Testing my patience with the slow-cooker

Whenever I meet a busy, young professional who cooks I find myself asking them how. When do they have time? What do they make? People either respond by shrugging it off and saying it's not "too difficult" (we all know that's a lie!) or they admit to how much work it takes to plan out their weekly meals. A different friend attributed her success to a slow-cooker. She apparently throws the food into the pot in the morning and has a scrumptious, hot meal waiting when she gets home from work. Sounds too good to be true right? I've been wanting to test a slow-cooker ever since she mentioned it! Unfortunately the overwhelming amount of options on the market and my busy schedule prevented me from taking the plunge. That changed last week. My wonderful Mr. D decided my hospitality in our new, joint-living arrangement was the perfect excuse for a housewarming gift. A slow-cooker is akin to the blender wedding gift in "Father of the Bride," but Mr. D knew I wanted a slow-cooker and picked out just the one I've be pining after.

He got me the Cuisinart PSC-350 3-1/2-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker with removable ceramic pot, touch-pad control panel, 24-hour timer, and automatic keep-warm function. I had to wait a week to test it out, but I found the perfect, "slow-cooker approved" meat at Paulina's market. I decided to test my hand with some gorgeous beef short-ribs cooked barbecue-style. I modified a recipe found on allrecipes.com (recipe link) to give it a little more pizazz and based on Mr. D's consumption I would say the slow cooker was a SUCCESS! The were even a hit with last weeks left-overs. Next time I would try mashed potatoes and corn on the cob, but left over red potatoes and veggies did the trick as well. 

Start with some bone-in beef short ribs. Bone-in is key since they turned out "fall-off the bone" delicious. Liberally sprinkle the ribs with salt and pepper to season. 

Dredge the ribs in flour. Turn your burner on high,  to prepare your pan heat oil and 3 gloves of garlic. Brown meat for about 1 minute on each side. When done, place them in your slow-cooker pot. Your mouth will already be watering at this point.

Change the heat to medium and cook the onions, remaining garlic, and butter in the same saucepan. Stir them around and cook until they start to soften.

 

Add the remaining ingredients and bring your sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for a few more minutes.

Pour the sauce over the short ribs in the slow-cooker. Take a good look at your concotion because it will be locked up in the slow-cooker for the next 9 hours. According to my Cuisinart instructions you are NOT supposed to remove the lid to take-in the appetizing aromas: if you do, it requires an extra 15-20 minutes of additional cooking time. 

Now for the best part. Set it and forget it! Put your slow-cooker on low heat and in nine hours dinner will be served. 

Your meat will be fall-off the bone tender and you will have some amazing barbecue gravy to serve over your accompanying starch. I also chose to remove some of the fat liquid off the surface. 

Mr. D's meat could barely hang on to the bone! His plate looks pretty delicious even though the barbecue short-ribs are being served with last week's, cold leftovers. 


I will definitely be using my slow-cooker again soon! Next on the list is an Indian curry, Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon, and chili in honor of football season.

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Slow-Cooker Barbecue Short Ribs

Prep Time: 35 mins    Cook Time: 9 hours       Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 6-8 large bone-in beef short ribs (a 3.5 quart slow-cooker only fit 6)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 cup apple cider vineger
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chili sauce (find in the ketchup section)
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard

Directions

1. Sprinkle your short-ribs with a liberal amount of salt and pepper.
2. Dredge ribs in flour, rubbing the flour on the meat to make sure each is thoroughly coated.
3. Heat oil and 3 cloves of garlic in a large saucepan on high heat.
4. Add ribs and brown them on all sides. (shouldn't need more than 1 minute a side)
5. Remove the ribs and set in the ceramic pot of your slow-cooker.
6. In the same saucepan, add onions, remaining garlic, and butter. Let them cook for a few minutes on medium heat until soft.
7. Add remaining ingredients and bring the mixture to a boil.
8. Lower temperature to med-low and cook for a few more minutes.
9. Add liquid to your slow-cooker pot.
10. Cover the pot and cook on low for 9-10 hours or until meat is tender.

A Saturday Night Feast

One thing I love about food courting is how it can bring people together for a wonderful evening. Instead of going out to a loud dinner on Saturday, me and my guests decided to save some money and gather amongst a home-cooked feast. Mr. D's (my boyfriend) sister was in town from NYC and we found it much nicer to enjoy each other's company with some wine, Phase 10, and gourmet cuisine in the comforts of my apartment. Our impromptu dinner party planning took us on a mini-tour of Chicago's neighborhoods as we visited the butcher and discovered a great new custard spot. In addition to a few good laughs, we shared some kitchen tricks and somehow managed to make a spinach salad, twice baked potatoes, pork tenderloin, and brownie sundaes despite my small kitchen and all the wine we consumed!

I'll make sure to post the recipes later this week, but here's a photo tour of the places we traveled to get all our ingredients!

Paulina Meat Market
http://paulinameatmarket.com/
This is a bit more expensive than the normal butcher I frequent, but every extra penny was worth it because Mr D. and his sister both agreed this was the best pork tenderloin meat we've ever had!

Scooter's Frozen Custard

http://www.scootersfrozencustard.com/

Being a Wisconsin girl, I love my custard! Scooter's lived up to its title and was truley some of the best custard I've had in the whole Midwest. Both the Reese's Pieces and Cookie Dough flavors were amazing. 

S

Stanley's Fruit and Vegetables

1558 N Elston Ave (between Le Moyne St & North Ave) 

Stanley's is one of my regular spots for produce. It has fresh, local produce that lasts longer than any I buy elsewhere and is extremely inexpensive.

A Semi-Sweet Treat

My kitchen weakness is in the baking department and since I try not to keep sweets around the apartment I figured I'd send some treats to my dear sisters on the east coast. Unfortunately you can never get all four girls to agree so I compromised by including a less sweet treat - banana bread with only a cup of Ghirardelli chocolate chips is healthy right?

I figured this recipe would be especially difficult since you can't cover up a poor base with extremely delicious frosting. Banana bread can sometimes taste dry and I really don't like when it has nuts in it - would I be able to end up with a moist, fluffy finished product? Luckily i was able to ease some of my nerves by using a muffin tin (just had to look up what that was called) since I don't own a loaf pan. I feel like its easier to get things right in smaller sizes and have in fact discovered that banana bread tastes better as a cupcake than in slice form.

This was the most afraid I've been of a "baking flop" in little while. Usually my finished product comes out a mess, but the batter tastes delicious throughout the baking process.  However, this time when I added the banana/liquid mix to the dry ingredients I was SCARED. It was chunky and a weird yellow color instead of being light and fluffy like cupcake batter. A little blind taste test convinced me to go for it - the cupcake tin was in the oven before I could change my mind!

As a less sweet option to cupcakes the chocolate chip banana muffins turned out perfect! In terms of the best banana bread I've ever had, these are light and fluffy, but not "banana-ey" enough. Maybe an extra banana will cure that next time? Luckily they passed the Mr. D test and will make his stomach very happy when he's hungry before dinner later this week. The real question is will my east coast critics appreciate the "healthier" sweet treat mail surprise?

Banana Bread Muffins with Chocolate Chips

• 1 3/4c flour
• 1 1/2c granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1c chocolate chips (Ghirardelli of course!)
• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/3c buttermilk
• 1/2c vegetable oil
• 1tsp vanilla extract

*Makes about 18 muffins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mash up the bananas with a fork in a medium bowl. Combine the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract with the bananas.

In a separate larger bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. After mixing everything together with a kitchen spoon, add the banana mixture and stir vigorously. You could probably use a mixer, but a spoon worked just fine since I was feeling lazy about getting the mixer out.

Divide the batter throughout the muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick (or fork) slides out clean when inserted into the centers.

My Trip Into the Blogging World

When I left my busy job in the finance world I had two goals: learn to cook and become a decent golfer. One month into "freedom" I am well on my way to accomplishing both. I've hit the links at least once a week over the past two months and cook dinner 3-5 nights a week. This may not sound like a lot to most, but in my prior life I could go weeks without using the kitchen. In fact, after two months of not using the oven, the gas company called me to see if I even still lived in my apartment.

I initially thought of cooking as a chore. A skill I needed to develop to become a respectable twenty something. However, I've recently found myself looking forward to my time in the kitchen and my adventures to various markets throughout Chicago. I relish the look of satisfaction on my boyfriend's face after a wonderful meal (even though he's usually stuck doing the dishes) and the excitement in my sisters' voices when they hear treats are headed their way. With my new found passion for cooking, I found myself courting my friends and family with meals, treats, and anecdotes from the kitchen.

I hope you enjoy my chronicles of food courting!

Please bear with me as I attempt to master the art of blogging (suggestions welcome!) and enjoy the recipes.