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| Brisket |
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| Goat Cheese Torta |
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| Lobster Pot Pie |
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| Parsnip and Barley Risotto |
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| Persimmon Salad |
We decided to have the usual gang over for New Year's Eve. We centered the menu around a recipe we had never made: brisket braised in black tea from The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook by Jim Lahey. We purchased the Brisket from McCall's Meat and Fish.
As an appetizer we made a very rich Goat Cheese Torta. It is made from goat cheese, a pesto made with mint and parsley, and fig jam. It is layered and very good. One great advantage, beyond its delicious taste, is that it lasts for several weeks in the refrigerator.
We started with an absolutely outrageous Lobster Pot Pie from Cap Seafood. It was huge and wonderfully packed with Lobster chunks.
With the Brisket we served Isaac McHale’s Recipe for Parsnip and Barley Risotto.
The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook
Jim Lahey
In
2012, I went to Turkmenistan on a diplomatic mission. I had been asked to
instruct local culinary students in my baking methods and to cook Thanksgiving
dinner for the U.S. Embassy. I was excited to do both of these things, but I do
not have a diplomatic temperament. In fact, many of those who know me best
worried I’d end up in a Turkmenian jail after inadvertently or advertently
insulting my hosts.
Turkmenistan
was formerly part of the USSR and is not as permissive as the average Western
democracy. It is also a predominately Muslim country, and alcohol of any kind
is officially forbidden.
I
was intrigued by the constraints of cooking without wine, and when I came back
to New York, I decided to try a Turkmen-inspired braise using tea rather than
wine. I made a pot of strong black tea, added some spices that seemed friendly
to a spice route braise (star anise, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns), and cooked a
fine brisket in the resulting tea for a very, very long time. The result was
sublime. The delicate spices and mellow notes of the tea allowed the
slow-cooked beefy flavors to rule the dish in the most luscious way.
I
like using brisket because it has a terrific flavor that braises well. Choose a
brisket that still has the cap of fat around the meat and leave it on as it
cooks; it will add tremendous flavor to the meat as it braises. This is a
long-cooking but wonderfully easy dish to make—after giving the meat a quick
sear, you put everything in a pot and let the long, slow braise of 12 to 14
hours do all the work. If you’re not comfortable cooking the meat overnight, as
I do, you could start it first thing in the morning and have it ready for
dinner.
YIELD;
Serves 8 to 10 people as an entrée
4 English Breakfast black tea bags
8 whole cloves
¼ cup Szechuan peppercorns*
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
lengthwise
4 medium carrots, peeled and split
lengthwise
4 pitted dates
1//2 cup peeled fresh ginger cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 tablespoon honey
2 to 4 whole dried
small red chiles
3 bay leaves
One 4- to 6-pound beef brisket, untrimmed, with
fat cap still attached
2 tablespoons
coarse sea salt
(*)
It is worth seeking these out for their piney flavor and explosive zing.
Sometimes your local Chinese restaurant will help you out by giving you a
little packet of these. Eaten raw, they are mouth-numbing, but cooked, they
deliver a mellow pop. If you can’t find any, you could substitute a mixture of
3 to 4 juniper berries and 3 to 4 allspice berries
1.
Fill
a pot large enough to hold the brisket half full of water (about a quart) and
bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the tea bags and steep for 6
minutes. Remove and discard the tea bags. (Do not squeeze them out.) Heat a
small skillet over high heat. When it is blazing hot, toss in the cloves, star
anise, and peppercorns and quickly toast for about 20 seconds, shaking the
skillet a bit to prevent sticking. A little smoke is okay, but don't let them
burn— remove from the heat once you smell them. Add the toasted spices to the
tea and then the leek, onion, carrots, dates, ginger, honey, chiles to taste,
and bay leaves.
2.
Bring
the liquid to a boil and then turn off the heat. Heat the oven to 225°F. Heat a
very large frying pan, roasting pan, or skillet—larger than the largest flat
side of the brisket—over medium-high heat. Put the brisket straight into the
hot skillet, fat side down. Cook both flat sides for about 4 minutes each, to
give a light sear. Hold up the brisket with tongs to sear any remaining sides
for an additional 4 minutes—depending on how your brisket is cut, it may be in
the shape of a triangle or a square.
3.
Place
the seared brisket into the pot of hot tea so the fat side is on the surface of
the tea. Sprinkle the salt on this side. Cover the pot and cook for 12 to 14
hours.
4.
Once
the brisket has finished cooking, it will have a nice dark crust and the fat
will be amber colored with a golden crust. Use tongs to remove the brisket
while the brine is still hot. Set it on a plate or in a pan. Allow It to cool,
covered with a piece of foil.
5.
There
may be as much as an inch or two of fat floating on the surface of the liquid
in the pot. Carefully ladle it out and discard. Strain out the vegetables and
spices and discard. This broth will be your sauce. It is ambrosial: a rich,
meaty broth perfumed with the warmth and sweetness of the steeped tea and
spices.
Notes: If you make this advance of serving, I
recommend that when you do serve it, cut the brisket into slices first and warm
them up in a skillet, so that you can heat them through gently on each side.
Warm up the braising liquid separately and serve each slice of brisket with a
ladle of sauce.
This recipe produces ample broth. I recommend
enjoying a cup of warm broth with a thick slice of Pane Pugliese or Pane Bianco
and plenty of butter.
Eating
Serve slices of the brisket with a generous
spoonful of sauce. For sides, keep it classic and serve with boiled potatoes
and mustard greens. Or consider the approach of legendary Italian butcher Dario
Cecchini, who serves some of the finest steaks in Italy with fennel, carrot,
and celery sticks—the idea being that the clean crunch of the raw vegetables
will complement the rich, potent flavors of the meat. Certainly, thick slices
of bread are required here, no matter what.
Goat Cheese Torta
The Babbo Cookbook
Mario Batali
This is the Babbo version of the really fancy
cheese tortas the mythic Peck company of Milan has been perfecting for the last
thirty years. Ours, of course, uses spectacular fresh goat cheese produced by
my wife Susi’s family at Coach Farm.
Serves 10 to 12
¾ cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter,
softened
2 pounds fresh Goat Cheese
¾ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper,
plus more for sprinkling
1-1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
¾ cup packed freshl mint leaves
¾ cup packed fresh parsley leaves
1/3 cup toasted Pine Nuts
1 teaspoon Sugar
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 cups Fig Jam or preserves
Best Quality
extra-virgin Olive Oil, for drizzling
1.
Grease
an 8-inch square pan with extra-virgin olive oil.
2.
In
the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until very smooth. Add the goat
cheese in batches, making sure that there are no lumps of butter. Beat in the
pepper and 1 teaspoon of the salt
3.
Combine
the mint and parsley leaves, pine nuts, sugar, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of
salt in a blender. Add the dive oil and blend until the nuts are pulverized and
the pesto is smooth.
4.
Divide
the goat cheese mixture into three equal portions. Using an offset spatula,
carefully spread one portion of the goat cheese evenly over the bottom of the
pan. Spread the pesto in an even layer over the cheese. Carefully layer another
portion of the cheese over the pesto, using your fingers to pat the cheese
gently into place.
5.
Spread
the jam evenly over the second cheese layer, Pat the remaining cheese mixture
over the jam in an even layer. Cover the torta with plastic wrap and chill
until firm.
6.
To
serve, cut the torta in squares, and drizzle with best-quality extra-virgin
olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
Isaac McHale’s Recipe for Parsnip and
Barley Risotto
From London’s Clove Club comes this recipe for a creamy,
comforting risotto made with parsnips and pearl barley. It works equally well
as a cold-weather weeknight supper and a holiday side dish.
“PARSNIPS are the vegetable you serve with Christmas
dinner. But it’s nice to think of them in a different way,” said London-based
chef Isaac McHale. For his third Slow Food Fast contribution, he gives the
sweet, nutty root a new lease on life by building a risotto-esque dish around
it.
“Risottos are great because of the starchy emulsion that
binds them,” Mr. McHale explained. “This recipe uses that same principle. But
rather than just being about the carbs, it ends up being about the vegetable.”
While in most risottos the emphasis is on the rice, here Mr.
McHale flips the grain-to-veg ratio—though an unsuspecting diner might not
realize it, given how luscious the result is. First he softens coarsely grated
bits of parsnip in a shallow bath of chicken stock. Then he stirs in milk and
cooked barley and lets everything simmer down to a thick, velvety consistency.
As the barley’s starch seeps out, the creamy emulsion Mr. McHale finds so
appealing comes together. Fresh tarragon and a glug of olive oil garnish the
plate just before it goes out to the table.
While Mr. McHale has taken the parsnip beyond the roasting
pan here, he may have inadvertently come up with another holiday mainstay, too.
By ramping up the root content, he’s created a dish that works equally well as
an anytime main course and a festive side dish.
Parsnip and Barley Risotto
Serves: 4 Time: 30
minutes
¾ cup
pearl barley
1 small
onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons
butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black
pepper
2½ cups
coarsely grated parsnip
1 cup
chicken or vegetable stock, warm
1 cup
warm milk
Leaves from 3 sprigs tarragon, roughly
torn
Pinch of nutmeg or mace
Olive oil, for drizzling
1. Set a medium pot of salted
water over high heat. Once water comes to a boil, add barley and reduce heat to
medium. Simmer until the grains are al dente, about 15 minutes. Drain barley
and toss dry.
2. Meanwhile, place onion, 3
tablespoons butter and a pinch of salt in another medium pot. Set pot over
medium heat and sauté onion until it softens but does not color, about 4
minutes. Add parsnip and sauté until softened, about 2 minutes. Pour in stock
and simmer until parsnip is tender, about 7 minutes.
3. Stir in milk and cooked barley.
Simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens, about 6 minutes. When done,
mixture should resemble a loose risotto. Turn off heat and stir in remaining
tablespoon butter. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.
4. Ladle risotto into 4 bowls,
garnish with tarragon and drizzle with olive oil.
