Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Rolled beef brisket, chilli naan and couscous salad

Well its been ages since I wrote, and since I have alot more time on my hands at the moment, I should probably get writing!

Anyway I went to the shops the other day and the meat was on special, so, amongst other things, I bought a rolled brisket of beef... not really knowing what I was planning on doing with it! After a bit of searching I ended up discovering its a slow roasting joint, and alot of people forget about them in the slow cooker for ages...

I without any real plans about what I was going to cook with the beef, I oiled it with garlic oil, bit of S&P and left it in the oven for about 5 hours on 75, to cook really slowly... it remained super tender the whole way through, and at the end I turned the heat up to about 180 and blasted it so it went nice and brown and delicious!

I served it with a couscous salad, which I made with chicken stock. I had previously that day cut up some cherry tomatoes and spring onions, added salt to draw the moisture out and added some vinegar. I left them in the fridge for the afternoon and when I needed them I poured all the juicy tomatoes into the couscous, seasoned and mixed in a glug of garlic olive oil - delish!!

I used a recipe from a member of the foodie website Through the Oven Door for the naan breads I made... I had no mint so just used a red and green chilli. I found the mix to be really really wet and impossible to knead so I had to add quite a bit more flour... it also didnt rise but thats not the fault of the recipe, I think that dried yeast just hates me... anyway I rolled them out to around 5mm and grilled them on the griddle pan. They took a little while but I think next time I need to be more patient, and wait for the "bubbles" to appear, and not have the heat on too high! Also there is to be NO oil on the dough before cooking, you brush garlic butter over it at the end once its cooked... Im going to try it in the oven next time...

We didnt wait long enough to get a picture of it, but it was really really nice! the meat was great and there were leftovers for my lunch today! always good!