This Delicious Recipe For Brisket Is As Delicious As It Is Easy!

This recipe comes from a very special family, the Slotnicks.  If I had to name one or two people (outside of my parents and my children) who helped me out during very tough years in my life, it would be this family.  Richard, Barbara, and their son Michael are just wonderful people.  They were ALWAYS (and still are) there for me and my children, especially my son Benji.  The Slotnicks are mensches (a mensch is a person with a good soul). 

I have been lucky to eat Barbara’s delicious food on more than one occasion.  I ate this brisket once at their house, and it was delicious.  The secret of this recipe is that it uses really easy ingredients to create a flavor that is rich and delicious!  Please try this.  You won’t be disappointed!

3 12 oz. cans of apricot nectar

3 packages of Lipton’s onion soup mix )

4 - 5 pounds of brisket, first cut (one or two pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour 1 can of nectar and 1 packet of onion soup mix in the large pan you will be using to bake the brisket.  Stir the soup into the nectar to dissolve.  Place brisket fat side down into the pan.  Sprinkle the second packet of onion soup mix over the brisket.  Then pour the second can of nectar over the soup mix.  Repeat with last packet of soup mix and last can of juice.  Make sure the soup mix is mixed in well with the nectar.  There will be a lot of liquid.  That is okay.  Cover the pan tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil. 

Bake 3 1/2 hours.  Take out.  Check meat.  If your fork goes in very easily, then the meat is tender and it is done.  If you feel there is a little resistance when you put the fork in, cover the meat again, and bake it for another half hour.  If most of the liquid has evaporated, add some more water before you put it back in the oven.  Take out, and make sure meat is tender.  Let it cool in the gravy for about a half hour.  Then take the meat out, put it on a plate, and let it cool another half hour to hour before you slice it.  If you do not have enough gravy in the pan because it has evaporated and reduced, then you can add some water to reconstitute the gravy.  The reduction in the pan will be very rich, so adding some water will not hurt the taste of the gravy. 

When the meat is cool, slice it about 1/4 inch thick.  Then carefully place the slices back in the gravy. 

Note 1:  You can cook this up to three days in advance of serving it.  It will keep fine in the refrigerator. 

Note 2:  If you are having a hard time figuring out how to slice the brisket, turn it over.  You will be able to see how the grain is running by looking at the flat side of the brisket.  Look at the lines that are running parallel to each other in the meat.  Then, slice the meat so that your slices make a right angle with the parallel lines in the meat.  Once you figure out how you will be slicing the meat, you can turn it back over and begin.

Note 3:  I use an electric knife to slice my meat. 

Note 4:  If you like thicker or thinner slices, slice it accordingly. 

Note 5:  I have occasionally had to cook my brisket for up to 4 1/2 hours, believe it or not.  Sometimes the meat will be tough, and it just might need that extra time to become tender.

Make this tasty chicken dish that is similar to a stew!

This recipe was adapted from my Aunt Sally’s recipe for chicken fricassee.  My memories of this dish are from when I was growing up.  Chicken fricassee was one of my Aunt Sally’s specialties.  Almost everyone in her family loved that dish, but I think my cousins Bobby and Paul especially loved it.  I don’t think my cousin Janie liked it as a child, because as I recall, Janie only liked 2 things, plain noodles with butter and spaghetti with sauce.   Well, when my Grandpa Hindes was living with my Uncle Nat and my Aunt Sally after my grandmother died, my parents, my brother Kenny and I would go every Friday night to my aunt’s and uncle’s house to visit my grandfather.  Sometimes when we got to the house, the chicken fricassee leftovers from dinner would still be sitting out on the counter.  As I walked through the kitchen to go into the porch where my grandfather would be sitting and watching tv, I would literally stare at the plate of leftovers.  Yes, my mouth would start to water just looking at the chicken.  The smell was incredible, and aesthetically, I just liked the way the dish looked. (My aunt was a fabulous cook!)  My cousins Bobby and Paul would usually be watching tv in the porch too.  Inevitably, they’d get up and make themselves plates of the leftover chicken fricassee.   I was so jealous.  I wanted a plate too, but I never had the nerve to ask.  Sometimes, I’d go in the kitchen and steal a little taste.  It was so delicious!  Another memory I have associated with this dish is that when my Grandma Fried died and we were sitting shiva at my Aunt Florence and Uncle Larry’s house, my Aunt Sally made a hug shissle of her chicken fricassee for our whole family.  Even in the midst of mourning, I specifically remember how delighted I was that my Aunt Sally cooked this for us.  How I was loved eating this chicken! 

• 2 largish or 1 very large onion- medium dice
• 5-8 garlic cloves- chopped
• 5 large chicken breast pieces on the bone or one whole chicken cut up in eighths
• 1-  28 ounce can of whole peeled organic tomatoes in tomato juice (crush by hand or roughly chop), including juice in the can
• 2 tablespoons white wine (optional)- (I prefer without- Sept. 2011)
• 1 bunch fresh organic carrots, peeled and cut up into large chunks
• kosher salt
• fresh cracked pepper
• paprika
• garlic powder
• olive oil - extra virgin- organic preferable- or light is fine too
• rice or egg noodles for serving 

Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper,  garlic powder, and a lot of paprika.  Set aside. 

Peel and chop onion to your liking, either diced or roughly chopped.   (If your children don’t like to see pieces of onion in their food, you can chop the onion finely in the food processor, using the metal blade.)  Then peel garlic, crush it, and set aside. 

Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons olive oil in the bottom of a large dutch oven, or a large and deep frying pan, or large saucepan.  Put onion in, and saute over medium flame.  When onion is almost translucent, put the garlic in.  Season the onion and garlic mixture with salt and pepper.  Saute for another minute or two.   Place the chicken pieces in the pot or pan, and brown lightly on one side over a medium-low flame.  Turn the chicken, and brown on the other side.  (After you turn it, sprinkle it with a little more paprika.) After chicken in lightly browned on both sides, pour the chopped tomatoes and juice in- I just squeeze the tomatoes by hand as I drop them in, put the cut up carrots in, and add the white wine (optional).  Put the top on.  Cook about 45 min. or so, over a low to medium heat to maintain a definite simmer.  Give chicken a light sprinkling of paprika once or twice.  Take the breasts out, and turn off the flame.  Let the chicken cool so you can handle it.  Then take the skin off, and take the meat off the bone, breaking it by hand into nice bite size pieces.  Then put all the chicken back in the pot.  Put the top on, and simmer over lowest flame another 30 minutes or so.  Start preparing either rice or noodles to serve it with.  You can keep dish at a simmer while the rice is cooking ; the chicken won’t dry out if it cooks a little longer.  You may do a few things at this point.  You can serve the chicken on top of rice or noodles on a platter, or you can serve the rice or noodles separately. 

If you like, you do not have to take the meat off the bone- just cook the chicken in the pot initailly about 15 minutes longer and serve on the bone.

Note:  If you want to make this according to my Aunt Sally’s recipe, serve the chicken on the bone.    

Make this  kugel- it’s like making a giant potato latke!

When I hear the phrase “potato kugel”, I remember back to when I was a very little girl.  My Grandma Fried lived in a small apartment in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  Maybe once a month, my father would take my brother Kenny and me to visit her.  My Grandma Fried was a very kind, sweet woman who had had a very hard life.  She was a very loving grandmother.  What I remember so well is when we walked into the apartment building, I immediately smelled the delicious aroma of my grandmother’s potato kugel.  I know that my father loved her potato kugel.  When I got married, I started to develop my own recipe for potato kugel.  My goal was to create a dish that would taste just like the best potato latke only bigger.  I achieved my goal.  This potato kugel recipe is perfect.  When you take a bite, it’s a little greasy, a little crunchy, and oh, so good! I like to make this recipe as a side dish for Rosh Hashana, Passover, or Shabbat.  It is so easy to make, and everyone loves it!

For a 10 x 15 baking dish                        For a 9 x 13 baking dish 

• 5 pounds baking potatoes                              9 large potatoes

• 7 extra large eggs                                            4 extra large eggs

• 4 medium-large onions                                   3 med.-large onions

• heavy 1 1/3 cups matzoh meal                     2/3 cup matzoh meal

• 1 cup corn oil                                                    3/4 cup corn oil

• additional oil for greasing dish                       additional oil 

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt                                 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 1/4 teaspoons pepper                                  1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and cut potatoes into quarters.  Peel onions and cut into quarters.  Place one third of eggs, potatoes and onions into a blender.  Blend until mixture is the consistency of applesauce.  Pour the mixture into a very large mixing bowl.  Repeat this two more times to use all potatoes, onions, and eggs.  Then add matzoh meal, salt, and pepper to the potato mixture.  Mix with rubber spatula.

Grease the sides and bottom of either your 10 x 15 or the 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish with oil .  Then pour either the 1 cup or the 3/4 cup of oil into the dish.  Place in oven for about 5 minutes to get the oil really hot.  (If you think you might forget that your oil is in the oven, skip this step and just pour the room temperature oil into the batter; otherwise, you will have a fire if you leave the oil in the oven too long!) Then take the dish with the hot oil out of the oven and pour the hot oil into the potato mixture.  Mix with a rubber spatula to incorporate the oil.  Then pour the batter into the greased baking dish.  Bake for about 1 hour.  Take out of oven, and shmear a few additional tablespoons of oil over the top of the kugel.  Place back in oven for another 15-30 minutes until the top is very brown.  The kugel should be well browned on the bottom, the sides, and the top.

Note:  You may make this a day or two in advance, and then reheat it in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

My children refer to this as dish as Chicken with the Jewish Spices, but I think you will like it even if you aren’t Jewish!

My two boys, Danny and Benji both love chicken.  This is one of the healthier chicken recipes that I make for them, and they love it.  It is so tasty, and I like the fact that it is pretty healthy, too.  It is a snap to make. 

• cut up chicken (I use only breasts), with the skin
• Kosher salt
• pepper (I use ground pepper, but you make use fresh ground if you like)
• garlic powder
• paprika

Preheat oven to a broil setting (I have a low broil setting, and I use that).  Sprinkle both sides of chicken with spices, but go a little heavier on the paprika.

Cover a half sheet pan or other baking dish with sides with heavy duty aluminum foil or two sheets of regular foil.  Put the seasoned chicken pieces on the foil lined pan, skin side up.  Put the chicken on a lower rack in the preheated oven.  Broil for about 15 minutes.  Watch to make sure that the chicken isn’t burning.  When the top of the chicken is really browned, take it out, and turn the chicken over so it is skin side down.  Put back in the oven and broil another 15 minutes.  Take out.  Turn the chicken over so it is skin side up again.  If you don’t think it’s browned enough, put it back under the broiler for another 5 minutes.  You are not finished cooking the chicken yet.  Take the oven off of broil, and change the temperature to bake at 375 degrees.  Cover the chicken with aluminum foil (make sure the foil is not touching the top of the chicken).  Cook the chicken for 15 minutes more.  If you are using dark meat, then you will need to cook the chicken for an additional 5 or 10 minutes.  Put the chicken on a serving platter.  You can make some au jus gravy from the drippings in the pan.  Just add a little hot water right to your pan, and try to get all the browned bits off the foil and mix with the water. You will get a really dark and delicious au jus gravy from those pan drippings.  

Note:  You can drizzle a little oil on the top of the chicken before you start to broil it, but I have found that there is enough fat in the skin, and the oil isn’t necessary.  Leaving the oil out also makes this recipe healthier. 

This recipe was adapted by me from my Aunt Florence’s brisket recipe.  I loved brisket growing up.  Although I liked my mother’s brisket a lot, it didn’t hold a candle to my Aunt Florence’s, which I was lucky enough to eat every Passover at her house.  When I saw that platter of brisket arriving at the table, my mouth was watering.  The meat was such a dark brown, rich color, and the flavor of the meat when it hit my tongue was heavenly; there really are no sufficient words to describe how good that brisket tasted to me.  I was always worried there wouldn’t be enough for me.  Luckily, there usually was.  Anyway, I started making this brisket around 1978 right after I got married.  I couldn’t wait to start making my aunt’s amazing brisket.  I followed my Aunt Florence’s recipe, but I did change the cooking method.  She cooked the brisket in a pot for the whole cooking time.  But I decided to start the cooking on the stove, and then transfer the pot into the oven for a few hours.  This method resulted in the brisket having the same incredible dark brown color and rich taste, but the meat was much more tender.  My brisket became the talk of the family.  I had achieved great heights in cooking when I mastered my aunt’s incomparable brisket!

• About 5 pounds brisket, first or thin cut- you can use 1 big piece or 2 smaller pieces
• About 5-6 medium to large onions
• About 2 fat or 4 thin carrots
• Kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder

Season both sides of the meat pretty heavily with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Peel and quarter the onions and put them in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade.  Pulse the onions until they resemble the consistency of chunky apple sauce.  Put the onions on the bottom of a large dutch oven or very large oven-proof pot.  Then, slice the carrots into very thin sticks or grate them  onto the top of the onions in the dutch oven.  Place the meat on top of the onions and carrots.  Pour about 1 cup of cold water around the meat.  Cover the dutch oven.  Put the heat on medium, and bring the water to a boil.  Cook on a high simmer about 30 minutes with the cover on.  Then take the cover off and cook on high heat until all the liquid evaporates.  The onions and carrots and meat will start to brown.  Lift the meat up with a strong metal spatula and mush the vegetables around.  Turn the meat eventually when it’s really brown on the bottom.  It will almost be burning a little, as will the vegetables.  When that starts to happen, add more cold water, about 1 cup.  Notice the color of the gravy.  It probably will be a light to medium brown.  That isn’t dark enough.  Let the new liquid reduce down and evaporate.  The meat and vegetables will be browning more.  When all liquid is evaporated add another cup of cold water.  If the gravy is dark and rich, you are ready for the next step.  If you still think the gravy is not dark, repeat the reducing and browning process one more time.

When you have decided that your gravy is dark and rich, add one more cup of water.  There should be lots of gravy now around the meat.  Cover the dutch oven or pot (I use aluminum foil first and then I put the cover on top of that).  Put the dutch oven into the oven at about 350 degrees.  Let it cook for about 2 hours.  Take it out, uncover it, and check it for tenderness.  put a fork in.  If it is done, the fork will go in very easily.  It probably won’t be tender enough at this point.  Add some more water if the gravy has reduced too much.  Cover the meat, and put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.  Check again, and put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.  It might be ready at this point.  The meat usually needs at least 3 hours in the oven.  Sometimes, depending on the meat, I have actually kept it in the oven for 4 or 5 hours.  Now, if one of your pieces of brisket is tender before the other, take that piece out and let it cool on a late.  When the rest of the meat is done, take it out and put it on a plate.  The meat should cool for about 1 hour before you slice it.  Use an electric knife and slice it against the grain about 1/4 inch thick.  Pour all the gravy into whatever dish you plan to heat the meat up in when you serve it.  You can also pour the gravy into a disposable aluminum roasting pan, if you plan to heat it up in that.  Trim any fat off your slices, then place them in the gravy and smoosh the gravy into the meat.  If you think the gravy has reduced too much, you may add some water to it to make some more gravy.  You can put the meat into the refrigerator up to 3 days before you will be reheating and serving it.  I usually take the brisket out of the refrigerator one or two hours before I start to reheat it.  You can cook this and freeze it, but I don’t think it tastes quite as good.   

 This Marble Cake Will Satisfy Any Craving For Chocolate Or Sugar!

This is another recipe that came from Adele Hochheiser.  Adele Hochheiser was my mother’s wonderful best friend, and she was like a second mother to me.  Adele was a terrific  cook and baker.  I have wonderful memories of going over to the Hochheiser house, walking into Adele’s kitchen, and smelling the enticing aroma of either something cooking or baking in Adele’s oven.  My mother loved Adele’s marble cake, and of course my mother got the recipe from her.  This became one of the standard recipes that my mother baked for the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashana.  My father and I really loved this cake, but my mother adored this cake.  When I ask my mother which cake recipe is her all time favorite one, she always says, “The marble cake.”  This cake is  a little on the heavy side, but it is GOOD.  My mother and I have had some great laughs through the years about how much we love this cake despite its slightly heavy and dry texture. We always say, “But it just tastes so good!”   My mother and Adele baked this cake in a 9 x 13 pan, but I when I started baking it, I discovered the cake came out moister when I baked it in a tube pan.  So that’s the pan I use.  When I bake it, I usually cut it into thirds, wrap it, and of course deliver some to my mother.  She keeps it in the freezer, and takes it out sparingly, because she doesn’t want to use it up.  I’m feeling guilty right now, because I know her supply is running out, and I need to replenish it.  I’d better get on the job!

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter or Fleischmann’s margarine, at room temperature (I usually use butter)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 extra large eggs, at room temperature
• 3 cups unbleached flour, sifted (sift, then measure)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I use Baker’s or Nestle’s squares)
• 1 1/ 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a tube pan with removable sides well with butter or margarine.

In mixing bowl, put flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  In a small microwave safe bowl, put the squares of chocolate, and then melt on a low power level in the microwave.  Add the 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract to the melted chocolate, and mix with a rubber spatula.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter or margarine.  Add the sugar and cream until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Add the 1 remaining teaspoon vanilla, and mix, just until blended.  Add the dry mixture alternately with the milk in three or four additions, scraping down the bowl one or two times.

Take out about 1/3 of vanilla batter and put in a bowl. Add the melted chocolate to it, and mix with a rubber spatula.

Pour all of vanilla batter into prepared tube pan.  Then put dollops of chocolate batter on top of vanilla until you have used up the chocolate batter.  Take a knife and swirl the chocoate batter through the vanilla batter.   Do not overswirl at this point, because you want the chocolate cake to be chocolate, and you want the vanilla cake to be vanilla.  Bake about 50 minutes until the cake just starts to separate from the sides of the pan and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool the cake on a wire rack about 1 1/2 hours until completely cool.  Run a knife around the edge of the pan and around the inside tube.  Then lift the cake up off of the sides holding the tube.  Then cut it in half, and with a metal spatula, lift each half off the bottom of the pan  onto a serving plate.

Note:  This cake freezes well.  Wrap it in halves or thirds in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil, and then put in plastic freezer bags.  When you have company, take out 1/3 or 1/2 , slice it, and put slices in an overlapping pattern on a serving plate.