I fell in love with side dishes during the three years I spent as a vegetarian. When you don’t eat meat, you tend to go into any holiday celebration or dinner party knowing that your meal will be made up of side dishes and you just hope to end up with more than a garden salad and a dinner roll.
Even though I now eat meat, I want hearty side dishes that can be meals all on their own. I still eat vegetarian food regularly (of the 13 recipes I’ve posted this year 11 have been vegetarian and 7 of those have been vegan) and I want the side dishes I serve to be as important and well crafted as the main dish. Vegetables tend to be the star of the side dish, and being a veggie devotee for three years gave me profound respect for what produce can bring to the table. If you’ve never been a vegetarian, and want to challenge yourself in the kitchen, try to go a month without meat. Even if it’s temporary, it’ll grown you as a cook.
This is a recipe that I already have plans to make again. It has an elegant comfort food vibe to it. The edges get a bit crispy, but the middle has a creamy mashed potato feel. Meat eater or not, this can be a meal or a side dish. I really hope you love it as much as I do.
Ingredients
- 3.5 lb beef brisket
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons curing salt (this will make the meat pink)
- 3 tbs whole allspice berries
- 1 tbs whole cloves
- 1 tbs ground ginger
- 2 tbs mustard seeds
- 2 tbs whole peppercorns
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- 2 cups water
- 3 (12 ounces) bottles of stout
- 8 cups ice
- 2 cup red cabbage, shredded
- 2 cup savoy cabbage, shredded
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbs kosher salt
- 3 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp groung ginger
- 2 tbs whole dried allspice berries
- 2 tsp whole cloves
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- _
- 12 soft potato dinner rolls, split to resemble hamburger buns
Directions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, add brown sugar, 3 tbs curing salt, 1 cup kosher salt, 3 tbs allspice berries, 1 tbs cloves, ginger, mustard seeds, 2 tbs peppercorns, along with 2 cups of water.
- Cook on high just until the salt and sugar dissolve, remove from heat. Add 2 bottles of stout (reserve the last bottle for cooking) and 8 cups of ice, stir until ice has melted and brine is cool.
- Add the brisket, cover with lid and refrigerate for 3 days and up to 10.
- Remove from brine and rinse well. Discard the brine and clean the Dutch oven well.
- Place the brisket back in the cleaned pot, along with the onion, pour the remaining bottle of stout and then cover with cold water until the brisket is fully cover with one to two inches of water above the beef.
- Bring to a low boil, cover and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Simmer for 3 hours or until the meat if fork tender. Move to a carving board, thinly slice against the grain.
- While the brisket cooks, make the pickled slaw. In a sauce pan over medium heat, add the lemon juice, vinegar, salt, sugar, ginger, allspice, cloves and peppercorns in a pot. Bring to simmer just until the salt and sugar dissolve, remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, add the cabbage and onion. Pour the cooled pickling liquid over the cabbage and onion, refrigerate for one hour.
- Slightly warm the buns, fill with corned beef and slaw before serving.
Adapted from Epicurious