Barbecued Brisket [Recipe]

Food for the first day of school

Tomorrow is the first day of school for my daughter, and I gotta say I'm a little bit excited. I suppose she and I would have different perspectives on her last two months, but to me it seems that she had a very "relaxing" summer. I believe it is time for her to go back to exercising her brain. In between some time out with friends and a week visiting her cousin in Florida, it seems to me that the remainder of her time was spent binge-watching episodes of SVU, Criminal Minds, and Gray's Anatomy.

In our house, any milestone is marked with food -- typically with a meal of choice for whomever is the center of attention. Birthdays, of course, but also half-birthdays, end of testing periods, good grades, first day of a new job, and certainly, the first day of school, are all marked with some sort of special meal. My daughter's meals of choice tend to the rich and carnivorous, like steak and lobster, or the rather labor intensive cioppino and gumbo. For her back-to-school meal this year, she selected my grilled clams on linguini with a homemade Caesar dressing. I can do that.

The grilled clams are a dish that I learned from my brother in Florida. It is a really easy preparation yielding a very high satisfaction-to-effort ratio. Basically, put some little neck clams directly on the grids of a hot grill and close the lid for a few minutes. As the clams open, take them off the grill, and dip them into a buttery-garlicky sauce which is heating in a pan alongside the clams, and then into a bowl. If you can hold off everyone from eating the clams as they come out of the dip, put them on top of some cooked linguini, and dump the remaining garlic-butter into the pasta.

A great accompaniment to the gilled linguini with clams is a nice Caesar salad. Since my son is a vegetarian, and the ready made dressings are usually made with anchovies, the two are not a good match. He used to really enjoy Caesar salad, so I wanted to find a way to make this part of the meal something we could all enjoy. I made an easy dressing with garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and parmesan cheese. Instead of the traditional raw or coddled egg, I used mayonnaise, but the dressing was still missing the salty-briny tang of the anchovies. I decided to mash some capers as an anchovy substitute, which turned out to be a very nice addition.

So, my daughter thoroughly enjoyed her meal, and the rest of us, including my son, were quite pleased. Let's hope that the meal for her last day of summer was sufficiently satisfying enough to carry her through the first day of school onto the next celebratory meal -- what should we make for National Bad Poetry Day?

Best Deli in Dayton

I was raised in northern New Jersey, where it was easy to find good "deli."  In my world, "deli" refers to a good Jewish delicatessen -- a place where you can go up to the counter and order meats, either by the pound or by the sandwich.  There were a few in relatively close proximity to where I grew up, but for a really authentic experience, a thirty minute trip into New York City was warranted.  Here, you might also get a potato knish, some cole slaw, or a pickle picked out of a barrel (aka, barrel pickles). My favorite sandwich was always a classic hot pastrami with spicy mustard on rye bread.  Occasionally, a good corned beef sandwich was a nice change, or if I wanted to really wanted to change it up, a pickled tongue and chopped liver sandwich would do it. 

Now, living in Dayton, OH, it is difficult to find good deli -- the closest we have is Boar's Head meat at the deli counter of Kroger -- ugh.  People who didn't grow up with my culinary diversity think this is okay, but I rarely find it truly satisfying.  I have found decent deli in larger cities like Cleveland or Chicago, but that is a tough commute for a sandwich.  So, for Father's Day, I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to make my own corned beef and pastrami.  It was good -- and quite satisfying.  Good enough to make a few tweaks and try it again for the July 4th weekend.

I initially didn't realize how much work it would be -- especially making pastrami.  I now know why this is typically so much more expensive than, say, turkey breast or salami.  The first thing to realize is that it takes a good two weeks to brine the meat, so I needed to plan well in advance of the day that I actually wanted the deli sandwiches.  Second, I needed a good amount of space in the refrigerator for a 5-gallon bucket to hold the meat and brine solution.

So, about two weeks prior the day that I anticipated actually craving the meats, I started the process.  I started with two 8-ish pound beef briskets.  I figure it would be little more work to do two than it is for one.  This is the same philosophy I have when cooking a thanksgiving turkey -- a 24 pound bird is no more work than a 14 pound one, and I end up with much more leftovers and a larger carcass for soup.  But more on that another time.

Two briskets.  I cut each of them roughly in half anticipating that I would be making both corned beef and pastrami.  From the flat side of the brisket, which will become the corned beef, I took off much of the fat.  Since this will ultimately be boiled, there is no need for the surface fat.  From the point side of each piece, I took off much of the heavy fat build-up, but left a thin layer (maybe 1/4").  Since this will be smoked and steamed, the fat will help with both the moisture and flavor (lean pastrami? -- eww).  I then lined a five-gallon bucket with a turkey roasting bag (perfect fit) in preparation for the meat and brine.  I made a brine using salt, sugar, pink pickling salt, and pickling spice*, and put both the brine and meat into the bucket.  I pressed out as much air as possible, ensuring that the brine totally encased all of the meat.  Creating space in our extra refrigerator, I put it away so the magic could happen.

Two weeks later, I opened the bucket to prepare cooking the meat.  I pulled each piece of the flats out and put them directly into a pot. I added a few handfuls of the pickling spice from the brine, covered the meat with water and set it on a low simmer.  About four hours later, the meat was fork-tender, and the corned beef was done.

For the point pieces, I rinsed each piece, and put them on the grids of my smoker.  I coated each piece with a mixture of black pepper, ground coriander, and granulated garlic, and smoked them for about 5 hours using hickory chips.  After smoking, I removed the pieces and put them on the stove to steam for about 2 hours, until they were fork tender.  During the steaming process, the kitchen smelled incredible -- everyone who walked into the kitchen had the mouth-watering, eyes-glazed look of anticipation asking every few minutes "is it done yet?"

Anticipating that Sunday afternoon would be the perfect day for corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, I finished cooking on Saturday evening, and put all of the meat into the refrigerator.  On Sunday, I sliced the meat pretty thin using a borrowed electric slicer.  I then invited several friends and family over for sandwiches and homemade coleslaw.  When people arrived, I heated up a few pounds of the sliced meat and served them on fresh rye bread with a bowl of pickles and pickled tomatoes made by my brother. 

The best compliment I got was when one of my friends was leaving.  He said, "let me know when you are making this again so I can make sure my calendar is clear."  

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* I want to give a shout-out to my friends at the Miami Valley Spice Traders in Centerville, OH.  I used their fabulous pickling spice and ground coriander for this process.  All of their spices are much fresher and much higher quality than supermarket spices.  Plus, they will make any custom blends or grind anything to your specifications. 

Grilled Paella [Recipe]

A vegetarian ... Really?

One year ago, my teenage son returned from a month away at camp and declared he was now a vegetarian. My emotions went crazy. Where did I go wrong? How did this happen? How did my adventurous eater, my son who shared jerky snacks with me, my son who kept a running list of "foods for dad to make," suddenly come out and declare he no longer wanted to eat meat?  I didn't know how to react. What will I cook now?

Ok, I thought. Maybe he means no red meat. I began to panic as I questioned his limits, going through some of his alleged favorite dishes. 

Barbecued Brisket? "No"

Grilled rotisserie chicken? "No"
Crab legs? "No"

Bacon hasselback potatoes?  "Sure, but without the bacon."

No bacon? I had to be alone.  I needed time to think and reflect on this news.  Were there signs that I missed in his upbringing.  I went back to look at his "foods for dad to make" list -- mujadara; polenta; tomato bisque; corn chowder; baba ganouj; rosa sauce; homemade ranch dressing.  Almost everything on the list was a success, but was he trying to tell me something?

Is it possible this is not a choice?  Is it possible he was really born this way?  Maybe I just have to let him be his own person, and accept him for who he is.  I guess it is OK if he really is a vegetarian.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.   

Scott's Favorite Rub [Recipe]

Baked Beans [Recipe]