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.

Shredded Beef Sandwich with Jus

 Despite  an overwhelming love of Arby's, I don't think you can count me as a roast beef sandwich connoisseur.  That's not to say I wouldn't like to become one!  This sandwich has me well on my way.

The root of the reason  is that I've never been much of a beef eater.  However, Pure Beef has changed my eating red meat drastically.  Whether it was because my mother never cooked much red meat (not so much as a meatloaf, from my recollection) or the frightening plethora of names given to the beast or that the first steaks I tried to cook came out like leather or a slight fear of all meats not totally well-done (gotten over that, thank god)....  Whatever the case may be, red meat has never really been on my radar.

Pure Beef rocked  my world.  Not only did Lynne Curry arm me with some serious knowledge, the recipes are bloody lovely.  She has created an avowed beef fan.

I have now picked up things like oxtail, shank, brisket strips, short ribs and beef bones.  I've yet to do a 'real' pot roast and I'll probably never grill a T-bone but it's a helluva step forward!

It was oxtail that first got me started on this sandwich I share with you now.  As I've noted before, Sanagan's is a great place to pick up meat in Toronto.  Unfortunately, the pic above was taken with grocery store oxtail purchased long before my love for Sanagan's began.  I think it's worth examining here, however, for the novice beef-eater.

Oxtail is not actually ox meat but the tail of the cow.  The nice folks at Sanagan's sell their oxtail in nearly-whole form but were kind enough to chop it into user-friendly 'discs' for me much like what you see above.

Oxtail can be browned and braised like short ribs or stewing beef.  But for the ultra-easy, I went for my slow cooker on this occasion.  Leftover sauce and meat from any of the above cuts or even a roast would be excellent companions for a crusty bun.  The below recipe is an extrapolation of that loveliness but in a less labor-consuming form.


Shredded Beef Sandwich with Jus

Creates enough for a bunch of sandwiches plus some snacky, hot-beef eating.

Please note: While not labor-intensive, this is still a two-day recipe. Plan ahead.  This dish could alternatively be made with beef shank.

Day 1

2 lbs oxtail
3 cups beef broth
1/2 onion, chunked
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 Tbsp mustard powder
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp whole peppercorns
6-7 sprigs fresh oregano
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
water

Feel free to brown the meat first if you're feeling motivated.  I was in a rush.  I dumped the raw oxtail in the slow cooker.  Add all successive ingredients and enough water to cover by an inch or so.  This is not a science; don't worry too much.

Cook on high for five hours.

Carefully strain liquid into a separate bowl.  Remove meat from the solids and discard the remaining vegetables and spices.

Now for the messy part.  Oxtail has a lot of fat and collagen on the bones; separate it with your fingers to pluck the nuggets of meat out.

Refrigerate the meat and the liquid separately and come back tomorrow.

Day 2

This is the quick day--give yourself approximately 30 to finalize and assemble sandwiches.  The following ingredients are noted for one sandwich.

1 1/2 cups reserved beef liquid

3/4 cup reserved beef

1/2 demi baguette, sliced lengthwise
aged gouda or other strong cheese
1 Tbsp horseradish
butter


Oxtail has a ton of collagen--your liquid should now be a bowl of jello.  Remove the tallow (beef fat) and reserve for another use (this a super-stable natural fat--go fry/sear stuff in it!). 

Chunk out an approximate amount of the beefy gelatin into a small pot.  Turn on the heat to simmer--it will turn back to liquid the moment it warms up.  Reserve the rest of your gelatin for another use--further sandwiches, braising liquid, jus for another application, or freeze for fall soups!  This is true stock at its best.

Keep the pot simmering until it reduces by about 3/4.  You will be tempted to add salt at first.  Do not; a reduction salts itself.  This will take 20-30 minutes depending on your heat and volume of liquid.

While that's going, slice some nice thick pieces of gouda for one half of your baguette and butter the other half.  You may definitely use another cheese here but it needs to be strong to stand up and be recognized among the beef and the horseradish.  Throw these under a broiler to toast.

Nuke the beef to rewarm it (technical!).  Shred with your fingers some if it still appears in larger chunks. 

The buttered half will be done first--pull it out and smear with horseradish.  Apply the warmed beef. 

Pour your jus into a side dish so you can dunk the sandwich.  Pull out your bubbly, cheesy sandwich top, assemble, and CHOW DOWN.