Yesterday morning I looked up a bunch of the recipes that you guys recommended for my new slow-cooker, and based largely on this Smitten Kitchen recipe (thanks, Gwen!) and this Food.com one, I decided that I’d be able to cobble something together using what I already had in my cupboard. I was only missing one ingredient: the meat.
So around noon – a little late to be starting the whole “slow-cooking” process, but hey – I decided to brave the snowdrifts and headed over to Schaller & Weber for some gorgeous short ribs.
One of my favorite things to do is ask the butcher how they recommend I prepare whatever meat it is that I’m buying – it’s such a fun way to discover new recipes. The butcher at Schaller & Weber, however, just advised that I brown the ribs and put them in the slow cooker with whatever other things were “to my delight.”
I thought that was such a nice way to approach a meal.
And so that’s what I did.
Now, the recipe. I’ll do my usual what you need/what you do jazz…but really, what you need is a bunch of things that you think sound delicious (plus some meat), and what you do is put them in a slow cooker. So take it for what it’s worth.
JORDAN’S FORAY INTO SLOW COOKING, DAY 1: SWEET SHORT RIBS
What you need:
About 3lbs short ribs
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
Salt & pepper
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 can whole tomatoes (with juice)
1 cup beef stock
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
(Optional: 3-4 peeled potatoes cut into large chunks; various frozen veggies.)
(Lucy watched the slow cooker bubble away from beneath a blanket.)
What you do:
1. Pour flour into a Ziploc bag, and shake in a bunch of salt & pepper. Add short ribs and shake it all up until they’re coated.
2. In a large skillet, heat 3 tbsp butter until foaming. Add the floured short ribs to the skillet and brown them on all sides (this will take about 10 minutes).
3. Place the browned short ribs into your slow cooker. In the same skillet, combine the onion, tomatoes (with juice), beef stock, garlic, brown sugar, and molasses. (You can also adjust the taste as you will with things like ketchup, red wine vinegar, chiles, bay leaves – remember to remove them before serving – BBQ sauce, etc.)
4. After your sauce has simmered in the skillet for a few minutes (let it just come to a boil), pour it over the meat in the slow cooker, and set on low for 8-10 hours. Since I only started the process around noon, I let everything cook on high for 2 hours, then turned the setting to low for another 5 1/2 or so. I figured that’d even it all out.
5. 2 hours or so before you anticipate that the meat will be done, throw in a few potatoes (cut into large pieces) and a bag of frozen peas and carrots (or whatever vegetables you prefer).
6. Adjust seasoning (mine needed a ton more salt to suit my tastes) and thicken sauce with a little flour/water mixture.
Next up: brisket!
