A Sunday Football FEAST

First off, I feel like I must preface this blog post with the warning that this meal WILL make you hungry and will inspire you to slow cook your next meal.  For this Sunday's SUPER important Giants Football game (in which we demolished the Falcons - GO TEAM!), Justin and I decided to make a collaborative meal of down home cooking comfort food. Justin has been wanting to slow cook a brisket for a while now so that was the base of the meal...I figured a good green veggie (Southern Style) and some kind of potato dish were a great compliment to the brisket.  Justin did a most excellent job on the brisket, cooking it from 8am to 4pm (that's 8 hours for you mathematically impaired). So let's get to the cookin'!

Bojo's Brisket

Since Justin is extremely secretive about his recipes for anything slow cooked, I can only give you basic ingredients and amounts -- but as he says, it's really an eye-balling cooking method - meaning it's different every time...

Ingredients:

At least 3-4lbs of Beef Brisket (it will shrink in size, and if you're going to spend the time on something like this, you might as well make a decent portion)

Bojo Rib Rub (see here for the SazRub since the Bojo Rub is a coveted secret) 

Apple Cidar Vinegar

Light Brown Sugar

1 Beer (preferably one you'd want to drink on it's own)

1 large Onion

3 Garlic Cloves

 >Chop up your onion (doesn't really matter the size - just chop it up fairly well)

 >Take your Brisket out (holy yummyness)

 >Sprinkle your BojoRibRub (or alternative) on both sides of the brisket & rub in.

 >In a medium pot, saute your chopped up onion in a little bit of Olive Oil

 >Dice up your 3 garlic cloves and add to the onion in the pot

 >Now add in your beer...Justin used a common favorite in our house: Dog Fish Head.

>Add in your brown sugar (a decent few tablespoons) and your Apple Cidar Vinegar (again, this is the part that's kind of eye-balled - and also based on your palate's desires). Cook until the vinegar and beer has reduced down.

 >Place Brisket in large Pyrex (love them!) and ladle the mixture from your pot onto the brisket so that it's halfway covered.

 >Cover with Tin Foil and cook at 225 degrees for 8 hours. Don't open the oven, don't touch the oven, don't even LOOK at the oven, just let it be on it's own for the full 8 hours.

 >After that 8 hours, take out your now fall-off-the-bone brisket (I wish I could insert the amazing smells here....but alas, I can't....)

 >Remove the brisket carefully from the pan (it will literally be breaking apart because it's so delicate now). Place on a separate plate for a moment.

 >Ladle out all of the delicious brisket juices and put back into your original pot.

 >Add in about a 1/2 cup or more of brown sugar and let it simmer until the broth becomes more like a glaze.  The brown sugar when cooked, will cause this glaze to form and this is one of the key ingredients for the brisket.

 >Place the brisket back into the Pyrex and ladle the new glaze on top.

 >Set your oven for a HI BROIL and cook a few minutes on each side (re-ladle more glaze on each time you flip it over) -- you just want to cook this on Broil until the outsides crisp up (about 3 minutes on each side).

Justin bought Stubb's BBQ Sauce for a side for this delicious Brisket and I must say, I'm not usually a fan of pre-made BBQ Sauces (I think they're usually too salty) but this one was fantastic! I would recommend it highly - it can be bought at Whole Foods. The brisket was fall apart, melt in your mouth, incredible!! Bravo Justin :)

...NOW onto the Cheddar Twice Baked Mashy P's!  This recipe I completely made up myself and I have to say it was delicious!!! It was a perfect compliment to the brisket and was your typical down home comfort food!

Ingredients:
4 Russet Potatoes
1/3 Cup Fat Free Milk
3 tbsp Sour Cream (I used the Light kind)
8 oz Cabot 50% reduced fat Cheddar Cheese
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt & Pepper

 >Peel your potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes

 >Place potatoes in pot and cover with water.  Cook on stove on high until the potatoes are fork tender.

 >While the potatoes are cooking, shred up your cheese! I am now obsessed with Cabot's 50% Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese -- it tastes the same as regular cheddar but you can eat twice as much for the same fat content! Win win!

 >Get your milk, sour cream, butter, and garlic powder out and ready for Mashy P time!

 >Since I don't have an electric beater, I use my awesome potato masher, which is why I make sure I cook my potatoes thoroughly so as to make the mashing process a lot easier on my skinny chicken arms.

 >Once fork tender, drain your potatoes...

 >Place the potatoes while they're still super hot, back into the same pot you cooked them in and start mashing!!

 >Add in your milk, sour cream, butter, garlic powder, and about 6oz of your 8oz of cheese (reserve the other 2 oz. for later on....) Mash up more until it's a perfect mashed potato!  Taste and then add the salt and pepper as per your liking.

 >Add mashed potato mixture to a small Pyrex dish.

 >Add the reserved Cheddar cheese to spread on top!

 >Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, then place the oven on HI BROIL until you see the cheese start to brown up!  This dish could easily serve 5-6 people and was a definite crowd-pleaser in our house last night :)

Next up was another invented recipe I concocted based on a combined love of two ingredients: Brussel Sprout and Bacon....I guess I can call it Brussel Bacon Bake (I am big on the alliteration thing...)

Ingredients:

1lb of Brussel Sprouts

4 Slices of Smoked Bacon

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Chili Powder

Pepper

>Cut your Brussel Sprouts into quarters...

 >Get your bacon ready -- start to fry up 4 slices.... (we use Boar's Head, which as a child I have had instilled in me, is the ONLY deli brand that's acceptable)

 >Meanwhile, place your Brussel Sprouts, a little bit of Olive Oil, the garlic powder and Chili powder in a baking dish and mix together.

 >When your bacon is nice and crispy, remove from the oil/fat that it has exuded and place the bacon on a paper towel to remove excess oil/grease.  Now here's the kicker.... DON'T discard the fat from the frying pan -- use the fat to pour over the Brussels to give it a bacon infused flavor! SOOOO delicious.

 >Once the bacon has cooled, crumble it up into small pieces

 >Bake the Brussel Sprouts at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, add in your bacon and bake for another 5 minutes.

...So after the fall apart Brisket, the melted Mashy P's and the Brussel Bacon Bake, and a Giant's win, I can honestly say it was one of the best Sunday's I've had in a while! It's great comfort food, and perfect for a cold winter meal! Enjoy!