Is there anything better than waking up to dinner that’s done before breakfast?
Granted, the aroma of slow cooked beef competing with that of my coffee brewing is a bit disconcerting, but there’s just something so satisfying about knowing dinner is ready before you even leave for work.
Now that the searing summer (we hope!) is behind us, it’s time to get back in the kitchen for more than the occasional BLT. To celebrate this cool, fall weekend, my husband and I raided our freezer for some grassfed beef from our friend Jim Fiedler’s farm. He lives on the “other” side of the river in Indiana, but fortunately for us he sells his beef (and pastured pork) here in Louisville. We rubbed a roast with a spice and coffee mixture and cooked it overnight in the crock pot for dinner (and some lunches this week). Even better, all day Sunday we slow cooked some beautiful ribs in a Korean sauce of pear, ginger, fish sauce, garlic, scallions, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.
I used this recipe, which swaps soy for coconut aminos for a bit less sodium, but it may have been even tastier if I had used my Bourbon Barrel Foods soy sauce. Note that I also used half the fish sauce – it’s so salty a little goes a long way – and double the ginger and pear, because I like them.
We left for a few hours in the middle of the day and were welcomed home with the fantastical aroma of the braising ribs.
After a vast brunch we weren’t even particularly hungry, but the rich smell permeating our house proved too much to resist. We tossed in a few handfuls of spinach, chard and kale for the last few minutes of the 10 hours of cooking and fell upon it as if we hadn’t eaten in days.
Then we wiped out the pot and dropped in the roast to cook overnight. That’s the glory of crock pots – they need no time off, work when you don’t want to, and need nothing but a few tasty ingredients to offer up a company-worth meal (though I don’t think I’d be able to bring myself to share those ribs).
As fall settles in and we begin to think about long winter nights perfect for slow cooking, what will you be cooking up?