Beef Brisket

Doesn’t this look delicious? Let me tell you that it tasted as good as it looks. Okay, maybe it even tasted better than it looks.

I adapted this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine’s recipe for Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Peach Glaze. Start with a 3-4 pound beef brisket.

Part 1 – The Rub

Mix together

1 T plus 1 t kosher salt

1 t. ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. smoked paprika

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Rub on the brisket and refrigerate for two hours or overnight. Then remove from refrigerator and let stand on counter for one hour.

Part 2 – Brisket

INGREDIENTS

2 T. olive oil, divided

3/4 cup chopped onion

3 garlic gloves, crushed

4 cups beef broth

1 12 oz bottle of stout beer

3/4 cup bourbon (I didn’t have and used scotch instead — not a great differentiator of the brown liquors)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

Thyme 1 tsp.

2 celery stalks chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 T. balsamic vinegar

THE PROCESS

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat 1 T oil in an oven proof large pot. Sear brisket on both sides, about 5 minutes each side. Remove brisket to plate and cover to keep warm. Heat remaining oil in pot, add onions and garlic, stir until onion is slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients to pot, return brisket to pot, cover and place into oven. Cook for approximately 4 hours, brisket should be tender but still together. Remove brisket from pot, use stick blender to puree remaining braising liquid. Remove 1/4 cup of braising liquid and reserve. Return brisket to pan.

Part 3 – The Glaze

Take 1/4 c. reserved braising liquid, add 1/2 c. apricot or peach preserves ( I didn’t have peach and apricot worked just fine) and 2 T. bourbon (I skipped the bourbon/scotch in the glaze and it tasted just fine to me)

Mix together with stick blender or regular blender. Spread over brisket (fat side should be up and cross-hatched). Return to oven and broil for approximately 10 minutes until glaze has caramelized.

~~~~~~~~~~~

This was delicious! We served it over jasmine rice with scallions on top and it was absolutely great. A lot of oven time but well worth it in the end. Highly recommend.

 

Related articles

• Beer-Braised Brisket of Beef (thedailymeal.com)
• Braised beef brisket (charlotte.news14.com)
• Beef Brisket with Caramelized Onions and Merlot Sauce (stevesacooking.com)
• Savory Beef Brisket (toomuchbutter.com)

Santa Hat Brownies

Here’s a fun and quick Christmas treat! Santa Hat Brownies.

 

 

Blueberry Muffins

I haven’t made blueberry muffins in forever. This morning, with the snow on the ground and the dough for bagels rising by the woodstove, seemed a good morning.

 

Eating With Our Eyes

Lately, when I am searching for a recipe, either for some new ingredient I want to use or simply to find a different way to make the same old ingredients, I find myself clicking on the “Images” link in Google instead of sifting through the recipes themselves. I mean, we all essentially eat with our eyes, don’t we? If something is visually appealing to us, it is more a recipe that we might give a whirl. I don’t know about any of you, but personally a cookbook without pictures (with the exception of my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook) is a waste of good money. I want to see what the finished dish is supposed to look like before  I attempt to cook it. I do not understand why cookbooks don’t have lots and lots of pictures. It would seem to me cookbooks sporting mouthwatering photos are more likely to sell than those that require you to imagine what the finished recipe is supposed to look like.

For example, don’t these just make you want to eat these?

Or these?

or this?

or this?

Our first connection with our food, is usually its visual appeal. This is one of the reasons that presentation of food is all so important in restaurants. If it looks visually appealing and makes a nice presentation, we are eager to dig in and taste it, so we can confirm with our taste buds what our eyes are telling us.

Are you hungry yet?

Apple Cake

What’s one to do with all the apples that we have literally lying around here? We’re not big applesauce fans so little sense to take the time and effort to can them into applesauce. While pie is a definite, I just haven’t really had the time to make pie and really not many have been around to eat it.

I have been trying a few different apple cake recipes to find the one, in the words of Little Bear, that is “just right”. Here are pictures of the latest incarnation.

There are still a plethora of tomatoes in the garden. I have roasted a lot of them. Now I am making crushed tomatoes with them that I am freezing to use later in tomato sauce, stews, soups and the like.

It’s a fairly simple process (which would be a lot simpler if I didn’t have to peel the tomatoes first)

1. Cut an x shaped slit into the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife.

2. Drop the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes.

3. Remove from water and the skins should peel off with little effort.

You now have a naked tomato.

4. Then quarter the skinned tomatoes and place into food processor.

5. Blend to desired consistency. At this point you can place it in a pot to make sauce as you would with canned crushed tomatoes

Or put in a container to freeze.

 

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Don’t you wish…

you were at my house for breakfast this morning?

See, when I can’t sleep for whatever reason, I usually get up. No sense staring at the ceiling for hours. Then, when I’m up, I usually bake. Someone should benefit from my insomnia, don’t you think?

This morning I baked cinnamon buns from a recipe I got from WhatsCookingAmerica.net. They are some of the best cinnamon buns that I have made or tasted. I have adapted the recipe for my own taste.

Cut pieces getting settled in to rise a second time

Recipe – Ingredients (Buns)

1 cup milk (heat 1 minute in microwave)
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons yeast

Process –

1. Mix together all ingredients in order given in stand mixer until well blended. Knead for approximately 3 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Remove from mixing bowl, place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. About 1 hour.

2. After dough has risen, roll out into a rectangle about 13 x 9.

3. Use butter from filling recipe to spread across entire surface of dough.

4. Spread filling over butter.

5. Roll dough up into a log.

6. Cut into 14 pieces.

7. Place 7 pieces into one round 9 inch cake pan. Place the other 7 pieces into the other cake pan. Make sure that they are not touching.

8. Cover and let rise again, about one hour until they have doubled and are touching each other.

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

10. Cook buns in oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown.

11. Remove and frost with glaze (recipe below).

Ingredients – Filling

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

5 T. cinnamon

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar to form a cinnamon sugar. You will sprinkle this over your dough after you spread with the butter.

Ingredients – Frosting

1/4 c. softened butter

2 t. vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners sugar

2-3 T. milk

mix all ingredients together until a glaze forms. Add more milk if necessary to make a nice smooth glaze, but only add a little at a time or it will be too watery. Pour the glaze on top of the cinnamon buns and spread evenly. (I don’t use cream cheese as in the original recipe just because I don’t really care for the taste of it in my cinnamon bun)

Out of the oven

 

Frosting being mixed together

Bring on the frosting

Scones

When you have fresh strawberries and you have a baking commitment that requires something finger-food friendly, what do you do?

Strawberry scones!

Before they went into the oven…..

The end result.

And for those of you who would like chocolate……

Jammin’ weekend

It was a weekend full of jam. We picked raspberries, picked blueberries and grabbed strawberries at the farmer’s market. I made raspberry jam and mixed berry jam and blueberry jam.

Raspberries were picked at the bottom of the hill at Cole’s….that’s pretty much as close as we can get beside our own yard (and yes, we’re working on that).

This was how it looked crushed in the pot with low sugar pectin added….. I then added 4 cups of sugar (yes, that is the low sugar recipe) and brought it up to a boil. Jars were sterilized, filled, water bathed and then……

here is the finished product —yum. It’s amazing how your perspective changes when you start to can for yourself. Store bought just doesn’t cut it — no matter how expensive or fancy it purports to be. There is nothing that beats local and handmade.

The mixed berry jam was a first since it is not often that you can find local fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries all at the same time. It was definitely a hit…..delicious. I’ll be scouring around looking for more local strawberries in order to take advantage of the berry season.

Related articles

• Raspberry Jam (goingbackwards.wordpress.com)
• Raspberry & Custard Tarts (whatweatetoday.co.uk)
• FEATURE: Get jammin’ (newcastlesparkles.wordpress.com)
• Roasted raspberry jam recipe (telegraph.co.uk)

Tim’s Pretzels

Tim and I made some sourdough pretzels from a King Arthur Flour recipe. I must admit however that since I was also cooking dinner at the time, Tim is really the sole person responsible for these pretzels. They turned out really well for a first effort and tasted just as good. We might try this again over the weekend. Here’s the recipe.

Lunch

 

This was lunch. It was delicious. If I do say so myself. Tom tells me that the things that I whip together in about five minutes from what’s hanging around the fridge are probably some of the better things that I cook. Today, I would have to agree.

I took a chicken breast, a few thin slices of red onion, a handful of snow peas and some leftover rice. Sauteed it with a little vegetable oil, sesame oil, chili oil and soy sauce. I chopped a couple scallions, a small handful of cilantro and some lemon juice and topped it off with some black sesame seeds that are relegated to the rear of the pantry since my youngest son is allergic to sesame. So, anything that can incorporate sesame oil and sesame seeds in the same meal is a special, special treat in our house.

All I can say is yum. It was good.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

What’s for dinner when you have a load of broccoli in the fridge? Broccoli Cheese Soup of course!

Ingredients

• 3 large broccoli crowns, rinsed and roughly chopped including stems
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 medium onion
• 12 cups chicken broth
• 2 T butter and 1/4 c. butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 c. milk

1. Chop onion and celery in a food processor, place into stock pot with 2 T. butter, saute over medium heat until softened.
2. Add chopped broccoli and chicken broth
3. Simmer until broccoli is tender.
4. In a separate pot, melt remaining butter and add flour, making a roux. Then add milk and stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.
5. Remove 1/2 of broccoli mixture, without broth to a bowl.
6. Add milk mixture to stockpot.
7. Use blender or stick blender to puree soup in stockpot.
8. Add reserved broccoli back into stockpot.
9. Salt and pepper to taste.
10. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese.