Slow Cooker Beef Stew

A very colorful and very flavorful winter dish. Recipe from the Taste of Home website.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb (750 g) potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch slices
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 lb (700 g) beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
14 1/2 oz (410 g) canned diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:

Layer the potatoes, carrots, onion and celery in a slow cooker.
Place flour in a large resealable plastic bag.
Add stew meat; seal and toss to coat evenly.
In a large skillet, brown meat in oil in batches.
Place over vegetables.
In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, broth, mustard, salt, pepper and thyme.
Pour over beef.
Cover and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours.
Reduce heat to low; cook 6 hours longer or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Or beef Burgundy style. I am going to write the original recipe, jacked from somewhere and my slow cooker version.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

3 lb (750 g) beef chuck, cut into large pieces

3.5 oz (100 g) bacon, cut into strips

2 medium onions

4 medium carrots

9 oz (250 g) mushrooms

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon thyme

2 bay leaves

salt, pepper, parsley to taste

~ 700 ml (1 bottle) full-bodied red wine, or enough to cover the beef*

* Or substitute half of the wine with beef broth

Directions:

Regular version:

In a saucepan brown the bacon.

Remove bacon strips, and use drippings to brown the beef.

When beef is browned, add enough wine to cover the meat.

Add garlic clove, onions and carrots.

Add tomato paste and all seasonings.

Stir flour into ~ 2 tablespoons of water and add it.

Return the bacon to the pan.

Bring everything to a boil (so any acidity of the wine evaporates), then lower the heat.

Cover and simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat is fork-tender.

Sautee mushrooms and add them to the beef just before serving.

Slow-cooker version ('cuz that's the only way I cook beef):

In a saucepan brown the beef and the bacon.

Layer carrots in slow cooker.

Add onions on top.

Add meat.

Stir tomato paste, wine (broth), flour and seasonings together.

Pour over meat.

Drop garlic clove in liquid.

Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours/high for 3 hours, or until the meat is fork tender.

In both versions sautee mushrooms and add them to the beef just before serving.

In both versions when the meat is done you can thicken the sauce with some more flour.

Slow Cooker Green Beans

A quick and easy recipe for the summer nights.

Ingredients:

4 cups green beans
14.5 oz (410 g) canned diced tomatoes
1 lb (450 g) pork shoulder or another marbled cut, cut into cubes
2 bay leaves
a pinch (or more) of red pepper

Directions:

Wash beans and remove tops and tails. Cut in half, or leave them whole.
Put beans in slow cooker.
Layer meat cubes on top, and pour can of tomatoes over everything.
Add bay leaves and red pepper.
Cook on high for 3 1/2 hours / on low for about 7 hours, or until the beans are cooked.
Serve with french bread. Or beer. Or both :)

Sarma

Aka dolma. I realize that most people won't ever make them by hand but I had leftover vine leaves and I figured that as long as I am making them, I am going to make pictures.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup rice
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 pound (500 g) ground (minced) meat
diced raisins, optional
diced mushrooms, optional
salt, pepper, thyme to taste
~ 50 pickled vine/grape leaves

You may skip the meat and make them vegetarian.
You can also substitute pickled cabbage leaves for the vine leaves, but the taste will be different.

Edited to add: in the US you can find cabbage or vine leaves in most Eastern European or Middle Eastern grocery stores, or in the ethnic food section of big chain grocery stores like Safeway. They come in a glass jar and are usually in the pickles section.

Directions:

In a skillet heat olive oil.
Saute onion, raisins and mushrooms.
Add ground meat and cook until it divides into crumbs and is no longer pink.
Add rice.
Cook for 5 more min until rice gets translucent.
Remove from heat, add spices.

Apologies for the poor quality pictures that follow - my kitchen is dark and I was trying not to smear any oil, rice or pickle juice on my camera.

Assembly:

Drain vine leaves.
Put leaf with the stem facing toward you. Cut stem if it's still there.
Put a teaspoon of rice and meat mix in the middle of the lower part of the leaf right above the stem.





Wrap it like a burrito:
1. Take the side of the leaf that's toward you and roll it forward once, so it flips over the filling.
2. Tug in the left and right sides of the leaf towards the middle.
3. Roll forward.







Here is the major caveat: you want the sarma to to be tightly rolled, so it doesn't unwrap when rice cooks and expands *but* you also want the rice to have the space to expand, so it shouldn't be too tight.

Sarma rolling is an art, which I don't claim to have mastered. I am happy when the majority of my leaves are not torn by the expanding rice :).

Repeat the whole rolling procedure about 50 more times :) until you run out of either filling or leaves.

Arrange sarmas, loose end down, in a slow-cooker pot.
Cover with a plate or prop them with something else that is moderately heavy and won't allow them to float and unwrap.



Pour enough water to cover them.
Drop half a teaspoon of filling in water.
Cover and cook on low until the filling you dropped in the water is cooked.

You may put them in a regular pot and simmer for about 2 hours but you run the risk of either the top layer being undercooked or the bottom layer being overcooked. The crockpot provides a more even temperature.


You can serve them warm or cold. They go well with yogurt and they freeze well.

Cabbage Crockpot Dinner

Cabbage (both fresh and sauerkraut) is big in Bulgaria and though it's allegedly easy to cook, I've never been able to replicate my mom's cabbage dishes. Then I found this recipe that I've adapted for my own use. The original recipe has potatoes, which we didn't like in combination with cabbage, so I've skipped them since.

Ingredients:
For 1.5 quart/1.4 liter crockpot

4 cups* (about 470 g) cut/shredded cabbage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 3/4 teaspoons salt**
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 oz (150 ml) broth
1 pound (450 g) fully cooked sausage***, cut into serving size pieces

Edited to add: the sausage is of this type, sans the grill marks :).

* About 3 cups, or enough to fill a 1.5 qt crockpot to the brim (cabbage cooks down).
** Cabbage takes in spices very well, and it's really easy to make it poisonously salty! So try it with this amount of salt first and then decide if you need more.
*** It seems that the sausage leaks some of its oil and spices onto the cabbage, so if you substitute tofu, it might be a bit bland.

Directions:

Cut cabbage. Chop onion.
Put cabbage and onion into crockpot.
Arrange pieces of sausage on top.
Stir spices into broth. Pour on top of the cabbage.
Cover and cook on low until cabbage is tender, about 6 hours.

Makes about 3 servings.