The BIG B Brisket Slow Cooker BBQ Burrito

This dish has it all: BBQ Sauce, Bourbon, Beer, Brisket, Beef Bacon and Beans. Made easy in the crockpot and all rolled into one beautiful burrito.
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Ingredients:

2 lbs Brisket Strip (Grow and Behold)
0.6 oz Beef Bacon chunks (G&B) 
24-36 oz Refried and/or Chili Beans (canned, I used Brads)
Tofutti Sour Supreme/Better than Sour Cream
Baby Spinach
(Optional: Onion, Corn, or Vegan Cheese)
Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

BBQ Sauce (Homemade or if bottled, add your own zing):
1/3 cup Organic Ketchup (no corn syrup!)
2/3 cup Tomato Paste or Sauce (if you have it)
A handful of favorite seasoning blend: italian, Pereg BBQ, mustard powder, Emeril's essence, garlic and onion powder, lemon peel, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, black pepper, cumin, turmeric, celery seed
2-4 Garlic Cloves (crushed/chopped)
2-4 dashes Hot Sauce
3 tbs Mesquite Honey
2 Bay Leaves1 cup Beer
1/2 cup Bourbon (I used Makers Mark)
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

Combine all BBQ Sauce ingredients in slow cooker. Add brisket and bacon. If you're using an onion add it now (bonus: you can do a big chop, it'll melt into the sauce!). Ideally, this is low and slow, so plan on letting this simmer about 8-9 hours on low while you go about your day. You're saving the beans for later, when you have a *ton* of leftover BBQ sauce and no idea what to do with it! I like to make sure the liquid covers the meat, so adjust measurements accordingly (or add broth or water) if needed.

8 hours (or so) later, come on back to this pot of goodness, and place the brisket and bacon (points if you can tell the difference at this stage) in a bowl in order to shred it. It's fine if some sauce comes along for the ride, but leave most of it separate. Open up beans, and stir them into the sauce filled crockpot (or, if you'd like to dirty another dish, or task this role to a younger kitchen assistant, pour them together with the sauce into a new bowl. The sauce will warm up the beans. Mash them all in together, so the beans become BBQ beans. Feel free to taste and add more hot sauce, if desired.)

Now, the beef should be fork tender for you, so go ahead and shred it, either with a gloved hand or a fork. I keep brown sugar or coconut sugar on hand in case the honey doesn't provide enough balance. Taste your sauce as you shred the beef, and decide if yours needs some help with more spice, honey or sugar.

Once these major components are ready, set up an assembly line for you to build your burritos! Take a whole wheat tortilla and spoon a generous dollop of Tofutti sour supreme in the center. Top with leaves of spinach, then a generous spoonful of bean & sauce mixture, which you can flatten and spread with the back of the spoon, and finally, top with generous serving of the beef. Be sure not to overfill, as you'll want to roll this burrito tucked on all sides if you're making a tray full to serve at a shabbat meal. Rule of thumb is that the ingredients should take up 1/3-1/2 of the size of the tortilla (see picture above).

This got rave reviews at our "scotch and meat" meal. Enjoy!

Slowcooker Sweet & Spicy Tomato Sauce

This is the results of "OMG my fridge is packed with a full CSA haul!" when the person I share it with was on vacation.  Normally I'd add carrots and or celery to my sauce, but I'm set on not buying extra veggies given the abundance that I've been getting from the farm.

6 lbs of tomatoes

1 cherry bomb pepper
2 green peppers
3 zucchini/summer squash (~1/2 lb each)
1/4 lb enoki mushrooms
1 onion
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup Red wine (it's fine if it has turned, or you can use red wine vinegar)
1/4 cup rice vinegar (I used roasted garlic flavor. It's delicious, you could also roast the garlic rather than putting in fresh cloves)
6-8 cloves of garlic (smash prior to putting in so the oils are released)
2 tbs honey or brown sugar for vegans (or more, to taste)
1/2 cup or more fresh basil reserve some for later addition.
1 bay leaf
some: oregano,  dried italian herbs, salt to taste.
Slow cook in crockpot: Low 8-10 hours

Even if you have a casual relationship with your cutting board you'll be a master of this in no time. Quarter tomatoes (I didn't remove skins, some recipes really recommend blanching and removing, but they break down easily in the crockpot and were all farm-fresh, organic and whatnot). Rough chop other ingredients and add along with liquid.
Walk away! Have an awesome day at work, out with friends, whatever.
When you get back hope around hour 6,8 or 10 just remove bay leaf, place the immersion blender into the pot and blend. Taste and add in extra seasoning (I used fresh pink salt here) and fresh basil to taste.

This made three 24 oz. bottles plus two cups... so served that night and bottled the rest for me and to give as gifts. Also, the one cherry bomb just gave it a bit of a roasted flavor. Feel free to add more hot peppers for more of a bang.

Protein Packed Ginger Carrot Slow Cooker Soup

This hearty treat evolved to serve a whole lot of vegetarians when I was making Brisket. It surely satisfied and even was enjoyed by meat eaters as well. I'm bound to make it again soon and will try to save leftovers for photographs...

 

Ingredients:

6 peeled sliced carrots

1 ½ inches  of fresh ginger root

3 cloves of garlic

2 cups red lentils

2/3 cup Mirin

6-8 cups broth and/or water (I like Brad's organic vegetable broth)

Celery leaves

1 sweet onion

3 ribs chopped celery

Dash Emeril’s Asian seasoning

Dash Allspice

Scallions (Whites for cooking, greens for decorating on top)

Directions:

Place ingredients into slow cooker on high for 2-3 hours until soft, then use a hand blender to mix all ingredients together, and if serving within 3 hours, keep on low, if serving the following day, keep on warm.  You may need to add more liquid depending on preferred consistency.


PS - I may have added a bit of the brisket gravy to the leftovers ... it was DELICIOUS ... so if you're not serving vegetarians feel free to add in some beef variant as well. If you are, either Sherry or Beer can be added to the liquids for more depth of flavor.

Crockpot Coconut Curry Chicken

This delicious dish can be made a variety of ways 

1 hour into the Coconut Currying process...

... But this week's version used off the bone chicken thighs which i cubed and browned before sliding into the crockpot. I did this mostly because I didn't have 'all day' to wait and wanted to make sure the meat was properly cooked. I do think it added to how excellent the flavor was, but then again, I'm not sure I've evercooked w/deboned chicken thighs before. In other instances, I've used (whole cut) chicken on the bone, cooked the whole dish longer and shredded the chicken off the bone before serving. When I use skin on chicken, I replace the chicken broth below with water. The latter version are also great budget saving swaps.

I have to admit, and you can probably tell by the fullness of the pot, that this was one of those meals where I had a lot of "maybes" coming to dinner - none of whom made it in the end, but it meant I had to prepare the kind of dish where I might enjoy leftovers for days. The side dishes to this menu are recipes which will be forthcoming: Broccoli & Spinach sauteed with meyer lemons, purple coconut rice. I'd tell you how to make the Burmese tea leaf salad my friend made, but the key ingredients were brought from Burma by way of Thailand. I do recommend a colorful side salad with nuts, red onion, purple cabbage and tomatoes though.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 lbs Chicken Thighs (skinless, boneless) I found empire's at trader joes, but picked up more at Seasons because of those maybes.

1-1 1/2 cans coconut milk (not lite!)

1/3 cup curries: I used Butter Chicken Masala* and Tandoori Masala

2 tsp ground mustard seed (I really like this flavor)

4-6 cloves Garlic, smashed to release flavor

3/4 inch Fresh Ginger, matchstick sliced (I never know how to describe this measurement!)

1 grated lemon peel (I mircoplaned the meyer lemon that wound up in the broccoli)

1 bunch Celery, incl greens, chopped

3/4 large Sweet Onion, (the other 1/4 went to the broccoli)

4 medium Carrots sliced (or 1/2 bag of baby carrots)

2 c. chicken broth/stock (homemade or low sodium)

1/3 c. Tio Pepe Sherry

1 tbs virgin coconut oil (or whatever you have on hand)

optional: Scallions, Chili peppers**

Serves 10+

One thing I love about this recipe is that you can do the major prep in advance, which is what I'd have done were it not for a friend in town and 1/2 price wine bottles at our local tapas place. So, instead, here's how this incarnation of the dish happened, the reviews were fabulous, so maybe I did it just right.

Put the crockpot on high and add in the can of coconut milk, the curry seasoning, mustard powder, next add ginger, lemon peel and smashed garlic. Stir together.

As those ingredients warm, chop all the veggies (if pre-chopped, proceed with), brown stir fry sized pieces of chicken thighs in sautee pan or wok w/a tsp of coconut oil and a tbsp of curry powder over medium-high heat.

Add in the veggies (I saved 1/2 the celery to add later so they would stay more crisp... this works better if shabbat starts later), then the browned chicken. Cover with chicken broth, sherry and water. Let flavors meld, stirring occasionally.

I kept it on high the whole time because I only gave it 4 hours to cook, traditionally, it's a slow and low dish - 6-8 hours on low.

** Chili pepper tip: I have dry on hand, it's the seeds that provide most of the heat, so if you soak and slice those out, the spice level will be more moderate.

*I only have the container for the butter chicken masala curry blend, which contains: Red Chilis, Onion, Coriander, Garlic, Tumeric, Black Pepper, Salt, Cumin, Fenugreek, Cardamom seeds, Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, Nutmeg, Black Cumin, Saccharum, Ginger