Nikujaga (Japanese Beef and Potato Stew)

I don't remember where I found the book on slow cooker dishes that contained this recipe - it was collecting dust in someone's house, and I was bored and flipping through to pass the time.  While looking at soggy chicken stews, and "stir-fries" that you cooked 8 hours, I was despondent.  But somewhere in the back, buried way beyond the potato soups and the poached fish with mustard dishes, and just before the wine-soaked pears, I found this gem, which is most definitely authentic, and which does very nicely in the slow cooker.

Nikujaga is an interesting dish if you know Japanese food, mostly because it's got a lot of western influence.  I can't name too many Japanese dishes that have whole potato chunks - possibly golden curry, and some kind of croquette called a korokke, which I may now have to make after having looked it up.  But I assure you, mention Japanese beef and potato stew to someone from Japan and they will say "NIKUJAGA!!", which I have tried a couple of times with great results.

I really like the flavors in this dish, which is slightly sweet, very rich, and incredibly filling and warming.  And there's very little to this process - you chop everything, throw it in the slow cooker for the day, and come back later to eat a delicious meal.  I first tried this in the pressure cooker, which took an hour, and then tried it in the slow cooker, which took 6-8 hours, and which I thought tasted nearly identical but was ready when I walked in the door.  Your call.  Also, if you really want to get fancy, brown the meat first in a bit of olive oil, and then continue.  It will be notably better, although totally non-essential.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast Sliders with Blue Cheese

Okay, here's a quick one with only one picture - sorry, I'm the worst blogger ever sometimes.  In my defense, I was trying to throw a party, which went over much better once I served everyone some pot roast sliders.  And that brings us to the recipe, which I found online and modified slightly to improve the flavor and healthiness, and also to use what I had available.  I'll note that the original recipe called for chuck roast and I used top round, which is MUCH more lean and probably didn't have quite the same flavor or moistness as would have been found in the original, but it was still delicious, meaning this is pretty forgiving.

If I had it to do over, I would brown the meat, and would definitely use chuck roast to get something a bit more moist and rich, but I was pleased with the immense amount of flavor these sandwiches had, most of which happened to come from the pungent blue cheese paired with the tender threads of a mild, tender beef.  I'll definitely make this again, new and improved, and post a few more pictures some time soon.  In the meantime, go with this for now, or substitute your favorite preparation for a 2 pound pot roast yielding fork-tender beef that can be shredded, and you won't be disappointed with the end result.


Pot Roast Sliders

• 2 lb beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat, or top round if you've got one lying around
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 C soy sauce
• 1 cup beef or vegetable broth
• 1 packet french onion spice dip mix, or soup mix

• 12 white dinner rolls
• 1 C mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3-5 oz blue cheese crumbles
• 1/4 C mayonnaise
• 2 tsp prepared horseradish
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp poppy seeds (optional, I didn't have)
• 2 tsp dehydrated onion, or 2 tbsp minced onion, sauteed in 2 tsp olive oil until slightly browned
• 1 tsp sugar

If you have time, season the beef with a bit of salt and pepper, and brown it in a skillet.  If not, just throw it right into the bottom of your slow cooker, and cover with the next 8 ingredients.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours, or low for 7-8, until fork tender.  Remove to a casserole and shred with two forks.  If this is done too early, cover with foil and place in a 200 deg F oven with a bit of cooking liquid to keep warm.  Mix the horseradish with the mayo and black pepper to make a slathering sauce for the buns - this will keep them from getting soggy.

Once it's showtime, boost the oven to 375 deg F and remove the meat.  Next, slice your dinner rolls in half and assemble the sandwiches.  On each roll, spread on a layer of the horseradish mayo at least on the bottom half, ideally both halves, then top with shredded beef, mozzarella, and blue cheese.  Close up the sandwich.

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe dish and stir in Worcestershire sauce, poppy seeds, onion, and sugar.  Brush this onto the tops of the rolls.  Cover this with foil, and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes, then serve.

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

If you've been following the posts, you might have noticed that I'm an avid fan of the pressure cooker.  Well, I recently inherited an old Crock Pot, and thought I would try out the slow cooker method for a change.  They're both very convenient tools - one lets you cook very quickly, and one lets you cook quite lazily.  However, even with the slow cooker's appeal of turning it on and leaving for the day, I had to do a lot of prep work to get the final product to come out to my liking.  You can't just throw everything in there raw and have it come out perfectly, after all.

So I made my standard chili recipe, which is an amalgam of different recipes loosely inspired by that of Dinosaur BBQ up in Syracuse, NY.  They have a cookbook I highly recommend, with tons of other good stuff.  I browned the meat, put everything in the slow cooker, and headed off to work.  And sure enough, when I came back at the end of the day, it was chili, and the house smelled fantastic.

Let me head a few of you off at the pass here - I recognize that putting beans in my chili makes it not officially 'competition ready' chili.  I further recognize that ingredients such as cinnamon and brown sugar may seem strange in a classical chili recipe.  But I also recognize that up where I am, this far away from Texas, I can call practically anything with beef, tomatoes, and chile peppers a bowl of chili, and nobody's going to hogtie and brand me.

It's chili!  Be excited.

Slow Cooker Beef Chili

From a variety of sources, assembled by me

• 2 tablespoons olive oil -- (up to 3 tbsp)
• 2 pounds boneless chuck or round -- cut in 1" cubes
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 3 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 dash crushed red pepper flakes
• Fresh chile peppers to taste (I used 2 serranos)
• 1 28 oz can tomatoes with juice, coarsely chopped, or 28 ounces plum tomatoes, peeled
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 3 inch stick cinnamon, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile powder*
• 1½ tbsp brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1-2 cups cooked red kidney beans (optional)
• 2 tablespoons finely ground yellow cornmeal or tomato paste (optional)
• 1 cup tightly packed, minced fresh cilantro
• grated cheddar cheese, as a garnish (optional)
• sour cream, as a garnish (optional)
• finely chopped onions, as a garnish (optional)

*What is chile powder?  How is it different from chili powder?  Well, "chile" is Spanish for pepper (capsicum, not what you grind up and pass with salt) - think bell peppers and habaneros and such.  "Chile powder", therefore, refers to ground up chiles, nothing more.  "Chili powder", on the other hand, is a pre-mixed spice blend typically containing, among other things, cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin, and, strangely enough, chile powder.  To make chile powder, gather up your favorite dried chiles and put them in a coffee grinder.  I recommend pasilla, guajillo, and ancho peppers, all of which can be found at Latin markets.

Trim meat of excess fat.  If you're using fresh tomatoes like me, slice a small 'x' in the top of each one and plunge into boiling water for 60 seconds, then immediately into ice water.  Then just peel the skins off!

To peel a tomato, slice an 'x' into the bottom of a tomato and boil for 1 minute...

...then immediately plunge into ice water.  See how the skins fall off?

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet (preferably cast iron).  Over medium-high heat, brown the meat in 2-3 batches.  Remove to a platter and set aside.  Do NOT attempt to brown all of the meat at once; I have re-enacted this mistake for your benefit, and include a photo showing you exactly why you shouldn't.

This would be an appropriate amount of meat to brown at once

This is too much meat.  Do you see all of that liquid boiling under the meat?  Guess what - you're now steaming your meat, not searing it.  Not to mention that all of that delicious meaty goodness is escaping from the meat rather than being 'sealed in', a misnomer but still the easiest way to explain what you want.

Adding more oil if necessary, saute the garlic, onions, green pepper, and hot pepper (if desired) for 3 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the browned meat and aromatics to the slow cooker and add the tomatoes and beef broth, pouring some of the liquid first in the sauté skillet to deglaze and get all the juicy bits off the bottom if separate pan was used in first step.  Stir in the spices and salt.  Put the chili on low, and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serrano peppers before mincing.  I use a spoon to remove the seeds and membrane, which is where the heat is concentrated.  Did you know you can take the membrane out of a habanero and it's mild enough to eat with ice cream?

Chile powder.  It's just chiles - no other spices.  You're thinking of chili powder.  Don't mix those up.

Vegetables being sauteed before adding to the slow cooker.  This is mostly to lift the browned meat bits off of the pan.

Once everything's already been mostly cooked, go ahead and finish it in the slow cooker for another 6-8 hours.  This old guy behaved like a champion - perfectly tender in 6 hours on low.

Test the beef for doneness.  If it is not sufficiently tender, crank the heat to high and cook for another 30-45 minutes.  When done, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.  Stir in the kidney beans (if desired) and cilantro.  If the chili is too thin, gradually whisk in the cornmeal or tomato paste until thickened.

You can garnish this however you like, but I like cheddar cheese, cilantro, sour cream, and raw onions.

Slow-cooked chili, garnished simply with cheese and onions

Braised Beef Short Ribs

If you haven't had short ribs before, there's no time like the present.  They make a rich and meaty stew like a good chuck roast or oxtails, but are also marbled with fat like a ribeye.  So I guess what I'm saying is, they're not quite the perfect diet food; more like the perfect Weight Gain 4000 food.  But that's not important - we're about cooking good food here, not always healthy food.  Plus if you do it right, you can get most of the fat out through extended cooking and proper sauce treatment.  We'll get there, keep your shirt on.

This recipe comes to you from Emeril's show, back when they used to actually have cooking shows on Food Network.  I made it last about 5 years ago, and it was pretty spectacular.  And I asked my friends for $5 each to cover their share, since I was a starving grad student at the time and not running a charity.  I have since seen the exact same dish on a menu for $40, and it didn't taste any better.

I will present the recipe using three different cooking methods, since everyone has their vessel of choice - standard pot, slow cooker, and pressure cooker.  I used the pressure cooker, and start to finish this dish took me 2.5 hours, including an hour of hands-off time.  If you want to use the other methods go for it, but I vote for faster over slower any day of the week, especially since you can't just throw everything in the slow cooker raw and expect magic to happen (you can't people, stop trying!)

Finally, the recipe calls for Essence, which is a spice mix Emeril uses.  You can find it online, or you can buy it in most stores.  I will present it here in ratio format.  If you can't figure out what the line below means, show it to an engineer and he/she will explain it to you.

Essence - 2.5 paprika : 2 salt : 2 garlic powder : 1 black pepper : 1 onion powder : 1 cayenne pepper : 1 oregano : 1 thyme

Braised Beef Short Ribs and Root Vegetables over Egg Noodles
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

• 2 racks beef short ribs (4 to 5 pounds), cut into individual ribs
• 2 tablespoons Essence
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 1 stalk celery, trimmed and chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup ruby port
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 4 cups veal or beef stock
• 1 pound butternut or acorn squash, peeled, fibers removed, and cubed
• 2 parsnips, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 12 ounces egg noodles, cooked al dente, accompaniment
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions, garnish
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley, garnish

Season the ribs with the Essence on both sides; don't be stingy with the seasoning.  Let the ribs hang out with the seasoning for at least 15 minutes, preferably an hour.

Season up the short ribs on both sides.

In a Dutch oven or large, heavy covered pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add the ribs in batches (I go with about 6 at a time) to prevent crowding and sear on all sides.  Actually brown them - don't just 'grey' them.  Get some color on there, like the picture.  You want to caramelize the sugars in the meat and form some deep flavors, including those which stick to the pan that you will be deglazing shortly.

Brown the meat in a heavy skillet, like this cast iron guy.  Really get some color on them - don't just roll them around until they stop being red.  Small batches, don't overcrowd or you'll just steam the meat.

See - they're browned.  Not grey.

Remove the meat with tongs to a plate, or to the pressure cooker/slow cooker if you're using either.  Add the onions, celery and carrots to the fat remaining in the pan, and cook, stirring, until soft and starting to caramelize, about 7 minutes.  Add the garlic, salt, red pepper, and black pepper, and cook for 30 seconds.  Add the tomato paste, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme, and cook for 2 minutes.  Being careful not to blow yourself up, add the Port and red wine and bring to a boil, stirring to deglaze the pan.  You may even consider turning off the gas when you pour in the fortified wine, unless you really don't like your eyebrows.  Cook until liquid is reduced by half.

Cook the mirepoix of vegetables in the same skillet, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the pan.

Pot directions: Add the ribs and stock and return to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  During cooking, make sure that there is at least 1-inch of liquid in the pot; add more stock or water as necessary to cover.

Pressure cooker directions: Bring the ribs and stock up to temperature while you're cooking the other vegetables in your dutch oven / skillet.  Once they're done, transfer to the pressure cooker and seal.  Cook for 40 minutes.

Slow cooker directions: Similar to the pressure cooker, transfer everything to the slow cooker as it is finished in the above process, and put it on low for 4-6 hours, or high for 2-3 hours.

I went with the pressure cooker on this recipe.  Why?

Because the meat that was falling off the bones in 40 minutes, that's why.

Add the root vegetables and cook until they are tender and the meat easily falls from the bones, another 40 minutes to 1 hour (for a regular pot, 15 minutes for pressure cooker, about an hour for the slow cooker I guess).  Remove from the heat.

Here's a big old bowl of root vegetables, to prove that there is some nutritional value in this dish.  Not the homemade Essence in the top left corner

Transfer the ribs and meat to a large bowl and cover to keep warm.  For the health conscious, pour the liquid into a fat separator and give it a while to settle, then take the non-fat part and boil it down.  At the very least, skim the fat from the surface if possible.  Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.  Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaves.

Short ribs emerging from the mist.  They only come out at night.

To serve, arrange the egg noodles in the middle of a large platter.  Place the ribs on top and spoon the sauce over the meat.  Garnish with green onions and parsley and serve immediately.

The finished product.  Not the best photo because the ribs broke down before they made it to the plate, but it was one of the best meals I've had in a while