I know I feel old talking about the weather; again but it has been so soupy and wet for the last month or it seems like a whole lot longer; but you still have to eat right? I know the slow cooker seems more like a winter item but if you can’t or don’t want to cook outside because your going to get wet by either sweating or the rain. In our case more than not this year the thunder and lightening is enough to keep us indoors. But you also want to be mindful with the AC on not to keep the oven on too long. Why not bring out the slow cooker to help with a meal or two. 

With the weather being more wet than anything I am concerned for my gardens. The only thing out there that is looking really good is the garlic I planted last fall. And the swiss chard is doing OK. The only thing I have harvested, besides the asparagus. Is a very small head of broccoli. I hope we see some sun soon, maybe things will start to pop. 

There is an important step that you should never leave out when building flavor, even when using the slow cooker. You really want to brown the meat, I even saute the onions and garlic and if using herbs I will also add them to the heat to bring out more of their flavor. The slow cooker gets a bad rep for making everything taste the same or lose it’s flavors but I find if you take a little time to build the different flavors ahead of time, you will be less disapointed but the results.

Short Ribs - slow cooker

dclarkabal

comes together pretty quickly with so much flavor

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Course dinner

Equipment

• slow cooker - crockpot

Ingredients

  

• 8 beef short ribs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
• Thyme
• 1 large carrot chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 rib celery chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic chopped
• ⅓ cup red wine
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• ¾ cup chicken broth
• Kosher salt and black pepper

Instructions

 

• Do not skip this part - Season the ribs all over with kosher salt and black pepper. Heat your pan with oil and add the ribs, without overcrowding. Let them get nice and browned on all sides. Add them to the crock when browned
• After you have browned them all, if there is too much oil in your pan drain some of it off, but leave all the browned bits, again that is all flavor and you’ll want it. Add the onions, celery, carrot and garlic saute for about 3 minutes. Add the apple and tomato paste cook for another minute or so. Then add all the liquids making sure to scrape up any and all of the browned bits in the bottom of the pan.
• Pour this over the ribs and put the temp on low and leave it for the day. 8-9 hours or 10 if you can’t get it any sooner. Once done, I took out all the meat and didn’t use the leftover liquid but you could totally strain it and use some of it to make a gravy. I served mine with mashed potatoes.

Keyword crockpot, Short Ribs, slow cooker

Recipe adapted from foodtasticmom.com