Happy St. Patrick's Day: Guinness-Braised Beef Ribs

Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all. I hope you are able to spend the day with those who mean much to you.

This year's Guinness-inspired recipe was supposed to be Guinness-braised shortribs. I bought a couple of slabs of shortribs from my favourite butcher and put them in the freezer, until I had time to create this recipe. Sounds like a good idea, right? I'm thinking ahead, making sure my supper's star is ready to make his (her?) grand entrance.

One of my many great flaws is I rarely label my beef ribs. Everything else--sausages, bacon, chicken, lamb--they are all adequately labelled so I can easily pull out what I need.

Not beef ribs. In my addled brain, they are an identifiable shape in my freezer, so I think I'm pretty safe. Not this time.

This is not a beef shortrib bone. This is a beef...ummm...longrib bone.

Oh well.

I didn't realise my error until after I'd thawed the ribs. No worries. They were gorgeous and meaty and soon the original idea of braised shortribs morphed into braised beef ribs.

Knowing how well my contraption of a slow cooker works on pork ribs, I decided pull it off my shelf and put it to work on this recipe. A great move, especially as I set it to cook before I toddled off to bed the night before I wanted to serve this.

The beef was meltingly tender and the jus was nicely balanced: sweet from the tomato and the onion, but with those great deep chocolate-bitter notes from Guinness. It paired well with the cheddar'd mashed potatoes and roast asparagus, for a hearty cold-weather supper.

Guinness-Braised Beef Ribs
Serves 2-4

Ingredients

For the rub:
2Tbsp (30ml) brown sugar (dark, preferably)
1tsp (5ml) sweet paprika
1tsp (5ml) black pepper
1tsp (5ml) salt
0.5tsp (2.5ml) dry mustard
0.25tsp (1.25ml) garlic powder
0.25tsp (1.25ml) onion powder

For the braising liquid:
440ml (1.75c/1 can) Guinness
440ml (1.75c) passata/tomato puree
250ml (1c) beef broth

1.5tsp (7.5ml) Worcestershire Sauce
0.5tsp (2.5ml) dried thyme
0.5tsp (2.5ml) dried rosemary
2 dried bay leaves
0.5tsp (2.5ml) salt
0.5tsp (2.5ml) pepper

Flavourless oil, for frying
1kg (2lbs) beef ribs (meat still on the bone) or beef short ribs, cut into one-rib pieces
1 onion, sliced into thin lunettes
1-2 garlic cloves, minced


Method
Mix together the rub ingredients and pat onto meat and let sit for at least an hour, but preferably overnight in the fridge. Do not discard any leftover rub.

Mix the braising liquid's ingredients together and set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet until it shimmers. Sear the meat, in batches, on all sides. Set the browned meat on a plate and cover with tin foil. In the same skillet, cook the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and stir until it releases its fragrance.

Slow cooker method:
Prep the contraption, as per manufacturer's instructions. Tip the onion mixture into the slow cooker. Layer the seared meat over top. Stir in any remaining rub mixture into the braising liquid and pour over the meat. Set to low and cook for eight hours. The meat should be fork tender and almost fall off the bone.

Oven method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Add the ingredients in an oven-safe lidded pot (such as a dutch oven), or in a deep baking dish as per the slow cooker instructions. Lid the pot or tightly cover the dish with tin foil. Braise, cooking in the oven for about 2.5 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender.

Serving suggestions:
If you are using beef ribs, cut the meat off the bone, and into bite-sized chunks.

Serve over plain, garlic or cheddar-mashed potatoes, buttered rice, buttered egg noodles or slices of hearty, crusty bread with plenty of the braising liquid. Accompany it with sautéed greens, asparagus or peas.

Notes:
- This dish tastes better the next day (and the next), although it is mighty fine served the day of.

-If you are serving it the next day (or later), allow the pot to cool to room temperature before popping into the fridge. Before reheating (in a lidded pot, in the oven at 350F/180C for about 30 or so minutes), remove as much of the solid that has floated to the top of the liquid.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

The contraption: slow cooked vanilla poached peaches

After a summer off from my slow cooker to contemplate the contraption I'm back, determined to see this blogging project through to the end.

Every attempted recipe has been meat-focussed...and maybe that's the problem. Apart from pulled pork and ribs, nothing it's done has made me cotton to it, and only leaves me to wonder why so many people are enamoured with the beast and its kin.

With this in mind, this month I decided to eschew the contraption's carnal side to experiment with the sweeter side of its personality.

Poached fruits was the obvious first step for me--whole specimens left to blurble in a sweet syrup shouldn't push the machine far beyond its capabilities.

By the time I mustered up the energy to pull it off the shelf and prepare this month's offering, local peaches had their day and all I could easily find were sad, softball-like imports. The only positive comment I can say about these truck-driven specimens is they retained some semblance of fragrance.

It doesn't take a genius to poach fruit. Whip up a poaching liquid, spiced as you wish, and then let the prepared fruit simmer away until it's reached to the point of doneness. Again, I'm not convinced that using a slow cooker helped in any way, and in fact just gave me an extra couple of pieces to wash (the cooker insert and lid).

Normally when I poach fruit, I use water or juice but this time I decided to use a vidal from Norfolk County's Florence Estate Winery. By the time the fruit was done, the seed-speckled liquid was heady with peach and vanilla and retained a bit of the wine's crispness.

Poached fruit is wonderful on a cool night, especially now as the seasons turn. Will I do this again? Definitely, but I'll save myself dish rack space and leave the slow cooker out of it.

Vanilla Poached Peaches
Serves eight

8 ripe but firm peaches, halved and stoned (skinning, optional)
250ml (1c) sweet white wine
250ml (1c) water
80ml (0.33c) honey
1 vanilla pod, slit in half lengthways OR 1dspn (2tsp) vanilla paste

pouring custard, whipped cream, heavy cream or ice cream, for serving (optional)

Preheat slow cooker, if its manufacturer's instructions dictate.

Heat wine, water, honey and vanilla until bubbling.

Arrange peaches in slow cooker, pour vanilla syrup overtop. Cover and cook on low for 90 minutes. The fruit should be firm, but yield to an inserted blade.

Remove peaches from cooker and pour syrup into pan. Over a medium-high flame, reduce liquid by about half.

Serve warm: two halves per person with syrup dizzled over top. serve with custard, cream or ice cream, if you wish.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

The contraption: Olive and lemon meatballs with tomato sauce

Computers. I love them and hate them all at once.

As a writer and editor I love how they can make my lot a bit easier—distributing drafts, tracking changes, sending off the final version—its all easy, peasey, pudding and pie. Add the Web and all the electronic loveliness that comes with it, and there’s little doubt that this collection of plastic and wires is rather spiffy.

But when things go awry…say when my wretched ISP goes down, speed becomes a crawl (thanks to multiple “critical” patches) or for whatever reason an app no longer does what it’s supposed to…and I just want to chuck this thing out the window and go back to quill and ink.

This is one of those moments. My six year old laptop is now showing signs of age…grindingly slow, Sahara-like heat and now it just shuts down whenever it gosh-darned feels like. These I can handle. What I’m having issues with is the spontaneous key-popping.

Yes, key-popping. There I am, happily Tweeting or emailing and all of a sudden keys started flying off and clattering all around me. Square tiles jettisoned like quills off a territorial porcupine. Right now the bane of my existence is the letter “I” that keeps leaping off ¡nto the w¡ld blue yonder.

Well, until I can afford a new machine, Zippy will have to be mended. A keyboard transplant is in the works and for the next while I’ll be computer-less. I hope to have Zippy back before long, but it all depends upon how long it takes my repair shop to get in the replacement part.

Sigh.

Before I take this machine off to the shop, here’s the next part of my slow cooker series. Enjoy…

This is what I’ll call a “transition recipe,” the type of recipe that bridges warm and cool weather, one that’s just hearty enough to feel fed, but not so much to leave you feeling lethargic. It’s also a bit of a transition from the slow-cooked meats that marked my earlier slow cooker adventures.

I must admit that when I saw slow cooker meatball recipes, I really didn’t see how a slow cooker made the process easier for the home cook. You still have to make and cook the meatballs separately as well as start the sauce off on the stove. Really, it would be much simpler—including a couple fewer pieces to wash—to do it all by stove top.

Regardless if you use a contraption or a covered Dutch oven, this isn’t a bad recipe. Adding lemon and olive to the meat mix adds an earthier but at the same time a bit of a refreshng flavour to the meatballs.


Olive and lemon meatballs with tomato sauce

Adapted from Sara Lewis’ Ultimate Slow Cooker, p68
Serves 4

50g (0.5c) chopped black olives
grated rind of 0.5 lemon
500g (1lb) ground beef
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper, to taste
1 onìon, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
375ml (1.5c) canned, puréed tomatoes
125ml (0.5c) chicken or beef stock
0.5tsp dried basil
dried chili flakes (optional)

Mix olives, lemon zest, beef, salt and pepper together. Form meatballs (this recipe will form about 20 tablespoon-sized meatballs). Let rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Fry in olive oil until cooked. Set aside.

To make the sauce, sauté the onion in the oil and beef drippings, add the garlic, tomatoes, stock, salt and pepper. Let come to the boil.

Transfer the meatballs and sauce to the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour before it's done, stir in basil and pepper flakes and continue cooking.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

The Contraption: Pulled Pork Sandwiches - Redux

Last month's slow cooker cooking adventure was less than spectacular. It was also too good to be true.

A minimal amount of prep time, combined with soft drinks and a bit of this and that amounted to a sickly sweet and totally underwhelming mound of sandwiches.

My call for alternative recipes were heard. Between emails, conversations and comments, I had a number of options from which to seek vindication. Can the slow cooker redeem itself or will paperweight-dustcatcher take an early lead in search of optimal uses?

After some study I opted for Deb's recommendation of Epicurious' Barbecue Pork Shoulder. In as much as I'd have liked to try a fellow foodblogger's recipe, pantry staples, time and my inability to get organised won out the day.

I tweaked the recipe in minor ways (prepared mustard for dijon, totally left out the Tabasco, increased the cider vinegar) as well as strained out the sauce and reduced it down, adding a couple of good glugs of barbecue sauce. The result was so much more palatable than before.

Why?

Simple: Much more complex flavours brough about by actual (gasp!) cooking.

Even though I prepared this in a slow cooker, I don't see why this couldn't have been set in a slow oven for a few hours, encased by a Dutch Oven. Perhaps I'll try it that way next time and see what the difference is...


Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches
adapted from Epicurious' Barbecued Pork Shoulder
Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Yield approx 10 sandwiches.

20g (2 Tbsp) brown sugar
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
2dspn (4tsp) powdered chilli pepper
1 tsp salt
olive oil for frying
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped (with seeds)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5kg (approx 3lbs) pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
90g (approx 3oz) streaky bacon (3 rashers), chopped
4 plum tomatoes, chopped (approx 500ml/2c)
1 bay leaf
60ml (0.25c) barbecue sauce

Whisk together sugar, tomato paste, mustard, vinegar, chilli pepper and salt. Pour over cubed pork and set aside.

Sautée onions, chopped bell pepper, garlic and jalepeno until veggies are tender.

Tip onion mixture, pork, marinade, tomatoes and bay leaf into slow cooker.

Set cooker to low and cook for seven hours.

When done, remove pork cubes and shred with two forks. Strain out the veggies and bacon from the liquid and reduce to about 1/3 volume. Stir in barbecue sauce. Reserve about 0.25c.

Return the meat and the balance of the sauce to the slow cooker, and cook on low for about an hour.

Serve with reserved sauce.

cheers!

jasmine







I'm a quill for hire!

The Contraption: Slow Cooker Pork Sandwiches

Hmmm...

I'm not sure what I can say about this one. Last month's successful ribs experiment made me hopeful that my slow cooker wasn't an unfortunate acquisition.

Now, I'm back to doubting things.

After hearing a number of people tell me how delicious their slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches are, I thought that would be an excellent next adventure with the contraption.

Well...not so much. My friend lent me her copy of Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes as she swears by its pulled pork recipe. Rootbeer, onions garlic and chili sauce (not chili as in the spicy hot chilli sauce you find in Vietnamese or Thai restaurants, but the uber sweet "daring" ketchup). The result?

Meh.

No doubt the meat was juicy. In and of itself it was an incredibly tender roast...but as far as a pulled pork sandwich goes, it was...meh.

(And yes, I concede that I photographed sliced meat versions, not pulled meat versions).

I found the sauce in combination with the root beer braised meat far too sweet and uninspired. And that's me being kind.

So...where to go with this?

Given that pulled pork sandwiches are one of the few things with which the cafeteria can tempt me, I want to try this again, but with a tastier sauce.

So if you have a slow cooked pulled pork recipe you are willing to send me, please do. Assuming I get more than one, I'll select one and prepare it for another contraption post. Simply share it in comments or email me at cardamomaddict at gmail dot com.

Thanks in advance.


Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes

serves 8-10

1.5kg (3lb) pork roast, trimmed of excess fat
salt
pepper
oil, for frying
2 onions, slivered
1L (4c) root beer (not diet), divided
6 cloves minced garlic
250ml (1c) chili sauce (as mentioned in the post)
1-2 Tbsp chilli-garlic sauce

Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and sear on all sides.

Transfer the meat to the slow cooker. Add the onions, garlic and 250ml (1c) root beer. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hrs or high for 4-5 hrs.

Meanwhile, make the sauce by reducing 750ml (3c) rootbeer, chilli sauce and the hot sauce, by reducing the volume by half, so you get about 2 cups of sauce.

When the meat is done, shred the meat with two forks and toss in the sauce. Serve on buns with the onions that the pork was cooked in.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

The Contraption: Slow Cooker Ribs in Barbecue Sauce

For better or for worse we are attracted to types. And for better or worse, types are attracted to us.

Give me a single, smart (verging on geeky), well-read, musical man who’s interested in politics, science and art and I simply swoon…I, unfortunately, collect men who would be better off with someone who will simply acquiesce to their officious, ill-informed prattle…or someone easily flattered when these men admit to researching conversation via Wikipedia. Really.

Yet there is one commonality amongst the men who like, love and would like to love me: ribs. An unreal weakness for saucy, juicy, spicy, sweet, tangy, meaty ribs.

Hmmm…I’m making a connection here…

Those who’ve tried my back ribs never seem to tire of them—Michael requested them weekly for several months; both he and the exbf chose them as birthday meals. Heck, even my father sent my Dear Little Cardamummy on a mission to find out what I did that made my ribs so much better than hers (that went over well, I can tell you).

I fully admit that my usual method leaves many rib aficionados cowering with horror: I boil rub-massaged slabs with an onion and a bay or two before giving them a lacquer-like sheen in the oven, courtesy of several brushings of barbecue sauce.

When a colleague told me of her slow cooker rib recipe, I was intrigued. Unlike other meat recipes, she didn’t have to pre-cook anything—simply dump and go. The fact they slowly blurbled away in cola before quickly painting them in sauce and tossing them on a grill won me over.

As a fan of Coca-cola ham, I know how tasty pork braised in cola can be. The fizzy drink’s mildly acidic qualities tenderizes meat; it’s caramelly clove-spiky flavour has a natural affinity with pork. In case you need yet another reason to avoid diet pop, I’ve read it works with any brand of cola, but only “regular” versions as diet versions can just ruin the dish.

I adapted this recipe as I wanted more flavour imparted into the meat during cooking, and mixed the cola with some of the barbecue sauce. The meat was tender-sweet and spicy. Grilling caramelised the sauce and left the ribs sticky and slightly smoky from the flecks of char. Needless to say, I was more than happy with my supper.

Quite honestly, after eight hours in the slow cooker, I couldn’t bring myself to toss the flavourful liquid or the cooked onions, so while the ribs were finishing on my stovetop grill, I simply tipped the liquid, onions and a spoon or two of barbecue sauce into a pot and reduced the liquid to a thick, burnished sauce that clung to the onions. A perfect accompaniment with the ribs or for later use as a topping for burgers or other hot sandwiches.

Barbecue sauces are as varied as the regions they come from. Teryaki and hoisin sauces are used on grilled meats in some Asian countries while Chimichurri is popular in South American countries such as Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. The US has several distinct regional sauces South Carolina mustard sauces and mayonnaise-based Alabama White sauces. My sauce has no true regional provenance, but combines Kansas City’s thick, sweet tomatoey sauce with a bit of Texan heat.

Barbecue sauce
Yield: approximately 1.5c

1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
250ml (1c) tomato ketchup
3Tbsp apple cider vinegar
30g (3Tbsp) brown sugar
3Tbsp molasses
0.5 tsp pepper
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp rib rub or chili seasoning mix
2 dspn (4 tsp) Worcestershire sauce
0.5 tsp salt
1tsp liquid smoke (optional)

Soften the onions and garlic in the oil. Mix in the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes. Let cool to room temp before using.


Cola has been used in cooking in the southern US for ages. Sweet, spiky and slightly acidic, it pairs well with pork and adds to the rib’s smoky-sweetness. Use your favourite shop-bought barbecue sauce or make your own. After spending most of the day on low in the slow cooker, the ribs will be succulent. Serve with a warm onion relish by simmering the braising liquid until thick with the cooked onions and some extra barbecue sauce.

Slow cooker ribs in barbecue sauce
Adapted from Canadian Parents’ Crock Pot BBQ Ribs

1.3kg (3 lbs) baby back or side ribs
rib rub
125ml (0.5c) cola
375ml (1.5c) barbecue sauce, divided
1tsp liquid smoke (optional)
one onion,
sliced into 1cm rings

Remove silverskin and any excess fat from the ribs before slicing into ifour or five-rib mini-slab portions. Massage rub into the meat and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Mix the cola, half the barbecue sauce and liquid smoke together. Brush each of the slab sides with the sauce before spreading a couple of spoons’ worth of sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer some onions on top of the sauce, place a slab or two (depending upon the size of the cooker) over the onions, and then continue to layer the onions and the slabs. When done, pour the remaining sauce over top and set the cooker on low and cook for 6-8 hrs.

About 15 minutes before the the ribs are done. Heat up a grill pan or barbecue or oven (350F).

Brush the cooked ribs with plain barbecue sauce and grill each side for 8-10 minutes or roast in the oven for about 20-30 minutes. Serve with additional sauce for dipping, if you wish.

Notes:

Here's my recipe for rib rub, but you can certainly use whichever recipe or brand you wish.

I've tried these ribs a couple of times, once with my homemade sauce and again with a commercial hickory sauce; and both worked well.

cheers!
jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

The contraption: Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

I asked Santa for a slow cooker.

My thinking, of course, was since I'm doing more pot lucks where I can neither pop home to get my prepared dish, nor have access to a proper stove, a slow cooker was the obvious option. I can either cook it during the day in some accessable space, or keep whatever I've made the night before warm enough to be palatable.

Santa heard. Santa bought. Santa delivered.

I'm now the owner of a seven quart (6.5L) slow cooker.

I fully realise that me (single and childless) owning such a vessel is akin to Kate Moss owning a 38G bra: wishful thinking at best, delusional at worst.

That's what Santa brought, so that's what I'm going to spend the next year of my life learning how to use.

My introduction to the contraption was akin to setting myself down in front of a blind date. After years of listening to friends and colleagues go on and on about how wonderful it is, and how we'd probably get along, there it sat across from me, all shiny and full of promise. I even found a recipe which I adjusted to better suit my palate.

And like many a blind date, I'm left wondering why on Earth I got my hopes up.

Problem number one: I read the instruction manual. Apparently only qualified operators are allowed to use it. How does one become a qualified operator? Well, one must read and thoroughly understand the manual. No testing. No certificate. Not even a tinned bit of Edward Elgar by kazoo.

I guess if I burned my condo down because I thought I understood the instructions, the manufacturer is trying to absolve itself of any liability. By their logic I obviously lack the necessary mind-reading skills deduce the manual-writer's intention, regardless of what he, she or it committed to words. Talk about a Catch-22.

Problem number two: I bought a couple of slow cooker cookbooks, both of which strongly suggested I brown meat and do some pre-cooking. This baffles me. I thought the entire idea of a slow cooker was essentially a one-pot, wham-bam-forget-it-ma'am type way to feed myself and the invisible army that my slow cooker's capacity dictates.

By the time I was done browning the meat (and by choice the sauteeing mushrooms and onions) I realised that I could easily finish the entire meal in about an hour or so, leaving the pot to quietly blurble away on a nearly invisible flame just to keep it warm. Regardless, by the end of it, I had three pots to wash.

But this was my first slow cooker meal. As per the manual, I didn't preheat the cooker and tipped everything into the pot.

Problem number three: My name is Jasmine and I'm a home cook. I adjust flavours as I go. I know even though these two carrots came from the same bag, this carrot over here could be more carrotty in taste than that one over there. I know that this chicken over here may have actually had the opportunity to walk around before it met with its Marie Antoinette-like fate, where as her cousin was probably stuck in some cage somewhere before she became a cellophaned carcass in the bigscarymegamart's meat case. In other words: ingredients are subject to variations in flavour. I may need more sour, less salt and maybe some sugar than a recipe calls to make the flavours balance. I don't know until I start browning and mixing and sniffing and tasting.

Slow cooking doesn't really allow me to do such adjustments. Every time I open the lid, I need to add 20 minutes of cooking time. Three lifted lids means an extra hour of cooking. So, in hopes of not adding cooking time, I prayed to the kitchen gods that I balanced out the flavours correctly before I turned on the contraption.

Good gravy.

Which leads to problem number four: This is a mightily wet cooking method. Whereas most stews and saucy dishes I make benefit from slow cooking but also reducing liquids to produce clinging, thick, flavourful sauces, my first venture into slow cooking left me with a very wet, soup-like stew. Of course I could add a thickener: a beurre manié or cornflour, but they lack the flavour building that evaporation brings. I must admit that when I reheated leftovers the next day, I tipped everything into my wok and simmered it for about 20 minutes. I was happier.

Before I did that, I tasted it.

Problem number five: Everything tastes the same. The carrots taste like the chicken taste like the mushrooms taste like the peppers. Maybe it's my innate Canadianness, but I think dishes like soups and stews are better when you can actually appreciate and identify individual ingredients, and how well they work together, as opposed to tedious homogeneity.

I know. It seems weird and somewhat wrong. This elevated concept of dump and heat "cooking" is my 2010 project. It's a bit more than that. I'm trying to convince myself that this contraption is not a waste of space, nor a waste of Santa's hard-earned money. My books tell me this thing is much more than an overblown soup-maker, and can make puddings and cakes as well as roasts and ribs. Wish me luck. I think I'm going to need it.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
1.5 kg chicken, cubed into 2-3cm pieces
225g sliced mushrooms
1 rib celery, sliced thinly
1 carrot, sliced into thinnish coins
2 onions, sliced into lunettes
1 bell pepper, slivered
3 Cloves garlic, minced
1 x 796ml tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp dried thyme
0.5 tsp dried rosemary
Olive oil

Saute onions and mushrooms until soft. Remove to cooker.

Brown chicken in olive oil, remove to cooker.

In a slow cooker, place the carrots, celery, pepper, tomatoes, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, chicken broth and chicken. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours.




cheers!
jasmine


I'm a quill for hire!