With Passover coming up in a week or so I thought it might be fun to give you a different take on Brisket. The Chinese love slow-braising and poaching and tonight’s dish Chinese Red-braised Brisket is a comfort food popular in Hong Kong and Southern China where it is steeped in tradition. “Red Braise” is the name of the complex and wonderfully aromatic stock used in this dish, (I can smell it wafting from the kitchen as I write this), although the meat doesn’t really turn that red. Like all Brisket dishes this one takes a its time on a slow simmer but it’s definitely worth the wait.
Chinese Red-Braised Brisket: Serves Six for about $16
4 lbs brisket
Red braising stock
1 1/2 cups shaoxing rice wine
1 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup rock sugar
6 cloves garlic, crushed
4 oz stem ginger, sliced
4 green onions, cut into 2″ strips
1/2 cup sesame oil
5 star anise
4 pieces of cassia bark or cinnamon
1 piece of dried mandarin peel
All the above ingredients can be purchased at an Asian Grocery Store.
Place the brisket in a large saucepan, add cold water to cover and bring to the boil, drain and rinse in cold water.
Place all the ingredient of the braising stock in the saucepan and add 12 cups of water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the brisket and simmer on medium to low heat for 2 hours or until very tender.
Serve sliced with noodles.
Make sure you hang onto the stock as we are going to re-use it in another recipe in a couple of nights.
Posted by Has anyone got a recipe for perfect crock pot/slow cooker brisket? | Slow Cooker Pot on March 18, 2010 at 9:21 pm
[...] The Chinese have a way with Brisket « Fresh&Frugal [...]
Posted by Delfina on March 20, 2010 at 11:44 am
I don’t know if you have braised any meat before, it is the same, but using the crock pot.
The only difference is, you have more washing up to do.
Firstly you need to brown the meat on both sides, transfer to a dish, then in the same pan add the vegetables ( onions diced, celery diced and carrots diced, in the ratio of 1 large onion, 1-2 stalks of celery and 2-3 large carrots). Cook that until fragrant and the vegetables are starting to get soft, then add 2 tablespoon of tomato paste, cook that until the paste starts to darken. Add 1 cup of red wine and bring to the boil, scraping any bits that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan, turn the heat off.
Put the meat into the crock pot with the vegetable mixture, add beef stock until it reaches the meat, salt and pepper to taste, then turn on the pot as instructed for your machine. The same goes for the cooking time.
I haven’t given you a recipe as such, because, what I have given you is more of a tutorial of how to braise in a crock pot / slow cooker. If you want a proper recipe let me know.