Traveling Crock Pot, Third Edition

I am honored, as ever, to have the illustrious Becky Issenman photograph my food!

I literally didn't remember to take a single picture of the finished products so if you'd like to see any of these recipes realized, check out Mrs. Becky's shots.

Menu

White bean soup with sage and prosciutto
(Not as much fat comes off prosciutto as the pancetta recommended in the recipe.  I prefer a flaky crisp on top of my soup and thus, prosciutto.  If you do as well, find some extra lard or butter to sweat your onions and garlic in.)

Bouef Bourginon
amended from food.com


Bouef bourginon is famed for being an enormous, time-consuming dish.  This is not untrue.  But you can take the heart of the dish and reduce it to be more amenable to the average cook who does not wish this dish to be the centre of their universe for five or seven hours.

I will show you my version listed below.  Keep in mind that these measurements are flexible--this has been adjusted to my taste but frankly, there are so many flavors that are so powerful here, you can fake it pretty well with any approximation of the recipe.  You can see this sentiment in the ingredient list itself--I want you to chunk and smash vegetables.  This is not a science.

That being said, while the ingredients are not exact, the method is.  Please read carefully--some professional tips I've learned to take this dish from good to great follow.

Serves 6 

specialty tools: cheesecloth (optional, but very useful)

3 oz thick-cut bacon
1 1/2 lbs stewing beef, trimmed of excess fat and cut into cubes
1/2 large onion, chunked
1 large carrot, chunked
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 bay leaves
several large sprigs thyme
several large sprigs parsley
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 1/2 cups red wine, divided
2 1/2 cups beef stock, divided
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
2 Tbsp butter
 9 small carrots, preferably a selection of colors, with healthy green tops.
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Cook off the bacon.  Once cooked, remove from pan and retain rendered fat in pan.  Note: Lardons are original in this recipe; I find thick-cut more accessible.  Thin-cut won't stand up to the dish.

Pat the beef dry.  This is that critical step so many of us learned from Mrs. Child.  Wet meat will take a hundred years to sear at which point, you will have cooked it through and that's not what we want here.  We want to get a nice, sealing crust on the meat.  So get the pan smoking-hot and drop in your cubes.  Sear until good and brown (this involves not touching them) and flip.  You may need to add more oil to the pan as you cook.  The meat should not be crowded and batches will be necessary. 

Achievement Unlocked: The Perfect Sear

Set all seared meat aside.  Place the chunked vegetables in the same pan and give them a light caramelizing as well.  Place vegetables and garlic into a bowl.  Toss with 1 Tbsp of the flour.  Add garlic, bay and herbs and toss lightly.

You will have what professionals call sucs in the bottom of your pan.  The brown, crispy flavor-wonders left behind by your meat and veggies.  Put the pan back on the heat and warm.  Pour in half a cup of the red wine and the tomato paste.  Stir with a gentle tool (I prefer a wooden spatula I have), scraping the pan gently to release the sucs and mix the tomato paste into the wine.  When you aren't feeling any more resistance or you can see the sucs have released into the wine, you've officially deglazed a pan.  Take it off the heat.

Achievement Unlocked: Deglazing a Pan

Place the beef in the dutch oven.  See the juices remaining on the plate?  Pour those into the deglazed pan.  That's 100% flavor you don't want to lose.  Toss the beef with the remaining 2 Tbsp flour and season with salt and pepper and place in oven for 3-4 minutes.  Toss the meat to turn, return to oven for another 3-4 minutes.  Turn the oven down to 325.

Crumble the cooked bacon and sprinkle it over the beef.  Take your cheesecloth and lay it over the meat.  Layer the vegetables and herbs over top.  The cheesecloth will allow all flavors to permeate and mix and, in a few hours, it will also allow you to lift the vegetables cleanly off the meat.  No picking thyme and parsley mush off your meat!  (Hat off to Bouchon for this tip.)

Cover meat and vegetables with wine sauce from your pan, remaining wine and 2 cups of the stock.  Throw on the lid.  Cook for at least 3 hours, more if you need the time.

Twenty minutes before you pull the dish out of the oven, prep the carrots.  Peel them and slice them lengthwise, leaving half an inch of green at the top of the carrot.  (Scrape around the top of the carrot with the edge of a knife to ensure no dirt is clinging to the place where the greens meet the carrot.)  Have two clean pans out.  In one large pan, sautee the mushrooms on high heat with butter, browning as you go.  In the second pan, place the carrots with the remaining 1/2 cup of stock.  Bring to a low simmer and braise until bright and crunchy-tender.

When you pop the bourginon out of the oven, pull the vegetables and herbs out.  They will be virtual mush--they were just there to flavor so you can green bin 'em now.  Skim meat and other residue out of sauce and into a clean cup.  Let the liquid sit long enough fat rises--defat the liquid and pour the remaining sauce into a saucepan.  Give it a strong simmer for 10 minutes or long enough to reduce slightly.

To serve, place meat, mushrooms and sauce in a bowl.  Top with three carrot halves of varying colors. Throw bread on the side of the plate for sopping up this ruby goodness.

If you're somehow blessed with leftovers, this stew only gets better as it sits.  Combine all ingredients and refrigerate.



Green Leaf Salad with Parmesan Crisp and mustard-garlic-parmesan dressing

There is really nothing to this salad.  Go wash some red lettuce, grate half a cup of parmesan and juice a lemon.

Now arrange the lettuce on the plate.

Pile the parmesan in a hot frying pan and use the back of a spoon to smooth out into the size of a circle you're happy with for your crisp.  Let it melt until the cheese is bubbling and sunk into a fine lattice.  Using a very thin tool, flip the parmesan and let it get golden on the other side.  When complete, transfer to salad or save.  Crisps are physically delicate but will keep well.  I made four crisps plus a little for the dressing with this half cup.

For dressing, mix together a teaspoon of mustard (a crunchy mustard is ideal in my opinion), very finely minced garlic (this is a dressing--don't cheat on your mince-work or you'll regret it) and half a tablespoon of parmesan.  Mix with a touch of salt, plenty of black pepper, lemon juice and olive oil.  Season to taste and let sit as long as possible before the salad is served to let the flavors meld.

Blue Cheese Walnut Bread
(Heed warnings in the comments section about the different rising times, particularly if you're not familiar with non-machine bread making.)

Cheesecake with Caramelized Apples and Salted Caramel Sauce

The cheesecake is a version of the one already on this website but sans chocolate and with a vanilla bean stirred into the milk and sour cream I warmed together for extra volume due to the lack of chocolate.  The crust was graham as here but I added cinnamon and cardamom.

Caramelized apples may be made by peeling and slicing an apple.  Toss the apples in sugar and cinnamon, ensuring thorough coating of the sugar.  Melt butter in a frying pan and when it is very hot, place apples evenly through pan.  After 2-3 minutes, flip apple.  Try to get a nice brown coating on either side; this is the sugar caramelizing and will give wonderful texture.

The caramel sauce recipe linked here has a great step-by-step guide and pictures.  Just remember melting sugar is hotter than boiling water so DO NOT under any circumstances touch it until cooled.  I did not add salt to my initial product but finished the plate with fleur de sel.

F-Word Salad

I've said before that I consider salad posts cheating.  Most salads are creative fridge-dumps, folks scouring to do away with the ends of this and that.

This one was intentional, the result of an inspiring trip to the grocery store, but really, still cheating.

I've got a good-'en lined up, however, for later on.  So if you can forgive me this salad, you'll be rewarded.

F-Word Salad

Proportions are largely up to you.  Eyeball the salad and make yourself happy.

Frisee, torn up

Fennel, sliced very thin

Figs, quartered or even eighthed

Fresh basil, chiffonaded (about 2 Tbsp if you're going to make this an entree.  Don't skimp.)

Fffffgoat cheese

Fava beans (optional)*

Date vinegar

oil

salt to taste

lots of pepper

 Toss the frisee, scatter on top the fennel, fuss with the figs, chunk the cheese and sprinkle with basil.

Mix the vinegar, oil and salt to your taste.  Drizzle.  Crack lots of black pepper over top.

*Fava beans were part of the original recipe here.  I wasn't as excited about them as I had been in the store, seeing the giant pods (you could use frozen, I suppose, but seeing fresh favas got me all a-twitter), but it wasn't a bad addition to the salad.  My sister, on the other hand, liked them.  So.  *shrugs*

We served with peppery shrimp, a whack of bread for the sauce therein and a pseudogarita.

Middle Eastern Feastern

Welp, I'm back on one of my Middle Eastern kicks. I thought I'd enjoy the journey with you and yours since I've been enjoying myself and am quite proud of the whole thing here to boot.

And, best of all, all of these recipes are available online for free due to the generosity and creativity of several geniuses listed below...

Now, I'll say first off that normally I'd make my own hummus. However, the store was out of tahini (or doesn't carry it anymore? I'd swear I've seen it there before). So, store-bought on that count. Otherwise, however, I'm partial to Mr. Smith's recipe, for the record. I just tend to up the garlic (yeah, because that's necessary, given the rest of this meal).

First up in actual cooking? The turnips. You should actually do these a few days in advance (not one day in advance, like me). They take a few days to get that excellent salt-vinegar tang to them. However, mine have finally achieved perfect color (get a big beet).



The recipe is in this thread, but I'm going to list it below as well in case Chowhound decides to archive their forums or some such.

Okay my recipe for pink turnip pickles is as follows

2 lbs of turnips
1 beet peeled and cut
3 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup vinegar
2 Tbs salt
3/4 tsp of sugar

Chop vegetables into appropriately sized sticks. Mix liquids with seasonings until dissolved. Combine them, stir, leave covered approx five days. Once finished pickling, refrigerate.

The above makes an awful lot, so I've halved the liquids/salt/sugar and chopped up 2 turnips and a large beet to make the picture above.

Next up: Thoom (Garlic Sauce)




I'm going to tell you straight-up that I still haven't got the trick of this one. Basically, the idea is that if you emulsify enough oil with the garlic, you get this light, fluffy sauce. I've yet to get it as smooth or as creamy as other creators seem to and I've tried it a couple times. My only hints so far? Add oil very slowly and do not try this with a food processor. Too big.

In today's version, I tried this person's method after picking up and discarding several other recipes and websites. I haven't tried adding the egg white--that may be the next trick I give a shot. Also, while I'm going to tell you straight up that I used an immersion blender, you can also grind the garlic to a paste using a mortar and pestle and then emulsify with a whisk.




Next up: Tabouleh

I find tabouleh to be a critical part of my Middle Eastern Feastern because a) the parsley tone is critical, to my mind and b) tabouleh was one of the first Middle Eastern foods I ever fell in love with. Thank you, Mega Wraps Guy in conjunction with My Mom for getting me to try it all those years ago.



While the base is here, I've modified a bit in that picture. I knew I'd want some cucumber so that's in there; a little bit of garlic (a no-no in traditional circles); and I switched out the bulgur wheat entirely. I wanted some more protein, some more cals-per-bite since this is going to be my primary belly-stuffer. So, quinoa, that holy "complete food". I should add, however, that bulgur wheat does in fact have a good bit of protein in it and significantly less fat. I also just like quinoa and am trying to fill this sucker out.

Next up: Falafel

Here's where it gets ugly. Up until now, we've had thrilling colors, creamy consistencies, bright salads... Falafel is ugly. It crumbles, it's a funny shade of yellow-green and uncooked it's about as appetizing as any other mash.


Aren't you excited?

For my first real homemade falafel (read, not out of a box mix falafel), I used the lovely Mrs. Charmian's recipe. I followed her lead and soaked some chickpeas overnight. This meant I ended up with fewer peas than I'd meant to (I get very loose with my dried bean measurements).

I also, see above, did not have the called-for tahini. So. Some adjustments.

Double the spices. I'm telling you that now. I like the combination, but my first few patties were not that flavorful. This is just too much chickpea to flavor with individual teaspoons. And add some cayenne. I also had some zata'ar on hand so I added a couple heaping teaspoons of that.

What did I do instead of tahini? I improvised. I dumped in nearly a quarter cup of sesame seeds and added olive oil as I went for texture. I think with the lack of tahini, my mix was overall dryer, so I was easier on the breadcrumbs in the final step as well.

Next up: Pitas

Well, we gotta have something to put all this stuff in, don't we? Enter the humble pita.


These bad boys are thrilling to make since, when you make them right, they're a little show in your oven as they puff.

Now, I don't care what measurements this man's website gives you about rolling. Make them as thin as possible. Thin, thin, thin! This gives you the best puff for your buck.

This recipe gave me pitas with fluff and absolutely fantastic pockets. They came open so easily it was ridiculous. Lastly, I made mine with 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour for some additional texture.

And that, my friend, is a Middle Eastern Feastern, vegetarian style. I have some plans in the making for a chicken shwarma recipe of my very own, but you all will just have to wait until we've at least gotten past Meatless Monday. Jeez.