El Barrio Brisket
 

By Luis Cruz

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I was once madly in love with this Jewish mommee from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. It was off the charts, crazy love. I'm telling you. It was during the 1960s, a time when a lot of Americans were trying to escape their own heritage and experience the freedom of other people's way of life. I had grown up in El Barrio in the Bronx and I met this mommee, Joan Swartz, was her name--I met her at Manhattan Community College, where we were both students.

Not just students in the usual sense of going to class but in the bigger sense of learning about life, discovering who we were. I was studying political freedom and liberation and she was studying Third World politics. These were crazy times: "Summer of Love," "be-ins," "sit-ins," "The Black Panthers," "The Young Lords." I wore my beret and she wore her hair in this curly Afro, which may have been one of the reasons she got put out of her family.

There was a lot of stuff happening. But with all that going on, do you know what the strongest image of those times that I have in my mind--brisket! That’s right, homes! Brisket! Wow! Now, you might want to say that I didn't love her but I did.

She was most definitely a big part of the picture; not making love though, not marching for this cause or that cause. I'm not a chauvinist pig. No, homes, I'm not a cho-ben-ist; but in the picture that sticks with me, we're talking and she's standing there rubbing this big piece of meat down with Lipton's powdered onion soup. That's right, home. That's the main seasoning.

We'd listen to some hip Cuban canciones by Mongo Santamaria ("Mazacote," or "Afro Blue") or some nice Tito Puente ("Oye Como Va"). All the time, I'd be drinking this sweet Manischewitz wine, kosher wine, homes. See, the wine had to be sweet because the brisket had this sweet flavor. It's made with prunes, and she had them bad boys soaking while she prepared the meat. I learned later that you have to soak the prunes for about half an hour.

We lived in this tiny apartment on St. Marks Place in Greenwich Village, and I can see her now getting the oven ready. You had to heat it up to 350. After she rubbed the meat down, she put it in a pot that we had found on the sidewalk. She added a little oil and browned the brisket on both sides.

While this was going down, we'd be talking about taking over the reigns of power in this country and liberating the people here and all over the world. Those conversations had me soaring as much as that tasty, sweet wine. After the meat was browned she would strain two cups of liquid from the soaked prunes and add some onions to the mix. She brought that to a boil, then lowered the heat and let it slow-cook for an hour. The pot didn't have a lid, so she had to cover it with aluminum foil.

While it cooked, we'd be dancing to Mongo or Tito, and people would start to drop by. Sometimes my boy Victor would come down from the Bronx with his lady, this Greek lady, and Victor always brought his own music. He was crazy about reggae. He was Puerto Rican but he loved Jamaican music like the Blues Busters, so we'd slip some of his tunes on the turntable. The party was on, and we'd all be dancing, rapping and drinking that sweet wine. Then after an hour Joan would add the prunes, the potatoes, the carrots, and the sugar and cover it again and bake it for another hour and a half.

Anyway, after this woman went her way and I went mine, I used to have this brisket Jones. I was like a junkie. I drove all around Brooklyn looking for Jewish delis that might have it, but it was never the same. Never the same, homes! So, finally, from memory and with a little help from my friends, I taught myself how to make it. I got in the kitchen and worked it out, which proves that I'm no cho-ben-ist.

Check it out.

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INGREDIENTS:

1 package Lipton Onion Soup

1 1/2 lbs pitted prunes

2 cups red wine

2 cups boiling water

3 lbs boneless brisket, chuck or flank

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped onion

1 tsp cinnamon

4 large carrots cut into 1-inch cubes

2 large potatoes cut into wedges

1/3 cup brown sugar

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Rub meat down all over with Lipton Onion Soup and let it set for a while so the flavor can soak in.

Soak prunes in red wine for a while.

Preheat oven to 350.

Put oil in pan, place pan on top of the stove and sear the meat at high temperature on both sides.

Put 1 cup of juice from prunes around the meat and bake in oven for one hour.

After one hour, cover meat with onions and pour boiling water and wine around meat. Cover tightly with foil. Turn oven down to 325. Bake 2 1/2 more hours. Add potatoes and carrots and cook for 1/2 hour longer. Add prunes at the end.

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