Brisket in a slow cooker and Beef Ragu al Polenta

Brisket Recipe in a slow cooker

Gently fry some onions, garlic, bacon pieces and a sliced red pepper, add to a slow cooker, add some beef stock, a bay leaf, seasoning, squirt of tomato puree, can of lager, put the brisket (fry and brown all over in a pan) in and go to work and eat when you come home.. Thicken the gravy a little.

Beef Ragu al Polenta 

This is a use up recipe for the brisket that I had made in the slow cooker the day before and was left over along with some lovely sauce.

Anyway for this left over dish I added sliced red jalapenos out of a jar to the sauce and let it bubble away for fifteen mins, then added the meat for a further five mins.

For creamy polenta, for two people use one cup of polenta, to roughly 3 or 4 cups of water, but add more water if required. Simmer the salted water and then add a fine drizzle of the polenta stirring all the time over a low heat, when all in and smooth add half a cup of parmesan and half a cup of cheddar or gouda cheese and stir for another minute, season and pour evenly around a plate and pour the ragu inside and over the polenta mound. In Italy they would serve it as 'spianatora' where everybody helps themselves, just with a fork, with no plates, from the serving plate in the middle of the table.