Tag: cabbage

Crock Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

On By Rob GIn Close to Home, RecipeLeave a comment

I know it’s a couple of days early, but I decided to make myself some corned beef and cabbage today since I’ll be busy working on Tuesday. Even though I work from a home office, I prefer as few distractions as possible during the work week. I bought the corned beef last weekend and today was the day to cook it. My plan was to get the meat started, then go out to the grocery store and pick up some potatoes, cabbage, onions, and carrots to add later.

The meat that I picked up had already been brined and seasoned, which definitely made it easier for me. I put the meat (just under 2 pounds) in the crock pot and added about 4 1/2 cups of water. I added garlic powder, paprika, pepper, and coriander for seasonings, and also added a roughly chopped half onion that I had stored in my freezer. The meat was put in fat side up. I did not trim the fat prior to cooking. The water was just over an inch up from the bottom of the crock pot. It didn’t completely cover the meat, but it was more than half way covered.

I set the crock pot to low and then went on my way to the grocery store. My plan did not work out quite like I was hoping. The grocery stores have plenty of empty shelves. I was able to find some carrots and some cabbage, but the potatoes and onions were completely gone. Slim pickings, but I knew I could make do with what I had. At the 4 hour mark of the meat cooking, I added some roughly chopped carrots (1 pound bag) and roughly chopped cabbage (one head of cabbage). I kept it at low heat and let it go for another 3 1/2 hours, until the meat was to temperature. I waited until it was over 175, only because I was confident that it would not be too tough.

This picture does not look perfect, but I’m okay with that. The fat on top of the corned beef hides the color. The outside of the meat was not the bright red that I was used to seeing, which has me wondering if I did it right.

When I cut into it, against the grain, I saw that nice familiar red color. It looked a much brighter red than this picture is reflecting. This was not rare meat, the redness of the meat is due to the nitrates that are added during the brining process.

When I was ready to eat, I plated the corned beef and added some cabbage and carrots. The corned beef was very tender and delicious. It had the flavor my taste buds have become accustomed to, so I feel like I did a good job with this. The carrots were very tender and slightly sweet, which provided a good balance to the meat. The cabbage absorbed all of the flavors during the cooking process, and were very tender as well. This was definitely a good meal to make once a year and I look forward to having some leftovers on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Eating this well definitely kept me in a positive frame of mind. Not having additional onions or potatoes worked out better for me. All of that additional food would have made me feel even more stuffed. Stay well!

Homemade Sourdough Bierocks

On By Rob GIn Close to Home, RecipeLeave a comment

For the past few years, I’ve tried to make foods that have components of both teams in the Super Bowl. This year’s teams are San Francisco and Kansas City. I could have gone the easy way and had a steak sandwich on sourdough bread, but I wanted to try something a little bit different. Something that would let me test my cooking skills. I saw that the Kansas City regions (both Kansas and Missouri) have something called bierocks as a popular local dish. They are a yeast dough pastry pocket sandwich filled with savory foods.

Since this was a bread dish, I thought that sourdough would be a good match, since sourdough bread is one of those things I think about when it comes to San Francisco. I looked for raw sourdough bread, but was not able to find any in the grocery stores, so I decided to make my own sourdough starter, which I wrote about yesterday.

One of the tough things with sourdough bread is that it can have a very hard crust. I didn’t think a hard crust would be a good fit for the bierocks, so I had to make adjustments.

Last night, I mixed up 2 cups of my sourdough starter, 3 cups of flour, 1 1/4 cups of water and a pinch of salt. It was a better consistency than my first effort, and I covered it loosely and let it sit on a cookie sheet over night.

I thought about the timing of the food and how it would best be prepared. I had to make the filling and provide it with enough time to cool, so that was the next thing I worked on.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground beef

1/2 head cabbage

1/2 large white onion

dash of salt

dash of pepper

Step one was to chop 1/2 head of cabbage and 1/2 of a large white onion.

Next, I browned the ground beef. I used an 85/15 split, so there was some fat but not too much. I added the salt and pepper right before it was all browned.

Next, I added the chopped cabbage and onion and reduced the heat to medium low. I covered with a lid and cooked for 25 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.

I took off the lid, turned the heat up to medium, and cooked for another five minutes. I then set it aside to let it cool. I tried a couple of bites, and it tasted much better than expected.

While the mixture was cooling, it was time to turn my attention to the sourdough. After about 15 hours of sitting, it expanded and got flat. I put some flour on a wooden board and worked the dough a bit.

I could have stopped here and made a bread bowl, but I wanted to make those bierocks. I rolled the dough until it was about two inches around, and then took off two inch portions and made round balls.

They didn’t keep their shape, but that was okay. This batch made 19 dough balls. I let those sit for about 15 minutes, which also gave the filling more time to cool. I didn’t want the filling to be too hot, since it was going to be surrounded by dough.

It was now time to make these stuffed sandwiches. I flattened out the dough balls.

Next, I added in a spoonful of filling.

I sealed it up at the top, and then I rolled it around in my hands to be more rounded.

This is one of the trays. They didn’t keep a round shape, but they still looked good. There were a couple of spots where there was too much filling and it tore through the dough, but I wasn’t looking for perfection. The meat mixture was about twice as much as I needed. I don’t mind the leftovers, since I can use them in the next few days. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I did this to let the dough have some more time to rest before getting baked.

I cooked them for 15 minutes, rotated, and then another 16 minutes, and they were done.

It was now time to eat. I know that I made this well before the Super Bowl started, but there was no way I could wait until 6:30 PM to eat food. And prep time would take away from watching the game (and the commercials). Biting into this stuffed sandwich was pretty nice. The top was easy to bite through and was not crunchy like a normal sourdough bread. The bottom was a little more crisp, but still easy to bite through. I think this would be better with the traditional dough, which would be softer and a little more sweet, but this was still good.

The meat mixture had some good flavor to it. I’m not always a big fan of cabbage, but it had a nice consistency to it and it absorbed the flavors of the meat and onions really well. I had one bite that was just cabbage, and it had a velvety consistency and a smooth flavor that pleasantly surprised me. I really enjoyed this meal. It would have been better to have people to share it with, but at least I already have my lunch and dinners prepared for the next week. It’s easy to stay positive when the food you spend time to prepare works out. No matter what happens in the Super Bowl, this has been a great day. Enjoy!