Southwestern Pulled Beef Brisket

There is a 5 cup Tupperware in my freezer right now full of this shredded beef brisket in it's pretty mahogany sauce.  I'm pretty excited about that.  One day in the future, dinner is going to be so freaking easy.  So quick.  So humdrum?  I really am in love with the fact that I have a full on dinner locked and loaded, ready to go.  It's just not a very exciting dinner.  It doesn't have me mumbling with every full-mouthed bite "this is good, this is like really good".  Which is especially disappointing when I really thought it was going to be.

It had all the makings to be a fantastically dinner: One, it came from the cooking blog demigod known as the smitten kitchen, about whom I have not been bashful professing my love for (like here, or here, or here!).  Two, it was going to be my first meal cooked in my first Crock Pot ever and so was destined for greatness from the beginning.  And finally 3, it was meant to make tacos.  Tacos make everything taste even more amazing than they would taste alone.  Tacos have a magical power, it's hard to do wrong to the taco.

Yet, even with all of those fantastically factually points, dinner was not fantastic.  It did not provoke any unconscious, food-induced chanting.  It was just good.   No fireworks, all socks stayed on, good.  The pros?  Besides 20 or so minutes of prep before it get's thrown into the slow cooker, that's all your doing and dinner is cooking for you, waiting to welcome you home and fill your tummy with warm nutrition.  And, as stated above, it can be made into tacos, and tacos, 99.98% of the time, are fun, messy and delicious.  The only real con may be apathy, but really, dinner can't knock your socks off every time.

So, if you have a Saturday that is chock full of errands (like hanging your TV on a wall mount that is (WOOHOO!!) still hanging up!) and you want a warm dinner at the end of it, this is the way to go.  Well, at least until I find a crock pot meal worthy of whispering sweet nothings to as it gets shoveled into my mouth...

Southwestern Pulled Beef Brisket
From The Smitten Kitchen, circa 2010

3 lbs. beef brisket
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp. Canola Oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. cumin
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. molasses
1 14.5-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
2 chipotle peppers from a can with a little adobo sauce
2 bay leaves

Season both sides of brisket well with salt and pepper.  In large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until it just begins to smoke.  Add brisket and sear on both sides, about 5 minutes on each side.  Transfer to crock pot.

In same skillet, add onion and spices, and toast until fragrant, about 1 minute.  With head FAR away from skillet, pour in vinegar.  With wooden spoon, mix onions and vinegar, scraping bottom of skillet to pick up all browned bits of goodness from the meat.  Add water.  Pour mixture over brisket in crock pot.  Add molasses, tomatoes (crushed by hand), tomato juices from can, chipotle peppers and bay leaves.  Place lid on cooker.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours (longer is probably better) until brisket is easily shredded by hand. Once done, remove brisket from crock pot and shred.  Remove bay leaves from crock pot and discard.  Return shredded beef to crock pot, stir thoroughly with remaining juices and serve with warmed tortillas and pickled jalapenos, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, pickled red onions, etc. as taco toppings!

Skillet Sloppy Joe

Lately, any recipe with fresh corn off the cob has been catching my eye.  This one here, my new favorite pizza and a dip recipe I'll share with you soon.  I have fallen in love with sweet corn on the cob.  They're fantastic little bursts of fresh, sweet and summer and I'm trying to soak up as much as possible before it's all gone.  Even if I do love fall as much as I do, nothing really quite tastes as amazing as summer.

Last week I was leafing through one of my least favorite cookbooks:  Cooking Light's Fresh Food Fast.  The book itself was an impulse purchase that wasn't quite what I expected.  The recipes inside call for a lot pre-made, pre-chopped, specific canned ingredients and I usually steer clear of it when I'm hunting for new things to cook.  But for whatever reason there I was flipping through it last week and there was a recipe for a skillet sloppy joe with some corn, even if it did call for it frozen.  With a simple substitution of fresh corn sawed off the cob through, I was willing, even excited, to give it a whirl.

As it turned out, the shopping trip ended up yielding a few more substitutions then was first expected.  There was no call for onion in the original (an obvious oversight), I diced up my own (even if over-priced) green bell pepper, a can of kidney beans (because I love them) and a few spices to bring it up a notch, because the stewed tomatoes I bought were straight forward and brought only tomatoes to the table.

And I liked the end result.  There is something satisfying and home-ish about cooking a big one-pot dinner in just your cast iron pan.  But in the end, it just ended up too sweet.  Between the corn, the cinnamon I added, and the ketchup it was too much.  But the corn shouldn't go anywhere, because that was the whole inspiration of the recipe.  And personally, I loved the cinnamon in it, it added some warmth and depth of flavor, something fun and different.  In all truthfulness, the ketchup has got to go.  It's too sweet, too much.  A simple sub of tomato sauce though, and I think you're in business.  Guten Appetit!

Skillet Sloppy Joes

Inspired by Fresh Food Fast

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 corn on the cob, kernels removed
1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add crumbled beef, bell pepper and onion.  Saute until meat is browned and veggies are soft, about 5 minutes.  Drain excess grease.

Add corn, kidney beans, tomatoes and tomato paste.  Stir in remaining 3 ingredients.  Simmer mixture for about 10 minutes, or until desired consistency is reached.  Serve on hamburger buns or other bread.

Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry

I feel as though I haven't been in my new apartment as long as I have.  True, I have only been here a week and two days, but it seems like even less time.  Most likely cause my extra room is still full of half unpacked things and the majority of my clothes are still folded up in suitcases.  But this is my third new recipe that I've cooked in my new and improved kitchen and I'm already being a better blogger than I ever was back in South Carolina.  Well, at least in respect to the whole trying new recipes idea.  So all of that was to say that basically, I'm pretty impressed that even in the midst of starting a new job, moving to a new town and unpacking an apartment, I'm doing quite a good job at tackling new recipes too.  If I may toot my own horn here.

 

Toot.

Anyways, here it is, new recipe number three.  This has been post-it-noted in my March edition of Cooking Light since I've had it (unfortunately, my magazines are very post-it-noted and not very cut apart yet.  I am doing what I can).  It rung up quite the grocery bill, although that was due to the dire state of my pantry, not any particularly expensive ingredients.  But it was easy to make and not very stressful.  In fact, cooking in a kitchen with so many usable counters is, dear I say it, relaxing.  Fun.  I'm not longer cutting on my dining room table!  But that is where most of the pictures take place, because it is in front of the only window in the kitchen. 

Dinner was good and leftovers heated up well for lunch today.  It could have used more Sriracha and it had a surprisingly tasty hint of sweet.  But it was just another one of those recipes that I likely wouldn't make again, especially with the growing pile of post-it-noted magazine pages.  A very yummy, albeit, one shot meal. 

Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry
Adapted from March 2011's Cooking Light

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sherry, divided
2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce, divided

1 tsp. sugar

1 lb. boneless sirloin steak

1/2 c. lower-sodium beef broth

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

1 tsp. Sriracha

1 Tbsp. canola oil

3 cloves minced garlic

4 c. broccoli florets

1/4 cwater .

1/3 c. green onions, sliced

Slice steak into thin slices, diagonally against the grain.  Combine with 1 tbsp. sherry, 1 tbsp. soy sauce and sugar.  Mix together well.  Let sit while preparing broth mixture.

For broth mixture, combine remaining 1 tbsp. sherry, 1 tbsp. soy sauce, beef broth, cornstarch, hoisin sauce and Sriracha.  Mix well with a fork until all cornstarch is mixed in and mixture is smooth, set aside. 

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat.  Add beef.  Sauté until browned, about 3 minutes and remove from pan.  Add garlic to hot pan and cook until fragrant, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds.  Add broccoil and water and sauté about 2 minutes.  Add onions and continue cooking until vegetables are about down, another minute or two.  Return beef to pan and add broth mixture.  Cook for 2 minutes, or until beef is heated through and sauce has thickened.  Sauce will continue to thicken slightly once pan has been removed from the heat.  Serve over rice with extra sauce drizzled over top.