Crockpot Brisket

Whenever I am a pinch, I always yank out my trusty Crockpot. I love to prep something in the morning and come home to a great smelling house. I seem to like this recipe a lot as it is rather easy.

1) Cut 2 onions into rings. Put some on the bottom of a 6 quart Crockpot. Next, put in a brisket flat, 2-3 pounds is ideal for a family of 4. Put some of the onion rings on top. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and what else your heart desires.

2) I add about 1/2 - 1 C of liquid around the brisket (not on top). Guinness, other non-hoppy beer or beef broth works well here. If you want to add carrots or celery on the side to flavor your gravy, sure.. go ahead!

3) 10 Hours Low. When you come home, it should be rather tender. If not, you can always cook a bit longer or blast it in the oven.

Serve with a nice starch and some veggies. Make a gravy out of the liquid in the pot.

Eat. Drink. Savor.

My Ragu Bolognese

Ah, the meat sauce, the Sunday Gravy… So many variations and so much debate over what is a proper Ragu Bolognese. In fact, there is an official designation protected by the Italian Academy of Cuisine. Well, this is America and we often stretch things, don’t we? You can even play around with my play around of a recipe. I suggest that this sauce is a great way to use up extra scraps of meat and bones that you have lying around. Here goes!

1) Make a sofrito or mirepoix which is 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks and 1-2 onions, diced. Cook slowly in a fat of your choice, I like to use diced pancetta or bacon. Make sure it is soft and translucent. Add a small can of tomato paste and cook for a few minutes.

2) Add 1-2 cups of wine, and cook down a bit to concentrate. Now add 1-2 pounds of meat. Most people will use ground beef or a meatloaf mix here. Cook down a bit to where there is little liquid left in the pot. What about seasonings? I omit the salt and pepper until the end as I want to make a determination then.

3) Add 2 28oz cans of San Marzano or plum, whole and peeled tomatoes to the pot. I use a potato masher to crush them a bit. My secret ingredient is to add a few beef bones and 1-2 cups of beef or chicken stock.

4) Simmer uncovered for about 2-4 hours. The longer the better, TRUST ME!!! The sauce will concentrate beautifully over that time. Serve with penne, ziti or shorter pastas.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

My Meat Lasagna - A lighter version

Please review my Base Meat Lasagna recipe for reference. I modified that recipe to take the super heaviness out of the dish. Please experiment! Cooking is about trying stuff to see if it sticks (pun intended). In this recipe, I made the pasta sheets, so fresh pasta vs. commercial boxed dry. My pasta was 50/50 semolina to 00 flour with 5 eggs and some water. Also, I don’t precook my pasta sheets. Here we go!

1) Spread about 2 C. of Ragu’ Bolognese sauce on the bottom of a deep roasting pan. Lay pasta sheets side by side on top of the sauce. Try not to overlap as you want those layers of sauce and meat and cheese to intermingle and bubble up during cooking.

2) Here is the key to keeping the dish light vs. heavy: there is no need to build out a inch of sauce, cheese etc. for each layer.

3) Here is the order of battle:

1 ladle of Bolognese sauce dotted or dribble over the layer of pasta (have 4-6 cups on hand)

1 ladle of Bechamel sauce (look for my base recipe) dotted or dribbled over the Bolognese (have 4 cups on hand)

Spread little pieces of Mozzarella over the Bechamel sauce. I slice Mozzarella and tear tiny pieces (2 balls of Mozzarella on hand)

Grate some Parmesan and Pecorino Romano on this layer. (Blocks of cheese, fresh tastes so much better)

4) Repeat until you run out of fillings, pasta or sauce or room in the roasting pan. I typically have about 4-6 layers when I am all said and done.

5) Put in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You can put foil on but you don’t need to cook much here as you have fresh pasta. For 10-20 minutes, crank up the heat a bit to add some crust for those how love those crunchy corners. Once done, let cool 10 minutes minimum prior to cutting and serving. Put a ladle full of Bolognese sauce on each portion and maybe a dash of cheese.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Dutch Oven Pork Loin Roast

Not typically part of my rotation, but wanted to share another easy recipe. I normally roast my loin on a roasting rack set in a pan. I think this adds a bit more of tenderness vs. the “bark” of the open rack method. This recipe is not modified at all and comes straight from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Amazing that this recipe still works and it is 60 years old. You must have a fireproof and oven-safe pot (Dutch Oven) with cover for this recipe or you will need to improvise. For brevity, I have reworked it a bit here:

1) 3 # boneless pork loin. It calls for a marinade but I did my typical 48 hour dry brine of salt, pepper and Adobo.

2) In a Dutch oven large enough (I put mine in a 4 1/2 quart Dutch oven), heat 4 TBSP of fat, lard or oil. You are now going to brown all sides of the loin. A few minutes all over to create a crust.

3) Take pork out and set aside. Leave 2 TBSPs of fat left in the pot. If needed add butter. Put in 1 sliced onion, 1 sliced carrot, 2 cloves of garlic (I omitted it), and some herbs (parsley, thyme sprigs, bay leaf). Cook for 5 minutes.

4) Add the pork back in pot and put cover on. Put in a 325 degree oven and cook until the meat registers 145 degrees. I lowered mine to 300 degrees as I wanted to give myself some time for other things. The 3 lb should take 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Mine was done in 1 hr 30 minutes. I do recommend that you check on it prior to that point.

4) Take out pork and put on a carving board to rest for at least 15-20 minutes. Take out the vegetables and set aside too. Resting the meat is so important as all the juices will need time to redistribute through the meat. Also, there will be carryover cooking and the internal temp will rise 5-10 degrees getting above the USDA recommended temperature. Now, this is up to you but you can make a gravy out of those drippings in the pot.

5) Optional: Leave about 1-2 TBSP of fat in the pot. Take 1/2 C. of wine and simmer in the pot, scraping up all those wonderful bits on the bottom. If you are short a little liquid, add some chicken stock.

Eat.Drink.Savor.

Making your own Smoked Bacon

A recipe that I used for many years and actually have used the same cure for other types of meats. The cure works fantastic for fresh ham. The original recipe was courtesy of In the Charcuterie by Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller. They also run a shop in San Francisco and Napa called The Fatted Calf. I am a big fan as you can tell. Not many ingredients but still I modified it..

1) 8 lb skinless pork belly. You don’t have to use all of the cure if you don’t have that much pork belly. I cut the pork belly into equally sized squares that can fit in a baking dish.

2) Cure. 1 lb of brown sugar (I use dark), 12 ounces of fine sea salt (I use ground up kosher), 1 TBSP Curing Salt #1, 1 TBSP cayenne and 1 TBSP freshly ground black pepper. Mix all ingredients well in a bowl. The curing salt can be found online. The salt acts as a preservative and protection against bacteria while the meat is curing.

3) In your baking dish, put down a layer of the cure. Put one of your belly portions on it, meat side down. Rub the cure all over the sides and top. Put a belly on top of this, meat side down and repeat. Put in fridge. I don’t cover but you can if your fridge is full of other odiferous foods.

4) Next day, pour out any liquid in the dish and swap the belly portions around. Put on any additional cure on thin spots. Return to fridge and repeat. Typically by the 3rd day, there isn’t much liquid left. I pull it off by the 3rd day regardless. You can experiment with longer cure times but it may get too salty.

5) Rinse off all cure from the bellies. Pat dry. Get your smoker going and smoke the bellies until they read 140 - 150 degrees internal temperature. Let cool and either keep in slab form or slice. I like to let the bellies cool overnight and use the slicer the next day. I’ll often have a portion that is sliced and a portion that remains in slab form. Some will remain in the fridge and some will be in the freezer. With the curing salt, your bacon won’t spoil until after 3-4 weeks in the fridge and after 6 months in the freezer.

Options: 1) I will do a mix of maple syrup and brown sugar along with a shot of rum. 2) Different kinds of sea salt 3) Applewood, cherrywood or pecan for the smoker 4) Play with an alternative spice vs. cayenne 5) Throw in some herb springs on the smoker fire

Eat.Drink.Savor.

My Base Meat Lasagna

My Italian cuisine and cooking skills are evolving. I am not of Italian descent and only have been exposed to this great food through friends. I have worked with this recipe of Emeril’s over the years. When I would cook food for our family vacations ahead of time, I wanted something that could be frozen and make plenty of leftovers. I also wanted a recipe where I didn’t have to precook the noodles. Warning! Some Italians will scoff at the use of ricotta here.. so be warned.. I will have another version up without it. This recipe yields 12-16 servings depending on your guests. Here is my version after many modifications.

1) In a bowl, mix 1 1/2 C. ricotta, 6 ounces grated Provolone, Mozzarella and Pecorino-Romano, an egg, 1/4 C. half/half (or milk), 1 TBSP minced basil/thyme/oregano, 1-2 TBSP chopped garlic. In reserve, have 1 1/2 lb of grated Parmesan and a package of lasagna noodles ready.

2) Meat Sauce. You can make your own but for ease of use, buy quality pasta sauce with meat. If you want to jack it up, brown a pound of meat (beef/pork/lamb etc.) I’d have enough sauce for about 6-8 cups. If you have extra, you can use it elsewhere.

3) Assembly. In a deep baking dish/lasagna pan, spread about 2 cups of sauce on the bottom. Sprinkle a quarter of the parmesan on. Cover this layer with dried lasagna noodles. Repeat. You’ll likely have 3-4 layers. The last layer is sauce unless you want it to be cheese but it may burn, so watch it.

4) Cook in a 350 degree oven 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool about 10 minutes, minimum before serving.

Nosh Options: You can add more cheese into the mixture but it may be overkill. For the meat sauce, you can do a meatloaf mix for the meat. A homemade Ragu’ Bolognese is highly recommended for tremendous flavor.

Eat.Drink.Savor.