Dinner from the crockpot

Dinner from the crock pot: beef roast, new potatoes, carrots and mushrooms. The asparagus was pan seared separately. Made enough for two nights of this meal with enough beef left overs for something else later in the week. Everything came from Your DeKalb  Farmers Market.  

What's for dinner? Slow cooked chuck roast and vegetables

The chuck roast went into the crock pot first thing Wednesday morning (Oliver was simultaneously grinding coffee beans and chopping onions ). By the time I got home from work (12 hours later) the house smelled UNREAL. On the stove were mushrooms a jus and fennel braising in a bit of butter and chicken stock. I could hardly wait for him to finish up so we could eat. Truly a delicious meal. Thursday we (happily) ate the same dinner. This time on the front porch (it was 70 degrees at 7pm) and with some roasted kale.

 

Whatcha eating? Crock pot chuck roast!

When Oliver biked to YDFM last Friday he picked up a two and half pound chuck roast. On Sunday he dropped into our crockpot and let it roast for eight hours. We've been enjoying it ever since.

When slow cooking a chuck roast keep the left over juice; it's the key to making the most of the roast in subsequent meals. Here's how: after braising strain the remaining juice into a clean container and chill to separate the fat. Once the fat has hardened scrape it off and throw it away. Cover the remaining gelatin and store in the fridge. When you're ready to eat add a spoonful or two of the gelatin to the meat and reheat in a skillet.

This week's roast was eaten on rice with leeks, in a ciabatta roll with pickled vegetables, mixed into homemade fried rice and as a main course with sides of new potato and kale.

 

Oliver's Big Pig Butt - it's whats for dinner!

We picked up 4.4lbs of pork butt (butt is actually shoulder - go figure) at YDFM on Tuesday. Last night Oliver coated it in homemade seasoning, wrapped it in plastic wrap and left it overnight in the fridge. This morning he dropped it into our crockpot with a sliced onion. After ten hours of roasting he peeled away the (admittedly giant) chunk of fat and pulled the pork into tender and delicious pieces. $17 of pork sounds like a lot for two people but it will feed us for the rest of the week and into the weekend.

Tonight we ate it as a main dish with sides of yucca con mojo and toasted kale. This weekend it will be stuffed into poblano peppers for dinner, topped with BBQ sauce for lunch and mixed into omelettes for breakfast. Not all in the same day! Today is Thursday; knowing our eating habits my guess is that we'll enjoy this cut of pork once a day for four more days. Seventeen dollars divided by ten individual meals equals $1.70 per meal. That is less then a taco at Moes (read: unbeatable) with the added benefit of knowing where the meat came from and how it was cooked. Hooray for another Chez Oliver dinner time homerun!