It was.

Here is my recipe for smoked beef brisket hash:

• 500 grams of smoked beef brisket, cubed into 1 cm chunks
• About the same amount of peeled, washed potatoes, also cut in chunks
• A couple of carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
• A cup of beef stock
• Salt, pepper, parsley and oregano to taste

Combine ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Form into patties about the size of a burger. Brown on both sides in a lightly oiled cast iron pan, then finish warming in a 325 F oven.

Sorry, no picture. I vacuum bagged most of the patties for another occasion, but saved one for immediate consumption. When I cooked it up, it smelled so good that I was overcome by my inner beast and ate it before I could take a photo.

As this was the first time we have used the sous vide method for brisket, we were eager to see how it turned out. On the plus side, the meat was fall-apart tender and much more moist than when we cooked it before on the Big Green Egg. On the other hand, the meat was not as flavorful as our past briskets. Because we read that flavours concentrate when cooking sous vide, I skipped the normal spice rub, to our detriment.

What would we do differently? I will try cutting the cooking time down to about 20 hours so that the meat’s tender but not falling apart. I will also use a small amount of rub to enhance the flavour. More later.

Today I succumbed and rolled out the BBQ. It was maybe minus 2 C (say 30F), so I loaded the Big Green Egg with charcoal and apple wood from a local orchard. Once it was up to temperature (225 F) I put a big beef brisket on to smoke for an hour.

I normally smoke my brisket for around 15-18 hours, but even I have my limits when the weather forecast calls for minus 7 C overnight. So the brisket comes out after an hour’s smoking time and goes into the sous vide cooker for 24 hours at 173 F. More tomorrow night after we have sampled the result.

1 lb dried navy beans soaked in three times as much water for 8 hours or overnight.
1 smoked pork hock, about 1 lb
2 bay leaves
14 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1.5 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1.5 tbsp packed brown sugar
3 cloves garlic
1 large chipotle chili pepper
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp Tobasco sauce
kosher salt to taste

Ingredients adapted from Choosy Beggars. See their site for cooking instructions.

The night before:

• Wash and dry chicken. Rub with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Place on beer can or equivalent rack.
• Get Big Green Egg going at 375F. Use a place setter to provide indirect heat. I use the place setter upside down (legs up) with a large, foil-lined metal pie tray as a drip pan.
• Soak one pound of Mesquite wood and add some periodically to the BGE to keep it SMOKIN.
• Cook chicken ’till the remote thermometer shows 180F on breast and 165F on thigh.
• Remove meat and eat for dinner, save it in a vacuum bag or whatever.
• Place the chicken carcas and the wonderful dark brown smoky skin in a soup pot covered with water. Add diced onion and celery to cover (I didn’t have any carrots.)
• Simmer over night.
• Concurrently, oven roast 2-3 jalepenos or whatever hot peppers you can lay your hands on in oven until black and limp. (It would have been better to have done them in the BGE).

The next day:

• In the morning, remove carcass and veg, strain and separate fat. Return stock to pot.
  Remove stems, seeds and pith from peppers. Add peppers to stock and simmer until flavour reaches desired intensity. Remove peppers.
• Remove kernels from two cobs fresh corn and set aside.
• Add cobs to stock and simmer 1 hour, then remove.
• Add 3 finely diced garlic cloves to stock and simmer
• Roast 6 ears of corn in the BGE with more mesquite smoke.
• At the same time, roast 3 garlic bulbs in the BGE in a shallow metal bowl (indirect heat) in enough of the chicken fat to cover.
• Add roast garlic and fat to stock.
• Remove kernels from roast corn and add to stock.
• Puree stock/corn/garlic.
• Add ground cumin and corriander seed to taste
• Puree thoroughly then return to stock pot
• Add fresh kernels and simmer until barely cooked
• Serve with sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro

I am not much of a cook, so I tried to keep in mind some clear goals and guiding principles.

• An authentic Mexican taste
• A limited number of simple flavors
• Layered flavors, in this case, the mesquite smoking process was a common element. For the same reason, I used chicken fat rather than olive oil to roast garlics.
• Contrasting texture…hence the barely done kernels as well as the roasted, pureed corn

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons aguave
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons dry sherry
• 1/2 teaspoon sambal (chili sauce)
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 5-6 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

Preparation:

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sherry, sambal and sesame oil in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the stock.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until aromatic. Stir in remaining sauce ingredients (except the corn starch mixture) and bring to boil. Simmer until garlic tender, the stir in enough corn starch mixture to thicken.

• Eggplant (baby or full-sized)
• Hot pepper flakes
• Sesame oil
• Peanut oil
• Peeled, chopped garlic
• Vinegar
• Salt

Instructions:

1. Wash eggplant.
2. Cut into pieces approximately 1 cm thick.
3. For adult eggplant, sprinkle with salt, let sit, and remove salt/moisture
4. Mix peanut oil, 1 tsp of seasame oil, 1 tsp of pepper flakes, garlic and vinegar.
5. Marinate eggplant 1-2 hours.
6. Stir fry until soft and custard-like in consistency.

Cook beans. Cook and crumble bacon. Saute onion and pepper. Blend in flour and seasonings. Add tomatoes. Cook until thickened. Add beans and heat. Top with crumbled bacon.