Slow Simmered

Every January, I make it a point to share a crock-pot recipe in honor of National Slow Cooking Month.  With my husband's surgery earlier this month, January almost got away from me this year.

I like to vary the recipes I share and not post similar recipes close together. However, I'm going to break that unofficial rule today and share another recipe that uses ground beef.  It's quite different from the Sweet and Sour Meat Loaf recipe I posted earlier this week.

Homemade spaghetti sauce is one of my favorite cold weather recipes.  It only requires a little prep work, is quick to assemble and can easily be doubled.  It's also the best spaghetti sauce I've ever eaten!  Over the last 20 years, I've adapted the recipe to suit our tastes.  The easiest adaptation I made was to move the sauce from the stove top to the crock-pot.  If you're making one batch of sauce, you'll need a 3 1/2 to 4-quart crock-pot. If you double it like I do, you'll need a 6-quart crock-pot.

Although I don't brown roast beef or chicken before I cook them in a crock-pot, I always brown ground beef before using it in a crock-pot. Spaghetti sauce doesn't take as long to cook as roast beef or chicken, so I want to make certain the meat is fully cooked.  Browning the meat beforehand gives me that peace of mind.  It also gives me the opportunity to drain off the grease so it won't be in the finished sauce.  The easiest way to drain the grease is to set a colander inside a large bowl and pour the meat mixture into the colander.  I let the meat drain while I prep the other ingredients.

Grease from two pounds of extra lean ground chuck.

Once the grease is drained, the meat and onion are combined with the remaining ingredients.  Unlike many spaghetti sauce recipes, this one doesn't use crushed or diced tomatoes.  It uses tomato sauce and tomato paste instead.  It can be difficult to get all the tomato paste out of the can, so I want to share a trick my mother taught me when I first started cooking. Open one end of the can of tomato paste.  Leaving the lid in place, turn the can upside down and open the other end.  Remove this lid, turn the can upside down over your mixing bowl or pan and use the lid on the other end to push the tomato paste out of the can.

The sauce is seasoned with oregano, garlic powder and a package of Italian style spaghetti sauce mix.  Sometimes I can't find Italian style spaghetti sauce mix so I use a package of thick and zesty spaghetti sauce mix instead.

A little bit of sugar is added to the sauce to help cut down on the acidity of the tomato sauce and tomato paste.

The only other ingredients are the liquid and canned mushrooms.  To give the finished sauce more flavor, I drain and reserve the mushroom liquid, adding enough water to it to equal the amount called for in the recipe.

 Liquid from two (8 ounce) cans of mushrooms.

Mushroom liquid and water for a double 

batch of spaghetti sauce.

If you don't like mushrooms, you can leave them out and just add water to the sauce.

Once everything is thoroughly combined, cook the sauce three to four hours on high, or six hours on low until the sauce is heated through.  The last 30 minutes of cooking, I fix the pasta and garlic bread and assemble the salad.

I always double this sauce so I can freeze some to use later in the year. To do this, I refrigerate the sauce overnight so it's completely cold.  The next day, I ladle the sauce into a freezer safe, resealable plastic bag, making sure I date and label the contents.  The sauce expands as it freezes so don't fill the bag completely full; leave about an inch of headspace.  To save space in the freezer, I freeze the bag flat.  I have a chest freezer so it's not always easy to find a spot to lay the bag flat.  To solve this problem, I put the bag on a cookie sheet and put the cookie sheet in the freezer overnight.

The next day, the bag looks like this:

To use the frozen spaghetti sauce, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight.  It can be reheated on the stove top or, what I do, in the crock-pot.  Either way, you'll need to add some additional water to the sauce when it's reheated.

I've often wondered why January is National Slow Cooking Month.  I finally decided it must be because a lot of people only use their crock-pots in the summer when they don't want to heat up the kitchen.  National Slow Cooking Month is a great way to remind people to use their crock-pots in cold months too.   Even better, use this time saving appliance all year round!

Spaghetti Sauce

4 Servings

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 (12 oz.) can tomato paste

1 (1.5 oz.) envelope Italian style spaghetti sauce mix

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. crushed oregano

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1 (8 oz.) can mushroom stems and pieces, liquid drained and reserved

reserved mushroom liquid and enough water to make 1 1/2 cups

Cook and stir the ground beef and onion in a large pan until the meat is brown and the onion is tender; drain.  Combine the meat and onion with the remaining ingredients.  Cook in a crock-pot for 3 to 4 hours on high, or 6 hours on low until the sauce is heated through.  Serve over hot spaghetti. Recipe can be doubled.  Leftover sauce can be frozen.

© Margaret's Morsels  

Low and Slow Cooking

Until I started writing this blog, I had no idea there were days that celebrated various foods.   Some, like National Peanut Butter Cookie Day and National Pigs in a Blanket Day, are observed once a year (June 12 and April 24 respectively).  Others have a whole month devoted to them. For instance, January is National Slow Cooking Month.  I love cooking with a slow cooker, also known as a crock-pot, and post a recipe every January in honor of this time saving appliance.

Over the last 2 1/2 years, I've shared a number of slow cooker recipes: Chicken a la King; Chili; Queso Dip; Barbecue Chicken; French Dip Sandwiches; Pot Roast with Vegetables.  Today, I want to share my favorite stew recipe.  It's different from a lot of stew recipes in that the only vegetable it uses is mushrooms.  This is ideal for me since I don't like meat in vegetable soup and I don't like vegetables in my stew!

Stew meat -- boneless precut cubes usually from tougher cuts of meat -- is combined with dry onion soup mix, beef broth, mushroom stems and pieces and a can of undiluted cream of mushroom soup.  Put the mixture in the slow cooker, cover with the lid and turn to low.  I cook the stew eight hours, but it can be cooked as long as 12 hours.   

Ready to be cooked.

Cooked eight hours.

The broth is thin so I thicken it with a slurry at the end of the cooking time. Slurry is a fancy name for a thin paste made from equal parts water and starch -- cornstarch or flour -- used as a thickener.  I prefer cornstarch for several reasons.  One, it has twice the thickening power of flour.  One tablespoon of cornstarch is equal to two tablespoons of flour.  Two, cornstarch keeps the broth clear; flour turns it opaque.  Three, cornstarch only needs to be mixed with cold water, unlike flour which has to be cooked to lose the raw taste.

You can whisk the cornstarch into the water or, what I do, combine the ingredients in a small bowl with a lid and shake until the cornstarch is dissolved.

 Slurry made from cornstarch and water.

If I have time, I stir the mixture into the slow cooker and let the stew cook another hour.  If not, I put the slow cooker liner on the stove top, stir in the slurry and cook until the broth is thickened.  Not all slow cooker liners cans be used on the stove top so read the directions that came with your slow cooker before you attempt this.

 The thickened stew.

I serve the stew with noodles and a vegetable.  I serve English peas in the winter and coleslaw in the summer.  The stew is also good with mashed potatoes in place of the noodles.

There's nothing better than coming home to the aroma of a fully cooked meal.  With a slow cooker, that can be a reality all year long!

Good and Easy Stew

8 Servings

2 1/2 lb. stew meat

1 (1.15 oz.) envelope dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup beef broth

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)

1 (8 oz.) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained

Combine the ingredients.  Place in a slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 8 to 12 hours.  If desired, thicken gravy.  Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

© Margaret's Morsels

National Slow Cooking Month

January is National Slow Cooking Month.  Although I use my slow cooker several times a month, I haven't posted many slow cooker recipes.  I'm working to rectify that oversight.  In the meantime, here are slow cooker recipes I've previously shared.

Chili:  What's better on a cold day than a bowl of piping hot chili?  Brown the ground beef, onion and celery and then let the slow cooker do the rest of the work.

Queso Dip:  Dump the ingredients in a 1 1/2-quart slow cooker, cover and heat for one hour.  Great for the big game, Cinco de Mayo or anytime you want something spicy.

Barbecue Chicken:  Barbecue sauce and chicken.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

French Dip Sandwiches:  My favorite slow cooker recipe of all time!  If you don't have a beef bouillon cube, omit the water and add 2 cups of beef broth instead.

Pot Roast:  A complete meal -- meat, veggies, gravy -- made in a slow cooker.  The only thing missing is a pan of cornbread!

© Margaret's Morsels