I admit to an ambivalent relationship with red meat, in that I have much reason to distrust it but a very strong track record of really enjoying it. The compromise I've come to in recent years is to cook it rarely, and by that I mean infrequently, not still mooing (I'm a well done guy, myself, which I know is shocking to some people) and in turn I have taken to trying to buy a variety of cuts and on the high-end.
One of our favorite beefy dishes is Nam Tok, which I'll post about the next time we make it -- a Thai hot beef salad -- for which I have taken to using flat iron. Tritip is a great cut I only found out about when we moved to the Central Coast of California, and I suspect this is still a secret elsewhere. Both Mika and I like making stews of various ilks, and I try not to get too cheap stew meat, to keep it on the tender side.
Stuff like steaks and prime rib and so forth - almost never. And brisket -- I haven't made a brisket in ten years. (I often figure if I'm going to expend my red meat allowance on this kind of cut, I might as well expend it at a good barbecue joint, and the good barbecue joints around here are contemptuous of brisket in favor of tritip.)
But, there was a nice cut on sale extremely cheap at the market last week, so I bought it for Sunday dinner, not quite knowing what I'd do.
First mistake: I got a small piece, 1.5 pounds. This was a mistake because the thing was SO YUMMY I regretted we had no seconds and no leftovers, and that was with only three of us eating (we did try an experimental bite on Izzy, who has never really eaten beef, since it was so tender, but he wasn't going for it.)
I used a hybrid recipe using the dutch oven, stove top then to the oven and then back to the stove top for finishing (I needed a hotter onion for some sweet potato fries). Brown the brisket, remove to a platter. Red onion, salt and pepper, butter in the pan, soften, add some tomato paste and stock. Return the meat, put into a 325 degree oven for 2-3 hours, turning the meat every half hour. Yes, it took a while but not that much effort, and since our Sunday was a puttering around the house doing minor chores day, it fit in nicely, and the house smelled great.
Second mistake: I didn't reduce the "supporting broth" amounts for the amount of meat I had. All of the recipes I was working from had a 4-5 pound brisket as the base. I, um, forgot. But it didn't hurt the meat one iota -- what it did was left me with a half a jar of incredibly tasty, and probably highly fatty, sauce left over that I have to use up in a week or so. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with this, especially with out of town visitors coming in -- maybe serve it as a side sauce for the traditional Welcome Tritip (yes, yes, I have beef on the menu twice in two weeks, or will.)
Mika and I once had this incredible buffet dinner at this little industrial city in the south of France called Cavaillon. We were just looking for a place to eat - this was in January, the weather was bad, I think we were all tired -- and more or less just walked into the first place we spotted that looked like there was nobody smoking in it. The menu was prix fixe, you get what they served, but it was a family joint, just a husband and wife, and they served this incredible roasted goat. I'm partial to goat, you can't get it anywhere I know of locally. This chevre just melted in the mouth. It had to have been braised like a brisket.
That's the last time before this Sunday I had a nice tender meat this good. We got really lucky here.
