Beef brisket in ale
A tasty beef dinner any day of the week.
Servings: 8 people
Calories: 350kcal
Ingredients
- 2 tbsps vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1 celery stalk diced
- 1 carrot peeled and sliced
- 1-2 kg beef brisket
- 500 ml fine ale such as Doombar
- enough water
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- salt and ground black pepper to season
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a pan and fry the onions, celery and carrot until they are soft and starting to brown. This will help to add colour to the gravy.
- Remove the vegetables from the frying pan and place in a casserole dish.
- Add the remaining olive oil to the frying pan and fry the beef brisket to sear and brown all over. Transfer to the casserole dish.
- De glaze the frying pan with some of the real ale before adding to the casserole dish. Add the remaining real ale and water to the casserole dish so that the stock is ¾ the way up of the brisket.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Cover the casserole dish with kitchen foil to seal before putting the lid on top. Cook in a pre-heated fan oven at 190°C for 30 minutes before lowering the heat to 140℃ and cooking for another 3 hours. Turn the brisket occasionally and add more water if required.
- Strain the cooking liquid from the casserole dish, skim off as much fat as possible and use as a gravy.
- Allow the beef to cool slightly before slicing and serve with traditional Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and vegetables of your choice.
Notes
Freezing tip: Slice the beef and separate the slices with greaseproof paper before freezing. The beef slices can be defrosted for a roast dinner on any day of the week; a roast dinner isn’t just for Sunday!
Calories are per portion and for the ingredients listed; not for any accompaniments. The calories are an approximation and will depend on the size of the ingredient e.g. potato chosen.
This is very tasty and we both enjoyed the meal. I did vary it slightly as the stout I used was orange and chocolate stout from Taste the Difference range in Sainsbury’s. Also, I used stewing beef in chunks as I wanted to freeze a large portion of it as we have visitors at the end of this month. I shall do it again using a Brisket joint in February for a Sunday lunch when we have family visiting. I am very confident they will all enjoy the meal.
We were interested to hear about your choice of ale and no doubt this gave the dish a distinct flavour. Thank you for taking the time to leave your comprehensive feedback and we look forward to hearing feedback from you in February when you cook the dish with a brisket.