The Great American Slow Cooker Book (35 page)

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Braising beef in white wine? You bet! The final dish is brighter, more summery than one with a braise prepared with red wine.

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The quality of the marmalade will directly affect the final dish. However, many high-end brands include large chunks of fruit, even stacked in rings in the jar. If you’ve got such a wonder on hand, mince the candied fruit so it distributes evenly in the sauce.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Forget the myth: all the alcohol in a recipe does not cook out of a dish, no matter what technique you use, but especially when you’re working with a no-evaporation slow cooker. If you’d like an alcohol-free preparation, substitute a combination of chicken broth and unsweetened apple cider for the wine. You can also use a mixture of beef broth, unsweetened pomegranate juice, and a pinch of sugar for heartier braises.

1
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the pancetta bits. Cook, stirring often, until frizzled and well browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pancetta to the slow cooker, leaving the skillet (and any drippings) over the heat.

2
Set up to five boneless short ribs in the skillet; brown them on all sides, taking care to leave them alone until you get good color, maybe 2 minutes per side, then turning them to another side and leaving them be. As they’re ready, use the slotted spoon to transfer them to the cooker; continue browning as necessary.

3
Dump the onions into the skillet; cook, stirring often, until they soften and turn golden, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic, stir about half a minute, and scrape the contents of the skillet into the slow cooker.

4
Dump the cabbage into the cooker. Whisk the port, broth, tomato paste, fennel seeds, allspice, and pepper in a bowl; pour over the meat and vegetables. Nestle the rosemary, cinnamon, and vanilla bean into the liquid in the cooker.

5
Cover and cook on low for 7 hours, or until the meat is extremely tender when pierced with a fork and the cabbage has begun to melt into the sauce. Discard the rosemary, cinnamon stick, and vanilla bean before skimming the sauce for fat and then serving.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Although port, vanilla, and cabbage may sound like a strange grouping, they meld into a fairly sweet, slightly grassy sauce spiked with just a hint of bitterness for a bit of sophistication—in other words, a great sauce for beef.

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Slice the onions and cabbage so the strips of both are about the same width, the better to meld into the dish.

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For the best taste, skip the presliced pancetta and go to the deli counter to ask for a single hunk of pancetta. At home, slice it into ½-inch-thick rounds, then cut into smaller cubes. There’s no additional salt needed here because there’s plenty in the pancetta.

Serve It Up!
You’ll need mashed potatoes as a bed, but don’t think good ol’ milk and butter as the additions to the boiled or steamed spuds. Instead, how about vegetable broth, sour cream, and a little minced orange zest?

1
Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger, vinegar, garlic, and sambal oelek in the slow cooker. Nestle the short ribs and the white parts of the scallions into this sauce.

2
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until the meat is so fork-tender that you don’t even need to open the drawer with the knives. Sprinkle the green parts of the scallions and the sesame seeds over everything in the slow cooker before serving (or over individual servings in bowls).

TESTERS’ NOTES

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This barbecue is actually modeled on a Korean recipe, a sticky-sweet mix that’s perfect for these meaty short ribs.

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Bring plenty of napkins to the table because this is ideal finger food for gnawing. Everyone should pick up the bones and slurp the sauce.

SHORTCUTS
Of course, asking for fresh ginger doesn’t mean you can’t use jarred—just don’t use ground or crystallized (candied) ginger. If you buy minced ginger in a jar, look for pale beige bits without browning or excess liquid. Once opened, store it, sealed, in the refrigerator for several months.

1
Warm a big skillet over medium heat, then swirl in the olive oil. Set the chuck roast in the skillet and brown all sides, turning it only after it has deepened in color, about 15 minutes in all. Set the roast in the slow cooker.

2
Pour the tomatoes into a big bowl. With clean hands, a pastry cutter, or even kitchen shears, break up the tomatoes into rough, uneven bits. Stir in the onion, tomato paste, allspice, pepper, cloves, salt, and mace until the tomato paste dissolves. Pour into the slow cooker, scraping the bowl to get every drop. Nestle the cinnamon sticks around the roast.

3
Cover and cook on low for 5 hours in a small slow cooker, 7 hours in a medium slow cooker, or 8 hours in a large slow cooker, or until the chuck roast is ridiculously tender when pierced with a fork but not yet falling apart at the seams. Transfer to a cutting board and wait for 10 or 15 minutes so the juices reincorporate into the meat’s fibers. Discard the cinnamon sticks. Chunk up the roast, skim the sauce for any surface fat, and serve in bowls.

TESTERS’ NOTES

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Here, tomatoes pair with familiar flavors from mulled cider or even apple pie to create a warm but mellow sauce for the chuck roast.

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Cinnamon sticks lose their punch during long storage. Figure on a year at most in a dry, cool, dark pantry. After that, you’ll need to swap them for fresh sticks to get the best results.

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If you let one side of the roast get really brown, almost crunchy, over the heat in the skillet, it will easily pop off the hot surface when you slip a thin spatula underneath it.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Chuck roasts are found over the cow’s front legs, an area stocked with collagen and connective tissue—all the stuff that melts to bathe the roast in its own juices. There are actually several boneless cuts from this area that can stand in for a chuck roast: the cross-rib roast, the top blade roast, the shoulder roast, or any sort of arm roast. These come in a variety of shapes: flat slabs, rounded mounds, or even misshapen lumps. Any will work in all these chuck recipes.

1
Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium heat. Season the roast with salt and
pepper, then set it in the skillet. Brown on all sides for about 15 minutes, turning it only after you’ve got good coloring on the meat. Transfer the roast to a slow cooker.

2
Add the mushrooms to the skillet, still set over the heat. Stir once in a while until they release their liquid and it reduces to a thick glaze, between 4 and 8 minutes, depending on how many mushrooms you’re working with.

3
Increase the heat to medium-high. Pour in the vermouth, add the thyme, and continue boiling, stirring once in a while, until the liquid in the skillet is again a thick glaze, 3 to 6 minutes. Stir in the apple jelly until it dissolves, then scrape the contents of the skillet into the slow cooker.