Pot Roast (Brisket)

R3A2 VERSION OF 

PEG BRACKEN'S I HATE TO COOK BOOK "SWEEP STEAK"

For the whole recipe in 10 lines, just read the boldface.

This works for a brisket that will serve 6-8.  I use
       one flat-cut brisket, 3-4 pounds
For a much larger brisket, cut it in half and treat it like two, which you'll have to do anyway because you won't have a large enough baking dish or aluminum foil.

Put the brisket on a huge piece of heavy aluminum foil, about 3 times as long as the brisket.   You are going to seal the brisket in it.  (See below).  Next time I make it, I'll add a photograph in the comment section.

The original recipe calls for 1 package of Lipton's Dry Onion Soup sprinkled on top of the meat. I don't use Lipton's any more.  That's because when  I was in Israel 1997 I couldn't find dried soups.  I substituted chicken-style parve soup mix - it has that good MSG! - and dried onion flakes.  I liked having that extra degree of freedom.  The recipe has no room for individuality otherwise.  I rarely bother with Lipton's because I don't keep it on hand if I don't use it for brisket.

Sprinkle on top and press in with the back of a spoon
          2-3 tsps of chicken-style parve soup (or bouillion)
          3-4 tbls of dried onion flakes 


I pretty much cover the meat with both.  The soup mix particles are tiny so I don't make that dense a covering.  The dried onion doesn't totally cover, but I'm pretty generous with it, probably using more than is in a Lipton's packet.  I mush in both the soup mix and the dried onions with the back of a spoon after sprinkling, a technique used by our nanny, Amy Gronevelt, when I asked her to make the pot roast 20 years ago.

Possible substitution if you are low on onion flakes (or an addition if you like prunes)
          some prunes, cut in half or not, about 4 oz
I did this one day when I didn't have that much dried onion.  It wasn't as good as it is with lots of onions although the prunes themselves were delicious.

Why not use chopped fresh onions? I think it would be too watery.  The meat is wet enough.

Wrap the brisket up so it won't leak. I like to match the edges and then roll them down or fold them together. I learned this trick in the 1980s watching sandwich makers in those little delis that do a big lunch business in midtown Manhattan.  It's a good way to wrap food.  Warning:  It's hard to prevent leaks. Sometimes I double wrap to be safe.

Put the wrapped brisket in a baking dish so if it leaks it's not so messy.  I use pyrex because it cleans so easily.  I have to write up my household hints one of these days, but I'll tell you right now:  for ovenware that gets brown hard grease spots, the answer is BAKING SODA.  (For very big areas of baked-on mess, soak first with hot water and liquid soap.  Baking soda is the perfect scouring powder for everything because it's food, not poison, and it's only a tiny bit abrasive.  Check an unobtrusive area if you have to scour something delicate.)

The reason you want to prevent leaks is that you want the liquid for later reheating and serving. But the meat will not be dry even if there are major leaks.  The almost-totally-sealed cooking keeps it tender.

Bake at 225 F for 9 hours, or 10 or more.  I leave it in overnight, and even if I remember to turn off the oven, or put it on automatic stop, I don't always take the meat out to cool right away.  Brisket (to quote my step-mother-in-law Libby, but she said it about yeast dough) is very forgiving.  You can also bake at 300 F for 3 hours if you are pressed for time but the long slow version is better.

Peg Bracken said 200 F for 10 hours, but I think it's important to go above the boiling point of water.  That's 212 F for those of you who went to school after they stopped teaching such things.

If you make your brisket overnight, your home will smell lovely in the morning.

Cool and refrigerate or serve hot right away.  Refrigerating is nice, though, because it makes it easier to slice the meat, easier to skim the fat, and besides, you made it overnight and aren't eating it until suppertime.


When ready to eat, I recommend slicing ONLY WHAT YOU NEED.   I worry that if you don't eat it all up in the first couple of days, the slices dry out and get refrigerator-y much faster than a big uncut hunk would.

Serve hot or cold.  I usually reheat the slices with some of the liquid.  Microwave is OK.  Oven at ?300? for 20? minutes is OK.  Heating on the stove is OK.  Eating it cold in a sandwich is delicious, too. I like brisket on caraway rye bread with ketchup and lettuce.

(Based on a January 2012 email to my friend Marilyn that I stumbled on today.  This is one recipe I had never typed up.  It's too easy and I've done it often enough over the last 40-odd years that I don't forget.)

Orzo Salad

                Roberta's Revised and Annotated

          Phil's Aunt Shayna's Friend Joy's ORZO SALAD

Can be made a day ahead.  Or more than a day.  Vegetarian.  Vegan if you use soy cheese.  Firm tofu might be fine too, but R3A2 Moosewood Tofu Salad, to be posted soon, is my first choice with tofu.

     1 box orzo (16 oz)

          I prefer the rice shape to the teardrops.

          You can use any noodle, but orzo makes it easy to

          serve with a single big spoon.  

     1/2 big red onion, chopped

     1 pint kalamata olives, halved to remove pits. 

          Or sliced into smaller pieces. You can slice pitted 

          ones, but I find they have less flavor.

     3 Tb dill, fresh    )

     3 Tb parsley, fresh ) stems removed and chopped

          Who can accurately measure dill or parsley?

          I use 4 or 5 good-sized sprigs of each.  More is fine,

          too.

     12 oz feta (I like Bonfiore brand), crumbled by hand

           In Israel, cubes of white Bulgarian cheese work fine.

     4 Tb lemon juice

     1/3 c olive oil

     Salt to taste (I use very little, < 1/4 tsp, because feta 

            is very salty)

    

Start boiling the water and then do the chopping while the noodles cook.  When the noodles are al dente, rinse them but not so much that they get cold.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the warm noodles and mix. The warmth of the noodles melts the smaller crumbles of cheese and blends the flavors.  You could serve immediately but I refrigerate and serve cold or at room temperature. 

"Serve with tomatoes" wrote Joy but I never do.

Still tastes great a week later, if you have any left.

                           Laptop versions 5/7/01; 1/5/03; 4/29/05; 1/3/11 rjm

Poached Pears

DAY BEFORE COOKBOOK'S POACHED PEARS

Serves 2-4.  Can be multiplied.  For New Year's Eve, 6 pears are enough for ~30-40 guests who can choose from multiple desserts. 

Peel and slice vertically into 8 wedges, removing seed part and any hard stem sections:
        2 pears, D'Anjou or other*  (best if they're not totally 
               ripe; ripe ones are slimy when cooked)

In saucepan, bring to boil
        1/4 c red wine
        1/4 c sugar
        1/2 cinnamon stick (or a whole small one)

Add pears, reduce heat, simmer 25 minutes covered, or until pears are soft but not falling apart.

Remove pears with slotted spoon.** Serve or refrigerate overnight Longer is probably OK, too.  Bring to room temperature a few hours before serving time.
      ** For a fancier presentation: 
      Turn heat up on remaining sauce.  Stirring occasionally, 
      bring to boil.  Let boil a few minutes to thicken and 
      reduce for a glaze.  Arrange pears on platter.  Spoon on 
      glaze.  

Refrigerate until a few hours before party.  Overnight is OK.  More than a day would probably be fine, too.  Refrigerate leftovers.  They are delicious.

* Note on Varieties of Pears
I've tried all different varieties of pears and in fact

the batch I made when I revised the recipe had 8 pears: 2 D'Anjou (woody but easy to handle), 3 Starkrimson (slimy, and the tops are so narrow that they break off too easily) and 3 overripe Bosc (would have been better if they weren't overripe; maybe the ones that broke were the Bosc???).  Back several years ago when I typed up the recipe the first time, I'd decided that D'Anjou are the best for poaching, but I really have to do a more careful experiment one of these days.

rjm 12/31/06 (printout only); 1/2/11; 1st draft for blog 8/31/12

Texas Caviar

                 HALF* RECIPE OF TEXAS CAVIAR (VEGAN)

Combination of Nina's A2News recipe and a web recipe on Hints from Heloise

Per Heloise:   Serving Size: 12   Preparation Time : 24:00

     *Divided in 2010 because the original makes way too much

     compared to the other salads for New Year's.  Some

     additional notes were added on the printout of 2004 over

     the years and are incorporated here.

8 oz Pace brand picante sauce, medium hot (half a 16 oz. jar)

1 can (15.5oz) blackeyed peas, drained

half a (15.8 oz) can white hominy, drained (~1 cup?)

1/2 medium green pepper, diced

1/2 medium white onion, diced

2 roma tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced

cilantro - about 1/4 cup, finely chopped

     (=~ 1 oz before removing stems)

1/2 medium jalapeno ‑‑ seeded and chopped

2 scallions, chopped, white and green both

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 T sugar (or less)

1/4 tsp salt (or less or none)

1 T black pepper ‑‑ coarsely ground (or more **)

1 T cumin powder (or more**)

1 1/2 T lime juice (or more**)

Mix all ingredients together and marinate in refrigerator for 24

hours or more.  A few hours might be enough if you need Tex Cav in a hurry.

** In 2010, I was following the full recipe and forgot to divide these ingredients in half, so used 2 T each of black pepper and cumin, and 3 T lime juice.  It was fine.

                       rjm 9/2;11/23/02;1/4/03;11/11/04;1/3/11

Spinach Squares (Fingers)

Libby's* Spinach Fingers (like a crustless quiche)

The night before, leave out to soften and thaw, respectively:
        1/2 to 1 stick butter (I use 6 T = 3/4 stick)
        two 10-oz packages frozen chopped spinach
I often use one 16-oz package, alone or with ~4 oz (2 stalks) chopped celery. Frozen broccoli, chopped or florets, is a good variation.

A few hours before, if you think of it:
Grate
        1/2 lb cheddar (grate it cold, then leave it out
                   to reach room temperature)
Also, take out of refrigerator to remove the chill
        6 eggs
        24 oz small curd cottage cheese (room temp is better)

Now to make the fingers:
Squeeze that thawed SPINACH in handfuls to make it as dry as possible. (Broccoli is much harder to squeeze, so the final product is a bit wetter.) Put in small bowl and set aside.

In large bowl, mix with spoon
        that BUTTER
        that COTTAGE CHEESE
        that CHEDDAR
Blend in, one at a time
        those EGGS
Mix in by handfuls, twiddling to separate
        that SPINACH (or broccoli, or either plus chopped celery)
Stir in
        3 rounds of 2 T flour each (6 T all together)
                   (use matzo meal during Passover)
        "seasoned salt" says Libby
Instead of 'seasoned salt,' I use nutmeg, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and pepper. I just sprinkle them on top of each round of flour so they are a nice but not solid dusting. I use no salt because I find the cottage cheese and cheddar salty enough.

Bake in a greased 9 x 13 pan at 325, 1 hr till firm and slightly brown on top (convection oven at 300 for 45 min is OK but doesn't brown). Cool a bit and cut up for serving/freezing. Libby calls this recipe "spinach squares" but I tend to cut narrow rectangles ("fingers") for New Year's Eve parties. I cut big squarish rectangles (12 per pan) for breakfasts.

"Good reheated. Freezes well." says Libby. YES! I make up about 3 batches for big parties a week or more ahead of time, then cut up and freeze. I reheat, in the microwave or whatever oven is going, in batches as needed, straight from the freezer. A breakfast portion, microwaved straight from the freezer, is ready in 2-2.5 min.

laptop versions: rjm 8/25/93, rev 12/4/01, 12/16/02, 6/1/04, 10/29/06
rev/post 11/25/12

Libby is my father-in-law's wife. She has given me a number of great recipes over the years. Stay tuned for her Apricot Bars and Cocoa Brownies (a good cake-y alternative to my fudge-style Killer Brownies which come from a recipe I found on a box of unsweetened chocolate years ago).

Hummus

R3A2 Hummus
 from The South Beach Diet

1.  A DAY OR TWO BEFORE if you think of it, open your can of
       sesame tahini
to see if the oil has separated.  If it has, stir gently until reincorporated.  I use Joyva brand tahini which comes in 15 oz. cans.  Unless the can has been used very recently, the oil will be floating on top of very dense sesame paste.  Stirring is difficult, time-consuming and requires care: the oil splashes out if you stir too vigorously.  With a full can, I have spent maybe 45 minutes or more on this step. I start by chipping away at the hummus with a table knife, then stir with a wooden spoon.  When I make the whole recipe a day or two before - which is a good idea because the hummus tastes better after it has been refrigerated for at least a few hours - then I do all the steps at the same time.

2.  Drain into a measuring cup the liquid from
          1 can (15 oz.) chick peas

3.  Cut up coarsely and add to Cuisinart (with chopping blade installed)
          4 oz. (about 1/2 medium) yellow onion
          3 cloves garlic (or less)

4.  Squeeze and measure, then add to the Cuisinart
          about 1/3 lemon to make 2 T.  juice
If you don't have a fresh lemon, 2 T. bottled lemon juice is fine.

5.  Add also to the Cuisinart
          1/2 cup of that well-stirred TAHINI
          the drained CHICK PEAS (but not the liquid)
          2 tsps olive oil
          2 tsps cumin
          1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
The original recipe called for ground red pepper, but I like to use up the packets of red pepper flakes the pizza people always put in the paper bag with the napkins and extra parmesan.

6.  Add to taste, unless like me you think the canned chick peas are salty enough,
            1/2 tsp salt (optional)

7.  Pulse the cuisinart until everything is blended.  To reach the consistency you want, continue to pulse, adding
            by tablespoons,
that reserved chick pea LIQUID, if needed, and
            possibly a bit more OLIVE OIL
to reach the consistency you want.  I like it grainy myself, made a bit creamier with a little of the chick pea liquid.

8.  Refrigerate 3-4 hours or overnight or longer before serving.   This hummus is pretty tasty right away, but chilling definitely improves the flavor.  The secret is the cumin.

laptop versions 1/28/05;6/19/10 rjm; rev/post 11/25/12

Tuna Mousse

MY MOTHER RUTH MORRIS'S TUNA MOUSSE

Notes

(a) All measurements are suggestions at best, especially since this recipe dates from the days when tuna came in 7 oz. cans.  Then it came in 6 oz. cans and I certainly didn't open a second can and put in 1/6 of it.  Now it comes in  5 oz cans but sometimes you can find 7 oz packets.  Using less than 7 oz. is OK but 5 would probably not be enough.  
(b) I made this in Israel in a faculty-housing kitchen and some of the guests were Orthodox.  The (minor) modifications improved it.

1. Chop fine and set aside
     2 Tb. parsley, minced
     1 Tb. minced green onion or 2 scallions, sliced 1/8"
NOTE: These two do not seem equivalent to me.  I use 2 scallions. In Israel, the scallions were HUGE so I used only 1, white and green parts, both. 
      Dill to be the equivalent of 1 tsp dry
I prefer fresh, using about 4 sprigs, maybe 1 or 2 Tb, if you measure.  More dill is always good.  I also set aside some for garnish.

2.  Chop and set aside separately from other vegetables
     1/2 c. cucumber, plus a little extra, separately,
             for garnish
Separately, I assume, because it is heavy so you don't want to beat it with the egg beater when the time comes.  It seems to me you could fold in all the vegetables at the same time, but maybe the minced ones disperse better if you beat them? 

NOW BEGIN THE REAL THING

3.  In a large bowl, sprinkle
     1 envelope unflavored gelatin
on
     2 Tb lemon juice (I use juice from 1/3 lemon)
and let stand for 5 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile, or toward the end of the 5 minutes if you have a fast boiler:  Boil
     1/2 c. water
Water must be boiling, says Mom.  She means that when you add the soup to the lemon/gelatin mixture, the water must have just boiled or the gelatin won't dissolve completely.

5.  Add to boiling water
     1 tsp. Carmel Parve Chicken-style soup mix or
          1 chicken bouillion cube
Then add soup to bowl with gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve all the gelatin.

6.  Stir in and then beat with egg beater until frothy  (or beat with a fork until you are tired of doing it, if you are on sabbatical and have no egg beater; you'll get a denser mousse, but a tasty one):
     that PARSLEY/CHIVE/DILL mixture
     1/2 c. mayonnaise
     1/4 c. milk (low fat is fine)
     1 tsp. prepared mustard (Dijon, e.g.)
     1/4 tsp. black pepper

7.  Fold in
     1 can tuna (7 oz.)
(regarding "7 oz.": see above. I use water-packed tuna, squeezed dry, and flaked with fork or fingers)
     that chopped CUCUMBER
Put into mold and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight if you can.

8.  Unmold and decorate with
      pimiento, says Mom
       a little chopped cucumber and a bit of dill, too, say I

HINT :   Using an 8" disposable cake or pie tin as a mold works famously because it is so easy to unmold.   Just set the pan in hot tap water for about 30 seconds.  In Israel I used a disposable cake pan out of necessity.  For sentimental reasons, I often use the molds I inherited from Mom, but a cake pan is just as good.
                            

rjm 1/20/97; 12/16/98; 1/3/00; 8/23/12
typos corr 10/17/12