Low and sloooow

Last night I broke in my new crockpot in preparation for the book club that I'm hosting this evening. I have never actually used a crockpot before, since I have never owned one, but am now a HUGE fan. Never before has cooking been so easy and never in my experience has cleanup been a breeze. I had been waffling for weeks whether to use the crockpot overnight or turn it on to do its magic while I'm at work. In the end, I decided to keep it under my watchful eye at night than be stuck at work worrying that the thing is exploding all over my kitchen.

The recipe I used was designed with a crockpot in mind. As our food theme this month is African cuisine, I found a recipe on Food Network for a slow-roasted Moroccan brisket with red onions, apricots and couscous. Preparation was a sinch. After adding a sliced red onion and chopped parsnips (the albino cousin of the carrot) to the bottom of the CP, I seasoned my 2.9LBs of brisket with an array of spices. I added dried apricots and poured in a mixture of red wine, beef broth and honey into the crockpot. Cook for 6-8 hours on low and viola.

 

Here's the pot of gold shortly after green-lighting the cooking magic. I turned it on just after 11:00 p.m. with the thought of getting up around 7:00 a.m. to cool everything down before I had to leave for work.

Sporadically throughout the night, I would randomly wake up to go check on everything out of both curiosity and concern (I was still haunted by a coworkers story of split-pea soup and ham hocks exploding from her crockpot around her kitchen). Much to my liking, the heavenly aromas from the low and slow cooking meat and aromatics were contained to my kitchen and living room. My bedroom was scent-free! While I do love the smell of slow-roasted meat, I am not a fan of it saturating every bit of of everything. The last place I lived was so porous and poorly sealed that the entire house wreaked of meat and aromatics for weeks after a multi-hour slow-cook fest in my oven. Finally, 7am arrived and I took the meat out of its wine bath. Done.

The brisket was definitely done. It started to flake when I lifted it from its onion-parsnip bed. I spooned out all of the vegetables onto a plate and poured the sauce into another favorite purchase of mine, the gravy-separator.

What's great about the gravy-separator is that the strainer on top catches any meat, vegetables, or other items from your sauce and isolates the good stuff. Then, by design, it enables you to pour out the finger-licking good gravy without taking the fat which has risen to the top.

After shredding the meat, I added it and the vegetables back into the removable part of the crockpot and poured that sweet, sweet gravy on top. After covering it with the lid, I put the ceramic pot into the fridge and headed to work. So easy! Now, I hope that the meat doesn't taste too dry. I think that I will only cook it for 6 hours next time. I'll see how it all tastes later when I reheat it all...back in the crockpot!