Slow-braised brisket Αργοψημενο και μελωμένο στήθος βοείου κρέατος

The Story
I had this dish whilst living in Dusseldorf. A popular dish served by some of my close Jewish friends living in the city as ex-pats like us. I jazzed it up by adding the Tempura Silverbeet, just because it's growing well in my veggie patch. In traditional Jewish cooking, brisket is most often braised as a pot roast, especially as a holiday main course, usually served at Rosh Hashanah, Passover, and on the Sabbath.

Slow-braised brisket Αργοψημενο και μελωμένο στήθος βοείου κρέατος

This slow-braised beef brisket joint is warming and delicious. Surrounded by soft root vegetables and cooked in an air-tight pot, this tasty brisket is oozing with flavour. It only takes 30 minutes to prep this dish and then the beef brisket is put on a low heat and cooked for around 3hrs until the meat is soft enough to fall off the bone.
Servings 6
Prep Time 45 mins
Cook Time 3 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 kg beef brisket
  • tsp olive oil
  • 2 large onions chopped
  • 2 large carrots chopped
  • 1 small piece of celery chopped
  • 1 l beef bone broth (BROTH & CO)
  • 1 l water
  • 1 small star anise
  • 1 small cinnamon quill
  • 1 small bay leaf
  • 10 small peppercorns

Crispy Tempura Silverbeet (to serve and garnish)

  • 8 large silverbeet leaves
  • 1 tbs 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 3 cup vegetable oil for frying
  • 1/2 cup cornflour
  • 1/2 cup rice flour
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1 medium egg yolk, lightly beaten
  • 250 ml soda water

Roast sweet potato (to serve and garnish)

  • 1 tbs sea salt
  • 2 tbs smoked paprika
  • 2 large sweet potato washed and diced into chunks
  • 3 tbs olive oil

Instructions

  • For the brisket, preheat the oven to 150C.
  • Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over high heat.
  • Season the meat with salt and sear all over (1-2 minutes each side).
  • Transfer to a large casserole and add the vegetables, the bone broth and sea salted smoked paprika and sweet potatoes.
  • Dry-roast the star anise and cinnamon in a frying pan over medium heat until fragrant (1-2 minutes).
  • Add to casserole with bay leaf and peppercorns, bring to the boil, cover and braise in oven until meat is very tender (3 -3.5 hours).
  • Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely (40 minutes), then remove meat from braising liquid and cut into desired pieces.
  • Reduce the braising liquid over medium heat for 10 minutes.
  • For the silverbeet, blanch the larger silverbeet leaves in boiling salted water until just wilted (10-15 seconds), then drain.
  • For crisp silverbeet, heat oil in a deep saucepan.
  • Sift flours into a large bowl and season to taste.
  • Make a well in the centre and add egg yolk, then gradually mix in with enough soda water to make a thin batter the consistency of milk.
  • Dip silverbeet leaves in the batter, let the excess drain off and deep-fry leaves in batches, turning once and until crisp (2-3 minutes), then drain on paper towels.
  • Break into rough pieces and season to taste.