Slower Cooker Awesomeness

I saw a post last week on The Kitchn about using your slow cooker during the summer so as to not heat up the house by turning on the oven, and this made a lot of sense. I hardly ever use my slow cooker, but I'm going to try to use it more now that I have re-discovered it's awesomeness. When I walked in the door last night my house smelled delicious, plus dinner was cooked already except for putting some potatoes in the microwave! I couldn't speak throughout dinner except to say "oh my God this is so good".

The recipe accompanying the post was for pork carnitas which I was going to make but they didn't have pork shoulder, or any other suitable pork product, at the grocery store this week. They had beef brisket though. The butcher said they rarely have it, so if you can find brisket at your store pick some up. I wish I had bought two. It's that good. I had brisket sandwich once at a restaurant and it was really fatty, but this wasn't fatty at all- there wasn't even any fat on the top of the leftovers when we took them out of the fridge the next day.

To serve, I shredded the falling-apart-tender meat and we ate it on top of some mashed potatoes with the delicious sauce left in the slow cooker spooned over top. Heaven! I have had leftovers on a kaiser bun for lunch the last two days, and it's delicious this way too. The recipe is dead simple- I was able to throw it together in 10-15 minutes before leaving for work. Don't worry too much about the measurements, I eyeballed everything as I threw it in, it will turn out great. Plus, the cooking time is very forgiving- if you get caught up at work and it cooks for 10 hours, that's ok. The only change I would make, and I've included this below, is to add some chopped fresh parsley when serving.

PS We had peas and corn with it too, in case you were worried about the lack of vegetables in the photo.

SLOW COOKER BRISKET WITH ONIONS AND TOMATOES

Adapted from Epicurious

• beef brisket- I think mine was 2 to 3 lbs, but you can go bigger and don't have to change anything
• salt and pepper
• 2 small onions, sliced 
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 bottle beer- I used Moosehead Light because that's what Tyler had, but any beer will do
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
•  1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Trim any visible fat from the outside of the beef. Season with salt and pepper. Brown on all sides in a skillet over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, put all other ingredients except parsley in the bottom of the slow cooker and stir to combine. Place beef in slow cooker, cover with lid, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Stir in parsley before serving.