted from The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook

1 1/3 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bisquick
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9" pie pan with baking spray or oil. Or butter the pan.

Combine all of the pie ingredients in a blender an blend until well-mixed and smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted halfway between the edge and center of the pie comes out clean.

Remove the pie from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack until it's room temperature, then refrigerate until fully chilled.

Arancini Patties

I'm learning this new thing called dinner for one. It's an interesting way of cooking. Sometimes it's worthwhile or necessary to make more than one portion of something, which is great when it reheats well and I want to eat it for lunch or dinner the next day.

But sometimes one portion is exactly enough.

I had a batch of risotto that I made (adapted from the book Le French Oven, which I highly recommend) and I didn't mind having leftovers ... but then I started thinking about arancini. They're fried balls of risotto, usually stuffed with cheese. A local restaurant stuffs them with chili.

I had the leftover risotto and started looking at arancini recipes and finally decided I didn't want to deal with the fuss of making balls and stuffing them. The risotto I made had a lot of cheese in it to begin with. And I didn't have anything else on hand that I thought would be good for stuffing.

AND! The risotto had slices of mushrooms in it. Trying to work around those to make balls didn't sound like it would be fun. Another good reason for not making traditional arancini was that I didn't want to make a big batch of them. I wanted just enough for one meal, and I figured that a flat patty would be easier to fry than a few round balls.

In the end, it was a good idea, and I'll probably do this again. If I really wanted to stuff an arancini, I'd make a round ball. But otherwise, I might just do patties.

Arancini Patties

That's a salad plate - it's not a giant patty!

Risotto, cooled, enough for 1 serving
Bread crumbs
Oil, for frying
Tomato sauce, for serving, if desired

Form the chilled risotto into a patty. Coat with bread crumbs. I used panko, but I'm sure that regular bread crumbs would be just fine.

Add enough oil to a small saute pan so it's about 1/8 inch deep covering the bottom of the pan.

A little more or less oil is fine, you just want to make sure you're frying the patties in a layer of oil and not in a dry pan.

And yes, a small pan is better if you're making one serving, because you won't need as much oil.

When the oil is hot, gently place the prepared patty in the pan. You should hear it sizzle and bubble. You can check the heat by dipping an edge of the patty in the oil, if you're not sure.

Cook until the patty is browned on one side, flip and cook on the second side until it is browned.

Remove the patty from the pan and let it drain for a few seconds on a paper towel to remove any excess grease.

Serve hot.