serves
6
prep
10 minutes
cook
3:50 hours
difficulty
Mid
serves
6
people
preparation
10
minutes
cooking
3:50
hours
difficulty
Mid
level
Ingredients
- 10 shiitake mushrooms, 5 soaked in 750 ml boiling water for ½ hr
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) soy sauce
- 6 garlic cloves, 4 crushed, 2 sliced
- 1.2 kg beef brisket
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 L beef stock
- 1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
- 1 long red chilli
- 100 g unsalted butter, chopped
- 600 g mixed Asian mushrooms (such as shiitake, enoki, black fungi)
- thinly sliced red bird’s-eye chillies and coriander leaves, to serve
Cooling time 1 hour
Resting time 10 minutes
Soaking time 30 minutes
Marinating time overnight
Drink match Endeavour Reserve Amber Ale, NSW (330 ml, $4)
Instructions
Place rehydrated shiitake mushrooms and soaking liquid in a large bowl and cool completely. Stir in soy sauce and crushed garlic. Add brisket and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Heat oil in a large saucepan or cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Remove brisket from marinade and pat dry with paper towel, reserving marinade. Add brisket to pan and cook, turning, for 5 minutes or until browned all over. Add reserved marinade, beef stock, lemongrass and chilli. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 3 hours or until brisket is very tender. Remove from heat and allow brisket to cool completely in cooking liquid.
Place remaining 5 dried shiitake mushrooms in a small food processor or spice grinder and process to a fine powder. Place 500 ml cooking liquid in a small saucepan with the ground shiitake mushrooms and simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes or until liquid has reduced by half. Strain through a fine sieve and return liquid to a clean saucepan over low heat. Add 50 g butter, a little at a time and cook, whisking constantly, for 10 minutes or until smooth and emulsified. Remove from heat.
Remove brisket from cooking liquid and pat dry with paper towel. Heat a chargrill pan or barbecue to medium-high heat. Add brisket and baste liberally with shiitake glaze. Cook, basting and turning, for 10 minutes or until charred and caramelised. Remove from grill and place on a large serving plate. Pour over any remaining glaze, then loosely cover with foil and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
Melt remaining 50 g butter in a frying pan over high heat. Add sliced garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant, then add mixed mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes or until softened and coloured. Using two forks, shred brisket and serve with stir-fried mushrooms, scattered with sliced chillies and coriander.
Photography Chris Chen
As seen in Feast magazine, February 2014, Issue 28.
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
