INGREDIENTS
1 kg cow heels
500g beef chuck cubed
2 liters filtered water
METHOD
Place the meat and water in a pressure cooker and boil uncovered on a medium heat removing all the scum. This will take a while. As you remove it, more will form. Continue until no scum appears on the top anymore. Pressure cook for 45 minutes. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and transfer to a dish leaving the water in the pot. Keep the water simmering. Remove all the bones and skin. Using your hands, break up the meat. Make a bouquet garni using the following ingredients with muslin cloth or the blue/pink/green cloths and tie with string:
3 bay leaves
3 tsps whole coriander
2 tsps whole cloves
2 cardomon pods
3 tsps whole peppercorns
2 tsps thyme
Return the meat to the pressure cooker. Add the bouquet garni and the following ingredients:
80ml vinegar
3 tbls ACV (apple cider vinegar)
3 tbls mild curry (or your choice of curry powder)
2 heaped tsps tumeric
2 tbls fresh crushed garlic
1 onion grated
2 – 3 tbls xylitol
Himilayan salt (be careful not to over salt. Rather add more at the end)
Stir well. Continue to boil the mixture on a medium heat without the lid to reduce the liquid. Never over reduce the liquid. If you think you have reduced the liquid enough, take two tbls and put it into a little bowl/cup. Let it cool slightly and place it in the fridge. Within 30 minutes it should set and become gelatine. If it does, your brawn is ready. Pour into greased long bread tins or moulds of choice, let cool for at least an hour and place in the fridge uncovered overnight. I cut mine into portions and first wrapped them in cling wrap and then tin foil. Brawn freezes really well.
NOTES
Use exactly the same method and ingredients for pork brawn excepting for the meat. For the pork brawn I used 1.5 kg pork trotters and 1kg pork neck cubed. There’s quite a bit of meat in the pig trotters but none in the cow heels.