How to make a slow-cooked beef brisket stew with celery, shallots and herbs

Fancy melt-in-the-mouth beef you’ve let cook slowly all afternoon? This recipe dangles a rather delicious gravy that, of course, includes carrots

Slow-cooked brisket of beef with beer, celery, shallots and herbs

Preparation time: 10 mins plus overnight marinating
Cooking time: 3.5 hrs

Serves 4-6

1.5kg beef brisket
400ml beer, IPA is perfect
4 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme
4 cloves garlic 
1 tbsp oil
4 sticks of celery, trimmed and cut into 7cm pieces, split lengthways if too thick
8 shallots, peeled
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped 
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp tomato puree
½ to 1 tsp chilli flakes (to taste) 

Marinade the beef in the beer, bay leaves, thyme and garlic overnight, turning once or twice. The next day remove the beef and reserve the marinade for later. Heat the oven to around 150C. Heat the oil in a large casserole dish and brown the beef well on all sides. Remove the beef and set aside. Add the vegetables to the pan.

Stir to coat with the beef fat, turn the heat down and cook for 5-8 minutes with the lid on. Stir the veg well, then stir in the sugar, Dijon mustard, tomato puree and chilli flakes.

Pour the reserved marinade into the pan, including the garlic and herbs, stir well and season. Return the beef to the pan, if it’s not completely submerged, baste meat with the liquid and turn it halfway through the cooking. Cook in the oven for 3 hours with the lid on.

Once cooked, the meat should be very tender and falling apart. Shred and pull the meat apart and stir into the sauce. Serve with root veg mash.

Note: Ask for the “nug” end of the brisket, it’s thicker and usually has better marbling so will be more tender when slow-cooked.

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