My Passover Story

While I don’t necessarily observe all the Jewish holidays, Passover (or Pesach) is one that is always important to me and I try to always celebrate it with my family (yes I realize that Passover ended over a week ago, but now is when my post was finished, so here it is).  Even when I was living away from home I would usually try to get home for at least the Passover Seder, which is on the first night (well technically there are two but we’ll get back to that).  We are not an especially traditional family and, though we have altered some of the ritual practices to find a tradition that works for us, we do keep more of the traditions here than at other times.

Passover celebrates the freedom of the ancient Israelites (the forerunners to present day Jews) from slavery in Egypt.  It also serves as a holiday to welcome the arrival of spring and, in ancient times, even served as the start of the Jewish Year (though now the accepted New Year is Rosh Hashanah which occurs in the fall).  While the exact timing will always vary, Passover is often close in time to Easter, and this is no coincidence.  It is generally accepted by biblical scholars that the “last supper” of Jesus and his disciples was actually the Passover Seder.

The Passover Seder itself is a ceremonial meal replete with symbols representing the story of Passover and the purpose of its existence is to tell the story of Passover to the next generation.  Most often, we read from the Haggadah, a book that sets out the specific order in which things are done and which prayers are said at what time.  Now my dad is definitely not into prayers so, although we used a traditional text for some time in my early years, we switched to something more progressive many years ago.  From about the age of 10 until my Bar Mitzvah I received my Jewish education with a Toronto-based organization that billed itself a Secular Jewish Association.  What this essentially meant, is that while they kept a Jewish identity and some traditions, there was pretty much no discussion of God and almost no purely religious aspect.  It was with this group that I had my Bar Mitzvah which would really be more accurately described as a school graduation ceremony. First it was a group event.   No Torah readings, no prayers but plenty about what we have learned about Judaism and being Jewish.  I must say that I really needed that school at that point in my life, as I really didn’t understand what it meant to be Jewish; all I really comprehended was that I was not Christian like everyone else at school (hmm, knowing I’m different but not knowing how - it seems this pattern keeps coming up through my life!!)  But this experience taught me to have pride in my background and allowed me to define myself not by what I’m not, but by what I am (again, great practice for coming out - it just took me a really long time to see it).

So where were we?  Oh, that’s right, Passover.  Before I got off on that tangent, I was going to explain that when we joined that organization, they had produced their own Haggadah and the content seemed to reflect our values very well and that is the version we use to this day.  The point I’m trying to make by telling you this is that sometimes we can get bogged down by the old traditions that we do just because we are supposed to do them and this can obscure the intended objective of that tradition.  I have a guess that this is one reason I am meeting so many people who still claim to have a spiritual side but have pretty much abandoned established religion.  I think that learning about Jewish traditions and history has taught me that letting go of that identity has imperiled the survival of the Jewish people so, even if I do not accept some tenets of the faith or some of the ritual practices, I am and will always be Jewish.  I might suggest that an alternative to just declaring oneself non-religious might be to take a closer look at your faith and do some cherry-picking; making your own traditions by keeping what works and either eliminating what doesn’t or changing it so that it does.  In fact, a family member shared something recently from a rabbi that advocates doing exactly that, albeit with a starting viewpoint quite a bit different than my own.  I will provide the link here though you should be warned that those of you who do not know much about Judaism and all the traditions associated with Passover will likely be lost.  There are even some things in there that I don’t understand.  But the basic point he is making is that we should be examining the Seder traditions and, for it to be meaningful, we cannot get stuck in an endlessly repeating pattern but instead we should be fulfilling the goal of retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt by making sure we do not turn it into a bore or a meaningless rite, but make it a time for learning and truly examining the lessons of not just this holiday, but all our religious practices.  To read the article click here

It seems this post just does NOT want to be about the Seder itself.  Oh, well I bet this is more interesting anyway.  Still, I wanted to share a bit about the Seder itself because Passover is about telling the story and explaining the meaning of everything that is done.  Very briefly, it is the story of the Book of Exodus: the Israelites were enslaved by Egypt in the days of the Pharaoh and it came to be that Pharaoh wanted to keep this slave population from growing.  Then Moses received a command from God to lead his people and demand their freedom from Pharaoh (this part is not really mentioned in our Haggadah, but reference is only made to the people being oppressed and demanding release).  The story goes that, when Pharaoh refused, 10 plagues beset the Egyptians and Pharaoh relented.  All the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry.  But then Pharaoh reconsidered and pursued the escaping Hebrews to the Sea of Reeds (or possibly the Red Sea - there is a certain vagary in the translation and in reconciling with a physical location).  Then, miraculously, the waters parted allowing the Israelites to cross then, while the Egyptians were crossing, the waters came back drowning the pursuers. 

Because they departed in a hurry, the story is that they had no time to wait for their bread to rise before baking it to have food for the journey, which is why we do not eat any leavened products (especially bread) throughout Passover, eating matzah instead.  There is also no baking or cooking with flour or most other grains, and no grain-based alcohol.  For some sections of the Jewish community, rice and legumes are also proscribed.  Despite these difficulties I actually enjoy baking on Passover, particularly because of those very interesting challenges.  But, yes you can bake cake on Passover.  Since no leavening agents are permitted, sponge cake is the method of choice, as the only leavening present in such a cake is beaten egg white.  As flour cannot be used, the substitute is a blend of matzah cake meal (which is matzah ground to meal, then ground further and sifted to make a very fine powder) and potato starch.  Ground nuts are also very commonly used, most often walnuts or almonds.

The matzah is one of three elements of the Seder that are considered especially important to be explained, the others being the pesach and the maror.  Pesach, which is also one of the names of the holiday, refers to the lamb that was sacrificed on the eve of the final plague on the Egyptians.  The Angel of Death was to come and kill all the first born sons of Egypt and the Israelites would sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the doors of their homes as a sign for the plague to pass over their homes (hence the other name).  In the days of the Great Temple in Jerusalem, animal offerings were made at the temple, and a lamb was offered on Passover.   Finally the maror is bitter herbs, the eating of something bitter at the Seder.  The obvious symbolism is to remember that the lives of the slaves were bitter so we must remember that by tasting the bitterness ourselves.  Different families use different items to represent bitterness, but the most common these days is probably horseradish.  Now the interesting thing is that I don’t consider horseradish to be particularly bitter.  It certainly is very pungent and sharp and it can be painful to eat but the bitterness is not at the forefront.  However, what my family has done (this does go back to previous generations) is to take a whole root and soak it in water at room temperature for at least a couple weeks before Passover, until it begins to sprout.  The germination and growing of sprouts does in fact make the horseradish more distinctly bitter and maybe a little stronger too.  Other possibilities for maror include endive, radicchio or a similar bitter lettuce.  A long time ago, I heard at some point some Jewish families would use romaine as their bitter herb.  Now who really considers romaine lettuce bitter?  I think this was part of a trend to not have anything eaten at the Seder to be the slightest bit unpleasant to eat, particularly for the kids.  But the most important part of Passover is teaching the kids and I think it is a worthwhile lesson that the lives of the Hebrew slaves were bitter and quite unpleasant.  The maror should not be a joy to eat - it is supposed to be reminiscent of the bitterness of slavery.

There are other symbols on the Seder plate too.  Haroset is a mildly sweet paste made of apples, nuts, wine and a bit of sugar and cinnamon (there are other variations too) that represents the mortar used by the Israelites to build monuments for Pharaoh.  It is eaten together with matzah and maror.  There is the z’roah, a roasted shank bone, ideally of lamb, that represents the pesach sacrifice.  Baytzah, an egg, represents new life and rebirth of springtime.  Karpas is a green herb that represents springtime and the new growth.  The Karpas is dipped in salt water when eaten, the water representing tears cried by the slaves.

The Seder Plate - Clockwise from top:  Karpas, Baytzah, Maror, Z'roah, Haroset

There are so many more details regarding the Seder, from the four cups of wine, to the cup for the prophet Elijah, to the afikoman, to the story of the four sons and so much more, some of which varies by family or regional origin.  But for our family, we complete the Seder by following along in the Haggadah, which includes various stories, quotations and songs, some drawing parallels to modern day issues as well.  More traditional Haggadot (that is the plural of Haggadah) would have more of a focus on prayers.  Then we eat boiled eggs also with the salt water.  Next comes chicken soup.  This is quite commonly served with matzah balls, but mostly we just have the soup with crumbled bits of matzah.  Then comes the main course.  Some of the most frequent meals we have are either roast chicken or a pot roast brisket (of course I have recipes now on this blog for either one)


As you can see, I could go on and on for pages and pages about what Passover and the Seder are about and what lessons can be learned.  But since this is getting quite long, and I think I mentioned the most important things, I will simply finish by saying that perhaps the ultimate lesson is to not take our freedom for granted but rather to celebrate our freedom and to work towards a day when everyone can be free.

Oh, wait a minute!  It seems I said I’d come back to the part about there being two Seders.  Yes, tradition does dictate that a Seder be held on each of the first two nights of Pesach.  Now this makes sense if you have a large extended family living reasonably close by so one Seder would be at one house and the second at another house, quite likely with different guests (this is definitely a holiday where hospitality and inviting guests is encouraged).  That does not really apply to our family and doing the same Seder with only the three of us on consecutive days really makes no sense.  So we only have the one.

Beef 101

This is something unusual. Normally I don't post other people's content on this blog, but a reader brought this to my attention and asked if I would consider drawing attention to this. As the information is good and says some of the same things I have already referred to in previous posts, I decided to go ahead. This graphic comes from frugaldad.com and I have permission to use it. The site itself seems to have fairly good content and general advice and, while I have not read enough of it to give a full recommendation, this bit of information is good and what I have seen of the rest of the site seems worth reading. You might want to check it out.

If you would like to read my post about selecting and buying beef, check out my post Choosing Your Ingredients - Part 1 (published August 17, 2011)

Thank you to Megan from frugaldad for bringing this to my attention and allowing me to share this with you.

One additional note: this information and the definitions of the cuts mentioned are all as set out by USDA rules - in other countries, including Canada, there are some differences, though most is similar.

Source: Beef 101 - frugaldad.com

Source: FrugalDad

Beef Paprikash

5 lbs beef bottom blade (or other stewing meat)
3 onions, diced
1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut large on the bias
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
olive oil
½ head garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup good quality hungarian paprika
½ Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp cayenne
6 thyme sprigs
1 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup red wine
2 cups tomato sauce or canned tomatoes
1 ½ cups sour cream

This is another braised meat dish so it follows the general theme of my post about How To Make a Stew. But this meal is a classic in my family so I feel it deserves its own post. There are also a few modifications of the basic technique. Paprikash is a traditional Hungarian dish typically made with veal, although beef chicken or pork are often used as well. As this dish is named after the primary spice, it is important to use good quality paprika. This is not a place for smoked paprika and I would generally advise against using Spanish paprika, as it is generally of inferior quality to Hungarian. Hungarian paprika is sold in two variations, hot and sweet. The “hot” in hot paprika shouldn’t normally refer to the heat associated with chili burn, but more to the pungency. Hot Hungarian paprika is the ideal form of paprika to use for this dish. Sweet paprika will work as well, though you may want to increase slightly the quantity of cumin and (maybe) the cayenne to compensate for the relative delicacy of the sweet paprika. Of course this will all depend on the actual quality of the product. Sometimes the hot paprika can be quite spicy, though it is not supposed to be. In this case reduce (or even eliminate) the cayenne so it doesn’t get too spicy.

First brown the slices of parsnip and set aside, then brown the meat and set it aside, as described in my stew post.




Then add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until soft, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add the tomato paste and paprika and cook, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes to open up the aromas of the paprika. Do not let it burn. Then add more oil and stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for about a minute. Then add the wine, then the tomatoes and the salt, pepper and other herbs and spices. Add the meat and parsnips back to the pot, bring to a boil and cook in a 275 degree oven for about 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Before adding the sour cream

After the sour cream

When the stew is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Make sure it is no longer boiling. Then stir in the sour cream, one or two dollops at a time. At this point, if you bring the paprikash back to a boil, the sauce will separate and appear curdled. This won’t affect the taste but when done properly you will get a very smooth texture that boiling will undo. However, when frozen and reheated, the damage is actually not as bad as one might think, as the sour cream stays more or less emulsified. We serve this over egg noodles or another broad pasta, such as pappardelle. Other pasta will work as well, or any other starch you would normally serve with a stew.

Pierre Poutine And The Disappearing Democracy

I have written before about the current Canadian governing party doing whatever they can to suppress dissent and undermine democracy. There is now another scandal that strikes very close to home here in Guelph. Actually it is not really news, as this is something that happened during the federal election last May and was reported on locally when it happened. It is only now that the rest of the country has noticed that something is going on.

What originally happened is that on the day of the election, many Guelph residents received an automated phone call (known as a robocall) with a prerecorded voice claiming to be from Elections Canada and that the call was to inform you that your polling station had changed. For those who are knowledgeable, this is obviously not a legitimate call. First of all, Elections Canada never conducts robocalls, they do not give notice of poll location changes by telephone, and they do not even have lists of voter phone numbers. If a poll location changes, they will send out a revised voter information card or, if there is not enough time to do that, they will have officials staff the former location as well, and direct people to the new location. For most people who received this call, the new location they were given was downtown, which is not where these people lived. Most often mentioned was Old Quebec Street Mall, which to my knowledge has never been used as a voting location. Generally churches, schools, retirement homes, or community centres are used as poll locations. Recently there has also been some claims that similar calls have occurred other places in the country, including in some ridings (districts) where the election was decided by fewer than 50 votes.

On further investigation, the phone that made the suspicious calls in Guelph turned out to be what is referred to as a “burner” cellphone - a phone that is acquired, often under an assumed name, used for a short while then abandoned. This phone was registered to “Pierre Poutine” living on “Separatist Street” in Joliette, Quebec. Aside from the obvious fakery, the story takes a couple more interesting terms at this point. There is in fact a restaurant in Guelph that is called Pierre’s Poutine which, interestingly enough, is located in the vicinity of Old Quebec Street. Now this is not the same restaurant I reviewed a few months ago that also was in downtown Guelph and serves poutine. It seems that Guelph is becoming a regional poutine capital. Well, at least it may give Guelph some kind of food identity because it was known for absolutely nothing culinary before now. The owner of the restaurant of course has no connection to the scandal, but he is nonetheless enjoying the notoriety.

Next came a suspiciously coincidental resignation from a Conservative party aide who had extensive involvement in the election campaign in Guelph. Michael Sona was a communications director for the local Conservative candidate during the election and until recently was an aide for a Mississauga area MP. During the Guelph campaign he was involved in another mini-scandal. There was special early balloting on the University of Guelph campus because the election would have come immediately after the end of term so the poll was set up to allow Guelph students to vote in Guelph. Apparently the Conservatives had some concerns with how the polling stations were set up but Sona’s inexplicable form of protest was to attempt to grab the ballot box. I still don’t really understand why there were no charges laid in the incident and everything was kind of ignored. Now once the robocall story becomes national news, Sona suddenly resigns from his current position in the Conservative party. Again, we don’t know if he actually was involved in this exercise, but let’s just say it looks suspicious.

Then reports from other ridings across the country began coming in. Some calls were automated but others used live voices; some claimed to be from Elections Canada and some claimed to be from the Conservative Party and others may have claimed to be from one of the other parties. There were also calls from people claiming to be from the Liberal Party that called Liberal supporters at inappropriate times and were harassing or otherwise rude to voters. In many of these cases the calls have been tracked back to Conservative Party callers. Other ridings also had calls about supposed changes in polling station locations, some hours away from where the voter lived. It seems that the majority of ridings affected were heavily contested ridings and many had slim margins of victory. Thousands of complaints have been made with Elections Canada and they are now undertaking an investigation more comprehensive than they have ever done before.

Recently, another “interesting” situation has come to light. In a Toronto area riding, a high profile Liberal MP was defeated by about 4000 votes in a closely watched race, and the Conservative victor was rewarded with a position in Cabinet. This riding also received reports of Liberal supporters receiving harassing phone calls. Now we have found out that nearly 3000 late voter registrations were filed. In Canada, even if you are not on the voters list, if you are eligible to vote and you have a residence in the appropriate riding you can go to the polls on Election Day and fill out a form, including your address, show ID, and you can still vote. Since I have moved several times in the last few years I have had to go through this process more than once. But in this case, it seems many of those late registration form showed irregularities: in particular on many of these forms the address was left blank. In others, the address given was either phony or for a business. As the address is needed as proof you live in the riding, it must be a residential address. Despite lacking this critical information these forms were signed by election officials so these people were able to vote. We don’t yet know how many of those late registration forms contained irregularities, but reports now are saying there could be at least a couple thousand. When you consider the margin of victory was only 4000, this combined with the voter suppression tactics, begins to call the result into doubt. And if these registrations were apparently allowed from people without giving a valid address, is it possible they may even have voted twice? Do we need the purple ink in Canada too now?

While it is certainly possible that rogue Conservative Party sympathizers did this on their own without approval from leadership or the official campaign (apparently it is disturbingly easy and cheap to set up an account to send out robocalls to a given list of phone numbers - any one can do it with a few minutes, a few dollars, and instructions from the Internet), the number of ridings involved, the slight differences in tactics used, and the overwhelming pattern of which places and which voters were targeted suggests the party probably has something to do with this. And when we put this together with their general approach to governance and integrity, it seems downright plausible this was orchestrated by someone higher up. Also, as this seems to have been a tactic for voter suppression, mainly targeting those who had previously told the conservatives that they would not vote for them, it is consistent with previous government tactics remove the part of government that has to do with representing the people. They are forcing through a regressive crime bill that will establish tons of mandatory minimum sentences for broad ranges of crimes, removing a judge’s discretion in sentencing, and are trying to form a very intrusive bill very similar to the SOPA bill that was proposed in the US. There are all kinds of other things they are doing to ignore public or government opposition or to keep everything secret, but I won’t go into all that here. I just hope people won’t just forget about this like they have all the other scandals this government has been involved in. But that seems to be what is happening and meanwhile this party remains in government and even gains more power. I suppose it could be worse though. I don’t think there are many Canadians who take Rick Santorum seriously.

BBQ Brisket

While a post roast is rather flexible in that either fatty or lean brisket will work quite well, a fattier piece of brisket will work much better on the BBQ. If you can find it, the ultimate cut of meat for this is Wagyu brisket. Wagyu is a hybrid of the breed used in Japan for the famous Kobe Beef. This meat has far more marbling than other beef and that quality will serve well for the dry heat of the barbeque. Failing that, look for a fatty piece of ordinary brisket.

The cooking process and cooking time will depend somewhat on what equipment you have for barbeque. If you have a true southern style pit smoker, well... I wish I were you!! If you have such an elaborate piece of equipment, I assume you would know a little something about barbeque, so simply put on a good rub, like the one below, and cook it on a nice slow heat for many hours (the time will depend on the size of your brisket but at least 4-6 hours - I am not so familiar with the time frames for this). If you have another type of barbeque, there is still a way to get a result very close to true barbeque. The problem is that most household BBQ’s are designed for hot and fast cooking, which is exactly the opposite of what you want for brisket. A charcoal grill will work better for this purpose than gas, especially because running a gas grill for 2-3 hours puts you at high risk of running out of propane part-way through. But the basic idea is that the coals will burning at the sides of the grill with the meat in the middle, so it is not directly over the heat. It will be subjected to a somewhat higher temperature than is ideal, but I find it works extremely well, especially if there is a lot of fat.

Dry Rub
1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence or other blend of dried herbs
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp coriander
2 ancho chiles, seeded and ground
1-2 pasilla chiles, seeded and ground
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tsp demerara sugar
1 Tbsp smoked paprika

Mop
½ cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup dark beer
1 Tbsp dry rub
1-2 tsp soy sauce
black pepper

Barbeque Sauce

½ cup steak sauce (from July28, 2010 post)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp dry rub

Again, all the amounts and proportions for the dry rub are very approximate, I do all this by eye and taste, and it will also depend on the size of your brisket. You will need enough rub to coat the brisket, with two tablespoons left over to add into the mop and the barbeque sauce.

Combine all dry rub ingredients. Rub a small amount of olive oil on the brisket then thoroughly coat the brisket with the rub, massaging the spices into the meat. Refrigerate at least overnight, 24-48 hours would be even better.





When ready to cook, set up the barbeque. Pile the charcoal on either side of the grill and light. Make sure there is plenty of excess coals for later as they will die out before the brisket is done. Now our barbeque is set up with hinges at each side of the grate so they can be lifted up to add more coals without removing the entire grate. There are also dividers that can keep coals on the sides so they do not fall into the centre of the grill. You will still be able to do the recipe without these aids, it will simply be a little less convenient.

When the coals are ready, place a foil drip pan in the centre of the barbeque, then put on the grate and place the brisket over the drip pan and put the cover on. A 4-lb piece will likely take at least 3 hours, and each batch of coals will last about 1 hour. If you have a chimney starter you can light the coals before adding them to the barbeque, but this is not necessary as long as the coals are not fully burned out. Just add the fresh charcoal to the still glowing coals and the new ones will catch.

Make both the mop and the barbeque sauce. Simply combine all the ingredients for both the mop and the sauce.

After the first hour of cooking, begin using the mop. This mop is almost more of a vinaigrette and will add back much needed moisture, as well as cool down the cooking brisket, so it doesn’t burn. Baste the brisket with the mop every half hour after the first hour of cooking. Cook until the brisket feels very soft and yielding. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes then slice against the grain and serve with barbeque sauce ON THE SIDE ONLY and coleslaw. This reminds me that in the previous post I failed to mention that brisket should always be sliced against the grain, including for the pot roast.

In Praise Of Brisket

Brisket is one of my favourite cuts of beef. It may not be the most familiar to many and even to those who know it, it can seem intimidating. There are a few reasons for this. First it can be a very tough cut and requires a very long cooking time to be edible. Also the uneven fat marbling throughout a single piece can be very difficult to manage, being either impossibly fatty or bone dry. And finally, unlike other stewing meat, brisket is usually sold in larger single pieces. But it has so many different uses and such an amazing flavour and texture, it is actually one of the most versatile, if you know how to use it.

Probably the easiest and most common use of brisket is in a pot roast. Pot roasting is a cooking technique similar to stewing and braising with only a few key differences. In a stew, the meat is cut into pieces and cooked in liquid for a few hours until tender, at which point it is ready. With a pot roast, a single large piece of meat is cooked in a similar liquid for a few hours until tender, but then there is an additional step. At this point, the meat is removed from the sauce, cut into thick slices, and returned to the pot and cooked for an additional period of time. Later in this post there will be a recipe. Pot roast is very much a European peasant dish. The poor people would only get tough cuts of meat to use as roasts, so the only way to make such roasts tender is to braise them. Brisket is a cut very well suited to pot roasting as the fat is distributed unevenly, which means the lean pieces could be dry inside. The slicing and additional cooking once braised will allow the meat to moisten after it has tenderized. Brisket is very prominent in Jewish cooking for two reasons. First, Eastern European Jews were definitely peasants so all they had were cheap cuts of meat. Also Jewish dietary laws only allowed the use of cuts of beef from the front half of the cow. Brisket is a large cut (so it could feed a lot of people) from the front half of the cow (it is actually at the very front of the stomach just behind the front shoulders) that, because it is tough and so difficult to cook, was not very expensive. Therefore brisket became a Jewish specialty.

Brisket Pot Roast

Brisket is also found in Texas barbeque. While most Southern barbeque is centred on pork (ribs, shoulder, whole hog), in Texas beef is and always will be king. While I greatly enjoy beef ribs, the favoured cut for Texas barbeque has got to be brisket. Here, brisket’s greatest advantages are the large fat cap and the thick veins of fat found within the meat. This allows the meat to baste itself as it is cooked on low, dry heat for hours on end. The standard method is to apply a dry rub to an entire brisket and put it in a pit-style smoker for many hours. For most people, this is not practical to make at home, but a little creativity can get you a reasonable result at home.

Dry-rubbed brisket ready for the barbeque

For another great use of brisket we return to Jewish cuisine. Jewish delis in Montreal have a marvellous creation that is Montreal-style Smoked Meat. Other deli staples featuring brisket include corned beef and pastrami, but smoked meat is the best of the best (to the New Yorkers who claim otherwise, as is the case with bagels I merely suggest you come to Montreal and have the real thing). To make smoked meat, briskets are cured with various spices and curing salt for several days then smoked, and finally cooked by steaming. Many of the key elements of the procedure use industrial equipment and others are kept secret, so I don’t really know how one would make this at home. Even worse, you really cannot find proper smoked meat outside of Montreal, what is available elsewhere is a poor imitation. The best way to experience it is take a trip to Montreal and eat at Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. You can also buy a full piece of fully cooked smoked meat in a vacuum-sealed bag that can be reheated and sliced at home by placing it on a rack in a roasting pan with water at the bottom and reheat covered in the oven. Maybe in a future post I will post an old review of Schwartz’s I started but never finished.

The Smoked Meat Plate at Schwartz's

Brisket Pot Roast

1 piece of brisket - try to find a piece that is at least 4 lbs
olive oil
3 onions, cut in large chunks
5 carrots
2 ribs celery
½ head of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp flour
1 can tinned tomatoes or equal amount of homemade tomato sauce
1 Tbsp beef stock concentrate or 2 cups beef or veal stock
½ bottle red wine
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp cayenne
salt & pepper

Most of this recipe follows the procedure for making a stew I posted back on December 13, 2010. In short, first season the brisket on all sides with salt and pepper then heat the widest pan you can find with some oil and sear the entire piece on all sides, then set the meat aside. Saute the vegetables and the tomato paste, add more oil and flour and, after cooking a minute or two, add the liquids and boil to reduce slightly, then add the seasonings. Put the meat and sauce together in an ovenproof pot and put in a 275 degree oven for about 4 hours, or until fairly tender. Then take the brisket out, slice it into ½ inch thick slices and return the meat to the pot, making sure to submerge them in sauce. Return to the oven and cook for 30 minutes more then serve with potatoes or something else that will absorb liquid.

slice the brisket when it is pretty much fully tender

This post will be continued in a day or two with a recipe for barbeque brisket that can be made at home with reasonably common household equipment.

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Before I finish this post, I need to make note of a sad passing within the blogging community. For those of you familiar with Amar's World may know about CJ, a fellow blogger who gave great advice and assistance to Amar and created Amar's Brotherhood, of which I am proud to consider myself a member. Well, CJ passed away on Tuesday from a brain tumour. CJ was a man of great humour with a big heart and I got the chance to chat with him on occasion in various places over the last couple years. We will all miss him.

A New Year - A New Direction

I realize I have not been posting much at all in the last little while. There are a few reasons, some of which involve my increased focus on a new career path, some things are personal, and some is just laziness. The truth is, when I do not make a habit of writing reguarly for the blog, it just doesn’t happen and weeks go by. Also, since I have been living at home, there are more people to talk to so I do not feel as much of a need to write about the various things I think about.

No, this blog isn’t going anywhere. I think this has just been another cycle where I don’t post much and the frequency may increase in the future, but I am just not sure. A lot depends on my new plans and how busy I will be. I told you all some time ago that I would not be making a career as a chef and would be looking for a better paying, more intellectually fulfilling line of work. Now I believe I have reached a decision as to what I want. As my background is in Psychology, my first step was to meet with a career counsellor at the University where I did my undergraduate work. She was able to highlight various careers that psychology graduates go into, focussing on those that do not require a PhD, which I have no desire to get. It did become clear that a Bachelor’s alone was generally insufficient for any of these fields. Some required a Master’s while others look for various graduate diplomas in particular specialties. Areas like therapy and most non-profits did not seem to fit with my temperament or interests, but one thing that stuck out was marketing research. I was unsure about this initially because I didn’t know that this was any different from marketing, which is rather low level and rather devoid of ethics. But on doing further research, I found there is a big difference. Marketing research is the field that lays the ground work and provides information for marketers to do what they do. Market research also includes polling firms and all those polls you see day after day during election campaigns (which are now eternal, right?) In this industry, it seems there are many different types of qualifications, from MBAs to PhDs to nothing more than a bachelor’s. Most though, expect some sort of graduate education in business, marketing, or consumer studies. One option I have is a Master’s program here at Guelph, but that is three years, a lot of money, and no direct work experience. And at my debt level and age, time and money are very much considerations. Then I found a graduate diploma program at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario, which is about 2 hours away from Guelph. Their program is one year, costs about the same as one year of graduate school, and includes a 3 month paid internship with leading companies in the field, many of whom hire most of their employees from graduates of this program.

So now I have just put in my application for this program and, if accepted, I will start in school next fall and hopefully be working in the industry a year later. Of course this means a great deal more debt, but government student loans should be able to cover all the tuition and a good deal of my living expenses during that time. So if all goes well, I will be living at home for only another 8 months.

Now in the New Year, I find it interesting to look back on the post I wrote last New Year’s Day. On the surface, it would seem that few of the goals I set last year are actually accomplished now. I am not currently employed and do not have a boyfriend. Yet I do finally have a career track planned out, one that should be more rewarding, both personally and financially. As for my personal life, I think that living at home probably has held me back somewhat, but mainly because I am not in a large city and my lack of funds means I can’t really go out much. This is another reason going back to school appeals to me: even though Barrie is not a big city and somewhat on the conservative side, a college environment will probably be good for me. But at least this New Year’s Eve, unlike last year, I was not alone. We hosted a New Year’s party with some family friends, which also gave me the chance to spend lots of time working on an elaborate party menu. Fun times. I do still love some aspects of the culinary arts, but that can never be my career. Maybe one day, it could be a side venture but not a full time job.

I am still thinking about some interesting topics for posts. There’s one interesting topic I am working on now and, as my parents are once again in Hawaii for holidays, I may do some Hawaii-related posts as I did last year.