I used to live in the US for such a long time from age of 15 until I moved to France in order to attend Le Cordon Bleu for getting a pastry diploma. So, I miss "American food" once in a while; even writing so now makes me crave for another all-American , meat loaf!
When we went to a super market nearby the
other day, we browsed through the meat section and found a nice flank of beef.
Without a hesitation, I grabbed and put it in our shopping cart intending
making beef brisket.
Before making it, I skimmed through my
recipe notebook to see if I have a good recipe for brisket. Voila! I found it,
though I’ve noticed that I didn’t have red wine which was an important
ingredient. I didn’t want to go shopping again. So, I asked myself, “What can I
do? Any solution!?”
Well, wine can be like a vinegar when it is
not so good,; or rather quite often, quickly made wine like Beaujolais Nouveau
can be quite acidity. Therefore, I thought I could use apple cider vinegar as a
substitution. Why apple vinegar? Because organic apple cider is made of natural
“mother” which is alive and further fermentation occurs. Besides, both wine and
apple cider vinegar are made from fruits, and furthermore, apple can be used to
make alcohol, too.
As for my mental note, I list my recipe as
following:
*** Beef Brisket (for 2-3 persons):
<Ingredients>
Garlic ……. 1 clove (chopped)
Salt ……. A little
Rosemary ……. 1 branch (or 1/2 tablespoonful
of Coriander Seeds)
Olive oil ……. 1/8C
Black pepper (grinded) ……. A little
Carrot……. 1 (cut in chunks)
Celery……. 1 (Here, I used 4~5 small beets,
chopped)
Onion……. 1 (cut in chunks)
Apple cider vinegar……. 1/2C (Or Red Wine)
Canned tomatoes……. 1 (Or can be substituted
by 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped)
Parsley……. 2-3 branches
Bay leaf……. 1
Soy sauce……. 1 Tbs.
Worcestershire sauce……. 1 Tbs.
Brown sugar……. 1/2 to 1Tbs.
Beef flank……. 300-500g
1.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on beef
flank and sauté the meat in a heated skillet with olive oil. Brown all sides of
flank. Keep the sautéed oil for frying vegetables.
2.
In a pan, pour the reserved oil
from the skillet, and fry garlic and the other vegetables. Then add the sautéed
beef, canned tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients. Boil on medium heat,
skim the bubbles and then reduce to low heat, and cook covered about 1~2 hours.
3.
Afterwards, pour everything
into a deep casserole dish covering the top with tin foil. Cook another 1 hour
in the oven at 180C or 370F.
The longer you cook the tender the beef
becomes, as you may know.
It was really delicious! My husband is a
professional chef for many years starting his career in France and then now in
Malaysia teaching French cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Malaysia. It was such a coincidence
for him to take a teaching position at the same school I used to be a student,
although he teaches here in Malaysia, not in Paris.
Anyway, he uttered how good this beef
brisket was! So, I can say that it is a truly delicious recipe!
Accompanied with beef brisket, I made a
vegetable side dish.
Small tomatoes and chopped Portobello
mushrooms are stir-fried in olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, dried oregano, Balsamic
vinegar and parsley.
Aside with these, I made a butch of corn
bread to go with. It was heavenly good, in fact even for the following days, it
was still soft and moist. I love to spread butter on it and eat. It’s just a treat
to have wonderful corn bread which reminds me of happy lazy summer days in the
US.
Also I list the recipe here below. It’s
really simple. You just mix everything and bake in oven!
*** Yummy Corn Bread (1 loaf):
<Ingredients>
Unsalted butter….. 133g (softened and
whipped)
Sugarcane sugar……. 110g
Honey……. 25g
Eggs……. 2
Whole Milk……. 145g
Vinegar……. 13g
Coconut Milk……. 82g
Baking soda……. 1/2Tsp.
Salt……. 1/2Tsp.
Corn Meal……. 150g
Flour……. 128g (Shifted)
Butter slightly the mold and line a baking
paper. Set the oven at 180C or 370F.
Combine whole milk, vinegar and coconut milk
together and mix. Set aside. Softly mix all the dried ingredients in a bowl. In
a different bowl, mix well softened butter with sugar and honey. Add eggs one
at a time mixing them completely.
Whisk mixed milk and vinegar mixture and
then incorporate dried ingredients using a whisk just until moistened.
Pour the dough in the prepared mold. Bake
in pre-heated oven for 45 minutes or until done.
You can serve it when it’s warm but you need
to be careful when you take corn bread out from the mold. When it’s still warm,
it may not be firm enough.
This corn bread is even good after 2 days!
It’s amazing!
Gochi-so-sama (Thank you for food) for a
good meal!
