MEAT!

Meaty goodness!

My dear friend (the one who taught me to can) just posted on FB that she thinks my Pot Roast recipe is the best ever.  I have to agree, although I will give credit to Alton Brown for the bones of the recipe.  I am reminded that I never posted the recipe online.... this post corrects that egregious error.



This photo doesn't hurt either :-)







Even when cooking for four, I double the recipe and freeze the extra.  And yes, you MUST allow the meat to rest overnight before serving.  Alton Brown explains the impact of the heat/cooling cycle on the connective tissue in his Good Eats episode on stew

Pot Roast
2 lbs blade cut chuck roast/cross rib roast/cross rib steak
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
10 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup canned tomatoes (chopped or diced)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine
1 cup black raisins

1.  Trim excess fat from the outside of the meat and cut it into a few pieces.  Place in crock pot with remaining ingredients and cook on low for six hours, or until a fork can shred the meat.

2.  Remove the meat from the crock pot and place in a stove top safe dish.  Place in fridge overnight.

3.  An hour or so before serving, remove from fridge and skim chinks of fat from the top of the dish (this is the saving grace of using a fatty piece of meat- so much is removed in this step).  Warm the whole dish over medium-low heat on the stovetop.

4.  Prior to serving, remove the meat from the pan and place on a serving dish.  With an immersion blender, puree the gravy in the pan (it can be removed to a blender, although working with hot sauces in a blender requires skills I don't have.  If you don't have an immersion blender and don't want to blend, then skip this step-- it's all about the aesthetics, but won't affect the flavor).

5.  After blending (or not) turn up the heat to medium high and reduce the gravy by half to concentrate flavors.  Serve gravy on top of the pot roast, or pass it on the side.

Gravy goes great over mashed potatoes.

Delicious.  Time to go buy some pot roast meat!


Photo Credits:  www.lauravidlerphotography.com

Best Snack Ever! Crunchy Chickpeas!

I know, I know.... best ever?  A wee bit of hyperbole for a snowy day?

I think not.

These are awesome.  Sweet or spicy, and definitely crunchy.  And unlike many of the recipes I've seen on the interwebs, these STAY crunchy for days... not that they last that long.

Crunchy yummy goodness.

As a bonus, these are healthy, full of fiber and vegetarian.... and gluten free depending on your seasonings. No guilt, all goodness.  And did I mention delicious?!

I've made multiple batches, and the best came when I started with dried chickpeas*, not canned.  It might be a coincidence that these were the best batches, but it's not much harder to start with dried, and you get the chance to make so many more.... so I'll always start there.

Crunchy Chickpeas
1lb dried chickpeas
10-12 cups water

1.  Rinse dried chickpeas and pick through them, discarding any discolored ones or stones that found their way into the bag.  Place chickpeas in slow cooker, cover with water, then cook on high for five hours until tender.

2.  Drain, and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet(s) lined with paper towels/cloth.  Rub chickpeas gently to remove liquid, and pick out any skins that come off-- no need to skin them if the skins hold on.
*Suggestion 1:  1lb chickpeas = 2 full cookie sheets.  These need some elbow room.
*Suggestion 2:  Leave the chickpeas in a colander or on a cloth for a few hours/overnight... let evaporation do some of the drying for you

3.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Use the convection setting if you have one.  Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper and spread chickpeas on top in a single layer.  No need for oil or flavors yet... just chickpeas!  Place the cookie sheet in the over and set the timer for ten minutes.

4.  When the timer goes off, shake the pan, then put it back in the oven and set the time for another ten minutes.  Repeat two more times (a total of 40 minutes)

5.  After 40 minutes, the chickpeas should be nicely browned, and if you eat one, it should be crunchy all the way through, and not at all soggy.  If it's still not crunchy, try another five minutes before proceeding.

6.  And now... seasonings!  During one of the ten minute baking rounds, mix up seasonings in a bowl large enough to hold your chickpeas.  Here are some suggestions:

Spicy:  1/2 Tbsp (or more) Sriracha, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp line juice 1/2 tsp sweet paprika, 1/2 tsp salt
Flavorful: 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp each smoked paprika and cumin, 1/2 tsp salt
Sweet: 2 Tbsp honey, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt
Sweet II: 1 Tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp cinnamon sugar, 1 pinch cayenne pepper, 1 pinch salt
Tons of seasoning suggestions on the web... just make sure you dry roast them first following the instructions here to make them crunchy crunchy crunchy!

7.  Pour chickpeas into seasonings and mix until coated, then return the chickpeas to the oven (on the parchment covered cookie sheet) for another five minutes.  With wetter seasonings like the sweet combo above, you may need to make it ten minutes to bake the seasoning onto the chickpeas.  Keep an eye on them to ensure your creation does not burn!

8.  Important last step.... when done, turn off the heat and crack the oven door.  Leave the chickpeas in the oven until cold.  I don't know if this is necessary, but my chickpeas are awesome and I will continue to do it until someone tests it another way and tells me it definitely works :-)

When cool, store in a tightly covered container-- jar, glass bowl, plastic or whatever.  I understand these can be frozen also, but mine never make it that long.

Enjoy the deliciousness!


*chickpeas = garbanzo beans.  Same thing... main ingredient in hummus and falafel.  Sold canned or dried, in the grocery section with beans.  You'll need a larger and/or healthier store to find dried garbanzos.
** Post updated 3/30/14 to reflect that fact that drying these like crazy using tons of paper towels is not necessary is you follow the rest of the directions.  I did my last batch by defrosting cooked chickpeas for a few hours on the counter, then roasting them with nary a paper towel involved.  They came out great!

Credit to www.thehairpin.com for introducing me to the idea of dry roasting the chickpeas, and for the bones of the Sriracha Lime seasoning combo.

Split Pea Soup

I never thought much of split pea soup until my mom sent me this recipe.  For similar meat-infused soups, I only ever found a grizzled, dried, overly salty ham hock, which never lent the rich, meaty vibe the recipe promised.   This recipe avoids that conundrum by using Andouille sausage blended right into the soup.  Putting meat in the blender has never been high on my to-do list, but with this recipe, it's worth getting over the willies.  Use any Andouille you like-- chicken, pork, etc.  Another highly seasoned sausage like chorizo would work too!

The recipe is easiest with an immersion/stick blender.  Mine is 10+ years old, and was only about $30 when I bought it.  Worth the investment if you plan to make a lot of soups.

Split Pea Soup
1 1/2 cup dried split peas
6 cups chicken broth
2 links Andouille sausage (1/3 - 1/2 lb total), cut into pieces
1  cup frozen peas

1. Rinse dried peas and discard any oddballs.  Pour broth into slow cooker, add sausage and split peas.  Cover, and turn to low for five hours.

2. When done, turn off slow cooker and pour in frozen peas.  Using immersion blender, blend soup until it reaches desired consistency.  If you don't have an immersion blender, allow soup to cook, pour into a standard blender, add frozen peas and blitz a few times.

I find this make about five lunch-sized portions (1 1/2 cups each), more or less.

Sweet Potato Chili

I'd been looking to try a sweet potato chili for a while. A few good candidates have surfaced, but this one rose above the rest. 

Why?  First, no meat.  That means I can make it for Mr. Unwired's friend.  Didn't know what to make for this week's jam session anyway. 

Second, it cooks in the slow cooker. Like my never-ending desire to instill independence in my children, I like my meals to cook themselves. 

Third, all the ingredients were in the house.   And that's all she wrote... off to the kitchen!

Sweet Potato Chili, before topping with plain yogurt and green onions.

 This turned out pretty well. I was intending to serve it to the kids for dinner, by the spices were too sharp. I used only 1/2 Tbsp chili powder and only a small (15oz) can of tomatoes with chili peppers (the other 15oz was just tomatoes). Next time, I'll cut the chili powder out entirely.  With the blast of heat from the chili powder and peppers, I didn't notice the cocoa powder.  It should have rounded out the spice panel, instead of being wiped off the flavor map.  Another reason to decrease/eliminate the chili powder (funny, this is my 'cooler' chili powder-- I had to throw out the cayenne pepper as even a dash was too much for most recipes!)  I also used red pepper instead of green since that was what I had. Green pepper, with its stronger flavor and contrasting color would have been a better choice. 

I'm hopeful that with these adjustments, I'll be able to introduce this to the kids, then dial the spices back up a bit to find a happy medium- flavorful, colorful and yummy for all.  What do you think?

Mulligatawny Soup

Really good on a cold day (or any day in Florida if you're my mother).  Full flavored and delicious!  If you don't have garam masala, substitute with more curry plus 1/2 tsp of cumin, and then go buy some for the next time you make this.  I've made the recipe both ways and there's a reason garam masala is included.




You can stretch this soup to serve more than four people or 'weaken' the flavor by serving over basmati rice.


Mulligatawny Soup
1 Tbsp veggie oil
1 cup chopped onions (about 1 medium)
2 tsp minced garlic (2-4 cloves)
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 cup dried yellow or green lentils
1 can (15 oz) diced tomato, with juice
4 cups veggie broth (can substitute chicken broth if you are not feeding vegetarians)
1/2 cup light coconut milk
lemon wedges as garnish/to taste (optional)

1. Heat oil in a stockpot  over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic, ginger, cumin and garam masala, and sauté, stirring occasionally until the onions are lightly browned (5-7 minutes).  Stir in lentils to coat, then add tomatoes and chicken broth.

2. Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer until the lentils are tender (25-30 minutes).  Stir occasionally as the soup is cooking.

3. To smooth out the texture of the soup, puree about 50% with an immersion blender, leaving plenty of it chunky.  Stir in the coconut milk, then squeeze in the lemon to taste.


Alternatively, make this soup in your slow cooker:

1.  Omit the oil and combine the onions, spices, lentils, tomatoes and broth in the cooker. 
2.  Cook on high for 2 1/2 hours- the lentils should be soft but still holding their shape.
3.  Turn off the cooker, blend with the immersion blender, stir in the coconut milk, and serve with lemons on the side.
4.  Unlike most meat recipes, this one is fine to serve the same day, although a day in the fridge doesn't hurt.

Chicken Stock

At heart, I am a cheap frugal person. The concepts of recycle and reuse come naturally to me.  Why would I buy something when I can reuse what I have?  It's one of my personal challenges in paying for technology- with lifecycles so short, it's hard to justify the purchase!  Thankfully, I indulge my geeky side at work, so there's no reason for me (or my family) to go without.

This post is about the same thing, but in the kitchen.  You may already know you can make chicken broth from chicken bones.  But did you know you can do it in the slow cooker, using little energy and even less time?! 

It's true, it's true!

Making chicken stock on the stove is easy.  But making it in the slow cooker turns the process into something you can do at almost any time more stock is needed.  Bones and required veggies can be stored in the freezer, and retrieved whenever you have five minutes to set it all up. I put mine together after making breakfast today, and it's cooking away while I'm at work.  There's some messy work to done after the slow cooker part is complete, but it can be done in steps and over the course of a few days as needed. 

I used to chill the stock and remove the fat that congealed on top.  Lately though, I find that if I don't add chicken skin to the pot, the stock is relatively low fat and there's not much to skim.   Omitting the skin probably also lowers the salt content of the finished product, as so many store-bought rotisserie chickens are salty.  Yummy.... but salty.

Regardless of using skin in the pot or not,  I don't add salt to my stock.  Different recipes have different requirements, so I choose to add it to the finished product.  Consider that when you are tasting the stock at different stages.

Here's the process:

Chicken Stock
1 chicken carcass, or parts of different carcasses
2 carrots, with tops if available
1 leek, or the green part of 2 leeks, or an onion quartered and 2 stalks celery
1/4 tsp peppercorns
1/8 tsp whole cloves
5 sprigs parsley (carrot greens can substitute as needed)

1. Load all into the slow cooker and cover with water.  Put on the cover, turn on to low and leave it all day, 8-10 hours.

2. When you get home, take the cover off and turn up to high for an hour  (or more)... this allows some liquid to cook off, and intensifies the flavor.

3.  Turn off the slow cooker, and leave to cool.  (I leave mine covered on the counter all night.  I'm sure food safety experts would be aghast-- feel free to put it in the fridge instead.  The stock will jell and you'll need to let it come to room temperature again before continuing with step 4).

4.  Next, remove the solids.  I use a slotted spoon and dump them right into the trash.   Then take out the trash.

5.  Strain the stock using a sieve to remove peppercorns, cloves and other debris you couldn't lift out.  If you are an overacheiver, strain through cheesecloth for clearer stock.

6. Chill the resulting liquid overnight in the fridge if you wish to remove the fat--  or skip this step.

7.  Decant it into smaller containers, and store in the freezer until needed. 

Most batches of this recipe (4 quart crock pot, 10 cups water) yield at 6 cups of stock.  I freeze it in four and one cup containers, so I always have the right amount available for a recipe.

Slow Cooker Chicken, two versions

To know me, is to know I love my Crock Pot.  Cooking with it mirrors my parenting theory...  sometimes, benign neglect can be a good thing.  And that's the thing with a slow cooker- its all about neglect.

Chicken parts have always been a natural for the slow cooker.  Chicken leg quarters (drumstick/thigh) can be skinned, tossed in the slow cooker with a variety of sauces and left to cook all day.  Just this week I put five lbs of bone-in chicken thighs- big sale in the meat section!- into my Crock Pot with Goya Mojo Criollo Marinade (major grocery stores in my area carry this in the 'Mexican' or 'latin' section).  Here's the recipe- hang onto your hats, this is very precise (not).....

Put skinless chicken parts into the crock pot, and pour in 1-2 cups of sauce.  Cover, cook on low for seven hours or so.  Remove from heat.  When cool, put in fridge.  The next day or so, skim off any fat, then warm in the microwave when it's time for dinner.  The process of moving the chicken from the slow cooker to a microwave safe bowl usually causes the chicken to fall apart, leaving your dinner boneless.  Perfect!

For my family, I will divide the cooked chicken into two Foodsaver bags and stash them in the freezer for a five minute dinner another day.  One other note... slow-cooked meat ALWAYS tastes better the next day.  Alton Brown explains the science of this- the heating/cooling/heating of the meat causes the connective tissues to break down rendering the meat very tender.  Trial and error would have led you here eventually, especially if you double your slow cooker recipes so another day's dinner is done.

Other sauces to use for this technique....

• Red Thai Curry or Yellow Thai Curry from Trader Joes.  
• Half coconut milk/half Thai peanut sauce.
• Mild salsa (try green tomatillo based-salsas)
• your favorite barbecue sauces (I think the vinegar based sauces are best for slow cooking)

As I looked to expand my repertoire, I found that there are blogs and cookbooks dedicated to this style of cooking.  This one is well known.  Unfortunately for me, the author and I have very different tastes, and I have found most of her recipes disappointing.  I could be doing something wrong, of course- explore the blog on your own, perhaps your taste buds will match up with hers better than mine.

One gem was found among all the rest...  this one. As much as I love a crispy skinned roast chicken, there's not often 60-90 minutes at home before dinner to do it right.  But it's cost effective to buy a whole bird, and for our family, it's dinner tonight plus leftovers for Gracias Casserole and a few quesadillas for lunch for the kids.  Very useful.  

Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker
1 chicken, whole
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Wash chicken, and place in the slow cooker.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken, rubbing on top of and below covering well.  Turn the chicken so that the chicken breast is in the bottom of the pot--  the cavity should be pointing down if your slow cooker is on the small side.  Turn slow cooker to low, and cook 6-8 hours until chicken is done.

2. When cooked, remove chicken to a covered casserole dish.  Allow pan juices to separate, and discard fat, keeping the 'gravy' to moisten any parts of the cooked chicken which might get dry, Mine don't, but I imagine it can.... you could also make a real gravy with the pan juices, or mix into mashed potatoes.  Yum!

Two more versions of this I make:

• Provencal... 1 tsp sweet paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp marjoram, 1/4 tsp white pepper and the juice of a lemon.  Put the used lemon in the chicken cavity.
• BBQ:  Use a tablespoon of Northwoods spice blend, found at Penzeys. It's a BBQ flavored blend that was offered free with a coupon once and I found I liked it.    First one's for free!

Note 1:  No idea how her bird holds together for the photo on the blog post above...  mine comes out boneless.  That's the reason this post has no photos.... they didn't look appetizing!
Note 2:  Crock Pot is a brand name.  Slow cooker is the name of the generic appliance, although my slow cooker is a Crock Pot, so it's appropriate for me to describe it as such.  I didn't want the trademark police coming after me....