Beef brisket braised in wine

Traditionally known as a Jewish holiday dish, the beef brisket is amazing any time of the year, for any occasion.  Of course, being a braised red meat, it works a lot better during the colder months, when a warm, oven made meal is most appropriate.

Brisket is a tough cut of meat.  It requires a long cooking time to tenderize, and there are a couple ways to do this.

Bbq joints always have brisket.  The long slow smoking process is technique 1.  Technique number 2 is a slow braise in red wine, vegetables, herbs, stock and aromatics.

Falling apart tender, brisket goes best with braised carrots, onions, apple sauce (http://chefnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/09/my-mothers-wonderful-apple-sauce.html), potato latkes, and good red wine.

Sound like a Passover menu?  A little, but Jewish deli and Jewish holiday meals have some great things (and some not so great).  Braised brisket with all the fixings is a great thing.  My version is not kosher, but if you remove the flour, it works!

Beef Brisket braised in red wine with carrots

Prep time: 30 min
Inactive cooking time: 24 hours
Active cook time: 4 hours
Yield: 6 portions

Ingredients:

1 large (6 lb) beef brisket, excess fat removed
1 750ml bottle of dry red wine
10 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 rib celery, medium dice
4 yellow onions, julienne
1/2 bunch thyme
5 sprigs thyme, fine chop
1 sprig rosemary, fine chop
3 tbsp tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
prepared chicken stock
kosher salt
cracked black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
vegetable oil
1/2 bunch parsley, fine chop
flour

Method:

Day before:
In a large ziplock bag, or a large tupperware container, add the beef, whole sprigs of thyme, carrots, celery, and onions.  Cover, refrigerate, and let sit overnight, and up to 24 hours.
Day of:
Heat oven to 325.  Remove beef from wine, and pat dry.  Strain the vegetables out, reserving the wine.  Throw away the thyme.  In a heavy bottom dutch oven, begin heating the vegetable oil.  Season the brisket with salt and pepper.  Dust the brisket all sides with flour, and tap the beef to remove all excess.  Sear the brisket all sides in the oil, until deep golden brown.  Remove the beef from the pot and add the vegetables.  Cook until caramelized.  Add the potato paste, garlic and minced herbs.  Cook until everything is evenly coated with tomato paste and is highly fragrant.  Do not brown tomato paste.  Deglaze with reserved red wine, scrape bottom of pot and reduce by half.  Put meat back in pot, cover with stock by about 1 inch, and reseason with salt and pepper.  Add paprika.  Cover loosely and place in oven.  Flip (rotate) meat once an hour.  After 3 hours of cooking, remove cover, and cook uncovered in oven until almost falling apart tender. Remove meat, reduce sauce until slightly thick.

Slice meat AGAINST the grain, pour sauce over the top and sprinkle parsley over the top.  Serve right away.

Again, I love this with homemade apple sauce, some sort of crispy potatoes and red wine.  It's a great cold weather dish!

Enjoy.