#onceuponawok

Pros:

-Perfect for summer, cold and refreshing. Eat same day or make in advance for the next day.

-Skip the noodles and just make a salad

-These ingredients show up in many other asian-y recipes, so you won’t find yourself wrinkling your nose and throwing something out several months later

-Perfect family size dish to bring to a potluck or summer BBQ. (Made this along with slow cooked ribs. It was great).

-Plays well with any protein. Egg. Shredded pork. Chicken. Whatever your tastebuds desire.

-I really liked it the first time I made it. #LastMinuteDinnerPartyDishApproved 

Cons:

-None

Sauce Ingredients

Combine and whisk, no blender needed!

⅓ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup olive oil (canola or grape seed work too)

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1.5 to 2 tablespoons honey (You can use sugar or agave syrup, but honey will create the best texture. If you do use the alternate options, start with 1 tablespoon and add more to taste)

1 tablespoon miso paste

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (the extra effort to toast is WORTH IT)

1" piece ginger, minced very fine

1 large garlic clove, minced very fine

Salad Ingredients

Shred/slice the following into matchstick pieces or thin enough to eat without tiring out your jaw. Mix all together in salad bowl. The below makes enough for a family serving of salad. Use half of the below amounts if you don’t want leftover salad. Or if you want a lot of veggies mixed your noodles. 

Half of a red cabbage

2 stalks of celery

2 stalks of green onion

1 red bell pepper

1 medium sized thick cucumber

1 cup of shredded carrots (or whatever looks right)

Above: Leftover salad. All the colors! 

Noodles: Any kind will suffice. I used cellophane noodles, but I imagine soba noodles would work well also. Use amount appropriate for how many people will be enjoying this. 

How Do:

1. Pour half of the sauce/vinaigrette over salad, toss, and refrigerate. The red cabbage will lend a rosy hue to the liquid, which will in turn color the noodles. Beauteous!

What you get is not what you expect. This unassuming little tin of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce turns out to be so much more.

Tear off the lid and....

Hot sauces cower in their inferior bottles. Unicorns dance. Triple rainbows soar across the land. JK Rowling announces a surprise release of the eighth Harry Potter book. All that and chipotle peppers in a smokey, tangy, and intensely spicy sauce reside in this can. Promise.

As for the slow cooking method, busy people and couch potatoes alike rejoice! You throw things into that slow cooker pot, leave for work or Netflix binging, and know you will come back later to find it cooked perfectly. No fuss. No kitchen fires. Just remember to actually turn the cooker on. Oops.

You can have a beauty like the one pictured below, for a mere $15. 

Ingredients:

Assemble the troops!

4 to 5 pounds beef chuck roast  2 tablespoons olive oil 2 teaspoons kosher or coarse salt (for rubbing into meat) 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar  4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced 4 teaspoons cumin  1 teaspoon oregano  1/4 teaspoon ground cloves  1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 lime's juice 1 cup homemade or canned chicken broth 4 to 6 chipotle chile peppers in adobe sauce 2 to 3 tablespoons adobe sauce (from can) 2 bay leaves  Salt to taste (for sauce mixture)

Preparation:

1. Learn karate, or some other defense art. The reason for this will become clear later.

2. Preheat crock pot/slow cooker.

3. Trim excess fat off the beef chuck roast, and cut into large 4-inch chunks. The second time I made this, I foolishly thought, “Eehh it’ll be fine, it’s just a little fat”. When I took the lid off after slow cooking, this deep layer of shimmery fat had appeared. It took a while to spoon it out to get at the deliciousness below. Don’t skip the trimming! 

See that fat? Bye Felicia. 

4. Rub the salt into cut roast pieces. In large skillet over medium-high heat, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the oil has been heated up, add the beef roast chunks and brown briefly on all sides. (In the next picture, you can see how the sides are browned, but they are in no way cooked. There is still lots of pink.) Remove from pan and place browned beef in the bottom of the preheated slow cooker. Let rest.

5. Put into blender the vinegar, garlic, cumin, oregano, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, lime juice, chicken broth, chipotle chiles, and adobe sauce. Blend ingredients into a sauce. Add salt to taste. (If you have a cooking buddy, they can do this part while you brown the beef).

Note: Chipotle chiles and adobe sauce are spicy! If you're not a fan of spicy, start slow with 2-3 chipotle chiles and 1 tbsp of abobo sauce, then taste test. Add more to increase the spicy flavor. I like my food spicy, so I add 4-5 peppers and 3 tbsp of the abobo sauce. If your spoon slips and the sauce is too spicy, add more chicken broth or water, 1/4 cup at a time. Keep in mind the spiciness tames as it cooks into the beef- the blender mixture will taste spicier than the finished product. A little too spicy is good.

6. Pour the sauce over the top of the beef chunks and add the two bay leaves. Don’t worry if there are parts sticking out from the sauce. 

GET IN MY BELLY.

7. Cover with lid and cook on high heat for 4 to 5 hours or low heat for 8 to 10 hours. Don’t fall for the amazing smells wafting around your kitchen. Wait the full time. This is where the karate and self discipline you have learned will come into play. At all costs, keep family, friends, and yourself away from the slow cooker. Don’t fall for the puppy eyes, whether canine or human. 

You'll know the beef is done when it's "fall apart" tender. In other words, good luck trying to pick up a chunk by piercing it with your fork.

8. Using two forks, shred the beef and stir together until combined with sauce.

9. Serve with rice, or devour standing up, straight from the slow cooker.