Brisket Party!

Leftover brisket - part two! Brisket makes a great hearty dinner for company - especially on a freezing winter night. We had some dinner guests over to enjoy the last of the 5 lb. brisket. Mix in a few side dishes, salad, bread, and dessert for a full meal! Wines were expertly selected by the wine expert at http://vintage78.blogspot.com.

First course:
Baby greens salad with carrots, cucumber, red peppers, and black olives. Served with either a lemon tarragon vinaigrette or balsamic dressing.

Wine pairing: Chardonnay from Spring Lake Estates in the Niagara area (NY)

Main course:
Barbecue Brisket: Cooked brisket heated up in smoky BBQ sauce. Heated at 250 degrees for about 30-45 minutes until nice and tender and falling apart.

Pumpkin Cornbread: Followed the corn muffin mix recipe, adding in about 1/2 cup canned pumpkin and a tbsp. of sugar. Baked according to directions on the box. This was really moist and a very pretty golden color.

Smoky Baked Beans: Delicious! These were so good - we ate every last bit of them (well, there were no leftovers from anything else either....). I used a little help with a recipe I found online: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-fantasy/sweet-and-smoky-baked-beans-recipe/index.html. I swapped out a few ingredients - turkey bacon for the bacon and red peppers for the green. For the cooking method, I cooked them on the stove top for the 10-15 minutes, then let them cool and put them in the refrigerator. Before dinner I heated them up in the oven alongside the brisket.

Wine: Pinot Noir from Warm Lakes in the Niagara (NY) area.

Dessert:
Individual cherry cobbler pies. These were easy and fun to make and very tasty! I bought pre-made miniature pie crusts from the grocery store. Brushed them with egg whites and baked for 5 minutes. Then I filled them with canned cherry pie filling. For the top, I made a mixture of flour, oats, brown sugar and butter. Bake for 15-20 minutes and instant dessert!

There were NO leftovers at all. This is definitely a keeper!

Leftover Brisket - Take 1!

With the 5 lb. brisket I made this week, there were plenty of leftovers to be creative with. The first was a beef and biscuit pie. Instead of a traditional shepherd's pie with mashed potatoes, I made my own version with a biscuit topping. Throw in the leftover brisket, some carrots and onions, a little gravy and voila! A delicious and pretty healthy one dish meal (+1 skillet)!

Beef and Biscuit Pie
Biscuit dough (made from Jiffy baking mix)
Chopped leftover brisket
2-3 chopped carrots
1/2 of an onion, chopped
1 cup beef broth
Splash of milk (less than 1/4 cup)
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and take out a casserole dish with a lid
Heat small amount of olive oil over medium heat.
Add chopped carrots and onions, cooking until just soft
Remove carrots from the skillet and put into casserole dish
Add chopped brisket to the casserole dish

Put skillet back on the stove and add the beef broth and milk, heating until warm
Pour over brisket and veggies
Spoon the biscuit dough over the mixture, completely covering the dish
Bake 30 minutes, or until biscuits are browned.

Serve with salad and enjoy!

Brisket!

Tonight's brisket was delicious. It's a pretty reasonably priced cut of meat, so we picked up a nice 5 lb. brisket on Sunday. With a few hours in the oven on Sunday afternoon, and a quick warm up tonight - dinner was ready!

I used a recipe from Kosher by Design - a great cookbook - for BBQ brisket. Instead of a sweet and sour sauce, this used beer and chili sauce. Using what was leftover in the fridge, I used a Budweiser American Ale. The recipe calls for celery and onions as the veggies. Flavorings include garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley. It cooks for 3 hours the first time, then gets refrigerated overnight. On the day you want to eat it, reheat it with sauce for about 20 minutes and serve! If you want the recipe - email me and I can get it to you. Or check out the photo gallery on the right for a picture of the ingredient list.

On the side, I made a quick mashed parsnips (instead of potatoes). They are made the same way - boil for about 12 minutes, drain, then mash with milk and seasonings.

I'm looking forward to this week's leftovers!