by Laredo » Sat Oct 15, 2005 9:57 pm
here is one.
get yourself a 7 to 9 pound vacuum-packed brisket, a bunch of celery, a good big red onion, a good big white onion, and a good big yellow onion, or maybe two. Add two heads of garlic, a five pound bag of Yukon gold potatoes -- try to get 'em running about the size of a big egg on average -- and a pound or two of carrots. if you like salad you should also get the makings for your favorite kind. you will need three or four big limes, 8 ounces of honey and 12 ounces of soy sauce; also you should get some lea & perrins, white pepper, cumin, cayenne, ginger, salt, coarse black pepper, chipotle powder, onion powder,
mustard powder, and butter if you don't already keep such stuff at home.
you will also need five cans of peaches or three of peaches and two of apricots, a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, two sticks of butter, a big box of yellow or white cake mix, a teaspoon of vanilla and another pinch of ginger plus one of cinnamon.
mix half a cup of honey with half a cup of soy sauce and half a cup of fresh lime juice.
light the oven.
mix two tablespoons of coarse ground black pepper with a teaspoon of ground white pepper, a half a teaspoon of cayenne, a half a teaspoon of ground dry chipotle pepper, a tablespoon of kosher salt and a tablespoon of onion powder plus a generous dash each of of dry mustard powder, cumin and powdered ginger.
wrap the garlic in two layers of foil, with the inside lightly buttered and the paper peeled off the garlic and roast in the oven until it's soft and golden. squeeze the cloves out and mash to a chunky paste; set aside.
line a turkey roaster with heavy duty aluminum foil; open a stick of the butter and rub the wrapper over the foil until the foil doesn't look shiny anymore. cut the bulb end off the celery and wash all the stalks well. cut them in half and put them on the buttered foil with the 'hollow' part of the stem down. peel the outer edges of the onions and slice them about 1/2 inch thick and lay half the slices on the bottom of the pan among the celery.
rub half the spices on the meat and lay it on the onions and celery, fat side up. peel the carrots and cut them in 2-inch-long pieces and arrange them around the sides of the roast. spread about a fourth of the garlic over the top of the fat side of the brisket; pour about half the soy sauce mix over the top, and set the whole thing in the hot oven. Come back in 45 minutes and pull the roast out; put the lid on and seal the edges with foil, turn the oven down to 300 and put the roast back in, and let cook about 3 hours.
drain the fruit, reserving the juice in a separate bowl; add the vanilla, pie spice, cinnamon and ginger and cover the fruit and let stand on the counter for the flavors to blend.
wash the potatoes and cut ones bigger than an egg in half; put in a deep pan on top of the stove and cover with cold water. add a tablespoon of salt to water and turn the burner on; grind about a teaspoonful of pepper into the water, cover and bring to a rolling boil; lower heat to a simmer and cook 30 minutes. drain and return to the pan; mash well with a third of the remaining garlic and a stick of butter.
while you're waiting on the potatoes to cook prepare the cobbler; open the cake mix and the remaining stick of butter. rub this butter wrapper over the inside of a dutch oven; cut the butter into quarter-inch cubes. put 2/3 of the cake mix into the bowl of reserved fruit juice and mix well. mix in 2/3 of the butter and beat well. mix the remaining cake mix with the remaining butter and mix with a fork until it looks like fine gravel.
put about half this in the bottom of the buttered dutch oven; pour in the fruit and pour over the batter, reserving the remaining crumbles (if you have it and want to you can add a couple tablespoons brown sugar and a little more cinnamon to these crumbs, but you don't have to). Thump the pot a couple times against the counter top to bring out all the air bubbles; sprinkle the last crumbs on top of the batter, put the lid on the oven and set it to bake in the oven with the roast (or outside, over 11 coals with 13 on the lid of a 12'' oven set on a 3'' high trivet). Should be ready in about 45 minutes indoors, about an hour outdoors depending on the wind and humidity.
when the roast has cooked between 3 and 4 hours, depending on how tender you want it, open the lid, turn the meat fat-side-down, and pour the remaining soy sauce mixture over the top. spread on the last of the garlic, close the lid and cook another 15 minutes. this refreshes the flavors.
fish the meat out and rest it 10 minutes while the salads are being eaten.
the fat should practically fall off the meat, and it should be fork-tender; you may have trouble slicing it because it will tear apart. you can fish out the carrots and pour a little pan gravy over them. if you want, you can serve the cooked onions on/with the roast.
slice it thick and serve it with warm mashed garlic potatoes. follow it up with the peach/apricot cobbler. ice cream's a bonus.
this will feed four hungry Webelos scouts and their parents and grandparents. plan accordingly.
Mopar's what my busted knuckles bleed, working on my 318s...
Gosh I don't think Dean can take that much
