Cooking with Crosby Roamann: Red Wine Braised Brisket with Onions and Leeks

 

Red Wine Braised Brisket with Onions and Leeks for Passover

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa, Cooking for Jeffrey

April 23, 2024

What we did here was adapt our original Brisket recipe and gussy it up a bit with some suggestions from Barefoot Contessa – notably, the addition of red wine and leeks. Some things I kept that I thought were important were the ketchup, vinegar, and brown sugar. We made 10.5 pounds of this lovely dish for Passover this year (2024) and it turned out pretty awesome. The 3.5 hour braise at 350F followed by chilling overnight, slicing the meat when cold, flipping it over for service so the fat was on the bottom side, and then reheating it for 1.5 hours at 350F (30 minutues) 300F (30 minutes) and 180F (30 minutes) yielded a nicely soft brisket that was easy enough for guests to cut with somewhat chintzy plastic forks and knives, but still had some good chew to it.

 

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 full brisket, about 6.5 pounds untrimmed
• 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 yellow onion, sliced sliced into ¼ inch semi circles 
• 2 red onions, sliced into ¼ inch semi circles  
• 2 large leeks, mostly the white parts, with some light green parts sliced into ¼ inch semi circles 
• 6 whole cloves garlic
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 jar Ketchup (8 oz?)
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup light brown sugar
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 5-7 sprigs fresh whole sprigs of Thyme
• Kosher Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

 

Prep

1. Season the meat all over and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then refrigerate it overnight
2. In the morning, unwrap the meat and pat it dry with paper towels
3. Preheat the oven to 350F
4. Prep your vegetables and stir together your wet ingredients in a medium non-reactive bowl (wine, ketchup, water, sugar, and vinegar) – this is your braising marinade.
5. Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron pot over medium high heat – and note, a whole brisket probably won’t fit in a normal cast iron skillet, so it’s entirely ok to cut the brisket in half against the grain and do this in two parts.
6. Sear the brisket fat side down for 2 minutes, flip it and sear another 2 minutes. Then transfer it to a disposable rectangular roasting pan about 16 inches long, fat side up.
7. Gently rub your tomato paste all over the seared brisket, getting into nooks and crannies if possible
8. Add your onions, leeks, and whole garlic to the cast iron pot, and stir to coat in the rendered fat of the brisket. Sprinkle some kosher salt on, maybe a touch of fresh cracked black pepper. Sweat these veggies for a couple minutes on medium high heat, and when they have softened up a bit, transfer them to the sides of the brisket. I like to tuck the veggies in under the meat a little bit, and leave some on top of the meat, with most of them surrounding the meat.
9. Stir in your red wine and ketchup marinade and deglaze the pot, briefly, and when the wine has evaporated off its alcohol, about 3 minutes later, transfer this mixture to the roasting pan.
10. Cover the meat with your fresh thyme and wrap the top of the roasting pan tightly with two long sheets of aluminum foil.
11. Roast at 350F for 3.5 hours, then remove and set aside.
12. When the meat has cooled sufficiently to transfer it with bare hands, find a nice safe place in the fridge for it to sit overnight.
13. 2.5 hours before you are ready to serve it the following day after preparing the brisket, preheat the oven to 350F, and remove the roasting pan from the fridge and let it come to room temp for about an hour.
14. Remove the foil wrap and remove the brisket to a cutting board. Slice the brisket into ½-inch slices against the grain, then place the meat back in the roasting pan, fat side down. Ladle the marinade all over and between the slices of meat. Then recover the roasting pan with aluminum foil, and reheat the brisket in the over at 350F (30 minutues), 300F (30 minutes), and 180F (30 minutes).
15. Remove the meat from the oven and enjoy your seder. The meat will still be nice and warm when you are ready to dine.

 

Happy Pesach!