Red Meat

Published on October 7th, 2012 | by Gareth

3

Lime slaw salad & slow roast spiced brisket

A new season brings a new challenge. In a bid to be more sustainable and offer more economical recipes I have tasked myself with using cuts of meat and types of fish that aren’t the popular choice – but still deliver great flavor and texture.

And since my last few posts have been desserts its time to restore balance with a savoury recipe.  This is also a two for one deal, two recipes in one post, essentially the whole meal.  The recipes weren’t initially intended to pair together but I think they still work despite one with origins in the ’Deep South’ (the U.S.) and the being a salad of Anglo-Asian parentage.

The salad is a vegetarian recipe that is my own creation, its kind of an Asian alternative to coleslaw with fresh herbs. It ditches the mayonnaise traditionally found in British coleslaw and replaces with lime and a little sugar making it fresh, crispy and more zing than a half time orange. The addition of heirloom carrots add colour and texture and you can turn up the flavour by adjusting the quantities of lime and chilli. It’s good on its own as light lunch and with fish. I also think it happens to work with the beef even though deep South and Asian are rarely menu buddies.

The main part of the dish is slow roasted beef brisket with a spiced rub. The recipe is another of Al Brown’s from his cookbook stoked and supposed to be served with a New Orleans style bean stew. Now when I say it’s slow roasted this is slower than the Aussie post. The rub is done 24-48 hours in advance and you roast the meat for up to 10 hours on a very low heat. It might take an age but at least you can be doing other things at the same time and both recipes are done in about 3 steps.

The simplicity of the beef brisket recipe makes it all the more embarrassing to confess the first time I cooked it, I had a minor cock up. In my wisdom I decided that there must have been a misprint in the cooking instructions and elevated the meat on a rack. Bad idea as this dried the meat out a little. This was compounded by the fact that I failed to notice the thickness of the brisket varied making some parts pink others a little over cooked and dry. Lesson: learn from my mistake.

Ingredients

Chinese cabbage salad

• ½ Chinese cabbage – washed and finely sliced
• 1 red heirloom carrot – grated
• ½ orange carrot – grated
• ¼ red onion – finely sliced
• ½ chilli – deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. fresh mint leaves – finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. fresh coriander leaves – finely chopped
• Juice and zest 1 lime
• 1-2 tsp. grated palm sugar or caster sugar

Al Browns Carolina spice rub brisket

• 2 tbsp. smoked sweet paprika
• 2 tbsp. regular paprika
• 2 tbsp. salt
• 2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 3kg beef brisket
• 2 cups water

Method

Chinese cabbage salad

• Put all the ingredients except the caster sugar and lime juice in a large bowl and toss to mix.
• In a jar (with the lid), add the juice and the sugar. Shake to mix until all the sugar has dissolved. Adjust the level of sugar to suit your taste, I like it quite sharp but that’s just me.
• When ready to serve pour the lime juice dressing  over the salad and give it a quick mix.
• Serve.

Beef brisket

• Mix all the dry ingredients together as this will make your spicy rub.
• Rub into the meat.

• Place in a bowl, cover with plastic food wrap and pop in the fridge for 1-2 days.
• Preheat oven to 120 degrees C
• Put the meat into a large roasting pan and gently add the water around the meat (don’t pour over the meat otherwise it will wash off the spicy rub).
• Check after 5 hours, if necessary add a little extra water.
• Check every hour for another 4-5 hours. When it’s soft to touch its ready.
• You will probably find that it feels quite firm, even tough right up to the 8^th hour, don’t worry it comes good.
• If the water evaporates top up to original level this will help prevent it drying out. You can also cover in foil in the last hour or two.

Tags: American, Asian, Salad, Slow roast

About the Author

Gareth Englishman in Sydney loves a whisky, pies and all things savoury. Digital Marketer by day, cook the rest of the time. Amateur writer, photographer & aspiring anthropologists.