Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Sing For Your Supper

If grieving has taught us anything, it's that we like to eat.

Since none of you have offered to bring over a casserole or Jello Funeral Salad (yes, the kind with canned fruit suspended in the green jello), I had to make due and actually prepare dinner on my own!!!!

Ruckiry (not Jon's boss), I like to cook and as ruck would have it, now and again I stumble upon a recipe that I not only want to try, but think I can do without too much fuss or muss.

Bloghungry gave me such a recipe.

Overall, I'm not a big brisket person, but when I read it, I just thought, "yeah, I want to go to there". To be honest, it was probably the gorganzola sauce that drew me in (that's what she said!).

I think I'm not a great brisket fan, because despite how often my mother makes it, it is just not that good. It's fine, but bland - and I choke it down to get through the Sunday dinner without the interrogation.

But with BH's directions, the process could not have been easier. Shopping for the ingredients took longer than the prep time. That's not bad. Granted, the cooking time is 8 hours, but...........

You can get the recipe on his site (hey, I should throw back some blog traffic, no?), but I'll give you the lowdown below. ...and as always, I'm not a food photographer, so whatever BH or my cousin does, it works for them. The dish is way more appetizing than my images show.

The meat prep: brisket, beef broth, chili sauce, onion soup mix, garlic powder, salt and pepper. And into a crock pot on low for 8 hours (after you seared the brisket, of course).

The smell worried me. While there is no vinegar in the recipe, per se, the kitchen and even my upstairs office reeked of vinegar. I guess it was the chili sauce breaking down, but I was afraid for the outcome to the taste of the meat.

Here is the brisket plated up. It has a nice colour. It needs garnish, but it was just the two of us, so I wasn't going out of my way for decoration.

I've never been great at making a roux. I know it's one of the most simple things to do, but it is one of those things you really have to watch and whisk - and not walk away from. Overtime I've done so much better in doing this up. Adding gorganzola and parmesan cheese doesn't hurt (though a nutritionist might tell me differently).

The directions end up making a fuck of a lot of sauce. Even if we had guests over and finished the brisket, there'd have been a lot let over. But I didn't know and even if I did, wasn't about to try to mess with the proportions.

BH did polenta as the side, but I'm not a fan. So we did mashed poe-tay-toes (say like Samewise Gamgee) and a salad.

I have to say, the smell of the cooking/vinegar did not transfer to the meat. The brisket fell apart and tasted incredible - even without the cheese sauce. But the tang of the gorganzola really accentuated the positive. It was a good mix that I never would have thought of on my own.

I could tell my mother how to make it more tasty, but then I would have to fess up that I really don't like her brisket.

So we have brisket for the next few days, be it to take to work for lunch or dinner later in the week. But I totally recommend you trying it. I think you'll be happy you did.



Song by: the Mamas & the Papas

4 comments:

Birdie said...

I love crock pots. They make me actually want to cook. Sometimes.

I could never make a good roux, so I asked the chef at work what I could do. He said rather than make a sauce or gravy from the ground up, make it top down:

Make the stock as you would a soup, with all the flavors and spices. Then use cold stock or water to make a paste with your flour*. Slowly add the paste to your hot stock, stirring with a whisk all the while. Continue to stir for about three minutes and wham! Suddenly it turns and you have gravy or sauce. Add more flour paste as needed. Works every time and no lumps!

*I use Wondra Flour (with barley flour) to make a smooth gravy.

Wonder Man said...

looks good

anne marie in philly said...

I use my slow cooker at least once a week...I have all the ingredients in...I could do this for tomorrow's dinner! thanks, blobby!

(if you lived closer, I would bring jello salad...)

Ur-spo said...

I once dated a man who was described as 'a brisket in bermudas'.