A Slow Cooker Oval Crock Pot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Blessed are the meals made in crockpots for those are the days free to go and do and not worry about getting home to make dinner.
Today was a lovely sunny Saturday; Just the kind of day to clean up the rest of the snow on the walkways, to throw peanuts out to the squirrels and of course with the bright sunshine, I was able to see some more of winter/old radiator dust! It was also warm enough for Peter to put the sensor light we bought a couple of weeks ago. The days are growing noticeably longer and so when we went shopping this afternoon to pick up this and exchange that, we stayed out quite late. Then we stopped by to see our friends Joe and Michael and have a pre-dinner cocktail. Soooo relaxing and WHY?
Because my supper was already mostly made! This morning I prepared a recipe that I had never tried before. I knew this would be a good night to try it out. It turned out to be not only amazingly rich, but also economical.
2 TBS vegetable oil
3 lbs. boneless short ribs cut into 3″ pieces
coarse salt and pepper
1 medium yellow onion diced small ( I used a good size Mayan onion)
1 large carrot diced small (I chopped up quite a few small ones) (the kind that come in a bag already peeled)
1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes
2 sprigs of oregano or rosemary
Serve with pasta or soft polenta
In a large skillet, heat oil over med-hi. Season short ribs with salt and pepper. In batches, cook until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer to ribs to slow-cooker. Pour off all but 1 TBS of oil and add onion and carrot. Season with salt and pepper and cook until vegetables are soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of juice from tomatoes, stirring and scraping bits up with wooden spoon. Transfer veggies and liquid to crockpot and add tomatoes, breaking up. Add sprigs. Cover and cook on high till fork tender – 6 hours. *I only had rosemary and removed them after about 2 1/2 hours). Skim fat off. Remove meat and shred with 2 forks and return to pot.
* I thought it didn’t look like enough sauce for 1 lb of pasta so I added about 1/2 to 1 cup of a tomato basil sauce and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of red wine and heated it through in the slow cooker. My intention was always to serve this Ragu over large shells pasta although I think the recipe may have been meant to be a main meat dish, served with sides of polenta or pasta and a vegetable. We ate it as a pasta dish with Italian bread and a salad. It was one of the richest sauces I have ever tasted. And economical too.
The costs were: Short ribs – $10.44
Tomatoes – $1.49
Bag of peeled carrots $1.29
Box of large shells $1.29
Mayan onion $1.00
Italian bread – $1.39
Half bag of salad mix w/dressing – $2.50
Related articles
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 