Sweet and Spicy Brisket
Tonight is Rosh Hashanah. It seems especially important to light some candles and mark the day this year. Wishing everyone a sweet, healthy and happy new year.
Here’s our family’s recipe for a sweet and spicy slow cooked brisket. We make it every year to bring in the Jewish new year but we also make it other times too. It’s a fall apart, melt in your mouth beef dish that warms you to the core.
For years, we sat around our beat up kitchen table, the same one Steve and I had in our tiny NYC apartment, now marked by over a decade of scribbles and tasty spills, and ate this tender brisket. Most years, instead of a fancy dinner after a day of reflection, our marking of Rosh Hashannah has been this brisket, surrounded by joyful chaos, with the kids all trying to tell us about their day at the same time while Sophie clamored to be fed.
We used to struggle to mark the high holidays as a family. We are not religious and always hesitated to take the kids out of school to pick apples and bring in the Jewish new year together. Those were chaotic days and it was hard to pull the kids out of their schedules and hit pause to celebrate holiday as a family. We did it some years but not others. I wish we had done it more.
Some years we took some or all the children out of school and went to pick apples to celebrate Rosh Hashannah. This was in 2012.
Our house is much quieter now that Bella, Jack, and Juju are no longer living at home. It will just be three of us at our giant table tonight, but we will still bring in the new year with this sweet and spicy slow cooked brisket.
Back in our full chaos years, when baby Sophie got toted around to all the baseball games, imagining the day she’d be the last one sitting with us at our long kitchen table was inconceivable.
We will dip Michigan apples into raw honey and tear into a round Challah lovingly baked from grandma Mimi’s recipe. There will be no apple cake or other traditional dishes, but it will still be a special celebration, one to remember, the start of a new year together in tinier but still very cozy family nest.
This brisket is a wonderful, sweet yet subtly spicy dish to awaken your taste buds and bring in a sweet new year. And for those of you who are just celebrating the first full week of fall, this dish is also one to bookmark as it's the perfect weeknight supper to simmer in your slow cooker on a blustery and windy day.
My brisket is adapted from Smitten Kitchen's brisket recipe who in turn adapted Emeril Lagasse's recipe. Now you just need to tweak it to make it your own.
Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooked Brisket
This is our family's high holiday brisket recipe, but we make it all year long. I adapted this brisket recipe from Smitten Kitchen who in turn adapted it from Emeril Lagasse. Now it's your turn to make it your own.
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 pound brisket (you can go larger as needed, you'll have a lot of sauce)
- 1 large vidalia onion, minced
- 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch coins
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon of paprika
- 2 teaspoons of ancho chili powder
- 1/8 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
- 2 cups of beef stock
- 1 cup of dark brown sugar
- 1 cup of ketchup
- 2 bottles of dark beer (approximately 2 cups), such as porter or larger
- 1/3 cups of Asian garlic chili sauce (I used a very spicy Vietnamese sauce purchased in the International aisle of the supermarket - if using Heinz chili sauce, boost this to one cup)
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven, pour the olive oil and heat on medium heat. Brown the brisket on both sides, approximately 5 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add the onions and garlic to the Dutch oven, do NOT remove the brisket grease and remaining olive oil. Saute until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes.
- Add the carrots, spices, ketchup, brown sugar, stock, beer, chili sauce and stir well. Cook for another 2 minutes, to bind the flavors together.
- If you are cooking the brisket in the slow cooker, now is the time to transfer everything to it. First place the brisket on the bottom and pour the sauce on top. Cook on high setting for 3-5 hours, flipping it every 30 minutes or so.
- If you are not cooking it in the slow cooker, put the brisket back in your Dutch oven and flip it a couple of times to mix well with the sauce. Cover and cook on low heat for 3-5 hours, flipping it every 30 minutes or so.
- Brisket should be fall apart tender when ready to eat. Slice it carefully into 1 inch wide pieces. Serve piping hot with some oven baked fingerling potatoes and plenty of sauce and bright carrots. Enjoy!