Red Wine and Cinnamon Slow Cooked Beef Brisket and Vegetable Rolls

I have a confession to make... I have a pretty bad addiction to Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. I've always loved diners and the whole culture surrounding them so I guess it's no surprise really. I also love fried food, much to my dismay, but that's another trouble altogether...

One recipe that tends to come up a lot on the show is brisket, usually sliced super thin and piled high with cheese and some kind of pickled veg and crammed into a sandwich. As delicious as this looks, my carving skills are just not up to slicing that thin and as much as I like to think I own almost every kitchen appliance going my collection doesn't stretch to a deli meat slicer. No problem though I thought, I'll just Brit it up a bit, slow cooking it in red wine with some veggies and cutting it into 1/2 cm slices.

Although it takes about 5 hours to cook the prep work on this is very minimal, I just threw everything in the slow cooker (you can do this in a casserole dish in the oven) and left it to do its own thing while I did household chores, watched more Triple D, slid my way around town for my Sunday TK Maxx kitchenwares scramble and bought the icing sugar and other items I had forgotten to get at the supermarket the previous night. This is a regular occurence, maybe I subconsciously do it so I have to go shopping again...

Coming out of the freezing cold and into a hot kitchen filled with the gorgeous scent of winey beef is a real treat. Do Yankee Candle make stew scented wax tarts yet?

Sammich Construction

Red Wine and Cinnamon Slow Cooked Beef Brisket and Vegetable Rolls
Makes 6 rolls with extra veggies for an evening snack

Ingredients
700g beef brisket
3-4 carrots
2-3 parsnips, peeled
3-4 stalks of celery
1-2 onion, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dried rosemary
400ml red wine (I used merlot)
500ml beef stock
6 good bread rolls - I used multi grain as that's my favourite
english mustard - optional and to taste

Method
If cooking in the oven, preheat it to 150 C / 300 F.

Cut all the vegetables into large chunks and set aside. Sprinkle your piece of brisket with 1/2 tsp of the black pepper and place into your slow cooker or oven proof dish. Surround it with the veggie chunks and sprinkle over the salt, remaining pepper, cinnamon and rosemary. Mix the red wine and beef stock together in a jug and pour over - it should be just covering all the ingredients. If your pan is large and this is not enough to cover everything just add more beef stock until it does.

Turn your slow cooker on to high, or put the lid on your casserole dish and place in the oven and cook for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally if you like, until the meat and veggies are tender.

Remove the meat from the pan and cut into slices, as thick or thin as you like. Split your rolls leaving a hinge at one side and spread over a little English mustard (if using) then put down a layer of the vegetables from the pan. Top with a layer of the brisket and then drizzle a little of the liquid from the pot onto the inner topside of the roll to add some extra moistness. Close up and enjoy with a little glass of the leftover red wine.