Sweet Brisket without Honey or Sugar!

During the High Holy Days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, beginning with Rosh Hashanah, we have a tradition to eat “sweet” foods as a good omen for a “sweet” year.

We dip apples in honey, and cook sweet carrot dishes like Tzimmes.

Many people have recipes to add honey and sugar to their meat dishes too. It’s tough for people like me who try to keep my sugar and honey intake to a minimum, so we have to look for alternatives.

Here’s a delicious Galilee Green way to prepare your holiday brisket that’s sweet but avoids sugar and honey. It relies on caramelized onions, snap peas, Medjul dates and raisins instead!

Sweet Holiday Brisket

Ingredients:

Onions, Peas, Dates, Raisins and diced Tomatoes evenly spread over meat.

• 2 pound mini brisket roast
• 3 tablespoons GGOO
• 6 crushed bulbs of garlic
• 2 medium onions sliced
• 1 cup of dry red wine
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 cup of sliced sweet snap peas
• 6 chopped Medjul dates
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Rub the mini brisket in GGOO and  let it marinate in the fridge for an hour
2. Add some GGOO to a frying pan on medium heat and sear all sides of the brisket and set aside in a baking dish
3. In the same frying pan fry the sliced onions and garlic until the onions are caramelized. Add 1/2 cup of red wine to the caramelized onions and stir for 3 minutes.
4. Pour the caramelized onion mixture over the brisket in the baking pan. Add the sliced snap peas Medjul date pieces and the raisins and 1/2 tin of diced tomatoes. Mix everything and make sure the meat is evenly surrounded by the mixture (see photo).
5. Cover with foil and bake at 300F for 3.5 hours.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes. Slice the brisket against the grain and set aside.
7. Remove the vegetables from the baking dish. Then add back a thin layer of vegetable mixture back into the pan. Add a layer of sliced brisket, followed by a layer of vegetable mixture. Then another layer of brisket and cover with more veggie mixture (like a lasagna). When it is all back in the pan, add another 1/2 cup of wine and the half tin of diced tomatoes to make sure everything stays moist.
8. Cover and put back into the oven at 400F for 30 minutes.

It really was delicious!! Sorry I don’t have a photo of the plated brisket because it was Rosh HaShana and I couldn’t take a pic…. and we ate it all up over the course of the two days.