This dish from Matt Hamilton, chef de cuisine at Rosie Cannonball, a modern European restaurant in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, is built around Texas’s meat of choice: brisket.
“With the recipe, I very much drew from Rosie,” Hamilton says. “A lot of our dishes are focused around wood fire. And quite a few of those dishes are vegetables that we like to cook, hang, or smoke above the fire. I thought this salad would represent us.”
The salad-slaw hybrid isn’t on the menu at the restaurant, but you will find other hearty, veggie-forward dishes like grilled carrots and a blistered bean salad. As for the brisket, Hamilton “[doesn’t] dare mess with it.” Instead, he uses meat from beloved Houston joint Feges BBQ.
When making the recipe at home, you can use leftover brisket from your favorite pitmaster or, if you’re feeling brave, try to smoke one yourself.
Hamilton adds even more smoke flavor by charring the cabbage, but the herbaceous dressing with vinegar cuts through the fattiness of the brisket and makes the dish—which can be a side, starter, or main—brighter.
Brisket Salad
Equipment
- 1 blender
- 1 barbecue grill or stove-top grill pan
Ingredients
Herb dressing
- ¼ cup chives, plus some reserved for garnish
- ¼ cup parsley, plus some reserved for garnish
- ¼ cup tarragon, plus some reserved for garnish
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1½ cups mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon coarse-ground black pepper
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
Salad
- 3 ears corn
- 1 head Napa cabbage
- neutral oil for cooking (grape-seed, vegetable, or canola)
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 pound brisket, warmed and chopped
Directions
Herb dressing
- Roughly chop the herbs.
- Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth and the dressing has a green tint.
Salad
- Remove husks from corncobs. Dispose of the husks and set cobs aside.
- Cut cabbage into quarters lengthwise.
- Rub corn and cabbage with oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Grill corn and cabbage until they have a decent amount of char and color, then set aside to cool.
- Once cooled, slice cabbage very thin with a knife or mandoline and remove corn kernels from the cobs.
Assembly
- Combine corn and cabbage in a bowl and toss with the desired amount of herb dressing. Sit and let marinate for 15 minutes. Toss in cherry tomatoes.
- Top with more herbs and brisket before serving.
