Cooking on deadline: Hanukkah brisket

Whether or not you celebrate the Jewish holy days, a good brisket recipe is a nice thing to have in your winter repertoire.

Brisket is a tough and fairly inexpensive cut of meat that gets amazingly tender after some quality time in the oven, and it requires little attention or care while it cooks. That's a nice characteristic in a piece of beef.

You can use a larger-size piece of brisket and just bump up the quantities of the other ingredients proportionately. Brisket is a very flexible meat as long as you cook it low and slow, so the exact measurements of onions and liquid are not important -- just keep the flavors balanced.

Brisket shrinks when it cooks, so keep that in mind as you are assessing the size you need. You can make brisket a couple of days ahead and keep it in the fridge. Skim off any fat that has accumulated on the top, and slice the brisket before returning it to the pot with the sauce and heating it gently in the oven or on the stove.

Adding almost two heads of garlic cloves to the sauce may seem crazy, but they will mellow and also turn meltingly soft in their papery skins as the brisket cooks. Tell your guests to squeeze out the roasted garlic from the skins and add it to their sauce or spread it on toast or crusty bread (which you should provide). Make sure to serve this with egg noodles or potatoes to soak up all the sauce.

If you want a more subtle mushroom flavor, mix in some sliced button or cremini mushrooms with the wild mushrooms. This is also helpful budget-wise, as wild mushrooms can be pricey -- but as any mushroom lover will tell you, worth every penny.

Beef Brisket with Wild Mushrooms

Serves 6

Start to finish: 4 hours

• 2 heads garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
• 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 2 1/2- to 3-pound piece beef brisket
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 red onion, halved and sliced
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 pound sliced wild mushrooms, any sort
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Chopped parsley or arugula to garnish

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Peel and mince two of the garlic cloves and set aside.

Place the porcini mushrooms in a small bowl and add the boiling water. Let the mushrooms soak for 20 minutes. Remove them, squeeze out any extra water back into the bowl, and then strain the soaking liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Chop the soaked mushrooms and set the mushrooms and the strained soaking liquid aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large, deep oven-proof pan or stockpot with a lid over medium-high heat. Add the oil. Season the brisket on both sides with salt and pepper. Sear the brisket on both sides until browned, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the brisket to a large plate.

Return the pan with the oil to medium heat. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper and saute for 5 minutes until softened and lightly browned. Add the wine and stir, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom, until the wine is reduced by half. Add the beef broth, chopped soaked mushrooms, strained mushroom-soaking liquid and thyme to the pot. Tuck the brisket back into the pot; the meat will be about halfway submerged. Tuck the remaining garlic cloves in their skins around the meat into the liquid. Cover the pot and transfer it to the preheated oven.

Cook for about 3 1/2 hours until the brisket is fork-tender. Remove it from the pot to a cutting board with a moat to catch the juices and let it rest at least 15 minutes. Let the braising liquid rest in the pot.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a very large skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Add the wild mushrooms and reserved minced garlic, season with salt and pepper and saute until the mushrooms have turned nicely brown and any liquid that was released has been evaporated, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle in the balsamic vinegar and stir to release any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Skim and discard any fat that has accumulated on the braising liquid. Stir the sauteed mushrooms into the pot.

When the meat has finished resting, cut it into slices as thin or thick as you like, across the grain. Transfer the slices neatly back to the pot and nestle them into the sauce and mushrooms. Serve hot. Alternately, you may place the meat on a deep serving platter with sides and ladle the sauce with the whole garlic cloves and mushrooms over the top. Sprinkle over the parsley or arugula.

Nutrition information per serving: 446 calories; 249 calories from fat; 28 g fat (10 g saturated; 1 g trans fats); 91 mg cholesterol; 264 mg sodium; 10 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 4 g sugar; 33 g protein.