We’ve had a kilogram of brisket in the freezer for quite a while, and I knew that I wanted to use it for a recipe today. We’ve had a slow cooked brisket before and it ends up like the beef version of pulled pork – one of my favourite foods in the world. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it this time so I searched for recipes and came across this one on the Food Network. Although this recipe was to be cooked slowly in the oven I figured it would also work in the slow cooker.
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
- 1 kilogram brisket
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion
- 5 garlic cloves, pureed
- Thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 3 teaspoons cumin
- 3 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 500ml beef stock
- Bunch of coriander
- 2 red chillies, finely chopped
To get it all ready for the slow cooker I heated a saucepan on a medium heat added the vegetable oil (I used olive oil) and the onion and sweated for 5 minutes. Next the chilli, garlic and ginger went in and were cooked for another two minutes. Next up were the spices, again cooked for another two minutes. I then put the brisket in the slow cooker still with it’s string around it to stop it falling apart, added the beef stock and tomatoes and finally the spice mix from the pan. I cooked it on high for around 7 hours, you want the brisket to be tender and able to be pulled apart.
Once cooked I took the brisket out, removed the string and shredded the meat in a bowl (that’s about a third of it in the picture) I whizzed up the juices left in the slow cooker with my hand blender and then poured it all into a wide shallow pan and heated it so that it reduced down to a lovely thick sauce. I poured about half the sauce onto the pulled meat and kept the other half back to be spooned over the meat once served.
The recipe says to garnish with fresh coriander and chilli. By the time I got to serving, I’d completely forgotten about this and just dived in! We had it with a baked potato and some curried coleslaw which I made by adding some curry powder and cumin to some coleslaw we already had in the fridge. There’s a recipe for some ‘proper’ spiced coleslaw on the Food Network page if you fancy something a bit more sophisticated!
It might not look very pretty but It was delicious and quite spicy. Definitely one I’d make again.
From Strength to Strength 