With Father’s Day on Sunday, June 19, I was drawn to nutritionist and New York Times blogger Dawn Lerman’s 2015 book “My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, Family and Recipes.”
The recipes range from the traditional Jewish, such as her grandmother’s brisket (Lerman’s father credited its aroma with bringing him out of a childhood coma), to the soup Lerman devised to help him recover from lung cancer.
Her dad, an advertising executive, weighed 450 pounds at his heaviest. Lerman’s youthful attempts to feed him while following his latest diets shaped her adult interest in healthy food.
“Soup is good food” was one of her father’s advertising slogans, and it was Healing Mushroom Miso Soup that the pair say helped him survive cancer. Bubbe’s Sweet Brisket with Cola Marinade was a specialty of her paternal grandmother. It is best made a day or two ahead. Recipes have been adapted for style and space.
Bubbe’s Sweet Brisket with Cola Marinade
Makes 8 servings
4- to 5-lb. brisket
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/2 cup ketchup
1 packet of dry onion soup mix
12-oz. can cola (regular, not diet)
1 cup water mixed with 2 Tbs. ketchup (for reheating)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim fat off meat, leaving thin cap of fat on one side. Place fat side down in 9-by-13-inch roasting pan. Add water until it is about 1 inch deep around meat. Spread jam and 1/2 cup ketchup on top of meat then sprinkle on and smear in soup mix. Pour cola around meat. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil. After 2 hours, open foil and baste. Cover and cook for 1 hour or more until tender. Skim excess fat.
Cool. Thinly slice meat against the grain. Store slices with any juices separately from leftover cooking liquid. To reheat, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss the brisket slices with the water-ketchup mixture in roasting pan. Spoon leftover cooking liquid over meat. Cover. Cook 20 minutes or until warmed through.
Healing Mushroom Miso Soup
Makes 8 servings
1 whole head of garlic, unpeeled
2 Tbs. oil, divided
2- to 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
6 raw garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup sliced, mixed raw mushrooms (see notes below)
64 oz. water or vegetable broth
1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed
1/2 lb. tofu, diced
1/4 cup sweet white miso paste (see notes below)
2 carrots, chopped
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove most of head of garlic’s papery outside, but leave cloves connected. Slice about 1/4 inch off the top of the head, exposing tops of cloves. Drizzle top with 1 Tbs. oil. Wrap completely in foil. Roast until a center clove can be pierced all the way through with a skewer, about 40-60 minutes (timing will vary). Let cool. Separate into cloves. Push from bottom of clove to remove from peel. Mash cloves and set aside.
In stockpot, sauté ginger and onion in remaining oil until onion just begins to sweat. Add the raw garlic and the sliced, raw mushrooms. Cook until browned. Add water. Bring to slow boil. Add dried shiitake mushrooms and tofu. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the dried mushrooms are fully reconstituted.
Ladle 6 oz. of soup liquid into a separate bowl and stir in miso paste until dissolved. Stir in mashed, roasted garlic and add back to pot. Stir well. Return to simmer. Serve.
Notes: Lerman recommends using organic ingredients and a mix of fresh shitake, portobello and maitake mushrooms. Sweet white miso paste is available in the refrigerated sections of natural and Asian foods stores.
Faith Kramer is a Bay Area food writer. Her columns alternate with those of Josie A.G. Shapiro. Faith blogs about her food at www.clickblogappetit.com. Contact her at [email protected].