There was a brisket joint at the butchers last week – it was cheap, looked good and with a Bank Holiday looming, I figured it was bound to be slow-cooking weather. So in the inevitable pissing rain, I  went searching for a recipe this morning.

I’ve never cooked it before and my only real reference point was episodes of the Big Bang Theory. I did wonder about a more traditional British approach, but I can’t resist American BBQ food so went for Southwestern Pulled Brisket. It’s a really easy recipe and the result is meltingly tender beef in a tangy, smokey sauce.

I’ve had to convert a bit from the US recipe but here’s the ingredients:

1 1/2lb beef brisket

sea salt and pepper to season

2 cloves garlic, smashed up

1/2 onion, finely sliced

2 tsp chilli powder/flakes

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or smokey chilli sauce would do)

2 tablespoons balsamic/cider vinegar

3/4 pint water

1 tin of tomatoes

1 bayleaf

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

First season and brown the beef in a heavy casserole. Move it out of the pan and fry the onion, garlic, chilli, coriander, cumin and paprika for about a minute. Then add the vinegar and scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan, until most of the vinegar has gone. Add the water and the tin of tomatoes, chopping them up as they go in.

Put the meat back into the pan, bring back to the boil and cover tightly with a lid – I added a layer of foil to make the seal tighter. The real recipe advises using a slow cooker for eight hours.

I’m using an oven at 130 decC for six hours, turning the brisket once halfway through. Time to go and do something more interesting for a bit – I went to the pictures.

To serve, pull the meat apart while still in the pot and stir through it gets a good coating of sauce. If the sauce is too thin, reduce it on the stove top a bit first. Mine needed about 30 mins.

We ate it with coleslaw, crusty bread and potato rostis – would be good with rice and salad too. It makes epic sandwiches.

All over Prague, restaurants served delicious richly spiced grilled meats and kebabs. My inner carnivore was in heaven but I couldn’t work out the spicing. There was come citrus, a little chilli, garlic and herbs.

Not to be beaten by the mystery I headed for the market near to our hotel and many of the food stalls were selling spice mixes (labelled Steak Koreni) for meat. Case solved – I brought some back to try and ran the ingredients label through an online translation site.

There’s now always a jar of this mix in my cupboard to turn a midweek pork chop into something a bit special. It’s amazing for barbecues too – now that the summer seems to have arrived early.

To make enough to keep in a jar for a few meals, mix together two teaspoons each of:

• Sea salt
• Mustard seeds
• Dried thyme
• Coriander seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Dried onion or onion powder
• Black peppercorns (one teaspoon)
• Chilli flakes (up to you – two makes it quite pokey)

Grind together a couple of teaspoons of the mix as a dry rub for griddled or BBQed meat or mix with a little oil and lemon juice as a marinade. The smell as it’s cooking will bring tears of joy to the eye of any enthusiastic meat-eater.

It’s simplicity itself to prepare but does need three and half hours in the oven and to marinade overnight – it’s a weekend easy tea.

A 1.5 kg (ish) joint will be enough for two with leftovers – and I can heartily recommend it for sandwiches.

For that size joint, take 100g of butter and let it soften at room temperature. Mix into the butter: 1 tbsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper.

Slash the lamb all over and rub in the butter, making sure it goes into the cuts. Wrap the joint tightly in foil and leave in the fridge all day or overnight.

It’ll need to come out of the fridge in time to get to room temp before going into the oven at 160 degC. Pour a glass of water into the bottom of the tray around the lamb to create some steam in the oven.

Let it cook in the oven for three hours without opening the foil. After that time, carefully open the top of the foil (so you don’t lose all the juices) and give it a further half an hour to brown up. You know it’s done when it’s falling away from the bone.

Shoulders are a fatty cut which puts people off, but slow cooking renders out all the fat and makes amazingly moist, melting meat that takes on the spices brilliantly. I was greedy and ate all the leftovers in sandwiches, but they’d make a great Monday night curry.

You can use beef mince or casserole/stewing beef for this – the later makes a really hearty chilli stew which is good for tacos or fajita wraps.

So, fry the mince until browned. Remove to a dish and fry an onion and a roughly chopped red pepper and chilli in the juices from the meat along with two cloves of garlic. Once the onion is on its way return the meat to the pan and it’s time to add some spices.

For a 500g pack of mince, I use a good two teaspoons of cumin, about five of paprika and one of turmeric. If you like it hot, add some chilli powder and a pinch of cayenne too. Let this cook for a few minutes before adding a tin of tomatoes a few squirts of tomato puree and enough beef stock to generously cover the meat. Get this up to the boil then back to barely simmering and cook for about an hour. Check it regularly to make sure it doesn’t go too dry or stick to the pan.

You should end up with a thick, spicy, unctuous sauce which is great with rice and a little sour cream on the side. It keeps very well and I think is often better a day or two after being made. Great to make a batch on the weekend and keep it portioned up in the freezer too for a really quick tea.

I’m using cooked leftover chicken for this but lamb and prawns (cooked) both work well too. If you want to use raw meat/prawns, cook them in a separate pan while the sauce is cooking.

First make the spice mix. Either use pre-ground or toast whole seeds and grind yourself. You need a good teaspoon of: cumin, coriander, black pepper, chilli flakes, garum masala, mustard seeds, turmeric and cardamom seeds (the black seeds, taken out of the green husk). Obviously, vary the heat by adding more/less of the chilli to suit you.

Creamed coconut needs to be reconstituted with boiling water. For this, though, use stock instead for better flavour. Make up a pint of stock and stir in chopped up creamed coconut until it’s thick and creamy. Add a squirt of tomato puree – the mix will go an alarming pink colour, but that’s normal.

In a wide frying pan, fry and onion until soft then add garlic and ginger (if you don’t have fresh, use some ground ginger in the spice mix) and fry for another minute or so. Now add the spice mix and give it another minute. Your whole house should now smell fantastic.

Pour in the coconut stock and give it a good stir to mix with the spices. The turmeric will bring the colour back to normal. Add the cooked meat and simmer for about 20 minutes to reduce and thicken.

Serve with basmati rice and a few home-cooked poppadoms.