Prior to paleo I always cooked my brisket in beer, as per the Belgian method. Since moving over to ancestral eating, this is one habit I have persisted in - I mean, just how many processes does a grain have to go through to be neutered? Malted, fermented and then cooked.
Anyway, this time was without the beer ... and ... it worked out okay.
At some point in the morning of the day you want to eat this, just brown off the brisket in a skillet and set aside.
Soften some onions in the skillet and toss into a lidded ovenproof dish as the base. Your slow cooker or Dutch oven would do perfectly well.
Chop a good few garlic cloves and toss them into the dish.
Sauté off a few lamb kidneys, cored, although that doesn't really matter too much for the long cook time. Toss into the dish.
Finally, collect all the juices and flavours from the skillet with a little water and a few mushrooms - I adore chestnut mushrooms for the deep, earthy flavour. Too into the dish.
Season with some ground black pepper and a good helping of sea salt. I use Maldon brand, which has a light flavour, not overpowering. Add a couple of bay leaves.
Make a well in the dish and settle the brisket in there.
Top up with boiling water until just the top of the brisket is sticking out - it doesn't want to float.
Lid on and into the oven at 125C for ... well ... as long as you like, really. I went for about 4 hours before removing the lid for a further hour, or so, to reduce the now flavoured liquid.
When you are ready to eat, remove the brisket from the dish and wrap in foil to keep warm.
Get some veggies steaming.
We had seasonal Jersey Royal potatoes, spring carrots, stringless beans and a few peas; all good primal chow.
We could just blend the remaining ingredients to make a seriously sumptuous sauce, but I like to retrieve the kidneys and mushrooms by sieving the juice and picking them out. This leaves just the onion in the sieve, which I push through to give the stock more body.
Wash the mushrooms and kidneys through to remove all the bits and return to the stock pot with the sieved stock, thickening with a little arrowroot. Warm through.
Serve out slices of brisket with the kidney and mushrooms alongside and your gently steamed vegetables.
