I seem to be rather drawn to Jewish dishes. I don’t know what it is about them but all the flavours I crave are right there and exactly what I’m after. This is one such dish, a hands off dish of beef and beans called cholent.
I found this casserole in the pages of Leon 2, and it was my wife who twigged it was authored by Giles Coren. I’ll admit I’m a fan, heck the whole Coren clan is dead gifted. Victoria’s an amazing and intelligent presenter, and Alan Coren reminded me of my dear old Granddad. The only thing that stumped me about the dish was how to pronounce it, so I sought advice and have it on good authority that it’s pronounced ‘chollunt’.
I did mine in a slow cooker, so it bubbled away unbothered and had a jolly old time to itself. It was utterly delicious, with beef shredding to pieces, and a lovely rich liquor to boot. Comforting stuff, and something I’ll be bringing out again over the colder months.
Cholent:
500g beef brisket
2 onions, sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 litre beef stock
150g pearl barley
2 tins haricot beans
Get the slow cooker warming while you prep everything else.
Brown the brisket in an oiled pan on all sides, then put to one side. In the same pan, get the onions and garlic softened slightly, before adding the paprika and stock. Once it’s at a bubble, pop everything including the beef in the slow cooker, and cook for at least 10 hours.
Stir in some greens for the last ten minutes of cooking. Shred the beef and serve with a generous helping of the bean stew.
(Let me get this out of the way: the title is a slight lie. But with good reason – read on).
The slow-roast of a chicken as nabbed from Heston Blumenthal is a winner. No question. So why has it taken me this long to transport this idea to beef?
I was finally spurred on to try it by two things. Some dear friends bought me Heston’s Family Food for a belated birthday present. It’s leagues away from his Total Perfection series, a more everyday approach to food. It’s quite touching how he talks about how you can explore food with your family, encouraging them to try different things.
The second thing was being sent a Heston Blumenthal meat thermometer. I was so overjoyed at getting hold of one of these I had to cook something that demanded a thermometer immediately. This seemed perfect.
Heston’s recipe for slow-cooked beef favours the wing rib; a little pricey for me. I settled on that old favourite, brisket. But would the same principles apply to a different cut? Broadly I was confident, but I had to be sure. Some searching later I found a series of blog posts from Cuisiniers Kitchen investigating slow cooking brisket.
(You can read all three parts of the ‘slow cooked brisket’ series here, here and here. It’s a lot of words but fascinating stuff.)
In summary, the preferred method was to brine, marinate then cook for less than 24 hours. Past a certain point the collagen ruptures and develops a tougher texture. So I went for a cidery brine for 12 hours, followed by a 12 hour roast at 70°C. Finally a quick frying in a hot pan to give lovely browned
I chucked it in at 7am and took it out at 7pm. A quick prod in a couple of places showed that it was 70°C throughout so perfectly cooked. The thermometer did the job, sturdy enough to stay upright and a very easy to read screen. The temperature also came quickly, something I have a gripe with my current thermometer. As I expected there was little colouring from this roasting and a little puddle of blacky-brown liquid in the pan, which of course I had to try. It was pure Marmite, heavenly umami. There were also an odd rubbery sheet of stuff from one side, which I suspect was congealing blood ‘n’ stuff (why do we only use pig’s blood for black pudding?).
After some reasting and frying, it was absolutely delicious. Crisp, wobbly fat and full-flavoured soft meat that tore apart into lovely flakes. The cider was a surprising touch: when I carved into the meat an appley perfume came off it; in the mouth a pleasing sweetness. If you’re wondering about the lack of seasoning, the brining takes care of that. But the beef flavour was the king. Completely brilliant.
(PS I’ll be exclusively giving away some Heston Blumenthal kitchen equipment to you lovely lot in the very near future, so keep reading!)
24 hour roast beef brisket:
700g brisket
500ml cider
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 star anise
50g butter
Prepare a brine with 8% salt and add the sugar. Stir well to mix, add the cider, pepper and star anise and submerge the beef. Cover with cling film and brine for 12 hours in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 70°C. Pop the beef in a baking tray and leave for 12 hours, or until the beef is 70°C throughout (this should be medium rare to medium). Leave to rest, covered in a clean teatowel for an hour.
Put a pan on the hob with a very high heat and add the butter. When it starts to foam, add the beef and sear on all sides until it develops a brown crust all over. Carve as thin as you can and serve.
I took a good look at Judy Joo’s recipe, and dived into the challenge. Being a forthright so-and-so, I made a few adjustments. I understand they are at the heart of the dish but I had no chance of finding dangmyeon, or sweet potato vermicelli, in my corner of Essex. It’s hard enough finding an Asian store of any description, so I hope the panel will forgive me substituting fine egg noodles (if I ever see some on my travels, I will grab them and give ’em a try). On a more personal level, I love it when beef has that black-brown seared crust on, and worried that this recipe might lose it. So I chose to sear the beef very quickly over very high heat, then leave it to rest alongside the omelette before adding back at the end. By resting it here, those lovely steak juices would wander off and get leeched by the egg, so double win there.
All told, it was a lovely plate of noodles. Dark and rich, with plenty of fresh vegetable crunch. The omelette and beef were nice little nuggets of treasure hidden away amongst it all. Thanks guys! So what’s next?
Jap chae (serves 2):
200g rump steak, thinly sliced
For the marinade:
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
For the noodles:
2 nests fine egg noodles, broken up
2 tbsp soy sauce
Everything else:
2 eggs, beaten
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red onion, sliced
1 small carrot, julienned
12 oyster mushrooms, sliced
½ red pepper, julienned
Handful baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, crushed
3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Mix the marinade ingredients together, pour over the steak and leave for at least half an hour.
Boil the noodles as per packet instructions, drain and rinse through with plenty of cold water. When cool to the touch pour over the soy and let it soak in.
Get a pan on medium low and spread the egg thinly over the base of the pan. When it sets flip it over, cook briefly, roll it up and put to one side.
Get the pan up to ferocious heat and add a splash of oil. Sear the beef quickly for about 45 seconds on either side and remove to the same plate as the omelette to rest while you get on with everything else. (I couldn’t bear to lose that leftover marinade so poured it over the resting noodles).
Keep the heat high and add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Keep it moving the whole time and it shouldn’t catch. Add the red onion, carrot, mushrooms and pepper and continue stir-frying at pace. Fry for 3 – 4 minutes more until they vegetables start to go tender, then add the spinach and beef. Slice the omelette into strips and add those too along with the noodles and the rest of the ingredients.
Cook for another minute or two until everything has been warmed through and the noodles take on a glossy appearance.
This wasn’t something I saw on TV. This wasn’t a recipe I copied from a fellow blogger. No, Google made me cook this.
I was thumbing through my Webmaster Tools (if you’re a blogger or website owner and you don’t use this you’re mad – it’s so fascinating and can tell you a lot of things about what visitors you get and why) and one of the search terms was “mince patties with polenta”. A lightbulb went off in my head, what a brilliant idea given how in love I am with polenta at the moment.
It turned out jolly nice, especially partnered with a fruity tomato sauce. And best of all can be changed dead easily depending on what’s in the cupboard.
Combine the mince with the herbs and rub and season well. Form into burger shapes and refrigerate for half an hour (this helps them stay together when cooking).
To make the tomato sauce, fry the onion in garlic gently for 10 minutes in a little oil until softened. Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Five minutes before the end cook the broad beans in water until tender and then add to the sauce, stirring through. Check for seasoning – it may need sugar and vinegar to get the balance right. Add the basil at the last minute.
To finish the patties, spread the polenta out over a plate. Dip the patties in beaten egg and then coat thoroughly in polenta. Fry gently for 5 minutes on each side until browned. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
