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Tinkering with the crock pot recipe
posted Saturday, 27 January 2007
Experience and consensus suggested to me that cooking chicken in the crock pot was just a bad idea, so I decided to try something different to get a similar result to what I was trying to do with chicken, just using a different animal. How about beef? Stew meat, I decided, would be perfect, since it needs to cook for a long time in liquid to be any good and it's cheap relative to other cuts. When I was a kid, we used to buy beef by the half-cow. My father's step-brother raised cattle, so the beef went from farm to small local meat processor to our freezer. The result of buying half a cow is that you have a wide variety of cuts on hand all the time; we had a roast for Sunday dinner most weeks, hamburger in some form or another (usually some casserole that Mom whipped up) a couple times a week, all sorts of steaks fairly often. It was a good life. Whenever Mom pulled stew meat out of the freezer, that meant she would be pulling out the pressure cooker and making Stew Meat and Dumplings. In creating this recipe (and I'm still experimenting with proportions), I wanted something along those lines, but done in the crock pot so it could take all day and make my house smell wonderful. I've achieved the same comforting combination of tender beef and an intensive burst of warm gooey carbs in a bit healthier manner than my mother typically did, using brown rice to add whole grains to the dish, and the long cooking time is perfect for brown rice, which needs longer than white rice anyway.
Dice 2 onions and put in the bottom of the crock pot. Add 1 1/2 lbs stew beef. Add around 5 cups bouillion or stock (I used 2 chicken cubes because that's what I had, though beef would obviously work and veggie would too, I should think) and 1 1/2 cups brown rice. Cook on the crock pot's high setting for 1 hour, then reduce to low and cook for several more hours. A couple hours before you want to eat, add 2 small cans mushrooms (these could be added earlier, but I had to run to the store to get them, so they went in late). Add a lot of thyme (I more or less made a layer of thyme on top) and some rosemary at this time or up to an hour before you want to eat. You may need to add more water along the way (a better chef would have given you a better measurement in the first place!)--I suggest bringing it to a boil before adding it so that you don't slow down the cooking.
That's it! Add salt and pepper to taste.
EDITED TO ADD: While I'm on the subject of food, I thought I'd take a moment to praise one of the most wonderful cheeses ever invented: Mozzarella di Bufala. The best comes from Napoli (Naples), and although it may lose something in transit, I found some imported from Italy at my local Whole Foods and loved it. The brand name on it was Bufalus. This buffalo-milk mozzarella comes packed in water, so it's a moist, soft cheese, and it's superb with tomatoes and basil or any decent pasta sauce--or even by itself. I can easily sit down and devour 150 g ball all by my lonesome, but it would be nice to share too!
Dice 2 onions and put in the bottom of the crock pot. Add 1 1/2 lbs stew beef. Add around 5 cups bouillion or stock (I used 2 chicken cubes because that's what I had, though beef would obviously work and veggie would too, I should think) and 1 1/2 cups brown rice. Cook on the crock pot's high setting for 1 hour, then reduce to low and cook for several more hours. A couple hours before you want to eat, add 2 small cans mushrooms (these could be added earlier, but I had to run to the store to get them, so they went in late). Add a lot of thyme (I more or less made a layer of thyme on top) and some rosemary at this time or up to an hour before you want to eat. You may need to add more water along the way (a better chef would have given you a better measurement in the first place!)--I suggest bringing it to a boil before adding it so that you don't slow down the cooking.
That's it! Add salt and pepper to taste.
EDITED TO ADD: While I'm on the subject of food, I thought I'd take a moment to praise one of the most wonderful cheeses ever invented: Mozzarella di Bufala. The best comes from Napoli (Naples), and although it may lose something in transit, I found some imported from Italy at my local Whole Foods and loved it. The brand name on it was Bufalus. This buffalo-milk mozzarella comes packed in water, so it's a moist, soft cheese, and it's superb with tomatoes and basil or any decent pasta sauce--or even by itself. I can easily sit down and devour 150 g ball all by my lonesome, but it would be nice to share too!
Your comments, as always, are most welcome. (3)