Waiting game is over. I'm on my internship...yay! Only 12 more weeks to go, :P
I kinda like the place that I'm working at. At the moment, I am on the prep station. I feel the pace is a bit slow but there are certain elements that I cannot fully assess it accurately:
1. I started the week before Christmas
2. My supervisor isn't there until next week
3. It's only the beginning.
In short, Imma quit my bitchen. Anywho, I did a photography gig over the weekend for Chef Joseph "J.J." Johnson. Some may remember him as the contestant and winner of the first episode of Rocco's dinner party. I posted a crap load of pictures...well, not really...like 75 pics out of 300 shots. No way I was editing that in 2 days and the night before finals. At his event, he made this butternut squash soup...oh so divine and he put goat cheese in it. I never thought I'd do or say this but: "Goat cheese, I love you...I want to marry you and want your cream."
So, off of inspiration from a few chefs that I've encountered in this short 9 months, I made a braised brisket dish. Enjoy!
Braised Brisket Recipe
Disclaimer: I really don't use measurements that much and I don't provide a list of ingredients because I'm nuts like that.
Please don't murder me. :D
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Trim fat from your brisket. I'm sure it has a decent amount on there. I buy my brisket in huge chunks and when I weighed it out, it was 4 lbs. This will comfortably feed 8 people. I make enough for leftovers. Season your meat with the following: crushed pink peppercorns, crushed black peppercorns, crushed white peppers, kosher salt, light on the thyme, decent amount of rosemary and Hungarian sweet paprika (you can find this at a decent supermarket or somewhere like Trader's Joe, Garden of Eden...some place like that and it's about errr... 4.00). Use sweet paprika in moderation because it goes a long way. Your peppercorns can be semi crushed. It has a beautiful texture...or at least that's just my personal preference.
Heat a rondeau (a big ass non reactive pan with a forged bottom for my non culinarians) until it's at smoking point (piping hot). If you're fast enough, prep one to two onions. I used a Spanish onion for a decent flavor and threw in a yellow pepper. For Christ sake...remove the rib of the inside of the onion (just a pet peeve). Julienne both onions and peppers and set aside. Once your pan is piping hot, don't be alarmed by the smoke, add a bit of oil to the pan enough to coat. Use an oil with a decent smoking point like veggie or canola oil. Olive oil will crash, burn and for the money, is not worth doing it in this particular meal. Sear all sides of your meat until you develop a beautiful brown. Remove brisket and set to the side. In the same pan, saute your onions and peppers until translucent/soft. Add beef or veal stock (veal kicks ass) and red wine with a 2:1 ration respectively. Side note: Alcohol is in almost every one of my dishes. Place brisket back into the pan. Add a sprig of rosemary. Liquid should only fill half way up to the meat. Bring the liquid up to temperature. When it becomes warm, place into your oven uncovered for one hour. Wrap with aluminum foil or shatterproof lid and lower temperature to 300 degrees and keep in oven for two more hours. Lower temperature to 250 for last hour, total of 4 hours.
Pull brisket from pan and set aside. Strain liquid and set aside veggies. Put liquid back in the pan and place rondeau on stove; reduce liquid (crank up the heat to the highest temperature and allow it to evaporate into a thick liquid). Since there is beef/veal stock in your liquid, we will create a hongroise reduction.
Hongroise sauce is a baby sauce from the mother sauce, Veloute. It is also listed under sauce Supreme because of the steps that I'll explain to you right now:
1. While reducing your stock, add a light amount of heavy cream to the pan. Et voila...sauce Supreme, but we will not stop there.
2. Although this is not part of the original recipe, add a small amount of goat cheese to your mixture, enough to taste. Incorporate until it's a light brown shade resembling gravy.
3. Another modification is that I didn't use white wine but red wine. Ha, almost NOT a Hongroise sauce but rules are made to be broken. Since the wine is already there, don't worry about it.
4. Add your julienne onions back in the pan and sprinkle a bit of Hungarian Paprika. NOTE: If you cannot find Hungarian Paprika, this is fine but the taste will be slightly altered.
5. Reduce until nappe (no, I'm not being racist...it just means that the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.)
Pour this sauce over your rested brisket. Meant to add these important tidbits:
1. Allow your brisket to rest (don't cut it) for at least 15 minutes to allow the juices to do it's magic). Cutting into meat immediately will make the juices pour out. The food may be out of the oven but it doesn't necessarily mean that the cooking process stopped.
2. Slice your meat against the grain. This determines if your meat will be tender. It will be good but it'll be better if you slice it the right way.
Pair this meal with potato latkes to make it a Jewish meal or you can make a nice pilaf like I did. Just in case you don't know, pilaf is very simple. Chop up whatever veggies you would like to add such as a basic mirepoix (50 percent onion, 25 carrot and 25 celery) and saute in a pot with some sort of fat (I prefer butter because it's rich and creamy). Add in rice and toast it. Make sure fat is on the rice. Toast it until you smell its aroma. It should have a nutty smell. Add stock into the pan. Cook until done.
Hope you enjoy this recipe (and my erratic side notes). I would love to hear what you think and how it turned out.
I kinda like the place that I'm working at. At the moment, I am on the prep station. I feel the pace is a bit slow but there are certain elements that I cannot fully assess it accurately:
1. I started the week before Christmas
2. My supervisor isn't there until next week
3. It's only the beginning.
In short, Imma quit my bitchen. Anywho, I did a photography gig over the weekend for Chef Joseph "J.J." Johnson. Some may remember him as the contestant and winner of the first episode of Rocco's dinner party. I posted a crap load of pictures...well, not really...like 75 pics out of 300 shots. No way I was editing that in 2 days and the night before finals. At his event, he made this butternut squash soup...oh so divine and he put goat cheese in it. I never thought I'd do or say this but: "Goat cheese, I love you...I want to marry you and want your cream."
So, off of inspiration from a few chefs that I've encountered in this short 9 months, I made a braised brisket dish. Enjoy!
 |
| Braised Brisket with Tomato & Onion Rice Pilaf in Hongroise Reduction |
Disclaimer: I really don't use measurements that much and I don't provide a list of ingredients because I'm nuts like that.
Please don't murder me. :D
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Trim fat from your brisket. I'm sure it has a decent amount on there. I buy my brisket in huge chunks and when I weighed it out, it was 4 lbs. This will comfortably feed 8 people. I make enough for leftovers. Season your meat with the following: crushed pink peppercorns, crushed black peppercorns, crushed white peppers, kosher salt, light on the thyme, decent amount of rosemary and Hungarian sweet paprika (you can find this at a decent supermarket or somewhere like Trader's Joe, Garden of Eden...some place like that and it's about errr... 4.00). Use sweet paprika in moderation because it goes a long way. Your peppercorns can be semi crushed. It has a beautiful texture...or at least that's just my personal preference.
Heat a rondeau (a big ass non reactive pan with a forged bottom for my non culinarians) until it's at smoking point (piping hot). If you're fast enough, prep one to two onions. I used a Spanish onion for a decent flavor and threw in a yellow pepper. For Christ sake...remove the rib of the inside of the onion (just a pet peeve). Julienne both onions and peppers and set aside. Once your pan is piping hot, don't be alarmed by the smoke, add a bit of oil to the pan enough to coat. Use an oil with a decent smoking point like veggie or canola oil. Olive oil will crash, burn and for the money, is not worth doing it in this particular meal. Sear all sides of your meat until you develop a beautiful brown. Remove brisket and set to the side. In the same pan, saute your onions and peppers until translucent/soft. Add beef or veal stock (veal kicks ass) and red wine with a 2:1 ration respectively. Side note: Alcohol is in almost every one of my dishes. Place brisket back into the pan. Add a sprig of rosemary. Liquid should only fill half way up to the meat. Bring the liquid up to temperature. When it becomes warm, place into your oven uncovered for one hour. Wrap with aluminum foil or shatterproof lid and lower temperature to 300 degrees and keep in oven for two more hours. Lower temperature to 250 for last hour, total of 4 hours.
Pull brisket from pan and set aside. Strain liquid and set aside veggies. Put liquid back in the pan and place rondeau on stove; reduce liquid (crank up the heat to the highest temperature and allow it to evaporate into a thick liquid). Since there is beef/veal stock in your liquid, we will create a hongroise reduction.
Hongroise sauce is a baby sauce from the mother sauce, Veloute. It is also listed under sauce Supreme because of the steps that I'll explain to you right now:
1. While reducing your stock, add a light amount of heavy cream to the pan. Et voila...sauce Supreme, but we will not stop there.
2. Although this is not part of the original recipe, add a small amount of goat cheese to your mixture, enough to taste. Incorporate until it's a light brown shade resembling gravy.
3. Another modification is that I didn't use white wine but red wine. Ha, almost NOT a Hongroise sauce but rules are made to be broken. Since the wine is already there, don't worry about it.
4. Add your julienne onions back in the pan and sprinkle a bit of Hungarian Paprika. NOTE: If you cannot find Hungarian Paprika, this is fine but the taste will be slightly altered.
5. Reduce until nappe (no, I'm not being racist...it just means that the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.)
Pour this sauce over your rested brisket. Meant to add these important tidbits:
1. Allow your brisket to rest (don't cut it) for at least 15 minutes to allow the juices to do it's magic). Cutting into meat immediately will make the juices pour out. The food may be out of the oven but it doesn't necessarily mean that the cooking process stopped.
2. Slice your meat against the grain. This determines if your meat will be tender. It will be good but it'll be better if you slice it the right way.
Pair this meal with potato latkes to make it a Jewish meal or you can make a nice pilaf like I did. Just in case you don't know, pilaf is very simple. Chop up whatever veggies you would like to add such as a basic mirepoix (50 percent onion, 25 carrot and 25 celery) and saute in a pot with some sort of fat (I prefer butter because it's rich and creamy). Add in rice and toast it. Make sure fat is on the rice. Toast it until you smell its aroma. It should have a nutty smell. Add stock into the pan. Cook until done.
Hope you enjoy this recipe (and my erratic side notes). I would love to hear what you think and how it turned out.
