Sweet and Sour Beef Brisket - 100th Post!

Happy 100th post to us!  We've been through our ups and downs with this blog over the years but Mostly Soup is still kicking.  Thanks to all those who read our stuff.  We like keeping this blog up for a reference journal of our own accord and those who follow along are icing on the cake.  So raise a glass to you - THANK YOU!

I made this classic beef brisket when the rain first started in and paired with some red wine and a warm fire it was just the trick for coziness.  It would be the perfect dish to make for a stay at home New Years Eve celebration.  It feels decadent and rich but is really hands off and easy.  I didn't feel the need to make any sort of adjustments to this recipe; it was great just the way it is.  Just a heads up that you do need to start this recipe the night before you plan to serve it, or in the morning time so you have the whole day to rest it.

I roasted up some carrot and potato "coins" to go along with it.  If you have the Smitten Kitchen cookbook this recipe is in there but it's as easy as cutting up the potatoes and carrots in coin shapes and roasting until done with your favorite seasonings.

In any case I hope you get to try this out before winter is over.  Have a very happy New Years (with or without this brisket)!!

Sweet and Sour Beef Brisket
not adapted at all from Smitten Kitchen cookbook

•  4-to-5-pound (1¾ to 2¼ kg) piece beef brisket
•  1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for initial seasoning of meat
•  Freshly ground black pepper
•  1 cup (235ml) beef stock
•  3 tablespoons (50 grams) tomato paste
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar, light or dark
•  4 teaspoons paprika
•  2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
•  1/8 teaspoon red chili flakes
•  1 teaspoon garlic powder
•  2 tablespoons (15 grams) onion powder

Season the meat generously on both sides with salt and pepper.  Whisk all of the remaining ingredients together in a bowl.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the meat in a dutch oven (or any other sturdy pot with a lid) and pour the sauce over it.  Put the lid on and roast for 3 hours, or tender enough to pull apart with a fork.

Chill the entire dish in the fridge for several hours or up to one day.  This resting time will enhance the flavor and texture of the meat.  An hour before you are ready to serve it heat the oven to 300 degrees and remove the dish from the fridge.  Skim off any fat that has congealed at the top of the meat.  You can leave some if you like but I skimmed it all for a less oily finish.  Remove the meat and slice into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and put back into the sauce in the pan.  Replace the lid and put into the pre-heated oven.  Reheat until the sauce is bubbly around the edges.  Serve immediately with sauce on the side to pour or spoon over meat.

Crockpot Crispy Caramelized Pork Ramen with Roasted Acorn Squash

Yes the name is quite a mouthful.  However this recipe, oh this recipe.  It was definitely one of my favorite meals I've ever made.  To quote DP, my eyes while eating it looked like "Call of the Wild meets Top Chef".  It left me kind of speechless.  I think I was actually dancing with anticipation while caramelizing the pork, because I mean, is there anything better than pork that's been caramelized in sesame oil and a sprinkle of brown sugar after slow cooking it all day long?  I'm beginning to think not.  We made a couple of small edits to make the recipe gluten free but we mostly stuck to the script.  I found this to be just a tad salty for my palette so next time I might ease up on the soy sauce element but I'm very sensitive to salt.  DP thought it was perfectly salty.

The recipe itself is not hard at all but I would say it's a little involved.  For a leisurely Sunday though I didn't mind sporadically tending to it throughout the day, step by step.  Since most of the cooking time happens in the crock pot you could pull this off on a weeknight if you planned well.  Whatever the case may be I highly encourage you to make this ramen.  It is, by far, the tastiest version I've had outside of the real deal.  Enjoy! (and maybe invite me over when you make it)


Crockpot Crispy Caramelized Pork Ramen with Roasted Acorn Squash
modified ever so slightly from Half Baked Harvest

Soup

• 3 lbs of pork butt (shoulder)
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup + 2 tblsp of low sodium soy sauce (Bragg's if you're gf)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tblsp of rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 2 tblsp of red curry paste
• 1 tblsp of fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tblsp of sambal oelek (chili paste)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tblsp chinese five spice
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tblsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup + 1 tblsp of brown sugar
• 2 cups shiitake mushrooms, left whole
• 4 packs ramen noodles (we used gf ones and they were great)
• 4 soft boiled eggs for serving - I used this method
• chopped carrots, cilantro, jalapeno + green onions for servings

Curry Roasted Acorn Squash

• 1 medium acorn squash, seeded and diced
• 2 tblsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tblsp curry powder (we used garam masala)
• 1 tblsp white miso paste
• 1 tblsp brown sugar
• fresh ground pepper, to taste

1. Add the pork to the bowl of the crockpot.  Pour the chicken broth, 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, fish sauce, red curry paste,  ginger, sambal oelek, lime juice, five spice, pepper, and 1 tblsp brown sugar into the pot.  Flip the pork around so it's all evenly coated and mixed together.  Cover and cook over low for 7 hours.
2. About 40 minutes before the pork is set to be done preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. In a small bowl mix together the coconut oil, curry powder, miso, brown sugar, and pepper for the squash.  Add the diced squash and mix to evenly coat.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until soft, tossing a few times so the sides of the squash get a little crispy.
4. Remove the pork from the crock pot once it's done and place in a bowl to shred with two forks or your hands.  Add mushrooms to broth in crock pot and cover again.
5. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high heat.  Add 1 tblsp sesame oil and once hot add about half of the pork.  While cooking sprinkle brown sugar over pork and 1 tblsp of soy sauce and rice vinegar.  Let the pork caramelize for 3-5 minutes stirring only once or twice.  Repeat process with remaining half of pork.  Keep the pork warm - I used the residual heat from roasting the squash to keep mine in the oven.
6. Add the ramen noodles to the crock pot, cover and cook until soft.  At this point start your soft boiled eggs.  After noodles are soft, add half the pork to the crock pot.  Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with extra pork, carrots, green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, and boiled eggs.  Try not to let your jaw drop with amazement!

 

Chinese Style One Pot Beef Stew

Being in the mood for stew a lot recently is sometimes tough.  Tough in that it can often take forever to get that fall apart texture to your meat when it's a week night and you just don't have all day to make it.  I live for that meat texture - it's definitely my favorite when the meat seems to melt away.  This Chinese style one pot meal makes for a good rendition of a week night stew recipe.

It doesn't take too long, the meat texture was good, and there's minimal chopping which seems to get your meat a-stewin' quicker. I also liked doing something a little off the beaten path as far as flavor profile. The shot of greenery in the form bok choi is also a nice touch and I think broccoli would work just as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Chinese Style One Pot Beef Stew
from BBC's goodfood blog

• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch green onions
• good thumb size piece of ginger root, peeled and minced
• 1 red chili, seeded and thinly sliced (I used a jalapeno since I couldn't find a red pepper)
• 3 1/5 lbs stew beef, cut into large pieces (I used
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon chinese five spice powder
• 2 star anise 
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine or cooking sherry
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 bunch bok choi, chopped and steamed

1.  Heat 2 tbsp of oil in large dutch oven or stock pot.  Sautee the garlic, onions, ginger and chili until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes.  Put onto a large plate.  Toss the beef in the flour and salt and pepper generously.  Add 1 more tbsp of oil to the pot and brown the meat in two batches, adding the last tbsp of oil in between batches.  Put on the plate with the garlic sautee mixture.

2.  Add the five spice and the anise to the pot, fry for 30 seconds, then add the sugar.  Keep the heat high and add the wine or sherry, scraping up any meaty bits.  Put the meat and garlic sautee mixture back in the pot, add the stock and soy sauce (it won't cover the meat completely), and bring to a simmer.  Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is very soft and sinewy bits have melted away.

3.  When the stew is close to finished, steam your bok choi and make some rice to serve stew over.  Add the bok choi to the plate with stew and rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired.

Pork Posole Verde

Posole is quickly becoming one of my favorite soups.  

Every time I have eaten any variation of this hearty, rich, and spicy soup I can't get over how extremely delicious and satisfying it is. I like to eat posole with a side of chips, guacamole and pico de gallo, but it is also superb scooped on top of cornbread for a sweet and spicy combo (Trader Joe's cornbread is my fave)!

This recipe is a mixture of a couple of recipes, and it turned out well. It made a ton and the only thing I would do differently is to use more hominy, or keep the full can of hominy and cut everything else in half. I started with this recipe but modified quite a bit using elements of another recipe that I got from V's mister, where you slow cook a hunk of pork separately in salsa verde and then add it into the soup pot with the sauteed, onions, roasted and peeled peppers, etc.  This method works great if you remember to start the pork in the morning!  To make a chicken version, refer to that recipe I linked to just above.  I do not think that zucchini is in any way traditional to posole but I like the extra texture it provides to the soup, and I always try to add extra vegetables wherever I can.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Pork Posole Verde

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds pork sirloin, loin roast, or tenderloin, trimmed of any excess fat
• 16 oz jar of salsa verde (or make your own if you are extra ambitious)
• 4 oz can of diced green chiles 
• 1 T ground cumin
• 2 pounds green Poblano chili peppers
• 29 oz can of hominy, drained
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 bunch of fresh oregano (I had about 1/4 cup of oregano leaves)
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 large zucchini, diced
• 1/2 head of Napa cabbage, shredded
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• olive oil
• salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Start the pork in the slow cooker in the morning!  Put pork into crock pot.  Season all over with salt.  Pour in salsa verde, green chiles, and cumin.  Set slow cooker to low and let cook for 8 hours.
2. When your pork has about an hour and a half left, place the poblano peppers whole onto a rimmed cookie sheet and put them under the broiler. Let them get black and then flip them, letting all the sides get black.  This should take about a half hour or so.
3. After all the sides of the peppers are blackened, cover them in a bowl or place in a plastic bag or paper bag. Cool and the skins will slip off effortlessly. Remove the stem and the seeds. 
4. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion and saute until the onions are soft.
5. Add to the pot the garlic, fresh oregano, the peppers, about 1/3 of the hominy, and 4 cups of the chicken stock. Using an immersion blender blend until smooth. 
6. Shred the finished pork, it should be falling apart. 
7. Add the shredded pork and all the liquid in the slow cooker to the soup pot along with the remaining hominy and the last 2 cups of stock. Simmer for about 45 minutes.
8. Add the diced zucchini and shredded cabbage to the pot. 
9. Let simmer for another 15 minutes or so until the zucchini are softened to your liking. Adjust salt and pepper, add extra cumin if you are so inclined, and if the soup seems too thick, add some more chicken stock or water. (I like it thick and stew-like!)
10. Serve with a wedge of fresh lime.

Watch!

Slow Cooker Beef and Mushroom Stew

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I love mushrooms. LOVE.

This stew is very beefy but also has a ton of mushrooms and is quite a crowd pleaser. I made this for Matthew and my 3rd annual Christmas Party as a step up from the Hungarian mushroom soup I made the prior two years. I wanted to make something I didn't have to hover over while getting ready for the party! I forgot to take pictures the first time but luckily I had a special request to make it again recently and made sure to document thoroughly. The recipe makes a ton of food, so serve it for a dinner party!

The recipe I used is from Sunset magazine and I found it on MyRecipes.com. I didn't follow the instructions to a T, mainly because I am a pretty lazy cook and look for shortcuts wherever I can.

This is a little more work than a normal slow cooker recipe, simply because you make a sauce to pour over the meat and cook the mushrooms separately. But don't be discouraged! The stew is definitely worth it. To make it easy on myself this last time, I made the sauce and poured it over the meat the night before and let it marinate all night in the refrigerator. In the morning before work, I turned the slow cooker on and when I got home from work I cooked the mushrooms. It worked out perfectly and made it seem like less work.


Here is the recipe as I made it:

Ingredients:
-3 pounds boned, fat-trimmed beef chuck
-1 orange (2 1/2 in. wide), rinsed
-1 onion (about 8 oz.), peeled and finely chopped
-3 cloves garlic, chopped
-About 1 cup beef or chicken broth
-1 cup red wine
-1/2 cup port
-1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
-2 tablespoons soy sauce
-1 teaspoon dried thyme
-5 very thin slices of peeled fresh ginger (quarter size)
-2 pounds mushrooms
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup flour
-Salt and (lots of) pepper

Preparation:
1. Rinse meat; cut into 3 to 4 inch lengths (for chuck, about 1 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches wide) and place in a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker.


2. With a vegetable peeler, pare orange part of peel from orange and sliver it; save orange for other uses.


3. In a 2-quart sauce pan, combine orange peel slivers, chopped onion, 1 cup broth, wine, port, vinegar, soy sauce, thyme, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat.


4. Pour liquid over meat. Turn slow cooker to low.


5. Put cover on slow cooker and cook on low until meat is very tender when pierced, 6 to 7 hours.

6. Rinse and drain mushrooms; trim off and discard stem ends. Cut mushrooms into quarters and place in a 12 inch frying pan with butter.


7. Skim off and discard fat from liquid in slow cooker. Ladle 1 cup of liquid from slow cooker into pan with mushrooms. Stir mushrooms often over high heat until liquid has evaporated and mushrooms are lightly browned, 13 to 17 minutes.


8. When your mushrooms are almost finished (liquid almost evaporated), eyeball the remaining liquid in the slow cooker. There should be plenty of liquid covering the meat, about 2 cups. If you think you don't have enough liquid, add some broth. You want the meat to still be covered with liquid. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this!)

9. Add the cooked mushrooms to the slow-cooker.

10. In a small bowl, mix flour with about a cup of the hot liquid from the slow cooker. Whisk vigorously until flour is dissolved. Pour evenly over meat and mix gently to blend with liquid still in slow cooker, trying not to break up the meat too much. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the mushrooms and meat mingle together for about 20 minutes in slow cooker.

11. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or rice! (I prefer potatoes to rice, and haven't tried egg noodles but think it would be delicious!)

Cranberry Apple Butter

I remember my grandmother making apple butter year after year when I was a kid, always thinking it tasted nothing like butter (and a tad disappointed with that fact). I'm not sure how she was making hers but I remember thinking how insanely talented my grandmother was. If only I knew how easy she was getting off. This is one of the easiest recipes you'll ever make. I guarantee it. That fact is largely due to using a crock pot and an immersion blender but you can still make this recipe even if you don't have those tools.

This recipe was very good. I would've preferred it a little bit thicker, however, I loved how the tartness of the cranberry played off the sweetness of the apple. This recipe made quite a bit of apple butter so this would be a perfect gift to jar up and hand out for the holidays. Impress your friends with your grandma-like skills. We ate this on pumpkin bread and regular toast for breakfast for weeks. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Cran Apple Butter

source: Mommie Cooks

10-12 Apples, Chopped
3 Cups of Whole Cranberries
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup of White Sugar
1 tsp of Cinnamon
1/2 tsp of Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Cloves
4 Shakes of Salt

Instructions

Throw it all in your slow cooker and cook it on low for 12 hours. You can also do this using a dutch oven in your regular oven at 400 degrees. Emulsify it smooth with an immersion blender or by batches in a regular blender.

All lined up ready to be chopped

The beginning

12 hours later

Pretty in jars

Even better on pumpkin bread

Resurrection by way of pork.

Almost a month and a half since this blog has been updated! Yeesh. Well, I am going to revive this here blog with this delicious slow cooked pork recipe that I made yesterday.

Slow-Cooked Beer-Braised Pork and Black Bean Soup (from Real Simple,again!)

Ingredients:
2 12-ounce bottles of beer (I used Blue Heron Pale Ale)
3 cups water (I should have used a little less)
1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin (I used more like a tablespoon and wish I used a bit more)
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound dried black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork butt (pork shoulder) (The store I went to only had 2 pound chunks, so I used all of it.)
salt & pepper
sour cream
store-bought refrigerated fresh salsa (I bought a jarred one, it worked fine)
fresh cilantro

1. Set the oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine the beer, water, chilies, adobo sauce, cumin, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.
3. In a big pan, (I used a 9 x 12 glass pan) spread the onions out, pour the beans over the onions, and the pork on top of that. (I cut my huge slab of meat into 3 chunks.) Pour the liquid mixture over everything. I ground a bunch of pepper over the top of all this.
4. Cover with foil, place on a cookie sheet if your pan is almost overflowing like mine was, and place it carefully into the oven so beer doesn't spill everywhere.
5. Cook covered, until the beans are tender and the pork pulls apart easily, 3 to 4 hours. Try not to uncover the dish until at least 3 hours. You want the heat to stay trapped under the foil.
6. Once the meat is cooked, remove from the oven and use a fork to separate the pork into large pieces.
7. Divide among individual bowls and top with sour cream, salsa, and cilantro.

Notes:
-The original recipe is for a slow cooker, which I'm sure would be amazing. I don't have a slow cooker (I plan to get one soon because I loved this), so I cooked it in the oven, covered, at 300 degrees for about 3 or 3 1/2 hours.
-I served this with warm corn tortillas and we also had some tortilla chips, which were good for scooping up the beans. It was a little more liquidy than I expected, and I think the 3 cups that were in the initial recipe could be cut back to maybe 2 cups when cooked in the oven rather than the slow cooker.
-It could have been a tad spicier for my tastes, but it did have a nice amount of heat.
-The meat was super tasty and tender, the beans were perfect. This dish was super simple but extremely delicious.
-Our impromptu guests loved it!
-Lots of Leftovers!