Braised Brisket for Supper

The beef brisket is both a flavoursome and a frugal cut. However, it's a fairly tough piece of meat that requires slow cooking to extract the maximum flavour.

But this means that you can you can braise the beef over a prolonged period of time, as well as adding your vegetables to the dish. You can even turn the braising liquid into a sauce to accompany the meat.

This recipe is based on the following one for: beef brisket braised in beer, but with a few twists of my own.

Braised Brisket of Beef with Vegetables

1.5kg (about) rolled brisket of beef
2 bayleves
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
6 black peppercorns
6 allspice berries
500ml dark beer
150ml red wine
beef stock
1 tbsp English mustard
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp chilli paste
10 baby onions, peeled
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 turnips, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
6 carrots, cut into 6cm lengths
4 potatoes, cut into 2 cm pieces
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain flour

Add the beef to a deep casserole dish. Surround with the garlic, bayleaves, baby onions, thyme sprigs, black peppercorns and allspice berries. Whisk the tomato puree, mustard and chilli paste into the beer then pour over the beef. Add the red wine then pour in enough of the beef stock so that the level of liquid comes half way up the beef.

Cover with a sheet of kitchen foil then add the lid. Place the casserole in an oven pre-heated to 160°C and cook for 2 hours. At this point, add the turnips, carrots and potatoes to the pan, along with the soy sauce. Return to the oven and cook for a further 60 minutes.

At this point, remove the meat from the casserole. Cover with foil and set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Strain the liquid from the casserole in to a jug and place the vegetables back in the oven to keep warm. Melt the butter in a pan, scatter over the flour and stir to make a smooth roux. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then whisk in the strained casserole juices.

Bring the sauce to a simmer and cook for a few minutes, or until thickened.

Slice the beef and accompany with the vegetables and the gravy. Serve hot.


For more beef recipes see the following Celtnet Recipes page for beef-based recipes where you will find over 1000 recipes utilizing beef as a main ingredient.