slow-cooker

Barbecue-Style Pulled Pork Sliders, South Carolina Barbecue Sauce and Kansas City Sauce.

March 1, 2010 by Rebecca 8 Comments

A Disclaimer

I love barbecue; real barbecue. I’m talking about meat that falls apart when a fork looks at it because it was cooked for hours over the smoking remnants of fruit trees. I refer to the method that requires hours of time spent lovingly tending a fire outdoors and turning and mopping meat. Please let this stand as proof that I do know what ‘real’ barbecue is. And also, that I know that these sandwiches do not constitute REAL barbecue since they were neither cooked over wood nor in a pit. Thus, barbecue ‘style’. And if you think this disclaimer is unnecessary, you haven’t met many avid barbecue aficionados. That being said, these three-bite, pulled pork sandwiches are made of melt-under-your-teeth tender, smoky meat dressed with real Carolina or Kansas City barbecue sauce. And if you can come up with a better way to get a barbecue fix in the center of snow-bound Amish country in the middle of winter, I’d sure like to hear it. I’m waiting…

Some decisions end up being much harder than you thought they would be. Toilet paper roll over or under? French fries or baked potato? Dog or cat? Kansas City or South Carolina?

In the wonderful world of barbecue there are many regionally distinctive styles of barbecue sauce. Most Americans are familiar with Kansas City style- a thick, sweet tomato or ketchup based barbecue sauce of varying degrees of thickness- while few are acquainted with some of the other barbecue sauces of American origins:

South Carolina Mustard Sauce- This yellowish brown barbecue sauce takes its color from the prepared yellow mustard base. Tangy, zippy, spicy, and smoky, this barbecue sauce makes you salivate just to smell it. It goes with pork like Abbott went with Costello.
East Carolina Sauce- (Pardon me for a moment while I don my Kevlar undies to wade into territory where I have no business being; the great barbecue sauce debate.) Arguably the mother of all barbecue sauces, East Carolina Sauce has its roots in the slave population of the Carolinas. East Carolina Sauce is just crushed red pepper flakes and ground black pepper mixed with vinegar with very little or no sugar. This is vibrant and acidic and is meant both to tenderize the meat and break up some of the richness of fatty barbecue. This is also fantastic with long-cooked pork.
Texas Sauce (a.k.a. Thin Tomato Barbecue Sauce)- Where’s the beef? Right here. Texas Sauce is a miracle worker when it comes to tenderizing notoriously tough beef briskets. It’s another vinegar based sauce, but this one is laced with chili powder, cumin, fresh onion, meat drippings, other spices and just the teensiest kiss of tomato sauce or ketchup. It’s not just an afterthought, though. Texas Sauce is usually mopped on while cooking and then used as a dip or topping to finish the meat.
Lexington Dip- This is kind of like a gentler East Carolina Sauce. It contains all the same ingredients, but also has a hint of tomato sauce or ketchup added. The small amount of sweetness from the tomato cuts back the pucker power of East Carolina Sauce ever-so-slightly.

…And that’s just barely scratching the surface. My loyalties lie with South Carolina Mustard Sauce and Kansas City Sauce. If you hold a slow-cooked spare rib to my throat and force me to pick, I’d probably go with the South Carolina Sauce, but that’s a barbecue sauce lover’s Sophie’s Choice. Now give me that rib.

Recently we found ourselves with a large quantity of leftover slow-cooked, shredded pork* and a pan full of crusty, garlic dinner rolls. While I tried to summon culinary inspiration, The Evil Genius passed by me muttering, “How about barbecue pork sliders?” Eureka! He had it! But then came the real dilemma. South Carolina Mustard Sauce or Kansas City Sauce? “Why not both?” quoth he as he passed the other direction. Sidebar: he was not reading my mind. I have a habit of talking to myself in the kitchen. That day, someone answered.

*Why? Because I slow-cook ten-pound pork shoulders when I make my melt-in-your-mouth Cuban Pork and even we can’t eat all that in one sitting.

Why not, indeed? At only a couple minutes of hands-on time each it was easy to whip up both. And so we did. And boy, were they both good! This dinner took five minutes of hands-on time. I’m sure you could figure out something to do with a little time you save making dinner, right? (Don’t tell, but I spend that extra time hiding in the closet eating the last brownie. I told the kids the dog got it. And I don’t feel an iota of guilt.)

These irresistible little sandwiches are equally at home in a week-night dinner, on a party buffet or as a midnight snack. They’re also pretty addictive. But that’s okay, because they’re little so they’re low-calorie. Right?

South Carolina Barbecue Sauce

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Ingredients:

1 cup prepared yellow mustard
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon liquid smoke

Stir together all ingredients except the soy sauce, butter and liquid smoke in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Simmer 30 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Add the soy sauce, butter and liquid smoke and stir well. Return to a simmer over low heat and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often.

Cool to room temperature before transferring to a jar or squeeze bottle. Store, tightly lidded, in the refrigerator.

Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

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Ingredients:

1 cup good quality ketchup
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 Tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, according to heat preference
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, over medium heat.

Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.

Cool to room temperature before transferring to a jar or squeeze bottle. Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.

Barbecue- Style Pulled Pork Sliders

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Ingredients:

3 cups slow-cooked, shredded pork

1/4 cup preferred barbecue sauce, plus additional sauce for serving (Carolina Style Barbecue Sauce Recipe and Kansas City Barbecue Sauce Recipe)

12 warm dinner rolls (preferably crusty rolls, like these Garlic Bubbles.)

Toss shredded pork and barbecue sauce together in a microwave save bowl. Cover and reheat on ‘HIGH for one minute. Alternately, you can toss the pork and barbecue sauce together in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan and reheat -covered- over a low flame until warmed through.

Split the rolls in the center with a serrated knife. Sandwich about 1/4 cup of the saucy meat in between the top and bottom halves of each roll. Serve immediately with sauce on the side.

And here’s where I need your help. While I’ve already stated my preference, if forced to choose, would lie with the mustard sauce, it’s just barely a preference. The Evil Genius threw down his lot with the Kansas City Sauce. The kids were evenly divided, since two liked the mustard sauce, two liked the tomato sauce and one couldn’t make up his mind and opted for a banana instead.

Give a girl a little help, would you? Since we can’t decide, and I have another pork roast languishing in my meat drawer, I want your opinion. Do you like South Carolina Sauce or Kansas City Sauce better? Do you prefer your own concoction? Do tell. And share recipes if you have one you love more than a bag of chips.

5.0 from 1 reviews

South Carolina Barbecue Sauce and Kansas City Sauces

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Condiment, Sauce

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 12

You’re sure to please everyone in the crowd with these dueling sauces; Sticky, sweet, smoky, tomato based Kansas City Sauce and tangy, spicy, zippy, mustard based South Carolina Sauce. What’s your favorite?

Ingredients

Ingredients for South Carolina Barbecue Sauce:

1 cup prepared yellow mustard
¾ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon liquid smoke

Ingredients for Kansas City Style Sauce:

1 cup good quality ketchup
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1½ Tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
¼-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, according to heat preference
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

To Make South Carolina Barbecue Sauce:

Stir together all ingredients except the soy sauce, butter and liquid smoke in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Simmer 30 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Add the soy sauce, butter and liquid smoke and stir well.
Return to a simmer over low heat and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often.
Cool to room temperature before transferring to a jar or squeeze bottle.
Store, tightly lidded, in the refrigerator.

To Make Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce:

Combine all ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, over medium heat.
Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Cool to room temperature before transferring to a jar or squeeze bottle.
Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.

Notes

Both of these are fresh sauces, meaning they are best made within a couple of days of their intended use. They will store well in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, but are not tested for home canning.

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Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Component Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, slow-cooker Tagged With: barbecue, bbq, Déjà Food, leftovers, pulled pork

Slow-Simmered Collard Greens

December 30, 2009 by Rebecca 5 Comments

This is a continuation of my Southern New Year’s Foods series. And it comes with an executive decision. I was unable to get photos of the dish, but I wanted you to have the recipe before New Year’s Eve. So up it goes sans photos of the greens! If I get photos of it at a later date, I’ll post those on here. Happy New Year!

Black-eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread… all these foods are indelibly linked to the South. No matter which city, town, county or mountain holler you call home, if you’re from the South it’s a pretty safe bet that you have a family recipe for these rattling around somewhere. I have not one, not two, but three recipes for greens all written longhand by my Grandma Shaffer on laminated recipe cards. They are my heirlooms.

Collard greens are one of the foods that are traditionally served in southern homes on New Year’s Day. While black-eyed peas represent coins, collard greens represent paper money. Combining the two dishes for the first meal eaten in the New Year traditionally represents a forthcoming time of prosperity. Since my family is worth much more than its weight in gold, I’d say the practice has been effective.

There is some disagreement among collard green lovers as to how long they should be simmered. My vote is for however long it takes for them to become fall-apart tender. I think it is nearly impossible to overcook collard greens. On the stove top this usually translates to anywhere between one and a half hours to four hours. In a slow-cooker -provided you have enough ‘pot liquor’ (cooking liquid) you can easily let them simmer away overnight. (Assuming you can sleep with the glorious smell of greens wafting through your home.)

There is a small but vocal crowd who like their greens chewier and would simmer their greens for a far shorter time than I would. I ignore them.

This is my special occasion version of greens and nothing screams,”Special Occasion!” quite like salted pork products. I do believe my Grandpa Shaffer would’ve agreed with me heartily. Provided, that is, that your special occasion is not a dinner party for your vegetarian friends. You always have the option of making this vegetarian friendly by omitting the salt pork and replacing the pan drippings with olive or canola oil.

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Slow-Simmered Collard Greens

Ingredients:

3 pounds washed, trimmed and cut collard greens
1 large red onion
6 ounces salt pork
4-8 cloves garlic, according to preference, thinly sliced
2 cups water, plus additional water as needed
1-1/2 cups dry white wine or chicken broth
Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste (I like a great deal of pepper and usually use between two teaspoons and a tablespoon.)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Thinly slice the salt pork (about 1/8 of an inch thick) then cut the slices into thin strips (about 1/4 of an inch thick.) Transfer salt pork strips to a deep, heavy bottomed skillet, pot or dutch oven with a tight fitting lid over medium heat. Stirring frequently -taking care because salt pork pops and spits a lot as it browns- cook the salt pork until crispy all over and golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the crispy salt pork strips to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.* Remove any excess fat drippings from the pan, leaving only 1/4 cup of drippings in the pan.

*The reserved crispy salt pork can either be scattered over the greens before serving or baked into the best cornbread you’ll ever taste. I’ve done both and I’ve loved them equally.

Cut onion in half and peel. Lay -cut side down- on the cutting board and slice into moderately sized half-moons (between 1/4 and 1/2 of an inch thick.) Move onions and garlic into the pork drippings in the hot pan still over medium heat. Cook for one to two minutes or until fragrant but not browned.

Add a handful or two of greens to the pot and stir until reduced slightly in size (about one minute). Repeat with greens, one handful or two at a time, until all the greens have been incorporated and slightly wilted. Add water, white wine, salt and black pepper and stir. Bring liquids to a boil, tightly lid the pan and turn the heat to low. Allow to simmer for about one and a half hours, checking liquids and adding as necessary, or until the greens are fall-apart tender.

Serve hot with cornbread, black-eyed peas and hot pepper vinegar for greens are so good they’ll make you say, “Well, shave my legs and call me smoothy.” Because I’m pretty sure that’s what my Grandpa would’ve said…

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Happy Healthy and Wise, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: slow-cooker, soul food, Southern food, Southern New Year, traditional food

Taco Soup

December 8, 2009 by Rebecca 13 Comments

Is it soup yet?

We lived in Le Roy for just over a decade. We loved our home, our church, our community. We had rebuilt the house while living in it. (This process was helped along by the fact that it was bare studs, floors and outer walls and absolutely-nothing-else when we bought it.) We could’ve stayed and stayed and stayed until we passed beyond the veil. So why did we leave? By the time we made an offer on our current home, we were a family of seven with two morbidly obese dogs and many musical instruments crammed into a 1300 square foot home.

It started way back with the birth of my first son. When we brought Liam home, the phone was ringing and it was the community outreach coordinator from church. She informed me that it was the practice of the church women to provide meals to new mothers for the first two weeks after a baby was born. I accepted (because how can you say no to that?) but secretly thought to myself that I didn’t know why they thought I wouldn’t be able to make our family’s meals. I learned. Quickly.

Those meals came for fourteen days and fourteen nights and they were good.

When, two months later, baby Liam was rushed to the hospital for a life-saving surgery, the women once again provided meals so we could focus on helping Liam recover.

Two years later, just before Aidan was born, my meal angel called again. I was shocked. I said, “I thought the meals were just for new mothers!” She laughed and said, “Well, this baby will be new, won’t he?” I gratefully accepted the offer and the meals. This time, since I had a c-section, the meals were the only thing standing stalwartly between us and a steady diet of cold cereal.

And once again, the meals came for fourteen days and fourteen nights and they were good.

Another two years on, and another beautiful baby boy, the meals rolled in for another two weeks. Ty nursed happily. I reheated happily. I cherished the food I received after the births of my children. You could say they were like manna from heaven. After the births of Leif and Rowan, they kept the meals a-coming like the loaves and the fishes.

I don’t mean to suggest that I carried on having more kids in order to get the free meals from those amazing cooks over at Calvary. That would be just wrong. It’s pure coincidence that I haven’t had any more kids since moving. I kept having children because I loved my boys. Okay. And the meals. Those women were GOOD cooks.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

If you happen to find yourself in Le Roy, New York on a Sunday morning, stop in at the golf-ball church. The preaching is great, the people are friendly and if you’re lucky they’ll be hosting a potluck or a fellowship meal. It’s worth your time. Trust me.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

This family-favorite, Taco Soup, was one of those fabulous meals and was brought to us by my dear friend, Carolyn. It has graced our table many times, and in many forms, over the years since Carolyn came into my kitchen bearing a steaming crock of soup, tortilla chips, grated cheese, and sour cream.

This is a memory soup. One whiff of this bubbling away on the stovetop and my entire body remembers the feeling of cradling a sweet smelling, impossibly soft newborn. I watch my boys eat this and remember their little balled fists resting on my chest as they nursed to sleep. When I eat this I remember my friends who tramped through snow storms to bring my family sustenance and companionship.

When I cook this, I remember taking it to my little sister, Jessamine, after her baby boy, Ezra was born. That time it had a little extra something special in it. When Jessie sat down later that evening to eat it, she found a spider floating in her soup. Whether it came with the soup from my house or jumped in in a fit of despair somewhere else along the road we’ll never know. Her husband ate it anyway. The soup, that is.

As with most soups, many of the ingredients are changeable. Don’t fancy chili beans or pinto beans? Add some pork and beans or kidney beans instead. Do you prefer home-cooked beans? Believe me when I tell you this soup is sublime with them. Replace the chicken broth with beer, add a couple handfuls of masa and you will have an excellent pot of chili. To make a hearty vegetarian soup, replace the chicken broth with beer or vegetable broth, and omit the meat. You can leave as is or add in crumbles or TVP. Feel free to add spiders if you like ‘em. My sister and I will go without.

It’s cold out there. You need soup. You need this soup!

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Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained ~or~ 3 cups leftover cooked meat, chopped
1 can (28 ounces) crushed or diced tomatoes
2-3 cups chicken broth or stock (Depending on how soupy you like your soup. Using less broth will result in a thicker soup.)
1 packet Ranch Dressing Mix
1 packet taco or enchilada seasoning (If using seasoned meat, this can be omitted!)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chili beans with sauce
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups frozen corn kernels

Optional for serving:

Tortilla or corn chips
Grated cheese
Sour Cream or plain yogurt
Sliced green onions
Minced fresh cilantro
Diced tomatoes

Slow Cooker Directions (see below for Stove top directions):

In a slow cooker crock stir together meat, tomatoes, dressing and seasoning mixes (if using), black beans, chili beans with sauce, pinto beans and corn. Place lid on crock, turn slow cooker to ‘LOW’ and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serve with or without toppings.

Store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week. You can also portion the leftover soup into individual servings and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Stove top Directions:

Stir together meat, tomatoes, dressing and seasoning mixes (if using), black beans, chili beans with sauce, pinto beans and corn in an appropriately sized soup pot. Place lid on pot, put pot over medium low heat and bring to a simmer. Remove the lid and allow to simmer gently for 30-40 minutes or until soup is slightly thickened.

Serve with or without toppings. Store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week. You can also portion the leftover soup into individual servings and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Filed Under: Beans, Camping Food, Getting Creative With Leftovers, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars

Apple Cider and Beer Braised Pot Roast

October 7, 2009 by Rebecca 9 Comments

It’s finally Fall. I wait all year for this; pumpkins, scarlet maple leaves, blustery wind, butternut squash, grey clouds with bits of brilliant blue peeking through, hay bales, mega-bags of miniature chocolate bars (the best size for stashing in my apron pockets to cover ‘mommy-emergencies’), weather that justifies hours-long baking sessions, wool sock and scarf temperatures… And braising. I’m a braising maniac this time of year. If there is another way of cooking meats that is more suited to this time of year I can’t think of it. Moist, low temperature, long cooking times warm your heart, stomach and your kitchen. Then there are the fringe benefits of braised foods; the outstanding aromas that fill not just the kitchen but the whole house and spill outside surrounding the home. It has made me teary on occasion.*

*I cry over food that makes me happy. Do you think that’s a problem?

When I stumble back to the house chilled and tired after preparing the garden for the winter, raking leaves, hiking with the kids, or pumpkin and apple picking there are few things that make me feel more like God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world than the mouth-watering smell of my favorite Fall pot roast braised in apple cider and ale. Good food should warm you three times; when you prepare it, when you smell it and when you eat it.

Let’s just talk about the smell for a moment, shall we? The theme is heady scents of sweet apple cider, malty beer, beef and onions tied together with grace notes of ginger, British-style hot mustard, garlic and Worcestershire sauce and the smallest touch of curry powder. The combination is drool-inducing and perhaps hypnotic.*

*Well, I was hypnotized anyway. How else would you explain my absolute inability to do any other work while smelling this roast cook? I just stood in the kitchen like a doofus and grinned for eight hours while watching the wind blow the leaves off the trees. It smelled so stinkin’ good. It was such a perfect moment. If you can call eight hours a moment.

There is more to recommend this roast other than the fact that it makes me weep with its smells and makes my head swim by virtue of the fact that it tastes so good. Really. It takes all of five minutes to get this roast going in the slow-cooker. You don’t pre-brown the meat and this step alone saves you time by eliminating the messiest, trickiest step of most roasts. And having tested the recipe both ways, I am compelled to say that this particular roast doesn’t suffer in the least from skipping the ubiquitous browning step. So. Before you head off for the day to work, or church, or apple pick, toss one of these together and be rewarded by a spectacular dinner when you get home. Or just put it together and stand in your kitchen watching the seasons change. Either way, you just might weep with joy, too.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Whilst on the subject of photos, let me warn you. The quality of these images is all over the place. The weather was, as I mentioned, inclement. Wind whipped, clouds covered and then uncovered the sun, and I just didn’t care enough to spend time fixing it. The point I’m belabouring is that the food transcends the photos taken of it. Just make the roast. Trust me.

I would also like to point out one other thing before we start with the recipe. Look at that beer can.

I snorted with laughter in public when I saw it. I bought it. I’m not too proud to admit I bought it because it was ridiculous. The beer inside, however, was anything but ridiculous. I have never, ever had canned beer that good. It was worth the price tag and it came with bonus laughter; my kind of food.

Apple Cider and Beer Braised Pot Roast

Ingredients:

2-1/2 to 3-1/2 pound Top or Bottom Round beef roast

1 large onion, peeled and sliced into thick rounds

1 packet dry beefy onion soup mix (Any brand will do. Most come in boxes with two envelopes. Just use one!)

2 cups fresh apple cider

1 (12 ounce) can good beer (Do not skimp here. Use a good beer that you like; porter, stout, or ale. I prefer ale in this dish.)

1-1/2 Tablespoons British-style hot mustard (I use Coleman’s mustard)

1-1/2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon dried ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon mild curry powder

Place the thick rounds of onion over the base of the crock of your slow cooker.

Trim as much surface fat from the roast as you can. Place roast on top of the onion rounds. Smear the top of the roast with the hot mustard and sprinkle the dry onion soup mix, curry powder and dried ginger over the top.

Drizzle the apple cider, beer and Worcestershire sauce over and around the roast.

Add the garlic to the liquid surrounding the roast. It ain’t perty at this point, folks, but stick with it. It’s like an ugly duckling about to turn into a swan. But beefier.

Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until a piece of the roast is easily pulled apart with a fork.

Transfer the roast to a cutting board.

Helpful note: As counterintuitive as it may seem, meats that are braised have a frightening tendency to dry out at warp speed. (See the top of roast in the picture below for proof.) To combat this tendency I always toss my braised roasts in their pan juices prior to serving. As often as not, I serve them in their pan juices as well.

Slice or shred the the roast into large pieces and return to the cooking liquids in the crock. Toss gently to coat and serve. My favorite accompaniments are broiled polenta squares (or Italian grits as my kids call them) topped with grated Romano or Fontina cheese, roasted cauliflower, a tossed salad, and hot crusty bread covered in butter. It is equally wonderful with mashed or roasted potatoes and glazed carrots. Sure, this dinner is fifteen shades of brown, but who cares? It’s Fall! Brown is savoury! Brown is delicious! Brown is good! Embrace the brown!

Filed Under: Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker Tagged With: beer and meat, cooking with apple cider, crockpot, roast, slow-cooker

Watermelon Feta Salad: Think Pink Thursdays

July 2, 2009 by Rebecca 9 Comments

Ah! The Thursday before a three-day weekend is a special kind of Thursday, isn’t it? It’s a luxurious feeling Thursday. Despite the rain-that-never-ends, I have an extra dose of patience (snort) and an extra measure of indulgence. And to celebrate the indulgent feeling, I whipped up a fancy-pants lunch for myself. I made a gorgeous pink, girlified Watermelon Feta Salad. The boys looked at me askance as I ooed and ahhed over my dish. I vaguely remember asking them at some point whether anyone wanted a bite. They all scattered like bowling pins.*

*I should be more specific. I mean to say they scattered like bowling pins do when someone other than me is bowling. I am horrible at bowling. I do not joke or exaggerate in the least when I tell you that the last time I went bowling, I bowled a ’12′. I was pregnant for my first child, wearing business clothes and refused to put those shoes *OH THE GERMS* on over my pantyhose. That might account for something. And it’s been years… (The fact that I was wearing pantyhose should be a dead giveaway. The last time I wore those and business clothes was before my eldest was born.) Maybe I’m not so awful anymore, but I’m sure not wasting my luxury weekend finding out…

Back to my girl food. I could’ve made more of an effort to share with the boys. All I have to do to get the eldest three to try it is call it ‘gourmet’ and they’re on it like fleas on a dog. But you know what? I didn’t really feel like sharing today. This was mine. All mine. So I made it into exactly what I wanted without a thought about anyone else’s tastes. Sometimes you just have to do that, you know…

Have you ever had watermelon and feta cheese together? There’s a special kind of alchemy that occurs when you put the sweet, juicy, cold watermelon with the creamy, salty feta cheese. And you can put those two things together with some cracked black pepper and call it a day. But since I was indulging (There’s that word again. I’m sorry, but I do this so infrequently that I haven’t developed a great vocabulary to describe it.) I went whole hog, great guns, damn-the-torpedos-full-speed-ahead and threw the works at it. I layered impossibly cute slices of watermelon and homemade feta cheese on a bed of baby arugula, squeezed a little fresh lime juice and drizzled the tiniest bit of balsamic vinegar and first press extra virgin olive oil over the top. I brushed my hair, put on mascara and lip gloss and sat with perfect posture at the table all by myself. It tasted out of this world. And you know what else?

Dang. It. Felt. Great.

As I was finishing off the last bite, one boy darted between my legs chasing the dog who, despite being fat and lazy, can really kick out the jams when threatened with grooming while another boy ‘accidentally’ bounced a beany-baby soccer ball off of the back of my head. The interlude was over. But for one brief, shining moment, I was footloose and fancy free with my hoity-toity lunch.

Today’s Watermelon Feta Salad, in addition to being a brief escape to dream-land, was the perfect food for Think Pink Thursday. To refresh your memory, I’m posting pink foods on Thursdays in my effort, paltry as it may be, to remind folks of the importance of early detection of breast cancer. My step-Mom, and sometimes partner-in-crime on this website, Valerie, was diagnosed about one month ago with breast cancer after finding a lump during a self check. It’s crucial and vital if you love people or have people who love you to remember to do a self-check monthly. If you don’t know how to perform a self-exam on your breasts, visit here, here or here among other places. And a reminder to my male readers, because I have faith that there are at least a couple out there: Please encourage the women you love to do self-exams. If you don’t know how to do it or are too embarassed to use the words to explain why it’s crucial, simply forward the link to this recipe to them.

Once again, back to my girl food. Watermelon Feta Salad, in addition to being the embodiment of umami, fits the Holy Trimverate of ‘girl food’ distinction.

It’s healthy.
It’s pretty.
It’s delicious.

Don’t let the girl food nature of it stop you from serving it to a passel of men. They might look at you funny, but as soon as they take a bite, they’ll love you forever. Well, as long as you serve it with a big, bloody steak or tell them something like, “It was General George S. Patton’s favorite salad.”

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Watermelon Feta Salad

You won’t need the whole block of feta cheese or the whole watermelon… just take as much of each as you need for the number of mouths you’re serving. For myself, I used about 3 ounces of feta cheese and 1/8 of a seedless watermelon. What?!? I was hungry.

Ingredients:

a block of plain feta cheese, blotted dry
a seedless watermelon
cracked black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
fresh lime
cleaned baby arugula (or other peppery greens)

Begin by cutting your feta cheese block lengthwise into thin slices. See the feta below? It’s homemade. You can still see the patterns left by the cheesecloth on the thin edges… You’re under no obligation to use homemade feta here. (Like my word would obligate you anyway *snort*…) It’s every bit as good made with purchased feta cheese.

Now you’re going to want to dismantle your watermelon. There really is no wrong or right way to do this, other than perhaps throwing the watermelon in the air and trying to slice through it in midflight; which still wouldn’t necessarily be as wrong as it would be foolish. The goal is basically to remove a chunk of the watermelon safely. I usually lob off one end of a long, seedless watermelon. And, for Pete’s sake (whoever and wherever Pete may be), please make sure both your cutting board and your watermelon aren’t sliding around all arsey versey. You want that thing to hold still while you’re taking a sharp knife to it!

After I get one end off, I lay the flat, stable cut side down on the cutting board and cut it into a more manageable piece.

Now I take one of those more manageably sized wedges and use a mid-sized, sharp knife to slice the watermelon flesh away from the rind. I do this by starting with shallow cuts along the contours of the inside of the melon rind and gradually slicing deeper and deeper into the melon instead of lobbing away half the flesh with the rind. Do it however works best for you. This is just the method that floats my peculiar and particular boat.

…Ain’t it perty?

Here’s where I usually take the big knife and slice the watermelon into flat, slab-like pieces that are about 1/2″ thick. Again, you can adjust up or down depending on how much you love watermelon.

And now for assembly: Begin by putting a nice handful of clean arugula or other salad greens on each serving plate. Top it with a slice of feta.

Top the feta with a pretty, pink, juicy slice of watermelon. Oh, watermelon. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height that my soul can reach.

Top the watermelon with another slice of feta and grind some serious pepper on it. I mean that! It’s really hard to overdo it on the pepper here. Unless, of course, you hate pepper. Then you can just forget I said that. Moving on…

Now, repeat those layers twice more. Or more if you’re an engineer. Me? I was just hungry so three layers of watermelon was plenty for me!

Squeeze a wedge of lime over each serving. In my case the limes I got were really tiny, so I squeezed half a lime over my serving.

This is what I call gilding the lily. Drizzle the greens with a wee bit of balsamic. I didn’t measure it, but if you pressed me, I’d tell you about 3/4 of a teaspoon over the greens. And drizzle a slightly more generous amount of extra virgin olive oil over the whole thing. Use the good stuff here if you have it and if you don’t? Don’t sweat it! Just use extra virgin olive oil.

…Once just isn’t enough. Look at that again.

And before I ate it, I dropped a little piece of infant arugula on top and drizzled it once more with extra virgin olive oil. It’s good for your skin, you know. This whole dish is practically a health cocktail.

Oh yes. Oh my, yes. This was just what the doctor ordered. I may have to indulge more often!

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Vegetarian

Slow-Cooked Cuban Pork: Part II, Day 3

March 26, 2009 by Rebecca 8 Comments

For a brand new, printable version of this recipe that has all the steps included, click here!

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful. 100%!” As promised yesterday, I am back to show you how to shred that gorgeous slow-cooked Cuban Pork shoulder that should have chilled in your fridge overnight. Of course, I didn’t forget the sauce or black beans, either, but I’ll post the recipe for spicy black beans later today. I’m behind schedule. Why you ask?

Monsieur Le Evil Genius experienced a set-back in his quest for world domination yesterday when his car broke down 1 hour and 25 minutes into his 1 hour and 30 minute commute. Mercifully, he was within sight of his office’s parking lot and he worked with a man who had a winch. (Not THAT kind of wench you gutter-brains… I’m talking about the mechanical sort of winch that attaches to the front of a big ol’ truck. A wench is…Never mind.) He got the car to the parking lot, examined it and declared it unable to move until he could procure a fuel pump. Being the cheapskates that we are, you could also insert the sub-clause “and replace it himself”. ‘Cause we’ll be darned if we’ll pay someone to replace the fuel pump when Evil Genius can do it himself. That’s just how we’re wired folks. Compounding the inconvenience is the fact that our family vehicle, also known as “The Purple People-Eater” is up on ramps in the barn waiting for him to fix it. And that all boils down to the fact that he had to crash in the city at his sister’s house last night.

This left me to attempt the night-time routine with our five little honyaks all by myself. And it also left me without my usual evening companionship. But perhaps the worst of all was that it left me to the remote control. I am unaccustomed to unimpeded access to the remote control and I took advantage of it by watching scads of ridiculous reality television. I planted my rear on the couch and watched “American Idol”, “Heroin Nation” (talk about depressing and disturbing), “Make Me a Supermodel” (A whole different kind of depressing and disturbing), and “The Chopping Block” (neither depressing nor disturbing, but would someone please tell Marco Pierre White to wear socks. All those shots of his bare ankle bones made me cold. I had to put on a sweater.) This convinces me it is a good thing that the remote control is usually attached to the hand of one of the possessors of XY chromosomes in this house. My reality t.v. bender also left me behind schedule on laundry and blogging. But back on the horse…

Let’s get some pork going here. It does not depress me, disturb me or make me need to wear a sweater. It makes me happy. And it makes me forget, just for a moment, that both of my vehicles are out of commission and the dog, while enormous, is not big enough for me to saddle up and ride into town.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Cuban Pork and Sauce: Day 3

Ingredients:

Slow-cooked pork shoulder, thoroughly chilled
Cooking juices from slow-cooked pork shoulder
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
2 drops liquid smoke, optional

Use a spoon to remove the congealed fat from around the pork shoulder.

And THIS is why we let it rest overnight in the fridge. Look at all that fat!

Just run your spoon around the edge and the cold fat should come away as easy as can be.

Discard the fat.

Ick. Thankfully I'm not on some Napoleonic Era Man-of-War where I have to save this stuff. Away with it!

Transfer pork shoulder to a large cutting board, preferably one with a groove to catch juices. Otherwise, keep the paper towels handy!

Let sit while attending to the pan juices.

Pour the cooking juices that surrounded the pork through a fine mesh strainer positioned over a saucepan.

Remove and discard any solids left in the strainer.

Add the lime juice, white wine vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes, dried mustard powder and liquid smoke to the cooking juices. Whisk until evenly combined.

Whisk! Whisk like your life depends on it. Or not.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

Take note of the level of liquid. You're going to be reducing this by about 3/4 of it's volume.

Allow to boil (while working on shredding the pork) until reduced to about 1/4 of the starting volume.

Almost there...

THAT is what you're going for. We're in business now.

Set aside until pork is fully shredded.

Pull the bone out of the pork and discard.

Scrape as much fat as you can from the outside of the pork shoulder.

Yes. I am wearing rubber gloves. I am thoroughly grossed out by cold, squishy cooked animal fat. I am imperfect.

Throw away the fat or give it to your spoiled and lazy dogs. Pull large chunks of the shoulder apart. It should naturally come apart at places where there is additional fat you can remove.

Take as much of the fat out as you can without wasting meat.

Using your hands -or two forks- shred the meat into small pieces.

When you’ve shredded all the meat, you can leave it as is or chop through it quickly with a knife to ensure that you have small bite-sized pieces. It depends on what you’ll do with the pork. I usually run through it with the knife since I have so many little mouths eating it.

When pork is fully shredded (and chopped, if desired) transfer to a 9″ x 13″ baking dish with sides.

Pour the reduced pan juices over the pork and toss.

Tightly cover the pan with foil. If you plan on serving it immediately, put into a preheated 350ºF oven and heat for 25 minutes, or until hot all the way through. If you are preparing this ahead of time you can either place the pan directly into the freezer or into the fridge.

To reheat from chilled:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

To heat from frozen:

Place, still covered in foil, in a preheated 350ºF for 45 minutes, or until heated through.

We serve this on hot flour tortillas with FMC Mango Salsa (coming tomorrow!) and spicy black beans (coming later today!).

On deck for later today: Spicy Black Beans

In the hole for Friday: FMC Mango Salsa

Filed Under: Component Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: budget meals, pork, slow-cooker

Slow-Cooked Cuban Pork: Part I

March 24, 2009 by Rebecca 14 Comments

For a brand new, printable version of this recipe that has all the steps included, click here!

Part II of this recipe can be found by clicking this link!

I love to grocery shop. I love to examine labels, produce, proteins and liquids. I get giddy trying to decide which mangos and avocados to choose. I carefully flip through piles of cilantro bunches looking to find the bundle likeliest to survive a week or so in my fridge. I pick through the ‘Manager’s Special’ carts like a prospector. And, boy, can I hit a sale. *

*All of this presumes, of course, that the boys are home with their Dad, an Evil Genius- but one heckuva Dad, and not clinging to my thighs begging for Lucky Charms (they can have those when hell freezes over) or leaning precariously off the back of the cart or accidentally goosing unsuspecting shoppers who magically appeared on the third tile in a rousing game of ‘leap over every third tile or suffer the consequences!’ If they’re with me I run through the store like a woman haunted by cute little demons who conspire to make her forget everything she needs to feed her family that week. But if they’re not with me? Well then…

Ah, the sales. I am a firm believer in bulk buying items that my family uses regularly. Emphasis intended. We bulk buy olive oil, canola oil, potatoes, onions, flour, yeast, carrots, coffee (that’s so the Evil Genius is less evil and more genius), tea (so I can maintain some semblance of sanity), dried beans, oats and peanut butter, among other things. (Like toilet paper. I mean really. Seven people and two toilets? We buy toilet paper in bulk.) We have quite a lot of good frozen meat in our chill chest but every now and then a deal comes along that’s too good to leave alone. Last week, Monsieur Le Evil Genius was at the grocery store doing my bidding. (Actually he was there with a list for me since we had sick kids and I was housebound myself with the crud.) He has stumbled upon a sale so good that he felt compelled to stock the heck up: pork shoulder for $0.69 per pound. Oh yes. The Evil Genius’s not-so-inner cheapskate was singing for joy. He came home with three of them. That would be roughly 30 pounds of pork shoulder for those who haven’t experienced the stuff. I stuffed two pork shoulders into our crowded freezer and rubbed my greedy little hands together. A 9-pound pork shoulder means only one thing to me. Slow-cooked shredded pork.

There are a billion things you can do to pork that are delicious. But let me tell you, what I did with that pork shoulder last week is my all-time favorite. I’m going to walk you through making the phantasmagorical Cuban Pork and the two most wonderful side dishes in the world: FMC Mango Salsa and Spicy Black Beans*. Oh. Let’s just talk about this pork for a minute. The pork, courtesy of it’s long braise in the slow-cooker, is juicy and so mind-meltingly tender and flavorful that you’ll be sorely tempted to eat until you hurt.

Don’t freak out when I tell you this recipe takes a couple days. It’s not like you’ll be slaving over a hot pan for those couple days. It’s actually incredibly simple and the hands on time is less than roasting a chicken or making spaghetti. You just have to plan ahead. And buy a big, honkin’ pork shoulder. If you’re wondering whether it’s worth it, just have a gander at this…

Cuban Pork and FMC Mango Salsa with rice on a tortilla. Not pictured? The Spicy Black Beans...

* See? The beans again! This week we’ll be doing black beans. The bean recipe will be here on Friday so you can have the weekend to prepare your feast and then eat off of it all next week. I got your back!

Yes. This recipe makes a gigantic amount of pork. Much too much for even my family to eat in one meal unless we have a good deal of company eating with us. But that’s the idea. This falls in the category that I like to call ‘component foods’. If you make this dish and freeze the leftovers in individual serving sizes, you have instant meals at your fingertips. You have the leaping-off point for so many good dishes like pulled pork sandwiches, shredded pork and pineapple pizzas, pork burritos and more. By all means, though, prepare this for a party. The work is all done ahead of time and you’ll feed your guests like royalty.

This is a strategy food that requires a little forethought. While that limits the speed with which this can be made, it also makes it the ’do-ahead’ food. You can prepare it ahead of time and refrigerate it or freeze it. I have the strategy all mapped out for you. Here’s how it works.

You cook your pork on ‘Day 1′. You let it rest overnight in the fridge -call it ‘Day 2′, and shred it on ‘Day 3′. After you’ve shredded it, it’s good for eating or freezing as is, but there are some fun things you can do to take it to the next level. For now, though, let’s talk ‘Day 1′.

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this recipe, click here!

Cuban Pork: Day 1

Ingredients:

1 (8-1o pound) bone-in pork shoulder, make sure it fits into your slow-cooker. Cut to fit if necessary.
1/2 cup frozen 100% orange juice concentrate
1/3 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed or bottled)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
8 whole peeled cloves fresh garlic (or 1 Tablespoon granulated dried garlic)
1 Tablespoon (or more, to taste) ground cumin
1 Tablespoon dry oregano leaves
1 Tablespoon or more fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
if available, 2 stems (no leaves, just stems) fresh cilantro

Drizzle the olive oil in the slow-cooker bowl.

Remove the pork shoulder from packaging and rinse with cold water.

Please pretend this picture is of me removing the packaging and rinsing the roast. Thank you.

Place untrimmed pork, fat side down in the bowl.

Fat side down.

…Then flip it fat side up. This coats both sides with a wee bit of olive oil. Everything’s better with a wee bit of olive oil.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, oregano and crushed red pepper flakes.

Cumin

Black pepper. I loves black pepper.

Oregano. I rolled my 'r' when I said that. Try it with me. O-rrrrr-egano.

Red pepper flakes. Be still my heart. If I could find a way to make this into toothpaste I would.

Red pepper flakes. Be still my heart. If I could find a way to make this into perfume I would. The Evil Genius likes the chiles.

Use a spoon to dollop the frozen orange juice concentrate over the top of the roast.

Pour the lime juice around the edges of the roast.

Fresh is best. We all know that already. But if you have to use bottled stuff it isn't the end of the world. Use the best bottled stuff you can find.

Throw garlic cloves around the roast.

Peel your whole garlic cloves easily by pressing down on them firmly with the edge of a bench knife or a heavy pan. Voila! The skin will come away as easily as can be.

Toss on cilantro stems- if using.

Please keep your cilantro stems in the freezer in a zipper top bag. Right next to your onion tops. I KNOW I sound so cheap, but there is an incredible amount of flavor in the bits and pieces of food that most of us throw away. Form the habit of saving these and you'll be grateful you did!

Cover, and turn cooker to ‘HIGH’.

And away we go!

Allow to cook for 1 hour, turn the heat to ’LOW’ and continue cooking for another 12 hours or until meat falls apart when prodded with a fork. When the meat is tender, turn off slow cooker and place the slow cooker bowl in the fridge. (If your slow-cooker doesn’t have a removable insert, transfer the contents to a large container with a tight-fitting lid and pop that into the fridge.

See you back here on Thursday for shredding and the first of our side dishes: spicy black beans!

On deck for Thursday: Shredding and saucing our Cuban Pork, and Spicy Black Beans!

In the hole for Friday: FMC Mango Salsa (a.k.a. The best side dish of all time. Ever. Amen.)

Filed Under: Component Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Main Dish, Meat, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: Cuban, Porkerific, slow-cooker

A Tutorial on Using Dried Beans

March 19, 2009 by Rebecca 22 Comments

Ah wonderful beans. We all love them for their taste. I love them for their nutrition. My boys love them for their, er, musical properties.

UPDATE (12/10) :Since first writing this post almost two years ago, I have been experimenting with different ways to cook beans. While I still use the crockpot method most often, I have changed on something. I use salt at the beginning of the cooking time. Really! It doesn’t slow down the cooking of the beans a bit and leaves them much more flavorful than if you add salt at the end of cooking. I stand (or rather, I sit, at this very moment) corrected. Salt away!

Beans. They are the perfect budget food. They’re chock full of dietary fiber and nutrients, simple to store and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. And they’re cheap! They’re so cheap (“How cheap ARE they?” screamed the crowd. “So cheap they’re on the dollar menu!”) that there is no excuse to be without them. Even if you’re so poor you can’t afford to pay attention, beans are still in your ballpark. But -keeping it real here- unless you’ve grown up eating them or have been making them for years they can be a little intimidating to prepare and use. And various well-meaning and well-researched cookbooks have you jumping through a billion hoops just to make a simple pot of unadulterated beans. Not so beginner-friendly.

Why bother with dried beans and the extra work when you can buy canned beans super cheap? Dried beans last close to forever when kept in a cool, dry cabinet. They’re less expensive per pound and taste better than canned beans. And -perhaps most importantly- they’re better for you than canned beans. When you reconstitute dried beans you control the amount of sodium in them and ultimately in the finished recipe. When you start with canned beans you’re already starting at a super high sodium level (which can be a major health concern for many people.) There is more, but I think you get the idea. If you’ve never made dried beans before just do me a favor and try it at least once. I am pretty convinced I can convert you…

Here’s my plan. For the next few weeks, I’ll share a bean recipe with you on Thursday or Friday. That will give you all weekend to try out your beanerific recipes. This week, though, I’m going to start you out with a tutorial on how to get the dried little beasties to the point where you can use them in recipes… And I warn you: My method is so easy that you may not want to prepare them any other way. You’ll need a slow cooker, but if you don’t have one, you can snap up a basic model for $15 at le Walmart, le Target or le Blue-Light-Special. Don’t let anyone tell you you need bells and whistles on a slow cooker. All you really need are a ”HIGH” and a “LOW” setting. Unless you’re cooking for one, get the largest of the basic slow cookers that you can afford. I always cook more beans than we can eat in one meal. You can portion them into individual servings and freeze them to add into soups and stews or make dips or refried beans with later. We loves the bean dip around here!

Because it’s what I’m going to be using in tomorrow’s bean recipe, we’ll start out with cannellini (white kidney beans) today, but feel free to kick it off your bean adventure with any dried variety that floats your boat; pinto, chili, black, lima, garbanzo… If you follow the method, you can make any kind of bean you want!

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of this tutorial, click here!

Dried Beans: A Tutorial

Necessary equipment:

a slow cooker
a saucepan to boil water

Ingredients:

1 lb dried beans, (in this case, cannellini), or about 2 cups dried beans
2 bay leaves
2-3 frozen onion tops or 1 cooking onion, peeled and cut in half from root to end
2 quarts boiling water
salt to taste

Pour your dried beans into a colander.

Yes. I sit outside on my porch steps while picking through beans. It's the hillbilly in me.

Pick through to find grossly misshapen, discolored or otherwise nasty looking beans or small stones.

It feels nice to run your hands through dried beans. There's something therapeutic about it.

These are what Leif calls "Yuck beans." This is what you want to remove.

Because dried beans are about the size and color of some pebbles, it’s not completely bizarro to find little rocks, clumps of dirt or other natural bits and pieces occasionally tucked into the bags. After you’ve picked through and removed any undesirables, give the beans a good hearty rinse under cold water, rubbing them around in the colander as they’re being cleaned. This ensures that you remove any dirt your eagle eyes may have missed. This also gives you a chance to look the beans over one more time.

Add the beans to the crock of the slow cooker. Place the bay leaves and onion tops (or onion) on the beans. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt, give or take according to taste, over the top.

I told you to hang onto those onion tops. I may be cheap, but these things add a lot of flavor!

Pour in the boiling water. (It really does need to be boiling. That is key!)

Pretty please make sure your water is boiling. It is superdy duper important. Just take my word for it.

See? Two inches of water over the beans. This is perfect!

Quickly put the lid on the slow cooker, turn the cooker to “HIGH” and assess the situation. If your beans are covered by at least 2 inches of water you’re doing fine. If they’re covered by less than that, you’ll want to put some more water on the boil to add as soon as possible. Set your timer for 3 hours and go do a crossword puzzle or play a board game with the family.

When three hours are up, you’re going to do a test. Use a spoon to reach into the cooker and quickly extract a couple beans, replacing the lid immediately. Hold them a few inches from your face and blow on them gently. If the skins curl up off the beans, they’re most likely done. Carefully take a bite through the center of one of the beans. If it’s tender, you’re all set. When you cook black beans or pinto beans, it’s not unusual for them to be done that quickly, especially if they’re relatively new beans. If they are done, you can use them immediately, divide them into containers for the freezer or stick straight into the fridge -tightly covered- in their own liquid for use within four or five days.

If you’re cooking a larger (or harder) bean -such as cannellini, garbanzo, butter bean, etc…- you’ll likely find that the beans are not yet tender in the center. Turn the slow cooker to the “LOW” setting, add additional boiling water (if needed) to cover the beans, and allow to continue cooking for about four hours before checking again. Repeat the test; extracting a couple beans quickly and replacing the lid, blowing on the beans and biting them. If they’re tender, pull them from the heat and use immediately or store for later. If they’re still tough, give them a couple more hours -making sure they have water to cover- and repeat the test. Do this until they test done. The batch of cannellini beans I cooked in the photos for this tutorial simmered overnight on “LOW” before they were done.

Done! Not looking gorgeous, but tasting fi-ine! Pop a lid on this, stash in the fridge and come back tomorrow to make bean dip with me!

In my own experience, garbanzo beans (the stuff of my hummus dreams) have taken the longest time to cook by far. Just be prepared to let them cook away. And, for pete’s sake, don’t sweat testing it if you have to let it cook overnight. Beans are pretty resilient as long as you’re cooking them in enough water. And if you overcook them there’s always bean dip!

If you choose to freeze the beans for later use, divide the beans into one or two cup servings between containers. Be sure to leave enough room to ladle cooking liquid over them so they don’t dry out and to account for expansion of the liquid as it freezes. Make sure the lid of the container fits tightly and stash in the freezer for later use. (Alternately, you can carefully scoop the beans and their liquid into zipper-top freezer bags taking care to seal them completely. The bonus of this method is they lay flat to freeze and thus take up less room.) Frozen beans will keep well for about two to three months in the deep chill. After that they begin to deteriorate a bit in texture and in taste. Not the end of the world, but after that point they’re only good for bean dip. (All roads lead to bean dip in this house.)

Tomorrow: Come back for a wonderful gasp bean dip that can be served hot or cold. Get those pita chips or veggie sticks ready!

Filed Under: Beans, Component Foods, Food Preservation, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, slow-cooker, Vegetarian Tagged With: budget-friendly food, dried beans, The Musical Fruit

South Carolina Barbecue Sauce

Kansas City Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue- Style Pulled Pork Sliders

Slow-Simmered Collard Greens

Taco Soup

Apple Cider and Beer Braised Pot Roast

Watermelon Feta Salad

For a brand new, printable version of this recipe that has all the steps included, click here!

Cuban Pork and Sauce: Day 3

On deck for later today: Spicy Black Beans

In the hole for Friday: FMC Mango Salsa

For a brand new, printable version of this recipe that has all the steps included, click here!

Cuban Pork: Day 1

On deck for Thursday: Shredding and saucing our Cuban Pork, and Spicy Black Beans!

In the hole for Friday: FMC Mango Salsa (a.k.a. The best side dish of all time. Ever. Amen.)

Dried Beans: A Tutorial

Tomorrow: Come back for a wonderful *gasp* bean dip that can be served hot or cold. Get those pita chips or veggie sticks ready!

Tomorrow: Come back for a wonderful gasp bean dip that can be served hot or cold. Get those pita chips or veggie sticks ready!