Sunday Brisket with Onions
Description
Juicy brisket cooked in a sauce of meltingly tender onions epitomizes Sunday night fare — comforting, uncomplicated and able to feed the big family. Like all braises it improves if made ahead. So cook it on Sunday afternoon and look forward to a ready-made meal later in the week.
— Kate & Guy, Onions Etcetera The Essential Allium Cookbook
Ingredients
1 (4-pound) beef brisket
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 (12-ounce) bottle or can of beer
Directions
Heat the over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Trim the excess fat from the brisket (keep some on for flavor and juiciness) and season well with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over modeatley high heat, then add the brisket and sear, turning once, until browned on both sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the brisket to a platter.
Add the onions, bay leaf and 1/2-teaspoon salt to the pot. Cook, stirring and scraping, until they have softened, about 10 minutes.Stir the vinegar and mustard into the onions, then pull out about half the onions. Return the brisket to the pot, nestling it into the onions and top with the reserved onions. Pou in the beer, cover tightly and transfer to the oven. Braise until the beef is very tender, 3 to 3-1/2 hours.
Remove from the oven, uncover and let the meat and sauce cool completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.
Before serving, lift out and discard the fat that has solidified on the surface of the sauce. Discard the bay leaf. Remove the brisket and slice it thinly against the grain. Nestle the meat back into the sauce and reheat gently in a low temperature oven.
If you want to serve the brisket the day you braise it, let it cool about 30 minutes. Then skim off some of the fat from the sauce, slice the brisket against the grain and serve.
Special notes
Serves 6
Excerpted from Onions Etcetera by Kate Winslow and Guy Ambrosino. Copyright © 2017 Burgess Lea Press. Photography copyright © 2017 Guy Ambrosino. Published by Burgess Lea Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
