Saturday at the Chesterton Market I purchased a package of beef for boiling from Farm Direct Meats. I used the meat and other purchases from the market along with goodies from my garden for a crockpot meal.
I started by slicing two very small onions, also from the market, into the crockpot. Next I added the cloves from one head of garlic and a the stalks from small bunch of celery; both also purchased at the market. I placed the meat on top of this. The meat was about 1/3 each bones, meat, and fat.
After adding water to just reach the top of the meat, I dropped in a few saltless vegetable bullion cubes. On top of the meat I sliced a pepper from my own container garden. Next I added some small potatoes from my garden and the few tiny carrots that my container garden managed to produce. Over all of that I placed two big handfuls of celery leaves.
After the mixture had cooked for a couple of hours, I added a dozen or so beans from my plants and some fresh corn on the cob from the market and left everything to cook for another hour or so.
The verdict: The corn was amazing. The celery leaves on which it rested gave added interest to the sweetness. It needed no butter or additional seasoning. Cooked on top of everything else the corn was steamed rather than boiled which I liked. I must remember to experiment with more combinations of herbs and corn in the crockpot. Cooking corn in the crockpot has possibilities for processing corn for the freezer.
After cooking the meat was tender enough but with more grease/fat than I like. There wasn’t much of it after it cooked down. II think the beef for boiling would be better used for creating stock. I can’t imagine truly boiled. Next time I try this cut I will brown it first before using it to make stock. I think browning the meat would add to the flavor and also reduce the amount of fat in the broth. After the initial simmering for the stock, I will probably refrigerate broth overnight and skim off the excess fat before reducing it for use as a soup base.
Overall the meal was good but not great. It was however almost completely local. The only nonlocal item were the bullion cubes. With the veggies it was more than enough for a few meals. I will be transforming the bones and left over aromatic vegetables, herbs,and broth from the crockpot into stock which will stretch it even further.
