My brisket butcher

March 21, 2010 - 10:23 AM by

I’m in the midst of a cleaning frenzy and a brisket study. It’s the pre-Passover phase and while some are sunning in Sinai, touring Italy (friends of mine) or skiing in Switzerland (another friend) during the Passover school vacation that began today (teachers have to clean their houses too), I’m completely caught up in the spring cleaning version of cleaning for Passover and planning our seder menu.

For me, this is the fun part of hosting the seder this year, getting to plan a menu that involves checking out the various recipes out there, consulting with my friend Adeena, a food writer in New York, and thumbing through my collection of cookbooks to see what I may have missed over the years. I’m confirming that we are having brisket, the question is, which recipe?

As a dry run, we made a brisket this past weekend, buying our hunk of meat at one of the local supermarkets. That’s where the story comes in. Daniel went to buy the brisket, and as he likes to do, asked the advice of the meat counter butcher. He’d gone in with his Hebrew word for brisket all prepared, ‘chazeh’, which is also used for chicken breast meat, but the butcher convinced him that what Daniel meant and what he, the butcher, wanted to give him, were two different things.

“How do you want to cook it?” asked the butcher, an Arab guy.
“In the oven, for about two or three hours,” answered Daniel.
“It’s for Shabbat?” asked the butcher.
[This conversation was taking place on Thursday morning.]
“Yes, it’s for Shabbat, but we’re cooking it tonight,” said Daniel.
“That’s good, because once you cook this, it can be frozen and still taste good in 40 years,” said the butcher.

Who knew? He then proceeded to make small cuts in the meat, telling Daniel to stick cloves of garlic inside. The rest of the recipe including braising it, adding water, and then baking it for another hour at the most, with vegetables and onions. I modified his recipe slightly, braising it in oil, removing it and then sauteing onions, carrots and celery in the same pot, adding crushed tomatoes at the end, and then baking the whole lot for at least an hour and a half.

I have to say, it was stupendous, particularly when you were lucky enough to get a slice with pieces of the slow-cooked garlic inside. I’m debating between this recipe and a wine-based brisket for the seder. But we will definitely be returning to our Arab butcher and his patient, garlic-loving hands.

Tags: , , , , , • Category: coexistence, Food, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 

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