Jamie Oliver's Bloody Mary Beef

Forgive my long absence, I've haven't been trying out many new recipes, nothing worthy of a blog anyway. Last night I cooked a meal for my mum and my sister to celebrate their birthdays. This Jamie Oliver recipe appealed to me as it could be prepared hours in advance and cooked slowly in the oven . This usually means masses of flavour and tender meat. I did enjoy it, but not as much as I thought. The meat wasn't falling apart as suggested in the recipe, it was still a bit stringy. That may have been the quality of the meat though. I think that for beef meal with wonderful flavours, you can't beat a Beef Bourguignon. However, it could be that as I had smelt the meal cooking away all day, by the time I came to eat it my taste buds had been overloaded. Everyone else thought it was wonderful. The recipe is from Jamie's new book "Comfort food. I might try it again in a slow cooker and leave it for much longer. Serve with a great pile of creamy mash and some greens.

Ingredients
Serves 8

1 x 1kg piece of brisket
olive oil
head of celery
4 small red onions
half a bunch of fresh rosemary (15g)
2 fresh bay leaves

Bloody Mary mix
lemon
1 x 700g jar of passata
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
few drops of Tabasco sauce
3 tbsp vodka
1 tbsp port

Method

Preheat the oven to 130ºC. Place a snug-fitting casserole pan over a medium heat to get hot. Season the brisket all over with salt and pepper, then add to the hot pan with a splash of olive oil and cook for about 10 minutes, or until gnarly and browned all over. Meanwhile, trim and chop the celery into 5cm chunks, then peel and quarter the onions. Add the chopped veg to the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes, or until slightly softened.

Combine all of the Bloody Mary ingredients in a large jug, then pour into the pan with 500ml cold water and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Make a bouquet garni by tying the rosemary and bay together with string, then add to the pan and bring everything to the boil. Take the pan off the heat and cover with a cartouche – this is basically a scrunched-up piece of greaseproof paper that you place directly on the surface of the food. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook in the oven for 5 to 6 hours, or until the beef is tender and falling apart.