Sunday Recipe: Beef Brisket Fit for Your Bubbe

I'm not a steak eater. I'm not that much of a meat eater, really. I like it, but it's hardly my favorite thing and when I crave beef, it's usually a good burger I'm after. But every year at Passover, Geargirl makes beef brisket or, as I think of it, Jewish pot roast. And I love it, even though I usually only eat it once, maybe twice a year. With the sudden dead of winter like conditions, brisket seemed like the perfect meal today.

Warning -- this recipe is very, very easy, but it is better if you can cook it one day, refrigerate it and then heat it and serve it the next day. Give yourself two days, is what I'm saying.


You will need:
single cut (or thin cut) beef brisket, 3 to 4 pounds
6 prunes, pitted (preferably stewed) 
1 can of stewed tomatoes, traditional style
about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of beef broth
about 1/2 cup of red wine

The prep:
First, invite people over. Pot roast is a meal to be shared.

Then, salt and pepper both sides of the brisket. Heat a large dutch oven over a high flame. Coat with olive oil. Brown the beef on both sides (you want it to get good and brown -- about 3 to 5 minutes per side.)

Add the tomatoes, prunes and wine. You want the beef to be about half-way immersed in liquid. So, at this point, if you don't have enough liquid, add the beef broth to get it just about halfway covered. This is important -- you don't want the beef to swim and, thus, boil. But you don't want to dry it out either.

Put the lid on and roast at 350 degrees for about two hours. It should be tender and delicious at this point.

Refrigerate the whole she-bang over night. It slices best if you slice it cold, but I have to warn, it takes a good bit of elbow grease. Slice the brisket into long strips, against the grain, on the bias. Mix it all up. Heat it in an oven heated to 225 for about an hour.

I usually serve this with roasted carrots, a really good red wine and lots of conversation. Save some leftovers for your Bubbe.