Czapksi’s Kitchen: Brisket-Topped Goulash

Three hearty dishes this morning with the Chopski's Kitchen. These ladies are here to show us how it's done. Welcome in. Thank you. Beautiful. Julie, welcome. Welcome. Thank you. This is my pixie. I call her Pixie. I love it. Pixie. I'm the owner and the cook, and Pixie is my waitress during the day, and she helps me do some cooking when I'm busy. Very nice. So tell us about Chopski's Kitchen for people who haven't been there. I was born and raised in southwest Detroit. Great Polish old neighborhood in Michigan and central Livernois. And this was my dream. I opened about almost eight years ago. And I'm a little old, but I'm kicking it. You look great, girl. How's it been going since you opened? Oh, we're doing great. And, you know, it was a struggle at first because we went through 20, you know, which was a little difficult for a lot of small businesses. But we pulled through, and we're doing great. And we love what we do. Yes. So it really helps. What are you making for us today? Today I'm making, I'm showing you, this is brisket. This one has not been cooked, okay? People are afraid of brisket. Don't be afraid of brisket. You just rub that down with some good beef base. I like beef base instead of the powder. I put it right into the oven at 250 degrees, and I cook it for 10 hours. It's a slow cook, then. Yes, ma'am. Now you're making goulash. What I do at the restaurant is I make a goulash, my father's version, really. What is that? What is goulash? Well, goulash, if you look it up online, there can be different versions. You know, you have the Hungarian goulash and you have the Polish goulash. This is more towards the Hungarian style, which my father was Irish and he loved, you know. Sometimes he would put the hot Hungarian peppers in there even. I don't do that at Chopskis because people are afraid of that, right? Okay, yeah. It's me, I'm people. But I just make this goulash for us. It's nice, hearty, and it works all year round, you know. And you can get it as a vegetarian. You can get it with either pork or brisket if you want at Chopskis. Or you can get it with no protein if you don't. We love the options here. And Pixie, do you notice people asking for it more and more? Yeah, people love it. it's yes it's great so how long have you been at Chopskis I've been here five years five years What do you love about it? You guys seem to have a good vibe going here. I just love the food, the atmosphere, the people working there is amazing and it's just a fun place to work and the customers are amazing. It is, it's great, we have a good time and our town is beautiful. Yeah, it's got... do you guys, are you familiar with Milford at all? No, for very little, a little bit. Come out and visit us it's so beautiful, we've... it's still got that small town flavor, you know? I mean we have a toy store in Milford. Who's got a toy store, right? I mean, you know how hard it is when you've got to go to your nephew's birthday party and you don't have anything? and you've got a toy store. We've got a great toy store. We have a butcher... We have a shoe store. Just unusual little small businesses. A kitchen shop. You know, Milford's got some great things. I'm going to have to draw you to come on down there. So I always try to start my onions and my celery first, okay? Because it brings out the flavors of your... You know, always sauté your celery and onions first. Then I add my peppers, and I let that go. I like to put a little bit of thyme. Thyme is good in everything, right? This is a nice traditional dish. It is. It is. It's fun. Beautiful. And a lot of garlic. We love garlic. We love garlic. Look how we have these giant spoons. Whatever shall we do with them? And bay leaves. Polak's put bay leaves in everything. Okay. That's what we do. Let's try it. Let's try it. So we put the bay leaves in there, and we let this simmer. Nice diced tomatoes. put that in there and this is this only takes about a half an hour ladies you can cook this you know and some beef base very yummy and i i like to buy the base like that without the the powder one is always saltier you know so i like the base the meat is so tender i really like that isn't that nice 10 10 hours i cooked that and see see that brisket yes that big part on the end i learned when i started my business that's called the deckle so you can get a brisket with what's flatter the only flat part they'll cut that big round piece off of it right wow get the deckle on you want the round because this part of this right here is more like roast beef like an english cut when you get down to that end over there it's more like steak look at that you know what i mean don't be afraid of it and you put that in your oven just like your mother would put a roast that's what you do with that put a little bit of water cover it with foil you just leave it i put it in the oven one before i go to bed and then after you let this simmer for about a half hour. Here we go. Well, we're coming back to you for at least two more hits. And we're happy about it. And we're really happy about it. And we'll talk about all the other things that you offer as well. Chop suey. Chop suey. Chop suey. You go, lady. We'll be right back. I'm going to eat this. Thank you so much.