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Glorious Pot Roast
This is a Well Hung favourite; we got it from some friends in Scotland. It passed the WHM taste tests convincingly. The problem with Brisket is that it is a lesser cut and needs slow cooking-not easy to do if you’re usually in a rush to put something nice on the table. Steaks are so much easier. Or are they?
Brisket is often sold rolled, and makes a fantastically tasty, easy to cook joint. It shouldn’t take more than 40 minutes to prepare a roast for eight, with little or no attention or preparation required in the minutes prior to serving.
Our briskets are usually cut to 1kg - use 2 to serve 8 hungry people.
Ingredients
2 1kg brisket joints 2kg Carrots700g onions 6 good cloves of garlic
250ml red wine Salt and pepper
100g mixture of bacon and rinds (uncooked)
Lots of thyme, and parsley stripped off stalks and chopped
Bay leaf/parsley Clove if liked
You can substitute or add other root vegetables for some of the carrots. Parsnips will sweeten the dish, while Jerusalem artichokes will enrich it. The vegetables are integral to the dish.
Roast the meat on a high setting for 40 minutes - include any blood from the packaging.
Fry the chopped bacon. Finely chop the onions and garlic and brown in your largest casserole, in some of the dripping that comes off the roasting meat.
Turn up the heat and tip in the wine - you can flambee some brandy or sloe gin in addition to the wine at this stage if you want. Bubble furiously until most of the liquid has gone.
Add the herbs, salt and pepper, and 500ml water/stock. Boil.
Leaving the oven on, take the meat out and place on top of the onions, scraping out any debris from the roasting tin. Place the casserole in the oven. Turn to low and bake for 4 hours if using that day. Add the carrots chopped into 2” chunks after 2 hrs tucking them around the meat.
If not serving on the day, turn the oven off after 2 hours, leaving the casserole in situ.
Warm through the following day.
To Serve
Remove the meat to a plate and keep warm. Remove the carrots from the cooking liquid. Liquidise the cooking liquid, adding as many carrots as are required to make a plentiful thick gravy. Carve the meat into thick slices and serve with mustard or eye wateringly fresh horseradish.
The carrots remaining can be handed in a separate serving dish.
Tips
Baked potatoes are an easy accompaniment, as are other steamed vegetables.
The plentiful gravy can be made well in advance so you can stay with your guests until the moment you carve the meat.
To make a really easy holiday dish, you could make an old fashioned rice pudding to cook in the oven with the meat and potatoes, and go out walking for the afternoon.
