Crock Pot Oxtail Stew

Erhmahgerd sterw!  So yeah, wow, it’s been a while, but here we are back again.

Yesterday we made a pretty good meal (really, to serve as lunches at work) from some of the meat provided to us as part of M.F. Dulock’s “meat club.”  On the chopping block: oxtail.  If you don’t know what oxtail is (and admittedly, we didn’t either)….it’s exactly what it sounds like -- the appendage used by bovines to swat at flies on their buttocks.  ;)  There’s more meat on there than you’d think, though, and it turns out it’s great for braising and/or stewing.

Here’s the easy recipe (parsed down from one we found online, and amended slightly to our tastes)….

• 1.65 pounds oxtail, disjointed (this just means chopped up into singular vertebral chunks)
• Pork fat that was leftover in a pan where we had cooked breakfast bacon that day
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 6 peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 dried red chile pepper, chopped (some, but not all, seeds removed)
• 3 whole cloves
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 3 potatoes, cut in chunks
• salt and pepper

Brown the oxtail pieces on all sides in the cast iron skillet with the pork fat, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the onions and garlic (with a bit more salt and pepper) and cook about 5 minutes more until the onions start to become translucent.

Put the potatoes and carrots in the bottom of crock pot, and season with salt and pepper.

Add the browned oxtails, onions, garlic, and remaining ingredients.

Cover and cook on low 6 hours or until the meat is easily pulled off (or falling off) the bones.

Quite delicious, super easy, and the house smelled fantastic all day, right from moment the meat went into the pork fat.  The weirdest part is that once you’ve gotten the meat off the bone of “normal” cuts, you are used to what the bones will look like.  Here, you end up with vertebrae.  Freaky.

Pot Roast

Hubby and I recently became members of the M.F. Dulock Pasture Raised Meats "meat club," wherein for a certain set price each month, you get a minimum of 5 pounds of the butchers' selection of various meats and offal, plus bones for stock above and beyond that 5 pound base weight.  This month, included in our bag (which incidentally weighed a good amount over the 5 pounds) was this beautiful two-pound bottom round.  We decided to turn into a pot roast.

We did our Googling, and chose to base our efforts on this recipe by The Pioneer Woman.  We of course, as usual, added our own twists and turns to it.

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 275-degrees.

Step 2: Generously salt and pepper the meat.

Step 3: Roughly chop a whole onion and toss it into a large enameled cast iron pot (or whatever oven-safe pot with a lid that you have) along with a couple tablespoons of very hot (but not smoking) olive oil.  Cook them for a few minutes until they start to turn brown:

Step 4: Remove the onions from the pot and repeat the quick browning procedure with some chopped carrots.  You  may or may not need to add a little more oil to the pan -- you be the judge....for the record, I didn't add any myself.

Step 5: Remove the carrots from the pan and brown the meat on all sides, again adding a touch more oil if you think you need to.  I did choose to add a little oil at this point.

Step 6: After removing the meat from the pan, deglaze it using a little bit of red wine (or beef stock or water if you don't have wine).  Pictured below is the wine the we happened to have sitting around last night, so that's what I used.  I only used enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan, though, because I needed to reserve about 2 cups of it for another upcoming recipe.  I wanted more liquid than that for deglazing, however, so I added a little of my homemade beef stock, too.

 

Step 7:  Here, because I wanted more vegetables in our final dish than just carrots and onions, I opted to chop up two russet potatoes and a few mushrooms.
 

Step 8:  Now it's time to put it all back in the pot.  First, in goes the meat.  Then, pour in as much beef stock as is needed to cover it about halfway up.  Next, toss in all the veggies.  Finally, top it off with Rosemary and Thyme....as much as you like, and fresh if you have it (we used dried).

 

Step 9:  Put the lid on your pot and bake it all together for about 2 hours.  (I think the rule is about an hour per pound of meat.)  We happened to let ours go for 2 hours and 20 minutes.

This is what it will look like when it comes out.  Try not to dive in too fast, though....it's very, very hot.  Plus, you still need to make the gravy.

Put the meat on a plate to let the juices redistribute, and scoop the vegetables out of the pot, leaving all the liquid still in there.

Bring it to a boil on your stovetop to reduce it down as much as you like.  We let it boil for 5-10 minutes, then used a cornstarch slurry to give it one final thickening.  (I know that some schools of though, including my beloved A.B., frown upon letting corn starch anywhere near gravy, but since I am currently not eating wheat unless it's necessary or a special occasion, we opted to skip the usual flour route -- it still tasted great.)

 

Slice up your meat, plate it with a scoop or two of the veggies, top it with the gravy, and enjoy!!

Everything was delicious, and the meat was so tender.  The only thing I would do differently next time is perhaps cook it for a little less time, because the potatoes were squishier than I would have liked and meat on the rarer side is always preferred in our house.  But other than that, it was a definite success that we are happy to have lots of leftovers of for lunches.

Beef Brisket and Parsnip Puree

Over the weekend, since we had a completely rainy/wash-out type Sunday on the agenda, we decided to stay in the house all day to do some crock pot and time-lengthy oven cooking….bbq style. There were several dishes to be made, each leaving us with plenty of leftovers for the week’s lunches and subsequent dinners. The first two recipes I will talk about in this post, and the other two I will address in a second blog later this week.

The Brisket

I found the brisket recipe at foodnetwork.com courtesy of Tyler Florence. He calls it, as he does with most of his stuff, the “ultimate.” You can click on the link at the beginning of this paragraph to see the actual recipe. I am not going to re-type it here this time, like I usually do, because while it was certainly a good brisket, and we also really liked the vegetables that came from it, it was definitely not, in our opinion, the ultimate. The only changes I made from Tyler’s instructions were to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned (halved then hand crushed), garlic that was already peeled (not still in the head), and I used dried thyme, rosemary and parsley. Other than that, I stuck to the recipe exactly. I also decided at the end to make a gravy with the juices that everything was braised in. Here are a few pictures of my process:

Four pounds of raw beef brisket.

The chopped veggies; essentially, an over-sized mirepoix.

Going into the oven.

Coming out of the oven.

Cooked brisket straight out of the braising process.

Veggies and braising liquid right out of the oven.

Drained veggies.

Freshly sliced brisket.

Making the gravy.

The Parsnip Puree

What I really want to focus on today is the parsnip puree that Tyler suggested be served with the brisket. We had never really cooked with parsnips before, and so we thought this would be good experiment in something new. Well, it was fantastic, and quite frankly, hands down our favorite part of this entire dinner. Here is exactly how I did it:

Ingredients

• 1 pound parsnips, peeled and sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and gently smashed
• 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stick of butter, cubed

Directions

Place everything except the butter into a pot over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer, and then cook until tender (for mashing, basically). This should take about 10-15 minutes.

Place parsnips and all remaining pan liquids in a food processor with the butter (don't forget to remove the bay leaf at this point), and puree it until the texture of whipped potatoes is achieved.

Serve. You could also (but I didn’t) add more cream and/or milk to achieve a runnier consistency, if desired.

I am sure that it’s mostly due to the butter and cream content that these were so very yummy, but the flavor of the parsnips themselves still shone through strongly. This was a complete success of a side dish that we will undoubtedly use again.

Three-Meat Beans

Today, in the spirit of love and giving thanks, I am going to share another family recipe.  This is a side dish that we learned from Jason's uncle Mark, and we make it every year for pre-Thanksgiving (Wednesday night) dinner at Jason's father's house.  Just like the 4 Layer Delight I posted recently, it's is a Southern thing....and so mouth watering.

INGREDIENTS

• 5 slices of bacon
• 1/2-pound of Kielbasa, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2-pound of ground beef
• 3 Tablespoons of chopped onions
• 32-ounces of canned Pork & Beans (depending on where you live and what size cans of beans are sold in your store, this might be two cans, or it might be three cans -- just make sure you end up with somewhere near 32-ounces total)
• 1/3-cup of ketchup
• 1/4-cup of brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of molasses
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of mustard

DIRECTIONS

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 350-degrees.

2.  Cook the bacon in a skillet; chop it up and set it aside in a large bowl (you will use this bowl later to mix everything together, so make sure it's a really big one).

3.  In the same skillet, brown the Kielbasa; remove from skillet into the large bowl, and discard the drippings.

4.  Add the beans, to the large bowl.

5.  In the same skillet, combine the onions and ground beef; cook, stirring, until the beef crumbles and is no longer pink. Dump the beef/onion mixture into the same large bowl.

6.  Add all the other ingredients to the bowl, and mix to combine.

7.  Pour it all into an oven-safe bean pot or baking dish, and bake (uncovered) for 30 minutes.

8.  Enjoy!

Fragrant Moroccan Beef, Date, Honey and Raisin Tagine - Crock Pot

Not too long ago, I tasted a dish made by the husband of one of my co-workers.  It’s Moroccan (as is her husband), but neither she nor her husband had a real name for it, and also didn’t necessarily have a set recipe.  All I know is that it was awesome.  One day, I was on supercook.com looking for recipes to use up ingredients that we had in the cabinet (specifically, dates) and I was pleased to find that this seemed similar to my friend’s husband’s dish.  It doesn’t taste exactly the same as theirs, but it was awesome nonetheless.

The original recipe can be found here.  What follows below is my exact version based on what I had (and didn’t have) on hand – for example, I used raisins instead of prunes, and quinoa instead of couscous.  I realized afterwards that I also had dried cherries in the cabinet – and I bet if I threw them in the pot, too, it would have been great.  I also see no reason why the olive oil is needed in this recipe, as long as you are using a non-stick skillet, but I used the oil anyways.  But being how many servings the recipe makes, omitting the oil wouldn’t reduce the calories or fat in each serving by much at all (only 12 calories and about 1g fat).  Here is the recipe, which makes 10 good-size servings....

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 lbs beef brisket, trimmed of fat & cubed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lb onions, peeled & quartered
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped finely
• 1 lb carrots, peeled & cut into chunks
• 1 can of Hunt’s No Salt Added Whole Peeled Plum Tomatoes, drained
• 8 ounces dates, pitted and torn in half
• 6 ounces seedless raisins
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup Swanson (100% Fat Free) 50% Less Sodium Beef Broth
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Salt (1 teaspoon) & pepper
• 2 ounces toasted sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Par-boil the carrots in boiling water for about 3 -5 minutes.
2. Preheat a large crock pot to High.
3. Heat up half of the olive oil in a large frying pan and brown the onion quarters over a fairly high heat until charred & colored well. Tip them into the crock pot.
4. Add the chopped garlic & par-boiled carrots to the onions in the crock pot.
5. To the beef stock, add the honey & all the dried spices (not the salt & pepper). Pour the beef stock mixture into the crock pot & mix well.
6. Add the cinnamon stick.
7. Add the tomatoes, dates & raisins to the crock pot - mix well.
8. Heat up the remaining olive oil and brown the beef cubes in the frying pan in batches to sear & seal them. As you finish browning them, add the beef to the crock pot.
9. When you have finished browning all the beef, give the whole mixture a good stir & season with salt & pepper.
10. Cook on high for 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally, until the carrots and beef reach your desired level of doneness.
11. Remove the cinnamon stick.
12. Serve over cooked quinoa & sprinkle some toasted flaked almonds over the top. It also works well with rice too.

THE DATA:

For one serving with a ½ cup of cooked quinoa, we have:

• 545 calories
• 36 g protein
• 67 g carbs
• 17 g fat
• 8 g fiber
• 393 mg sodium

It's delicious, hearty, and satisfying....and your house will smell fantastic all day.  :)

Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

We love going out for Pho, and figured there is no reason we can't make it at home ourselves.  This recipe is at the same time very simple and a little complicated.... meaning that there is a good amount of measuring and prep/chopping work to be done, but once you get past that, it's quick and easy to put it all together.  Certainly worth the effort.

For 3 very large bowls of Pho, each big and filling enough to be a meal in and of itself, do the following:

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of Ribeye/Delmonico Beef, fat trimmed off  
• One 8-ounce container of Rice Noodles (I used Ka-Me brand Vermicelli Rice Sticks
• 1.5 large Scallions
• 1/2 of a large Onion  
• 6 cups of Swanson 100% Fat Free Lower Sodium Beef Broth
• 1/2 cup of Bean Sprouts
• 1 red chili pepper
• Fresh cilantro
• Basil leaves

Accompaniments

• lime quarters
• hot chile sauce (we use Tuong Ot Sriracha)

Directions

1. Soak the noodles in cold water for 10 minutes.  Drain.
2. In a soup pot bring two quarts of water to a boil.  Add the drained noodles and cook them for seven minutes at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally until they tender.
3. Rinse the noodles under cold running water and set aside.
4. Slice the raw beef into thin strips and set aside.
5. Bring the broth to a boil over high heat.
6. While you are waiting for the broth to boil, thinly slice the scallions and onions, chop up the cilantro and the red chile pepper, quarter the lime, and prepare the basil leaves.
7. To serve, divide the noodles among 3 large individual serving bowls.
8. Arrange the thinly sliced raw beef, scallions, onion, and cilantro on top.
9. Pour boiling hot broth to cover noodles and serve immediately.  The boiling broth will cook the thin slices of beef.
10. Pho is traditionally accompanied by bean sprouts, basil leaves, cilantro, lime wedges, red chili peppers and hot chile sauce – which can be served on the side for each person to use as they wish.

Per serving, there are:

• 439 calories
• 23 g protein
• 74 g carbs
• 6 g fat
• 1 g fiber
• 1,066 mg sodium

Giddy-Up Steak with Onion-Date Compote

Simply delicious!

Recipe courtesy of Aarti Sequeira:
Prep Time:  30 min
Inactive Prep Time: 2 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Rub:

• 2 tablespoons chile powder
• 1 tablespoon ground coffee
• 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala 
• 1 (2-pound) flank steak

Compote:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large onions, sliced very thinly
• Kosher salt
• 4 dates, pitted and minced
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• Vegetable or canola oil, for greasing

DIRECTIONS

For the rub:

1. In a small bowl, stir together the rub ingredients, making sure to smooth out any brown sugar nuggets.
2. Pour half the mixture over 1 side of the flank steak and massage into the meat.
3. Turn the steak over and pour the other half over the meat and massage in.
4. Set aside on the counter up to 2 hours to marinate. You could also marinate the meat overnight in the fridge.

For the compote:

1. Heat the olive oil in a very large skillet over medium heat.
2. Once the oil is shimmering (not smoking), add the onions, a pinch of salt, and stir to coat with oil.
3. Cover and reduce the heat to low.
4. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn a deep caramel color, about 45 minutes.

Then:

1. Warm your grill or grill pan over medium heat.
2. When the onions are caramelized, add the dates, vinegar, and water. Stir and cook, covered, for another 15 minutes.
3. Pour a little vegetable or canola oil onto a paper towel, and use it to wipe down your grill pan.
4. Once the grill pan is nice and hot (oil lightly smoking), throw your rubbed-down meat on. It should sizzle upon contact - if it doesn't, your pan wasn't hot enough. This is how you ensure a nice crust on the steak.
5. After 5 minutes on 1 side, flip the steak over, and cook another 4 to 5 minutes or until the meat reaches your desired doneness (we lie ours medium-rare).
6. Pull the meat onto a chopping board, and tent with foil; allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
7. Slice the steak thinly against the grain on the bias.
8. Serve with a dollop of onion compote on top.

For about a half pound of meat (weight before cooking) - and that's quite a good serving size, 1/4 of the the compote, and the broccoli, it comes out to:

• 669 calories
• 58 g protein
• 52 g carbs
• 25 g fat
• 5 g fiber
• 414 mg sodium