Braised Beef Brisket with Root Vegetables

You know how much we like to braise – this time we put our dutch oven actually IN the oven to cook a lovely 3lb flat cut beef brisket. Although we would have preferred a point cut, alas the butcher had none so we went flat.

After giving the brisket a good rub down of flour, salt, and mignonette pepper, we seared each side in a pan with some olive oil. After browning, we removed it from the pan and began sweating 2 thinly sliced onions. After 5 minutes, we tossed in about 8 cloves of garlic (minced), and cooked for 5 minutes more. Then, we pour in a couple cups of cabernet while scraping up the lovely goodness on the bottom of the pan. Tossed in ¼ cup tomato paste, several sprigs of fresh thyme and 2 turkish bay leaves and brought this wonderfully-smelling concoction to a boil.



We cooked that until it was reduced by half, then added about 6 cups of beef stock and brought it back to a boil - then finally we nestled the browned brisket back into the pot. We covered pot with a piece of foil and then put the cover on top to seal it tightly. Placed the pot in the lower third of the oven at 325 degrees for about 2.5 hours.

We served ours up with some rutabaga, celery and carrots along with some of the delicious broth that the brisket was braising in. How could this once-tough piece of meat come out so tender you ask?? Braising. Yup, unbelievable what this technique can do for even the tough guys. Tender and delicious!