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Cooking up a Storm with the Help of my Kitchen Sisters

For some rea­son — prob­a­bly as an anti­dote to stress, this being the onset of that silly sea­son — I’ve been cook­ing a lot of late, in par­tic­u­lar try­ing new recipes from books by my Toronto foodie friends.

If you’ve read the pre­vi­ous blog — my tragic tale of the miss­ing cook­books — you’ll under­stand why the tomes in ques­tion are dear to my heart.

Espe­cially trea­sured are those 100 or so that I keep close at hand on shelves I had built for this pur­pose in the impor­tant room where it all hap­pens: my com­pact, cozy kitchen.

Break­ing open a cook­book I haven’t used before is lots of fun. In this case, it was Fri­day Night Din­ners, the lat­est offer­ing of many by my long-time friend and esteemed col­league Bon­nie Stern.

As is my wont, being a food sleuth and all, I asked Bon­nie shortly after the book came out (oy vey, that was three years ago) to name her favourite recipe from it. She didn’t miss a beat: “The brisket,” was her reply.

Yes­ter­day, I took the large thawed brisket bought some weeks ago at my trusty Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket butcher Sanagan’s and, Bonnie’s book in front of me, pro­ceeded to assem­ble ingre­di­ents. They were few, sweet and sim­ple. Every­thing was on hand in my pantry includ­ing an almost untouched bot­tle of Port.

Almost four hours later, when Ross and I came home from a neigh­bour­hood meet­ing to the beau­ti­ful aroma of brais­ing beef, the brisket was ready. Accom­pa­nied by mashed pota­toes and peas, it was deli­cious — lash­ings of rich, wine-infused sauce and ten­der, juicy meat.

We now have din­ner for sev­eral days includ­ing fod­der to fill lus­cious sand­wiches. This would also be a great dish to serve at Chranukah (aka Chris­mukah), the min­i­mal­ist fusion fes­tive feast I favour!

Thank you Bon­nie. I’ll be in touch for more recipe tips!

Fri­day Night Brisket

6-lb/3 kg dou­ble brisket
1 tbsp Dijon mus­tard
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp pep­per
1 tbsp paprika
1 head gar­lic, sep­a­rated into cloves, peeled
3 large onions, sliced
1 cup Port
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup beef or chicken stock, or water

Spread brisket with mus­tard; sprin­kle with salt, pep­per and paprika.

Place gar­lic and most of onions in bot­tom of large Dutch oven. Place brisket on top. Top with remain­ing onions. Add Port, wine and stock. Bring to boil. Place parch­ment paper directly on top of brisket. Cover tightly with lid or foil.

Bake in pre­heated 350F oven at least 3 to 4 hours or until meat is fork-tender. Remove lid and paper; return to oven and cook 30 min­utes more or until brisket is browned.

Remove fat from sauce. Serve brisket sliced with sauce and onions.

Makes about 8 to 10 servings.

And now for some­thing com­pletely dif­fer­ent — but equally good.

Mair­lyn Smith is among my best bud­dies in the Toronto food world. She’s a gen­er­ous col­league, a great cook, ter­rific recipe cre­ator — but, best of all, she’s funny!

An alum­nus of the Sec­ond City com­edy troupe, she gets my jokes and is quick to respond hilar­i­ously with her own. We’ve shared many a laugh together, often over the phone when we catch up on what’s cook­ing in both our lives.

Here’s a fan­tas­tic recipe from her lat­est book Healthy Starts Here! Again, the rec­om­men­da­tion came from the horse’s mouth, namely the bril­liant author herself.

Break­fast Grab-and-Gos

Once you’ve got the ingre­di­ents which I found, believe it or not, at my local super­mar­ket, these are a cinch to make. I often keep one in my car or purse for emer­gency nosh­ing, any time of day. I did most of this in no time in my stand­ing mixer.

1 ¹⁄₂ cups oat bran
1 ¹⁄₂ cups large flake rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
³⁄₄ cup ground flaxseed
¹⁄₂ cup steel-cut oats
2 tbsp wheat germ
2 tbsp cin­na­mon
1 tsp bak­ing soda
1 cup dried cran­ber­ries or blue­ber­ries
¹⁄₄ cup choco­late chips (at least 60% cocoa mass)
¹⁄₂ cup coarsely chopped wal­nuts
¹⁄₄ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs (prefer­ably omega-3)
4.5-oz/128-mL jar strained prunes baby food
¹⁄₄ cup canola oil
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Posi­tion rack in mid­dle of oven. Pre­heat oven to 375F. Line 2 large bak­ing sheets with parch­ment paper.

Mix together oat bran, large-flake oats, flour, flaxseed, steel-cut oats, wheat germ, cin­na­mon and bak­ing soda in large bowl. Stir in cran­ber­ries, choco­late chips and walnuts.

Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, prunes, oil and vanilla in medium bowl until well blended.

Add sugar mix­ture to oat bran mix­ture; stir until really well combined.

Scoop bat­ter into rounds a bit big­ger than a golf ball (a 1/4-cup/60-mL ice cream scoop works well). Place on bak­ing sheets about 2 inches/5 cm apart. Flat­ten with hand or back of damp spoon until about ³⁄₄ inch/2 cm thick. (Bat­ter will be sticky).

Bake in oven 13 to 15 min­utes or until medium-brown. Cool slightly on cookie sheets before trans­fer­ring to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in air­tight con­tainer up to 2 weeks or freeze up to 3 months.

Makes about 20.

This entry was posted in Beef, Bonnie Stern, Breakfast Grab and Gos, Brisket, Jewish, Mairlyn Smith, Port, Recipe, Toronto and tagged bonnie stern, brisket, foodie friends, juicy meat, kensington market, recipe tips, red wine. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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