Big Meat Wednesday

Yesterday, dinner was prepared before we even ate breakfast.  That's my kind of meal.

I decided to try my favorite oven brisket recipe in the slow-cooker.  I got Daphne involved so she would be excited about trying it.  She made the sauce.  Conveniently, one of the ingredients is honey.  I told her in a conspiratorial whisper that honey was, in fact, the SECRET ingredient.  Ooooooh...how exciting!  And after she mixed up the sauce, I even let her have a spoonful of honey for good measure.  That way, I reckoned her little brain would associate the honey with the New Food we'd be having for dinner and she would be more willing to eat it.  Whatever works.

I browned the giant slab of meat on the stove, and then put it in the slow cooker.  Daphne poured the sauce over it.  I set the timer for 9 hours, and Daphne pushed "start."  Cooking dinner was pretty much done then, so we ate breakfast.  Have I told you how much I love my new slow cooker?

I didn't change anything about the recipe to adjust for the slow cooker, and it worked out just fine.  In 9 hands-free hours, we went from this:

to THIS:

And all I had to do in the evening was boil some noodles, steam some green beans, and thicken the sauce, and we had THIS:

Aaaaah, yeah.

And guess who gave it six check-marks under the "loved it" box on her New Foods chart?

If they cook it, (and it has honey in it), they will eat it.

The original recipe (below) is from one of the earliest issues of Every Day Food.  It works great in the oven, and as I learned yesterday, just as well, if not better, in the slow cooker.  I followed the recipe exactly.  Then, at the end, I separated the sauce from the fat, poured the sauce into a pan, added a slurry of corn starch and water, and brought it to a boil to thicken it a little.  Yep.  Good stuff.  And we have plenty of left-overs for another meal.  Maybe we'll have it on baked potatoes.  Mmmm.


Coffee Glazed Brisket:

Ingredients

• 3 pounds beef brisket (thin first-cut)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup freshly brewed black coffee
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup chili sauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees*. Season beef brisket with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven over high heat, warm oil. Add brisket, fat side down, and cook until well browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Remove from heat. 
2. In a small bowl, combine coffee, ketchup, chili sauce, honey, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and soy sauce. Pour over brisket.
3. Cover; bake, flipping halfway through, until meat shreds easily with a fork, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Remove from oven; slice on the bias against the grain. Transfer remaining sauce from Dutch oven to a gravy boat, and serve with brisket.**

*For Slow-Cooker, prepare meat the same way and place in slow-cooker.  Pour sauce over the brisket.  Cook all day on low (I did mine for 9 hours).

**Don't forget to skim the fat off the sauce, and then thicken it if you want.  Mix about 1-2 tbsp cornstarch with water, add to sauce and bring to a boil in a small saucepan on the stove.  Cook until thickened.  This is totally optional, but I like it better that way.