Corned Beef on Rye with Sauce Maria Rosa and Brussels Kraut (TTH)

FOR THE BRINE

• 10 cups water
• 5 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons coarse salt
• 8 garlic cloves
• 12 juniper berries, crushed
• 8 whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, cracked
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon allspice berries, crushed
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 beef brisket flat cut, fat cap intact (about 4 pounds)     

Combine 2 cups of water with remaining brine ingredients and bright to a simmer.

Let cool.  Put brisket in heavy-duty gallon-sized resealable bag or large non-reactive container.  Pour brine over and add remaining water.  Refrigerate in bring for at least 12 hours, and up to 3 days.

I managed about 24 hours.

FOR COOKING THE BRISKET

• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 carrot, roughly choppes
• 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped

Place well-rinsed brisket over chopped vegetables and cover with water.  Bring to boil.  cover and simmer until brisket is fork-tender, about 2 hours.

Remove brisket and let cool slightly.  Although it was much easier to cut when it had been sitting in the fridge for a bit.

FOR THE SANWICHES

• 8 thick slices rye bread or pumpernickel-rye swirl
• 1/4 cup Pastrami Mustard
• 1 cup Brussels Kraut
• 8 cornichons, sliced lengthwise
• 1/4 cup Sauce Maria Rosa

PASTRAMI MUSTARD 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 cup Beer Mustard [No, I don't this I'm making a subcomponent.  Plain dijon I think will be fine here.]

Toast coriander and mustard seeds.

Run them and the peppercorns through a coffee grinder and combine with paprika and mustard.

SAUCE MARIA ROSA

• 2/3 cup Aioli or good-quality store-bought mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup San Marzano Ketchup or store-bought ketchup
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Cholula hot sauce
• 3 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Richard Blais' take on Thousand Island dressing is pretty awesome.

BRUSSELS KRAUT

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Sandwich mise en place.

Regarding the Brussels Kraut, they are supposed to be cut in a "chiffonade" and blanched.  I didn't see much point in going through the trouble of blanching so I just skipped that step.

Combine with the vinegar and caraway and refrigerate for at least 2 to 3 hours.

Spread one slice of bread with 1 tablespoon mustard and arrange slices of brisket over.  The brisket wasn't really sliceable at the moment.

 

Top with Brussels Kraut and cornichons.  Spread other slice of bread with the Sauce Maria Rosa.

Really amazing, complex sandwich just like the one I used when I made mortadella.  It didn't take a lot of effort to make a slaw and a couple sauces.  Spread the sandwich around to various friends who all really liked the sandwich.
Eric S even said I should open up a sandwich store.  Ha.

Harira [Ramadan Soup] (BRW)

• 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 1 pound boneless lamb shoulder or boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, large stems removed, chopped
• 1 bunch of cilantro, large stems removed, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, or 1 cup canned or precooked chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 cup dried lentils, picked over
• 2 larges tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped or about 2 cups drained canned
• 1/4 cup vermicelli or other thin noodles broken into small pieces
• 2 lemons

Mise en place.  The bowl of herbs had me crying uncle after processing the parsley and halfway through the cilantro.  The two herbs grow very differently since parsley has several branches per stem and cilantro only has one small clump of leaves.

Browning the lamb.

Cook onions until they soften a bit.

Add herbs and spices.  That big bowl of herbs wilted down in moments.

Add chickpeas and 6 cups of water.  Cook until they begin to soften.

Add lentils and simmer for 30 minutes.  Do the same to the tomatoes.

Add noodles 10 minutes before serving.  (Since the stew is so hearty in the first place I didn't worry about the whole noodles getting mushy in leftovers thing since they absorb excess liquid thing since there wasn't much excess liquid to begin with.)  Add the juice of one lemon.  The dish was supposed to be served with lemon wedges, but the soup was waaay tart enough with the one lemon.

Pretty good, interesting, hearty stew though the herbs were a pain.  Also, I fear that I've been adding too many lean dishes to my biweekly menu plans for the the season.  It only drives me to eat lots of Chinese takeout and TV dinners.

The Ultimate Winter Couscous

from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty

• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
• 8 shallots
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 3 bay leaves
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
• 1/4 tsp hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp chile flakes
• 2 1/2 cups cubed pumpkin or butternut squash (from a 10 oz squash)
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chickpeas (canned or freshly cooked) [I went with canned]
• 1 1/2 cups chickpea cooking liquid and/or water
• 1 cup couscous
• large pinch saffron
• 1 cup boiling vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp butter, broken into pieces
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 1 oz preserved lemon, finely chopped
• 2 cups cilantro leaves

Bake carrots, parsnips, shallots, spices, 4 tablespoons oil and 3/4 teaspoon salt at 375 degrees F for15 minutes.

Add, in my case, butternut squash.  This along with the parsnips and the milk from the mac and cheese were all bought at the Boston Local Food Festival I went to with Ori a few weekends ago.

Bake for another 35 minutes.

Add apricots and chickpeas and bake until hot.

Mise en place up until right before the last photo.

Prepare couscous and melt a lot of butter in.

Put vegetable mixture over couscous and cover it with a veritable carpet of cilantro leaves.  Additionally, harissa and preserved lemon are mixed into the vegetables after they have left the oven.
I actually really liked this dish without wondering where the meat was.
Apparently some lady complained to UK paper the Guardian (where Ottolenghi has a vegetarian column although he isn't one) that the dish had too many ingredients.  I find that somewhat laughable.  If a cook is ambitious enough this dish shouldn't be that out of reach.

Camarones Enchipotlados (Chipotle Shrimp)

from the Rick Bayless iPad app:
recipe to follow as per Joe A's request

• 1 15-ounce can diced canned tomatoes in juice (preferably fire-roasted), drained OR 1 pound (about 2 medium-large round or 4 or 5 plum) ripe tomatoes, roasted and peeled [They didn't have fire-roasted tomatoes at Stop and Shop, so I broiled some cheapo tomatoes since the techniques really concentrates their flavors anyway]
  
• 2 or 3 canned chipotle chiles en adobo
• 1 tablespoon chipotle canning sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• About 1 1/2 cups fish or chicken broth or water [Somehow didn't really occur to me to boil the shrimp shells from prepping the dish and making a broth from that. Silly Judy.]
  
• Salt
• 1 to 1/4 pounds medium-large shrimp (21 to 25 shrimp per pound), peeled and deveined, tail left on if you wish
• About 1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

1. Puree the tomatoes and chiles. Pour the drained tomatoes into a blender or food processor. Add the chipotle chiles and chipotle canning sauce and process until smooth.
2. Sautee the garlic. In a very large (12-inch) skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant and golden, about 1 minute.
3. Cook down the base for the sauce. Pour the tomato mixture into the pan. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes as the pureee thickens and the flavors meld.
4. Finish the sauce. Add enough broth or water to achieve a light tomato sauce consistency. Taste and season highly with salt, usually about 1 teaspoon.
5. Cook the shrimp. Add the shrimp to the pan. Cook, stirring nearly constantly, until the shirmp are cooked through, about 4 minutes. Stir in a little more broth or water if the sauce has thickened too much. Scoop onto dinner plates and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.

Tomatoes on my trusty quarter-sheet cake pan.
Which will soon get a couple workouts for its intended purpose this month. Blog entry on Apple Cake (MMB) quite soon.


About 15 minutes under the broiler. It would have probably been easier to core the tomatoes when they were raw, but... Next time.


The peeled shrimps and their shells. I read somewhere that leaving the tails on promotes better cooking of the shrimp.
Should've used those shells to make stock for the broth but I just threw them out.


Blended sauce.


Sauteing garlic for the Nth time.


Cooking down the sauce a bit to concentrate the flavors.


Thinning out the resulting mixture with boxed chicken broth and cooking the shrimp.


Mmm, quite good and simple to put it off. I will definitely cook it again.
Joe A. was there and the recipe struck him as simple enough that he would want to cook the dish. When asked if he could help, I had him pick off the cilantro leaves.
However, I realize that every time I use fresh herbs I should practice chiffonading them.