Tag Archives: local meat

“Red Weapons” Pot Roast w/ BFR Meats

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Slow cook Sundays is our current collaboration for the month of February with our friends at BFR Meats. You can find BFR’s meats including steaks, ground beef, sausages, ribs. pork, jerky. Check them out online and on High Country Food Hub.

Here’s my spin on Mississippi Pot Roast, featuring one of my favorite ingredients, Red Weapons. It’s a fun twist on an already twisted viral recipe.

Unless you’ve been under a rock the last few years, Mississippi Pot Roast is an insanely popular recipe all over the interwebs, and pinterest is full of a host of different versions. It’s quite delicious, but often laden with dried dressing or seasoning blends and soup mixes, which means the recipe can reach stratospheric sodium levels. On this collaboration with BFR Meats, I wanted to try a different version of MI Pot Roast, using their boneless chuck roast but with an Eastern NC spin, mainly featuring famed Chef Vivian Howard’s “Red Weapons,” which I keep on hand in my fridge as an aptly named flavor hero.


We love to serve our pot roast with mashed potatoes or pureed cauliflower but I thought with the slight spiciness and acidity of Red Weapons, that making creamed corn and then pureeing to a rustic texture it would be delicious. I was right and it’s quite rich, so not an every day combo for us. It was pretty too and a nice departure from potatoes.


About Red Weapons: From Chef Howard’s book, This Will Make It Taste Good, it’s a pickled tomato and jalapeño mixture that is filled with aromatics like ginger, garlic and scallions, mustard seeds and spices. You allow the mixture to boil then you jar it for a few days and watch the science happen as the veggies and brine settle to the bottom and the flavorful “oil cap” rises to the top. After 3 days of “pickling”, it’s ready to be used for as long as you have it. There’s some suggestion that it’ll last up to 3 months in the fridge simply jarred if you don’t use the canning method, but I have not died and it’s been at least four months. Need to make more now. This is by far my favorite recipe in her cookbook and I encourage you to support authors and buy this book as I will not be placing the Red Weapons recipe here, however during the promotion of the book, the recipe was shared online so you can easily find it. But buy the book! Make RW then come back to this recipe in 3 days, mkay?

Red Weapons Pot Roast

Ingredients:
2-3 lb chuck roast
Ranch seasoning blend (I used a tsp each onion powder, garlic powder, dill weed, basil, thyme, parsley, salt). You can use a ranch packet if you prefer.)
Packet Au Jus Seasoning (optional) Note: I used BFR Meats au jus but you can use better than bouillon or anything that may further ratchet up the beefiness. Have fun with this part
1 1/2 cups Red Weapons Twin B (the veggies and brine)
3 TBS Red Weapons Twin A (the solidified oil)
1 cup (approx) beef broth or water if needed
Salt/Pepper

Directions:
Generously salt and pepper the chuck roast. Sear on both sides until browned. This step is optional but does add depth of flavor. It’s helpful if you can do this in your slow cooker providing it’s equipped but again, if you don’t want to mess up two pots, skip it.

Add the seasonings, Red Weapons veggies, brine and oil to the roast then add about 1/2 cup of broth, just enough to reach halfway up the roast. Keep the remaining if needed toward the end of cooking. Set the slow cooker for 8 hours on low. Give it a peek near the end and add a little broth if needed. See Pressure Cooker method below.

After the scheduled time, the meat should be very tender, juicy, and falling apart. She won’t be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen but she’s succulent and unbelievably good. Beefy, tangy, slightly spicy and soul warming. Serve the roast and its gravy on mashed potatoes, or if you’re feeling indulgent, pureed creamed corn. Make it keto or paleo by serving on pureed cauliflower.

We hope you give this recipe a try and if you do, please let me know. Be sure to check out BFR Meats on the website as well as High Country Food Hub.

Note:
This is the perfect recipe for the Instant Pot or pressure cooker as well. In fact, that’s usually the way I make this version of pot roast. Simply reduce the water or broth by half and cook on high pressure for 65 minutes, allowing for a natural pressure release. Shred the meat and serve as suggested above.

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Beef Short Rib Bo Ssam w/ BFR Meats

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Slow cook Sundays are our current collaboration for the month of February with our friends at BFR Meats. You can find BFR’s meats including steaks, ground beef, sausages, ribs. pork, jerky. Check them out online and on High Country Food Hub.

My family and I recently enjoyeda beef short rib version of Bo Ssam, traditionally a pulled pork dish served with all kinds of toppings and sides and has been made famous by Momofuko’s David Chang. Ssam, is Korean for “wrap” and butter or bib lettuce is used as a vessel to hold decadent and unctious pork shoulder that’s been cooked for hours and hours. It’s paired with kimchi, toppings and sauces. While we are no strangers in NC to a great fall off the bone pork butt, I wanted to try it with BFR Meats Beef Short Ribs and the result was fantastic. It still takes a few hours so, let’s put your slow cooker to use. Ssam is great fun with family and friends who can choose to wrap or make a plate or bowl. Try out all the flavor combos and just go to town. 

Ingredients
4lbs. beef short ribs
4 cups stock
1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari
1 tbs. turbinado or coconut palm sugar (white sugar will do)
5 tbs. brown sugar
1 tbs. salt

Ssam Accompaniments 
Bib lettuce
Kimchi
Ssam sauce (Momofuko inspired recipe below)
Ginger scallion sauce (Momofuko inspired recipe below)
Carrots, Scallions, Cilantro, Micro greens for toppings (optional)
Rice

Marinade
3 tbs. tamari
3 spring onions, sliced
1 tbs. rice wine vinegar
2 tbs. sesame oil 
4 tbs. Gochujang sauce or sambal oelek
1 inch knob fresh ginger, grated or sliced (you can use jarred)
3 cloves garlic smashed or minced
Salt/Pepper

Directions: 
Generously salt and pepper short ribs. In a bowl mix the marinade and pour over the ribs. Work it in well. Conversely, place ribs in a plastic bag and pour over, giving it a good massage. Let marinate overnight or at least 2 hours. 

When ready to cook, remove ribs and place in your slow cooker. Add the 1/2 cup soy sauce or tamari, 1 tbs. of turbinado or coconut sugar, and stock to just cover the ribs. Cook on low for 8 hours. Check after 6 hours to see if the ribs pull apart from the bones. Once the meat is cooked and very tender, remove from the liquid and then remove the meat from the bones, roughly shred, and place on a foil lined pan. ***Note***At this point, you may choose to remove some of the connective tissue from the meat, as it makes for a more enjoyable and visually appealing eating experience. It’s not entirely necessary but we do it.  It won’t take long if the meat is cooked until tender.  Save and strain the cooking liquid for later. 

Mix the brown sugar and the tbs. of salt in a small bowl. Spread the shredded meat on the pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar and salt mixture. If it looks a little dry, drizzle a bit of the cooking liquid onto the meat. Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes until the meat is caramelized with some crispy edges. 

Ginger Scallion Sauce inspired by Momofuko
Ingredients: 
1 bunch thinly spring onions, white and green part
splash soy sauce 
1/4 cup freshly minced ginger (I use jarred)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp sherry vinegar
salt to taste

While the meat cooks, mix together ingredients for Ginger Scallion Sauce, adjust seasonings to taste. 

Ssam Sauce inspired by Momofuko
Note: Here’s where I had to modify as I don’t have access to the suggested recipe’s ssamjang. 2 tbs. ssamjang or fermented bean &n chili paste. I used 2 tbs. gochujang (found with Asian sauces)
2 tbs. tbs. chili garlic paste or sambal oelek
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup neutral oil

Mix the sauces and vinegar and slowly add oil until desired consistency. Adjust for taste. 

Once the short rib meat is caramelized and the sauces are made, place on a platter and surround it with your ssam sauces and toppings. Serve with rice and have fun making the different combinations. 

This is the meat mixture with kimchi, all the sauces on rice

This is the meat mixture in the bib lettuce “ssam”

Oven method:
Follow the marinade recipe as instructed. Drizzle the bottom of a braiser or dutch oven with oil and place the ribs in a single layer as much as possible.  Add stock, soy/tamari, tbs. of sugar, pop the lid on and cook 300 degrees for 3 hours. Continue with the rest of the recipe above.