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Leftover Brisket Tacos
Plus: The Four Questions Interview with Mosheh Oinounou and Alexandra Sall + Breads Bakery's Rooftop Honey
Rosh Hashanah doesn’t begin until Sunday night (Sept 25), but I’ve already got my mind on leftovers. Every year, after Thanksgiving, there is endless chatter in magazines and online about how to upcycle leftover turkey into soup, chili, pot pie, and really great sandwiches. But brisket doesn’t get the same consideration. I’d like to change that.
I know that you might not be ready to think about brisket leftovers just yet. Totally get it! If not, just file this newsletter away for the day or two after Rosh Hashanah when you find yourself staring into the fridge and need a little inspiration.
Last year, I posted a recipe for Brisket Hand Pies, which tucked chopped brisket into pockets of puff pastry. I whole heartedly stand by that suggestion, and have also been eyeing recipes online for brisket fried rice, and brisket hash (I would sub vegetable oil for the butter to keep it kosher).
But while I love anything served inside golden, flaky pastry, this year I want to keep things super simple. After all the prep that goes into making Rosh Hashanah dinner, we deserve a 30 minute, fridge-to-table leftovers situation!
Enter: Leftover Brisket Tacos. Think of the recipe below as more of a general suggestion, rather than set-in-stone guidelines. Start with some warm tortillas and some reheated (shredded or chopped) leftover brisket, then add a mix of crunch, creaminess, sweetness, spice, and acidic brightness with whatever you have on hand.
With Yom Kippur and Sukkot coming right up, the season of Jewish holiday cooking has just begun. Think of these tacos as a delicious, mid-holiday respite from the marathon.
Leftover Brisket Tacos
Serves: Flexible
Warm flour or corn tortillas
Leftover braised brisket, chopped or shredded and warmed
Quick cabbage slaw (see recipe below)
Sliced or chopped avocado
Spicy mayo (Mayo mixed with hot sauce in whatever ratio you like. You can also mix in a little smoked paprika for smoky flavor if you want.)
Whatever else you like: (rice, salsa or chopped tomato, thinly sliced radishes, corn kernels, etc.
Top the tortillas with a layer of brisket, followed by a layer of cabbage slaw. Garnish with avocado, a dollop of spicy mayo, and whatever else you like.
Quick Cabbage Slaw
1/2 small head of red cabbage, cored and very thinly sliced
1/4 medium red onion, very thinly sliced
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more if needed
1 jalapeño, seeds removed if desired, and thinly sliced
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Add the cabbage, onion, and salt to a large bowl and gently mix and squeeze the cabbage and onions with your hands to wilt them a bit.
Add the jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, honey, and black pepper, and toss well to combine. Taste and add more salt, if needed. Let sit at least 20 minutes to allow flavors to meld, or refrigerate up to overnight.
Rooftop Honey in Manhattan at Breads Bakery
If you know anything about Breads Bakery - Manhattan’s Israeli/Middle Eastern inspired bakery - you know about their chocolate babka. With its exceptionally flaky, butter-laminated dough, and swirls of chocolate hazelnut spread and chocolate chips, Breads’ babka is a category defining favorite for Jewish pastry lovers worldwide.
What you maybe *haven’t* heard about is Breads’ honey - particularly the honey that comes from their own rooftop bees. For the past couple of years, Breads has partnered with the folks at Andrew’s Honey to maintain hives on their roof in Union Square. I had the good fortune of trying some, and it has a bright and floral sweetness that I can’t wait to pair with crisp farmer’s market apples on Rosh Hashanah. I’ve posted some photos of Breads’ rooftop hives at the bottom of this newsletter in case you want to see what real estate looks like for NYC’s busiest bees. And if you want to taste it yourself, you can order a Breads Bakery package that includes marzipan honey here.
The Four Questions: with Mosheh Oinounou and Alexandra Sall
Welcome to the latest installment of The Four Questions, The Jewish Table’s semi-regular interview segment featuring Jewish food luminaries. This week I’m delighted to be joined by Mosheh Oinounou and Alexandra Sall.
Mosh and Al don’t work directly in the food world. He’s an award-winning news producer and journalist and founder of Mo News, which offers curated, verified, balanced news via Instagram (I’m low-key obsessed with his Instagram account!), and his podcast and newsletter. She’s the founder of ALSALL Studio, which helps female entrepreneurs build their digital and social presence.
And yet, food is at the center of their love story and relationship. (They even had their first date at an event hosted by the Jewish Food Society.) They’ve traveled extensively together, including recent trips to Israel and Egypt, and another to visit Mosheh’s father’s home country of Morocco. On all of these trips, eating, cooking, and exploring local cuisines always takes center stage. Mosh and Al are honestly the cutest, and I loved chatting with them about their families’ Jewish food backgrounds (he’s Moroccan, she’s Ashkenazi), which Jewish foods they think are overrated, and how they started giving food-focused history tours in NYC together.
1. Can you share a formative Jewish food memory that sticks with you to this day?
Al Sall: My mom made a point of getting challah every Friday, and made signature Ashkenazi dishes for the holidays. When I went to college, I would bring back her brisket and kugel and freeze it so I could eat it throughout the semester! She always added dollops of apricot jam to her egg noodle kugel, and to this day I’m obsessed with apricot jam.
Mosh Oinounou: My dad is from Marrakech, Morocco and my mom is from Chicago with roots in Poland and Germany. My dad had five sisters, and my Ashkenazi mom was put through Moroccan food boot camp by all of them! She became a great Moroccan cook. Every Friday night we had Shabbat dinner with couscous and lamb, spicy fish patties, carrot salad, matbucha, and several other salads. Whenever I went to friends’ houses growing up, I always thought, “This is all you eat?”
My favorite Moroccan soup that my mom made is called harira. Like with Al’s mom, my mom would freeze it and I’d fly back to DC with it for college. TSA would always be like, “What the heck is in these containers?!” And whenever I come home to Chicago, she makes it. I feel so privileged to have grown up with this food.
2. How would you describe the role that Jewish food plays in your relationship?
MO: The first date I invited Al to was an event with the Jewish Food Society. I happened to get tickets for it and invited her - I was so excited to go together! So our whole relationship literally started in thanks to Jewish food.
AS: During the early part of Covid, we made challah together every Friday. It was such a beautiful ritual during a dark and scary time. Mosh never really baked before, but this got us away from our desks and into the kitchen working together.
These days, I cook a ton and we also love to go out in NYC. A lot of our favorites are places that serve Middle Eastern and Israeli food like Shukette, Sami & Susu, Reunion, Lamalo, 12 Chairs, and Sofreh.
MO: Food is really at the foundation of our relationship. What roll doesn’t it play? It’s everything.
3. Are there any Jewish foods that you think are underrated or misunderstood? And/or, any that are overrated?
MO: I have to say, I don’t really understand the appeal of whitefish salad, chopped liver, and gefilte fish. I’m great with bagels and lox, but I’ve never been a huge fan of those three Ashkenazi dishes.
AS: Did you like the pickled herring you tried?
MO: No. I try to be an open minded eater. My mother made a great noodle kugel and matzo brei but…
AS: I’ve never been a big gefilte fish eater either, so I agree with you there. Maybe I haven’t had the right one. I do love the horseradish that goes with it though.
To me, there is no better food than tahini - I put it on everything. I love Seed & Mill tahini, and on our trip to Israel we discovered a brand called Har Bracha. It is widely available in Israel, but not so much here so I brought home boat loads of it!
4. What was the inspiration behind your leading food history tours together?
AS: We love exploring together and going to different neighborhoods in the city. Whenever we go places, we will notice buildings and start Googling them. And since this is New York, almost every building has had something interesting that happened in it. One day I said to Mosh, “You have such an incredible community on Instagram, would you want to do a food tour together where we take people to different spots in the city with our favorite food?” And before he could say yes, I built a website!”
MO: We came up with a route through Greenwich Village and the West Village that explores the history of the Native Americans who lived here, early Dutch history, and goes through the modern age. We talk about the political and cultural history of NYC and stop at various restaurants and markets along the way. There’s so much history in the neighborhood - the home where Barbara Streisand lived and Jimi Hendrix’s recording studio, the house where John Wilkes Booth plotted to kidnap Abraham Lincoln, former speakeasies…
AS: As we go, we’ll point out restaurants like Via Carota, which is right near where the Stonewall riots started. Or we will stop at Mah Ze Dahr for old fashioned doughnuts or Mamoun’s for falafel.
MO: We don’t do public tours very often. I give so much credit to people who lead tours - they take an incredible amount of work and energy! But when we do book one, we usually have about 50 people sign up, plus a waiting list. So they are fun.
Keep an eye on Mosh and Al’s Instagram accounts for updates on their food adventures (and general adorableness!) and announcements about any upcoming tours.
More Photos of Breads Bakery’s Beehives
All of these photos were shared by Breads Bakery. You can order a pastry package that includes marzipan honey here.
This recipe sounds amazing. Do you have one for brisket?
My grandmother is a Hungarian Survivor but she rejected much of her Judaism. I subscribed to your newsletter as I thought food might be a good doorway to connecting with some of my heritage. I’m loving it so far!
Those tacos look amazing, and what a great use for leftovers! I would love to make brisket for RS, or even chicken, but with a vigilant vegetarian in the family, everything goes more smoothly when meat and fish aren't around. So here's my leftover hack: make extra matzah balls and then use them as dumplings in mushroom stew or tossed with some other roasted veggies that are lightly spiced and sauced. They would also make excellent 'chicken n' dumplings,' I assume, though I've never made it.