Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Brisket

If anyone wants to buy me a gift, just get me one of the Kosher by Design cookbooks.  Seriously, I only have the Short on Time book but everything I have made from it has been absolutely delicious.  And this latest endeavor did not let me down.

Over the summer we were down at the Jersey shore with friends.  While my husband and I do not keep kosher outside of our house, these friends do, so when we heard about a kosher sports bar in town we jumped at the chance to go (mostly because our friend was craving chicken wings).  Looking at the menu, the item that jumped out the most was the pulled beef sandwich.  I don't go out for BBQ often, but this just sounded so delicious to me.  And it did not disappoint!  I was thinking about this meal the other day when I was menu planning and I came across this slow cooker recipe.  How could I not make it?!

The end result was so tasty.  I served it with roasted potatoes and steamed green beans for well-rounded meal.  And I had plenty of leftovers so I stored the beef with a little bit of the au jus (or is the correct term "I stored the beef au jus"?  either way...) in one container and the BBQ sauce in another so it wasn't totally smothered in the sauce when I reheated it.  I got to enjoy the leftovers for the next several days, but could easily have frozen some for later use.

Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Brisket (slightly adapted from Kosher by Design: Short on Time)

Ingredients
3 lbs top cut brisket
fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1-2 tbsp canola oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp whiskey
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried thyme
4 cups beef stock
1 (18oz) bottled barbecue sauce
2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
crusty rolls cut in half horizontally for serving

Directions
- Line a slow cooker with a liner bag, if possible
- Slice the brisket into 2 pieces, season both sides generously with salt and pepper
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Sear the meat on both sides then place in slow cooker.
- In the same skillet, sauté the onion, 3 minutes, stirring frequently to pick up the bits of meat.  Top the meat in the slow cooker with the onions.
- In a large bowl mix the Worcestershire sauce, whisky, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and stock.  Pour the stock mixture around the meat (try not to wash the onions off the meat) until you just cover the meat.
- Pour the barbeque stock directly onto the meat.  Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  The meat is ready when it can easily be shredded with a fork.
- Remove the cooked meat from the slow cooker (reserving the sauce) into a large bowl and shred it by pulling in opposite directions with two forks.
- Pour the sauce into a medium pot (reserving about a cup if storing any meat).  Add the dissolved corn starch and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Boil until thickened, about 3 minutes.
- Mix the meat being eaten immediately with some of the thickened sauce.
- Make a sandwich with the crusty roll and the meat, topping the meat with extra sauce if desired.

Butternut Squash Risotto

I posted the other day about roasted beet and goat cheese risotto.  Before I ever tried that out I made short-cut risotto using my slow cooker.  I admit that I started a blog post about it at the time, but hadn't finished writing it.  I revisited the incomplete post, reminding myself how delicious the end result was.  Now that squash season is coming back I look forward to making this again!

In an effort to cut down on cooking in the evenings, I try to maximize the use of my slow cooker.  But I usually ended up doing the same recipe over and over.  When I started hearing buzz about the new cookbook Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2 by America's Test Kitchen I knew it was something I needed to add to my collection.  I don't have Volume 1, but from what I've heard there is a LOT of prep work that goes into the recipes in there.  Volume 2 focuses on things with easy prep.  This doesn't usually mean just chopping veggies and opening cans which is what I was used to doing.  While the prep work is still pretty simple, you utilize the microwave and other shortcuts to making a great dish in the slow cooker both before and sometimes after the cook time is up.

Among the recipes that jumped out at me was Butternut Squash Risotto.  I like everything in that title, but I had never made risotto before because it usually was done by standing over a stove for a long time.  This recipe avoids that by microwaving the rice before cooking and adding hot broth to it from the start.  I will say, though, that this is not the dish to make on a day you are putting on the slow cooker and going off to work.  It only cooks 2-3 hours and I even if you have a timer I don't know how long it can be on 'keep warm' before it affects the outcome.

Of course I thought I had totally screwed up the whole thing because I hadn't read the blurb at the top of the page where it said to avoid the pre-cut chunks of squash and instead get a whole one or a halved & peeled one.  My supermarket doesn't sell halved ones and I'm sorry, but I have no patience when it comes to peeling a butternut squash.  I have other things I'd rather be doing (just about anything I can think of...).  I cut the pre-cut chunks down to 1/2 inch pieces and I think that it came out just fine.

And the official verdict on this is that it just might be my husbands #2 favorite dish I've made (after my poached flounder).  He would have to go back through everything I've ever made to decide if anything else was actually his second favorite, but this is definitely the best dish I've made in recent history.


Butternut Squash Risotto (from America Test Kitchen's Slow Cooker Revolution Vol 2)

Ingredients
6 cups vegetable broth
2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup chopped onion
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 lbs peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch slices (***while they like pre-cut & peeled squash, they recommend avoiding the pre-cut chunks which they find dry and stringy)
salt
pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp minced fresh sage

Directions
- microwave 4 cups broth in bowl until steaming, about 5 minutes.
- in a separate bowl, microwave rice, onion, and 1 tbsp butter, stirring occasionally, until ends of rice kernels are transparent, about 5 minutes.
- transfer rice to the slow cooker and immediately stir in wine, and let sit until wine is almost completely absorbed, about 2 minutes.
- stir in hot broth, squash, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cover and cook until rice is tender, 2 to 3 hours on high.
- after the cook time is up, microwave remaining 2 cups broth in bowl until steaming, about 2 minutes.
- slowly stream hot broth into rice, stirring gently, until liquid is absorbed and risotto is creamy, about 1 minute.
- gently stir in peas and let sit until heated through, about 5 minutes.
- stir in Parmesan, sage, and remaining 2 tbsp butter (adjust risotto consistency with extra hot broth as needed).
- season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Meatless Three Bean Chili

I love my crock pot.  Most nights when we get home and want a home-cooked meal, we end up eating around 9 or 10pm.  With the crock pot, we can come home to a hot meal whether it's a night we get home by 7 or if we have things planned after work and don't get home until after 9.  This recipe is one of our favorites to make.  It's so simple, there's really nothing too it!

We like cheese with our chili (and I like a good dollop of sour cream on top as well....one of the things the husband and I agree to disagree on), so we needed a vegetarian option.  I googled to find one that sounded tasty, and I found this one from CDKitchen.com.  This one's so basic but sounds so delicious.  It says it makes 4 servings, which sounds about right since the two of us usually have 2 bowlfuls each!  We like to have this with blue corn tortilla chips.

Meatless Three Bean Chili (adapted from CDK Kitchen)

Ingredients

1 can (15 ounce size) no-salt-added red kidney beans, rinsed, drained

1 can (15 ounce size) small white beans, rinsed, drained
1 can (15 ounce size) very low sodium black beans, rinsed, drained
1 can (10oz) canned diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 bottle of beer
3 tbsp chocolate syrup
1 tbsp chili powder (if you want to add heat, do 2 tsp chili powder and 1 tsp chipotle or hot Mexican chili powder)
2 tsp Cajun seasoning
dairy sour cream (optional)
shredded Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese (optional)

Directions

- In a slow cooker combine beans, undrained tomatoes, beer, chocolate syrup, chili powder, and Cajun seasoning.

- Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 to 4 hours.

- Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with sour cream and cheese, if desired.

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

The What's Cooking message board on The Nest does a recipe swap every month, so I decided to join in this month.  This month's theme was soup.

I was assigned Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

This excited me because my husband and I both love Asian food and we're always looking for new things to make in our slow cooker.  We keep kosher, so we loved that this uses coconut milk as the base (which is dairy-free and can be combined with the chicken for this dish).  A lot of the ingredients were things I hadn't worked with before (fresh ginger, rice noodles, bean sprouts) but thankfully my local ShopRite had all of them (***Note - thin rice noodles are the same as "rice sticks", I learned this from Google after I could only find rice sticks in the Asian food aisle!).  I usually use ground ginger in recipes, but I think I may have to start using fresh.  It definitely adds to the dish!

I think my biggest challenge was finding time to make this because it involves chicken.  I wouldn't want to leave raw chicken just sitting around waiting for the timer on my slow cooker to start, so I had to make this on a weekend.  The prep time of peeling, chopping, slicing, etc took about 30 minutes (my knife skills could use some improvement), but nothing was difficult.  The one adjustment I made was I didn't put all 2 red bell peppers in.  As I was chopping them, it just seemed like so MUCH!  Maybe I bought larger ones than the person who came up with the recipe, who knows?  I ended up putting maybe one and a half peppers in there.  The chicken shredded very easily after the initial 3 hours cooking.  Something ended up coming up, so after the last 30 min I had to turn it to warm and head out for a bit, but it was good to go when I returned ready to eat 4 hours later.

I absolutely loved this soup.  I'm not a big jalapeno person, but by throwing it into the bowl along with the lime juice it definitely added a nice aftertaste of heat to the soup.  And the rice noodles were delicious, too, and made it more filling.

Slow-Cooker Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
3 chicken breast halves
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. freshly minced ginger
2 (13.5 oz) cans coconut milk
4 cups chicken stock
3 Tbs. soy sauce
4 oz thin rice noodles
2 red bell peppers, diced
2 cups fresh beans sprouts
2 jalapenos, finely sliced
2 limes
cilantro for garnish
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
- In a slow cooker, add the coconut milk, broth, garlic, ginger, chicken, soy sauce, a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook on high for 3 hours.
- Using tongs, remove chicken from pot and shred with two forks. Return to pot. Add the rice noodles, bell pepper and sprouts.
- Cook 30 more minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve each bowl garnished with sliced jalapeno, a good handful of cilantro and some gigantic squirts of lime.