The Call Your Mother Jetski Brisket & Sofrito Melt
Chapter 4 — Lunch Bagels
At DC’s Call Your Mother deli, a cook takes a half-pound of Ashkenazi brisket and smoky pastrami, then crashes the slow-braised comforts into a sweet-corn sofrito on a hot griddle. Assembled with the speed and violence of a Philadelphia cheesesteak, the meat is steamed under a dome of American and sharp cheddar until the cheese blisters. Drive a cast-iron skillet down onto the bread and wait for the grease to hit your hands.
Before you start
Sweat the alliums for the sofrito base.
Melt the beef tallow in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, add the diced yellow onion, scallion whites, and a generous pinch of kosher salt, and cook with extreme patience for 15 to 20 minutes until completely translucent without caramelizing.
Add the peppers and garlic.
Stir in the diced red bell pepper and minced garlic paste, continuing to sweat the mixture for an additional 10 minutes until the peppers are soft and the raw bite of the garlic mellows.
Bloom the spices off the heat.
Remove the pan from the direct heat for 30 seconds to drop the temperature slightly, stir in the paprika, red pepper flakes, and cumin to prevent them from scorching, then return to low heat for 1 minute before folding in the scallion greens.
Ingredients
- beef tallow2 tbsp
- yellow onion1 large
- red bell pepper1 med
- scallions3 med
- garlic3 med cloves
- kosher salt1/2 tsp
- sweet Spanish paprika1 tsp
- Argentinian red pepper flakes1/2 tsp
- ground cumin1/2 tsp
- cheddar bagel1 large
- pastrami2 1/2 oz
- braised beef brisket2 1/2 oz
- fresh jalapeño1 tbsp
- American cheese1 slice
- sharp cheddar cheese1 slice
Method
- 01
Toast the bagel halves on a hot griddle.
Place the split cheddar bagel cut-side down on a buttered griddle until golden and crisped, leaving the doughy crumb intact so it has the structural integrity to absorb the meat juices.
- 02
Chop the meats and aromatics together on the flat-top.
Heat a cast-iron skillet or carbon-steel griddle over medium-high heat, drop in the pastrami, brisket, two tablespoons of the prepared sofrito, and the jalapeños, then aggressively chop everything together directly on the cooking surface with stiff metal spatulas until sizzling and cohesive.
- 03
Melt the cheeses under a steam dome.
Corral the hot meat matrix into a neat, bagel-sized circle, lay the American cheese down first followed by the sharp cheddar, splash exactly one tablespoon of water onto the bare griddle nearby, and cover immediately with a metal dome for 15 seconds.
- 04
Transfer the payload to the toasted bagel.
Press the bottom half of the bagel cut-side down directly onto the melted cheese, slide your spatula deeply under the entire mound, flip it over in one swift motion, and crown it with the top half.
- 05
Wrap tightly in foil before slicing.
Tightly wrap the entire sandwich in deli foil or parchment paper and let it rest for 60 seconds so the residual heat softens the crust just enough to make it biteable, then slice perfectly in half with a heavy serrated bread knife.
Notes
The sofrito surplus.
This recipe yields about a cup and a half of sofrito base. Store the excess in the refrigerator for up to a week, or freeze it in ice cube trays to fold into scrambled eggs or savory cream cheese schmears.
Sourcing the brisket.
If traditional slow-braised holiday brisket is entirely out of reach, you can substitute a high-quality deli roast beef, provided you chop it aggressively on the griddle with the sofrito to replicate that shredded texture.