I don't have slow cookers or pressure cookers and I use our ancient microwave only for softening butter in winter when I need a crumpet or teacake. I have a Foreman grill that's been redundant, a white elephant, for ten years. I cooked a two-pound piece of brisket in a Le Creuset casserole on Sunday. I browned it all round in a glug of oil in the hot pan for a couple of minutes, then set it aside so that I could fry some chopped carrot, celery and shallots in the fat (I had to add a bit of butter and I take no notice of the burnt stuff on the bottom of the pan) then I added a pint of beef stock from a cube, a glass of red wine which I'd boiled and burned off the alcohol from, the soaking liquid from 25g dried porcini, then the chopped porcini. I put the meat back on top and brought it all slowly to the boil. While I was waiting I went into the garden and picked a bunch of parsley, some sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf and a small bunch of sage. I tied all these together with string and added them to the pot with some seasoning. That went in a low oven, 140C, for three hours, lid on. The meat was tender and moist, the juices made lovely gravy and we had it, three of us, with mashed potato and sprouting broccoli from my garden. There were juices left over and some goodly scraps of beef, which I made into a lovely ragu to stir spaghetti into the next day, nothing else needed except a topping of freshly-grated Parmesan,