Now this, I thought to myself as I dined at Rosette with a friend, is what you should eat in the summertime. I wasn’t referring to the glorious mess of shredded brisket and pappardelle that you see above. No, I was thinking about the crunchy, raw asparagus spears that I was dipping into dukkah-dusted walnut tahini.
I made that giant batch of shredded brisket back in February, when the weather was arctic and I continued to hope that I would finally ween myself off Seamless and cook for myself. How little I cook during the academic year has become a common lament on this blog. This past semester, it was really close to zero unless you count putting slices of steak (leftovers from a dinner with my mother at BLT Steak) on top of stale Ritz crackers and eating them over the sink as cooking. From that same steak house dinner, there were also leftover hen-of-the-woods mushrooms that I scrambled with eggs and piled on top of of pasta because I had run out of bread.
Even though the semester has been over for about a month, there still hasn’t been much cooking. It hasn’t felt like much of a vacation either. First, my mother decided that the final exam period would be the perfect time to come to visit (it’s not; it never is). After she left, I was practically comatose for about a week from the visit and the end of the semester. Then, my almost 91-year old grandfather took a tumble in the garden and hit the back of his head (the sun’s fault, he claims). I had to stay with him for a couple of nights per the doctor’s (unnecessary, in Grandpa’s opinion) orders.
My dad: “How is Grandpa doing?”
Me: “Um, a little unstable on his feet.”
Dad: “Maybe be had a mini-stroke. Is he favoring one side more than the other?”
Me: “No. Doesn’t seem like it.”
Dad: “What is he doing now?”
Me: “He is using a pair of kitchen shears to pry open a key ring that he says is too small.”
Fall or no fall, Grandpa’s fine motor skills seem more or less intact. However, that does not mean that he has completely recovered. This summer, he seems frailer and more fragile. His legs get weak — which scares me. He forgets more things more often and is sometimes confused. It is to be expected at his age, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating for him and emotionally draining for us.
Doctors’ appointments and follow-up appointments have been frequent, sometimes unexpected, and long. Thankfully, my friends have been wonderful at keeping me out of my apartment in the evenings so that I get to eat something decent and think about something else. I did desperately want to get away to Europe this summer, but unfortunately failed to get organized early enough to afford airfare. And although Grandpa continues to live on his own and be very independent, his health has put some restraint on any vacation plans. Still, it would be nice to get away somewhere like . . . Gourmandistan 😉
(Dearest Michelle and Steve, I promise you a visit! The summer isn’t over yet!)
Does this shredded brisket with pappardelle look good? It is damn good, but I would hold off on making a dish like this until the fall unless you have a very powerful air-conditioner and money is no object in terms of electric bills. For those dear readers south of the equator, this is the perfect late fall and wintertime warmer.
This recipe has been heavily adapted from one on Epicurious. You can find the original here.
Ingredients:
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 ribs of celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 beef brisket (about 1.5 pounds), trimmed of excess fat and silver skin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 cups of veal or beef stock
1 16-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
2/3 of a cup of red wine
2 bay leaves
Pappardelle
Special equipment:
A large Dutch oven or another oven-safe casserole with a lid
How to prepare:
1. Preheat your oven to 325°. You may need to lower or adjust your oven racks so that you can fit your Dutch oven or casserole in it easily.
2. Using a food processor, pulse the carrots, celery, and onion together until they are finely chopped.
3. Pat the brisket dry with paper towels and generously season it on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a large Dutch oven or casserole over medium-high heat until it begins to just smoke. Sear the brisket on all sides. If your brisket is too large to sear at once, you may need to cut your brisket in half and sear each half individually.
4. Remove the brisket to a plate. Lower the heat to medium and in the same Dutch oven or casserole, sauté the chopped vegetables and finely minced garlic until they give up their liquid and just begin to brown. Add the stock, the chopped tomatoes, the red wine, and the bay leaves. Stir to combine before adding the seared brisket back to the liquid. Make sure that the brisket is completely covered by the liquid before covering the Dutch oven with its lid and transferring it to the oven. Let the covered brisket cook slowly for about 3 hours. After 3 hours, the brisket should be fork-tender. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully skim off any fat from the top of the sauce.
5. Remove the brisket from the sauce and use two forks to gently shred it. Add the shredded brisket back to the sauce and stir to re-incorporate it. Adjust the seasoning.
6. In a large pot of salted water, cook the pappardelle to package directions. When the pasta is al dente, drain it but reserve some of the pasta cooking water. Add the pappardelle to the shredded brisket sauce along with some of the pasta cooking water if needed. Toss to combine, adjust the seasoning, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.
coolcookstyle 
Yay, new food post from Daisy 🙂
Anything that involves pasta is super fine to me 🙂
I also recently did a foodie post on my blog, but about cookies 🙂
Enjoy the meal
Aw, thanks Lucas! I will check it out! There is so much to catch up on . . .
Delicious, I tried Healthy Beef Enchilada Pie
http://bit.ly/1mhdOBy
Thanks! And thanks for stopping by!
I had to toss out my smoker this spring. The winters have not been kind to it. That’s how I cooked my brisket in the summer. All day, low and slow. It was wonderful.
I wouldn’t run the oven that long in the summer but I bet this could be done in a slow cooker. I’ll keep this recipe in mind the next time I feel like brisket.
Sorry to hear about your grandfather. It’s not easy when they get old.
I would love to have a smoker! Not sure where I would put it other than the fire escape — which would be illegal… That does sound like a lovely and delicious way to prepare brisket! You can leave the fat cap on too. Yum.
If you do try this brisket sauce in a slow cooker, do let me know how it turns out! I didn’t even think about that idea and it is a great one.
Thanks as well for you thoughts. No, it’s not easy when they get old. He is pretty stubborn which makes it more challenging. I wonder if we will be the same way?
If you want to see stubborn I’ll let you borrow my mom for a few days. She had surgery the other day and was furious I took her license to make sure she followed the rules and didn’t drive for 5 days. I will totally be a cranky, stubborn old lady some day. No doubt.
My grandfather was driving well into his 80’s until a “bunch of teenagers” rammed into his car, totaling the rear. He likes to remind us that THEY caused the accident NOT him because THEY hit HIS car from behind.
Yes, I do think we will be that stubborn 😉
Sorry to hear about your Grandpa. And the stale Ritz crackers. (The brisket looks great though.) And, yes: come visit!!
Thank you, Michelle! I do feel pretty bad about not getting back to you about a visit. Right about the time we were going back and forth about it is when he fell, so I didn’t feel ready to pick a date. Things are stabilizing a bit now and I can plan better. His birthday is on July 17, so it would have to be after. Maybe the following week? Let’s coordinate over email! Xoxo!
We’re free all summer except the last week in August!
Hooray! The last week in August doesn’t work for me either. It’s also the first week of school and the first day of school is my birthday 😦 Not fair!
Let me coordinate with the parental units. I think a late July visit would be perfect.
You precious grand child! Isn’t it interesting when we get to an age where we feel that we can admonish our elders? Every time I witness my dad lift something heavy, I get so mad and tell him off. He thinks it is funny but then again, he probably thinks he is still a young man. Glad your gramps is OK and still playing with sharp objects.
I haven’t done shredded brisket before. Is shredded the same as pulled? Pork seems to be pulled but beef is shredded?
It’s so true how things come around full circle at some point. A few years ago, me and my grandfather picked up my mom at the airport. She came out of the baggage area and just left her gigantic pile of luggage in front of me and my grandfather to pick up — which he did even though he was in his late eighties. When I confronted her, my mother told me that my grandfather has been a father for longer than I have been alive and who was I to take that role away from him? She was right, my grandfather was actually THRILLED to carry her bags with me.
I STILL think she should have packed lighter or at least offered to help!
As for the shredded brisket, the whole time that I was writing this post, I was thinking of you and the weather in NZ right now! It (or something similar) would be perfect, no? I think shredded is the same as pulled. We have the same terms here and I don’t know why we say “pulled pork,” but never “pulled brisket.” Maybe someone else can weigh in?
I’ve pulled pork but not beef, so to speak. Also we have seamless here but never tried. We do Just eat which is a bit naff (if you happen to go by the take away you ordered from online the previous night you cant halp thinking ‘I ate something from there?!
Seamless is terrific! I think half of New York feeds itself via Seamless, but the restaurants on it are quite good — usually many that you would eat at normally. However, I do order things sometimes and wonder why I ordered them. I still eat them too 😀
This looks amazing! If it weren’t 12:30 in the a.m. and if I had a brisket, i would be out in the kitchen right now!
Thank you! It is great for fall weather, but I agree: fall weather at 12:30AM is trickier 😄