Transcript:
ALEX GUARNASCHELLI: Hey, everybody. I'm Alex Guarnaschelli, and we are getting ready for "Alex vs America." We are going to make brisket tacos with a little cabbage slaw, and this is such a great use for cabbage. My favorite thing about cabbage is that it's always there. It's always available and beautiful, and it's cheap. The first type I have here is a napa cabbage. Big, juicy stems. You can literally cut the core of this and use this nose to tail. So great for a slaw, tacos, or something fresh. Another Chinese cabbage-- is bok choy. These are most commonly blanched or steamed and then tossed, the leaves, into stir fry or quick-cooking dishes.
Super tasty. Also juicy. If you cut open my heart, you will find my favorite cabbage. This is a Savoy cabbage, actually named for a region of France. It's got some super-cool-looking crinkly leaves. I think this looks like if a Brussels sprout grew up and got, like, a lot of tanning time at the beach. When you just steam it or even braise it, a little bit of butter, a pinch of caraway seeds, and a little squeeze of lemon juice. If you want to make stuffed cabbages, peel the outer leaves blanch them, chop up the middle, mix it with whatever, and roll it up. This is a cabbage roll cabbage, and it is deeply delicious. The one you probably most commonly see at the supermarket is red or green. They're neutral, but they have a personality at the same time. So they add that little lift, that little bit of succulents or juiciness that you might be looking for in a dish. Whether it's for a salad, whether it's steamed, raw, or cooked, it is super tasty. And I'm kind of partial to the red one. So I'm actually going to cut up this cabbage, and then we're going to turn it into a very simple dish.
Now, breaking down all cabbages is pretty much the same deal first thing you can do, actually, is cut a little bit of that bottom core off and let your cabbage sit squarely on your board so it doesn't roll around and create that "whoops, I cut myself" moment, right? Then I cut it in half. You'll notice how if I hold my knife in my hand above the knife, there's really no way I can cut myself, which I like. We like an insurance policy. So now I have the two halves of the cabbage flat on the board. And just with your knife, nice, thin slices. You can also do this with a mandolin slicer. And then I just might go across it two times, three times just to break it up a little bit. I can't believe that one hand of cabbage turns into all this food. You could make sauerkraut. You could pickle this cabbage. You can take it in a million directions. But we're going to make something very specific with this. Brisket tacos with a little cabbage slaw, and this is such a great use for cabbage. We're going to make a little dressing in a big bowl, toss the cabbage with it, and just let it hang.
Remember that this is going with beef brisket tacos. The beef is the heavy hitter here. It's rich. So we want the cabbage to come in not so heavy on the fat, but more vibrant and acidic, and juicy. A pinch of salt. And we're going to add that cabbage into the dressing, and we'll literally just toss. You could do this with the green or the purple cabbage, by the way. You could even chop up some bok choy. Give it a little taste. Gotta know if something's good. There's only one way to know. Tiny pinch more salt. And then for a last little touch, 4 scallions, just all sliced up, right in there. These ingredients, just belong together.
This we pop in the fridge. You can cover it. Let it get ice-ice-cold. Let the vinegar kind of work it's magic. You know what I mean? And I think we're ready to make our tacos. All right, so this is the fun stuff. So here I have a brisket that I have rubbed with salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder. I've seared it on both sides to get it nice and browned. Warm up those spices, get this meat just super flavorful and delicious. I heated some canola oil in a nice big pot. I put some onions in here, and I've just cooked these for about five minutes. And to it, I added brown sugar and apple cider vinegar, and I just let them cook for a couple of minutes. Now, what are we going to do to make this meat even more delicious? Garlic is just the thing.
6 cloves of garlic. Big ones, OK? And we're just going to literally spread this garlic. You can really just pretend you're in finger-painting class and really get into pressing this garlic into the meat and spreading it in a nice layer. That smells really good. So I'm going to put this meat back in here, right back on top of those onions. Now, I'm going to add the red wine. You can just pour it over the sides of the brisket right on top of those onions. I'm letting it simmer with the cover off because I want that steam to escape. I want that red wine to cook down. Now, I have some stock that I want to add but don't add those two liquids at the same time.
Once you add something with alcohol to a dish, you wanna cook out that raw alcohol taste before you add any liquid. So we're going to let this cook. We're going to add our stock. We're going to finish it, and then we're going to have a taco. Now's the best part, which is when we take all these beautiful things and put them all together into a taco. We have our brisket, which I cooked until tender. So I'm going to actually slice in the opposite direction of the grains, just to further break apart that meat. Just some nice, thin slices. Now, you have a couple of choices. I have here this sauce I put together. I just simmered the drippings and all the juices from that red wine reduction and the stock and the brisket, and I added some roasted garlic cloves.
You can either toss this in a bowl, or you can literally just layer that. And you notice, I'm kind of going into each piece with my spoon to cover each bit. See that? It just looks-- I mean, you could just eat this, and you'd be fine. But we're going to build a taco. Some charred corn tortillas. A little bit of that meat. That's way too much meat, and that's how I like it. A little bit of that slaw. It's juicy. It's succulent. It's got a little acid, textural crunch. So important. You can even put the tiniest bit of sauce, like that, on top of here. And I think, even with all my fussing, the clock has run out, and this taco is ready.
If you've made this right, it's juicy, way too much filling. You're going to need 50 napkins if you've done this right. Let's get that bite. Mm. That is really good. Wow. I don't know what's not good about a taco. That crunchy cabbage. I get both the brown sugar and the vinaigrette. Even that little bit of hot sauce really went a long way. But the star is really this brisket. Just cooked fork-tender with those onions and the roasted garlic. This is really a winner. You've got to get into this, people. It's that good.
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