Tradition! The Brisket! Tradition!

Tomato Onion Brisket

It’s been a decade since I cooked my first Passover brisket. I had been tweaking the recipe by adding more red wine, and substituting wheat-free tamari, caramelizing the meat under the broiler, and lowering the cooking temperature. In recent years there are no more changes! If you come to our Passover dinner this is the brisket that you’ll be served. Now it’s tradition! And it’s gooooooooooood!

When I first looked at this recipe years ago, I was skeptical. Garlic powder and ground ginger weren’t esteemed ingredients in my kitchen. And I didn’t remember the last time I used onion soup mix. Was it to make dip in college? But the combination of the brisket from Paulina Meat Market and canned tomato sauce mixture produced, well, a miracle of sorts.

TOMATO ONION BRISKET RECIPE

We serve 2 main courses at Passover dinner, the brisket and grilled chicken with orange ginger glaze. For 34 people, I make 3 briskets, each is about 4 1/2 to 5 pounds. We start early in the morning the day before. The brisket is refrigerated overnight, then sliced the next morning, covered, and is ready to reheat for dinner.

Slice 4 large onions.

SAUCE

• 4 cans tomato sauce 15 oz.
• 4 packets dried onion soup mix (usually 2 to a box)
• 1 T. ground ginger
• 1 T. garlic powder
• 2 t. ground pepper
• 2 c. Kosher dry red wine
• 1/4 c. wheat-free tamari soy sauce

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Note that the wine should be one that you would drink, make sure to taste the wine. My experience is that at least 5% of all wine is corked. A corked wine will ruin any dish. Also, if your family does not eat soy products on Passover, substitute 1 T. sea salt, or to taste. More about wheat-free soy sauce can be found here.

Rinse and dry the brisket with paper towels. Rub with Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Place brisket under the broiler to get a nice caramelization on both sides. Then smother the brisket with the sliced onions and tomato sauce mixture. Cover with foil and heat in a 350° oven for 1/2 hour then turn the oven down to 275° and continue to cook for 6 to 7 hours until the brisket is tender. If it is not excruciatingly tender, keep on cooking! You can enjoy the brisket at this point, or if you are cooking for a crowd, you might want to use my method as follows:

Remove the meat from the sauce to cool. Add meat back to the sauce pan, cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day remove the cold brisket from the sauce and slice against the grain. Arrange meat slices in a baking dish and ladle the sauce and onions back over the meat and between the slices. Getting the sauce between the slices is important! Cover with foil. Now the brisket is ready to reheat later for the party.

2007

Stone was 4 years old.

2008

2009

2009 QUALITY CONTROL

Stone and his mom, Kristy.

It’s good! Thumbs up! Believe it or not he loves the onions too.
Stone was 6 years old.

2010
Stone is 7 now. He helps me in the kitchen every year.

He can count on his Aunt GeeGee’s (that’s me) brisket for Passover in the years to come!

I look forward to the day he cooks the whole thing by himself!

And my guess is that year is not too far away.

TRADITION!