Oven Braised Brisket

Don't you just love a meal that you can smell cooking all day long on a nice cold day?  I sure do.  The whole house gets such a lovely aroma while this is in the oven, I can barely wait until dinner time.  Everyone says the way to do brisket is to cook it, slice it and put it back in the fridge and reheat and serve the next day.  This way it can soak up all the lovely pan sauce and marinate itself overnight.  I however, cannot wait a day once I start smelling that enticing smell.  So I sort of go halfway with this.  I start it super early in the morning, pop it in the fridge for the day and then pull out and reheat at dinner time.  It works for me, however, I have to say the leftovers the next day are a bit better, but not much.  So do it whichever way you like.

Ingredients:

• 3 lb brisket (fed family of four w/ leftovers for 1 or 2 for lunch)
• 1 onion,  cut in thick slices
• 10 garlic cloves, smashed with the back of a knife
• 1 bay leaf (mine were tiny so I used 2)
• 1/2 tsp of each: onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, fresh cracked pepper
• coarse salt
• 1/2 C red wine
• 1 1/2 C beef broth or stock
• 1 C water
• 2 T tomato paste
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 1 T olive oil

Directions:

               Preheat oven to 300.

• In a large dutch oven or oven proof pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Season roast with all spices, season generously with salt (I never measure salt)
• Brown roast on both sides to form a nice crust, about 4 min per side. Remove roast from pan and set on plate.
• Reduce heat to medium.  Add onion and cook 1-2 minutes.  Add garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes.  Stir in tomato paste.  Add red wine and cook until reduced, about 4 minutes.  Add bay leaf, beef stock, water and balsamic.
• Add meat back to pan (with the juices left on the plate).  The liquid level should be about 3/4 of the way up the meat.  Bring just to a bubble.  Cover the pan and put in oven and cook 3 hours.  NO PEEKING.  Do not open during cooking time.
• Remove from oven and place meat on a cutting board to rest.  At this point you can thicken the sauce if you prefer by returning it to the stove top and cooking on high until thick.  I prefer to use a loose sauce for this so I just leave it the heck alone.  Taste for seasoning though, add salt/pepper if desired.
• Slice brisket and return back to pan with sauce.  At this point you can either serve it, put it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.  When you are reading to reheat, heat it in 300 degree oven for 30 minutes.
• Serve with mashed potato and vegetable.  We used carrots but green beans or brussel sprouts go great.