Pulled Brisket with Cherries, Star Anise and Hoisin Sauce
Photography Josh Griggs.
This was a huge hit on shoot day. The brisket is delicious stuffed into warm bao buns or crusty rolls with coleslaw.
Serves: 4-6
INGREDIENTS
Sauce
1 red onion, roughly chopped
5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
¼ cup each sriracha chilli sauce and rice vinegar
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons each tomato paste and runny honey
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
1 cup cherries, drained, pitted (see Cook’s note)
1 teaspoon sea salt
To cook
2 red onions, thickly sliced
2 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup ginger beer
1-kilogram piece beef brisket; (or 2 x 500-gram pieces) I used Silver Fern Farms
sea salt and ground pepper
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Sauce: Blitz all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
To cook: Place the onions, star anise, cinnamon stick and ginger beer in an ovenproof casserole dish. Season the brisket with salt and pepper and place on top. Pour over the sauce. Cover tightly with a lid or tinfoil and cook for 3 hours, or until meltingly tender. Transfer the brisket to a plate and cover to keep warm.
If the cooking liquid is quite thin, tip into a medium saucepan and boil over a high heat until reduced and syrupy, stirring often so it doesn’t catch on the base.
Pull the brisket apart with two forks and serve with the sauce.
Cook’s note: Cherries are available in the tinned fruit section of supermarkets.
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In Dream Escape, we journey from Japan and Morocco to Italy, India and beyond, sharing recipes inspired by travel, heritage and comfort. We celebrate the champions of the Outstanding Food Producer Awards, explore the stories and recipes of chefs shaped by their cultural roots, and warm up with everything from West African soups and slow-braised lamb to porchetta, butter chicken and beef noodle soup. Alongside destination menus, Scandinavian sweets and cosy pub classics, Chrisanne Terblanche shares her favourite street-side dining spots in Bangkok, while Yvonne Lorkin explores red wine varietals. This issue, we invite you to slow down, turn the pages and escape through food.