Inspired Leftovers

Interviews this week, 2; days until April 15, 46.

Just because it's leftovers doesn't mean it has to be uninspired. Fried rice is perfect clean-out-the-fridge food, in the same way that soups and stews are also good ways to face the same thing gussied up. As a singleton, this gets to be a problem. I haven't quite mastered the idea of cooking for one when I can just as easily cook four nights' worth in the same go and often do it for cheaper. This is a good strategy for weeks like this one, with book club on Monday and interview on Tuesday and errands on Wednesday and driving to the boyfriend's on Thursday so you don't have to drive after the science fair on Friday . . . you get the idea. But when you can't face just putting it in the microwave again or feel like freezing it for later, you can always throw it into the frying pan with some new spices and sauce and get dinner, take two. Easily adapatable to whatever's still good in the fridge - meat, veggies, what-have-you - and super-quick.

FRIED RICE

sesame oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
3-4 scallions, chopped
2-3 cups cold cooked rice
2 Tbsp rice wine
1/3 c egg substitute (equivalent 1 large egg)
2 tsp or so dark soy sauce
3 baby bok choy, separated into leaves and white parts, chopped
about 2 cups snow pea tips
4 steamed Chinese sausages, sliced

In a wok or large frying pan, heat some sesame oil over medium heat until warm. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions and stir-fry about 20 seconds or so. Add the rice, breaking up any clumps, and toss to combine with the oil. Stir-fry for 2 minutes; add the rice wine and stir-fry for another minute. In a measuring cup, combine the egg substitute with 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Make a well in the bottom of the frying pan and pour in the egg mixture. Immediately begin tossing with the rice so that the egg breaks into small clumps or shreds as it cooks. Sprinkle the soy sauce over the rice and add the white parts of the bok choy. Cook for 1 minute. Add the bok choy leaves and snow pea tips and cook, tossing and stirring, for about 1 minute more. Add the sliced sausages and stir to combine, cooking until heated through.

Muffin Monday: Banana-Coconut Muffins

I generally have bananas in the freezer. This is because inevitably, one of the bananas will toward the end of the week get just too ripe to eat (I'm more of a just-past-green banana girl myself), so I will throw it in the freezer in a bag with the good intention of not wasting it and thinking I will make banana bread when there are more bananas. There are two problems with this strategy. One is that once I have a banana in the freezer, I'm really conscientious with the next batch so that it doesn't happen again, and two is that I've discovered I really don't like banana bread all that much. For some reason I keep the cycle going anyway.
A few years ago I came across a banana muffin recipe I ended up loving, and it has revolutionized this process. Bananas now have a destination, a goal, when they go into the freezer instead, but it's still usually a long stay because the recipe calls for milk and eggs which are not usual staples in my apartment. When on the fortuituous occasion that there are bananas in the freezer and milk and eggs in the refrigerator, in a manner similar to planets aligning, I know there will be banana muffins. As auspicious conditions go, this week there happened to be such an occurrence - nd a perfect opportunity to showcase them in the Muffin Monday event hosted by Elena - so quite happily, now there are muffins.

I am not quite certain what it is about these that makes them to my mind so much different and better than other banana bread/muffin recipes, but I think it's because they are sweeter and richer to begin with and I always add more banana so they are unmistakably banana-y. This time I subbed whole wheat flour in for half the regular flour, because it's good for you and everything, which I can't say I love just as much but they're still delicious. I also threw in coconut shreds, which obliterates any healthful effects from the whole wheat but is really tasty and gives it a different flair. These are moist and dense muffins (with or without whole wheat) and don't rise very high, but they're extremely good. Leftover muffins, if you happen to have any, are good reheated in the oven with butter or peanut butter.

BANANA-COCONUT MUFFINS
adapted from Bon Appetit, March 1999

3/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp vanilla salt or regular salt
3-4 medium-large very ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 large egg
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 c 1% milk
3/4 c shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 35o F. Spray a 12-cup regular muffin tin with nonstick cook spray or line with liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt, making sure to break up any lumps from the baking powder with your fingers, to combine.
In a medium bowl mash the bananas (I find an avocado masher works great for this) to a consistency of your liking. Add the extracts, egg, butter and milk and stir gently to combine. Stir in the shredded coconut.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix. Divide the muffin mixture evenly among the prepared cups.
Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the center of a muffin. Let cool in the tin about 5 minutes and then remove to a rack to cool. Eat warm or at room temperature.

Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbreads

Book club celebrates its anniversary in February and though I’ve only been around one year to its eight, it and its members and have been good to me. And, it was a good justification to bake cookies.
These salt and pepper cocoa shortbreads are from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, and the first recipe I’ve tried from there. I wanted something a little different that would still stand up to bake ahead and bring along and I liked the idea of the spice with the chocolate. Salted caramels after all are notoriously good, and I remember a chocolate pepper cake my sister once baked for New Year’s which we all thought would have been phenomenal had she not misread tablespoon for teaspoon in the pepper measurement.
You don’t get a huge spicy hit with these, but you do taste a lot of chocolate flavor. They’re dry cookies – don’t eat with them without a glass of water at the least, if not some good tea or hot cocoa – and not as finely crumbly nor crisp as shortbread can be, and somehow intensely likeable.
Also very helpful was Dorie’s suggestion of placing the shortbread logs in a cardboard paper towel roll – I used half of a wrapping paper roll – which helps the cookies keep the round shape as they chill. Brilliant idea: they look so neat and perfect, Rob said they look like slice and bake cookies. Which they are, in a sense, but one cookie’s all you need to know that you don't come across these in with the Pillsburys at the store. If the recipe title sounds good to you, you’ll like these cookies.

Lunchbox: Crockpot Red-Cooked Beef

Interviews this week, 1; people who claim they want interviews, 2; decisions, 0.

I have a love-hate relationship with my crockpot. I love the fact that I can leave it alone and ignore it all day long and the less I look in on it the more rewarded I am in the end. But it is messy, and I really think we could work things through if it had a removable inner pot. This would allow me to wash the crockpot in the sink, properly, like you do with things you cook with, and not have the cord draping all over the place or be concerned the next meal might taste like soap. I don’t know how to explain this to the crockpot, because really, it does a fine job and is in great condition – it’s just that I know there’s so much more convenience possible with another model. I keep thinking I’ll cave and just get a newer one, but I keep trudging back.
The braising purpose was the reason I gave in this week: there really is no edible way to eat a piece of eye of round unless you braise it, and the crockpot is about the best and laziest way to go about it. Red-cooked beef roast isn’t exactly traditional, but it’s a tasty easy choice that makes lots of leftovers. For a few days I ate the meat warm, with some of the thickened juices and a stir-fry of veggies, but today I ate the shredded meat on top of an impromptu salad of raw snow pea tips and baby bok choy, drizzled with some of Trader Joe’s sesame soy ginger dressing, and it was so simple and so good I may never cook bok choy again.

CROCKPOT RED-COOKED BEEF

1 lb eye of round roast
2 tsp five-spice powder
white pepper
sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 Tbsp finely minced ginger
1 can reduced fat, less sodium beef broth
1/2 c lower sodium soy sauce
1/4 c rice wine
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 scallions, cut into two-inch lengths

Pat the beef roast dry and rub on all sides with the five-spice powder and the white pepper to taste. Heat some sesame oil in a pan over medium heat until hot. Sear the beef roast about 2 minutes per side until well browned. Place in a small (3 1/2 qt) crockpot or slow cooker.
Pour over the beef roast into the crockpot the garlic, ginger, broth, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, chili garlic sauce, and oyster sauce, and stir to dissolve the sugar and sauces. Place the scallions over the top of the beef roast.
Cook on high for 2 hours. As briefly as possible, open the cooker and turn the roast over. Replace lid and continue cooking on low for six to seven hours, or until beef is fork-tender.
Serve, shredded, hot or at room temperature.

Fresh Homemade Ricotta

FRESH HOMEMADE RICOTTA
adapted from Gourmet, April 2006

1 qt whole milk
1/2 c half-and-half
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Line a sieve with a layer of cheesecloth - if you don't have cheesecloth, a large coffee filter works splendidly - and place it over a large bowl.
Slowly bring milk, half-and-half and salt to a rolling boil in a large pot over medium-low heat, stirring to prevent scorching. When the mixture is at a rolling boil quickly stir in the lemon juice, turn the heat down to low, and simmer, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes until curds form.
Pour the mixture into the lined sieve and let it sit for one hour. If the ricotta is not to the consistency you'd like and the curds seem dry, fold in some of the liquid, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency. After discarding the remainder of the liquid, chill the ricotta, covered.
Yields about 1 cup.

Sugar High Friday: Milk Chocolate Brownies

Whew! Getting in under the wire with this one . . . truth be told, I wasn't sure I was going to get to this month's SHF, hosted by Jasmine. But some days feel more seductive than others, and sometimes an inspiration strikes.
Though we've already celebrated Valentine's last weekend, there can never be enough sweet seduction, or seduction by sweets. I found a recipe for milk chocolate brownies, milk chocolate being Rob's favorite, today and decided to give it a go.
I learned you don't try these sorts of things with untested recipes that you decide to double on a moment's thought: the milk chocolate (Cadbury, if you're interested) seized when it was in the butter - one second grainy, the next a lump of brown sitting in the pot in a sea of melted butter - and no amount of mixing or coaxing was going to mix those two. I forged on though I didn't quite know what to expect, as I've never had that problem melting unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate with butter for brownies. Adding in the sugar only seemed to make things worse, but the eggs, wonderful little peacemakers, brought it back into something resembling brownie batter. I was once again stumped when I needed to add the rest of the chocolate - did I want it stirred in until smooth, or should the batter have chunks of milk chocolate throughout? I tried to compromise by stirring until the chunks were smoother and smaller, but still there. The batter was a bit streaky with unincorporated chocolate and rather thick, but it plopped into the pan, and then refused to let itself be spread. Oh dear.
But I'll be darned if it doesn't look like a brownie and smell like a brownie baking. I cut them just out of the oven to get the picture (probably a bad idea, and the cause of the melting whipped cream, but oh well) - they're dense inside, and though the tester came out clean they have a soft, fudgy inside - but this could also be because they haven't cooled properly yet. The flavor is intense, I still think I'd prefer brownies made with bittersweet chocolate, but the milk is an interesting twist and definitely a sweet choice.

MILK CHOCOLATE BROWNIES
adapted from Gourmet, February 2007

2 sticks unsalted butter, plus some for the pan
18 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
1 c packed light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 large eggs
1 1/2 c flour
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
1 tsp vanilla salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9x13 inch pan well and dust the bottom and sides with cocoa powder, tapping and shaking the pan to remove the excess.
Melt the butter and half of the chocolate in a 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring, until smooth (if it seizes or separates, ignore it no matter how bad it looks, and press on). Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. Stir in the vanilla and brown sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Whisk together the remaining ingredients and then stir into the chocolate mixture. Stir in the remainder of the chopped chocolate.
Spread batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester in the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes.

A Snow Day, And Soup, Both With Some Detours

I woke up this morning and checked my email and called work before hitting the shower, but despite the fact that it was still hailing there was nothing announcing a change in status quo. So I hit the shower and got myself fully woken up, which is in fact one of the best ways to ensure that you will then have that joyous little note, and sure enough it announced the delayed opening. So I stuck around here, blogged a bit myself and checked around, which was how I discovered Alanna's Soup, Glorious Soup! event post and figured maybe I could get to it next week. I then spent twenty minutes breaking up a quarter-inch-thick sheet of ice off the car, managed to get to the train station without careening into anything, got on the train and then the subway, trudged up to the office, and greeted the women next door, who told me they were sorry I was in. I said I was too. They said no, really; there's been another email and they closed the center for the whole day. Go home. Which I believe now counts as the Murphy's Law corollary to the shower-delayed opening correlation; that going into work when it's ridiculous is possibly the best way to get the full snow day. I tried not to be too peeved because ultimately they made the right decision, in my humble opinion.
But I figured if I had the rest of the day, it was not going to go wasted. I swung by the grocery store and picked up soup-making materials. There was a slight problem: the recipe called for fresh ricotta, and the only place I've found that is at Trader Joe's, about twenty minutes away and completely out of the question with the roads. So - and here is where we take a slight detour in the soup-making story for just a moment - I decided I'd just make some.
I'd bookmarked the recipe a while back on Epicurious because fresh ricotta is just really, really good (and it never occurred to me that one could make things like that at home) and luckily remembered it vaguely enough to pick up some milk at the store. I didn't remember anything else it called for, but that turned out to be ok. There are some negative reactions on the site, but my experience - with different ingredients and materials - is that it's incredibly easy, yummy, and cheaper than the carton. Definitely would do again.
I felt slightly silly about that, making fresh ricotta but cheating by using canned beans for the soup instead of going full-on, all-out and soaking and boiling, but I won't tell if you won't. The eggplants roasted while I finished a movie and napped on the couch. After that, it's just twenty to thirty minutes to soup.
This soup is really more stew-like than it is soup, and to that end tastes better after even just an hour's sitting. It's a good soup freshly made; it's nearly extraordinary if you let it rest. I went back for a second bowl later and reheated it; the chili flavor is more pronounced and really helps to mix the smokiness of the eggplant with the smooth undertons. I liked it much better on that second bowl and am hoping that after a day or so it's even more improved. My only real disinclination with it is the color. I'd been hoping for something resembling a white chili, but it's more murky, flecked with eggplant seeds and bits of seasoning, especially after pureeing. If you're ok with a homely, humble soup, this will be perfect to cheer your winter nights.

CREAMY EGGPLANT, CANNELLINI BEAN AND RICOTTA SOUP
adapted from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

3 large eggplants
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus several teaspoons for garnishing
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
2 small dried red chilies, crushed
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
1 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained
2 c chicken broth
2 Tbsp sherry
1/2 x 2" piece Parmesan rind (not waxy. optional)
1 recipe fresh ricotta cheese
salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 475 F. Prick the eggplants with a knife, lay them on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake them whole for about 40-45 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a deep pan and cook the garlic, onion, chilies, parsley and basil unti the garlic is softened but not colored (about 3 minutes or so). Cut the baked eggplant in half and scrape all the insides, breaking them up as you go, into the pan. Add the beans and broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove about half the soup, puree it and return it to the pot. Stir and season well. It should be creamy, gutsy, and reasonably thick. Season the ricotta with salt and pepper, break it up and stir it into the soup.
I served as Oliver recommended, with some olive oil drizzled over the top and warm toasted bread.

Because Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

So much for diet and exercise.

When I got up yesterday it had been a pretty crappy night, and was shaping up to be a fairly crappy day. I haven't baked, really baked, for just the sheer enjoyment of it in what felt like forever and it seemed like a really good time to remedy that. It's not really that I want cookies, it's that I want to bake cookies. Usually this means I'll end up eating a lot of cookies anyways, because then they're there, but this isn't always a good thing so I try to find other people or places to bring them to. I'd planned on baking later in the week for Val, Rob's awesome landlady who gave us free tickets to the Philadelphia Auto Show, and I think the majority of these are going to go to her. I guess I'm lucky at least I'm an emotional baker and not say an emotional shoe shopper, because cookies and brownies you can give away but people might think it weird if I started offering them new stilettos or something.
Somehow during the day it came into my head that the unopened jar of cashew butter sitting in the pantry needed to be made into cookies. I bought it a week or two ago - it's one of those things I've always been intrigued by but seemed unnecessary until that shopping trip - but didn't really know what I was going to do with it despite the fact that I can think of tons of things to do with regular ol' peanut butter. Most prevalently yesterday, cookies came to mind, and particularly really absolutely disgustingly rich comfort food cookies, and it just kind of snowballed. I started out with my favorite pb cookie recipe and added in all the things that sounded essential: honey-roasted cashews, dark chocolate, and butterscotch chips for that sort of caramelly flavor.
Incidentally, cashew butter tastes like the equivalent of a culinary soulmate: I opened the jar and it was like, where have you been all my life? I don't believe it's that tasty and no one told me before.

CASHEW-CASHEW BUTTER COOKIES
adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookie Book

2 c packed brown sugar
1 c cashew butter
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla salt
1 c honey-roasted cashews
1 c dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli 60%)
1 c butterscotch chips

Heat oven to 375 F. Beat together the sugar, cashew butter, butter and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Stir into the cashew butter mixture. Dough will be slightly stiff. Carefully fold and mix in the cashews and chocolate and butterscotch chips.
For giant cookies: using an ice-cream scoop or 1/4 c measure, scoop out balls of dough and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake about 11 to 13 minutes or until light brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Makes about 21 giant cookies.
For still-hefty-but-more-manageable cookies: shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet; flatten slightly if desired. Bake about 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool 5 minutes, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Retro Recipe: Cinnamon-Nut Rolls

Last year for Valentine's Day I baked five or six dozen #16-scoop size cookies. They were all ginormous, and there were an awful lot of them. This was no easy feat considering at the time I only had one baking sheet. And I guess I kind of went overboard, because we ended up eating cookies for at least two months. Oops.
This year, I took heed from Good Housekeeping:
. . . everyone (particularly men) likes something good and simple.
I forewent the oodles of cookies in favor of another good bakery item, and a simpler one to make with the retro recipe: cinnamon-nut rolls. Cinnamon is highly appropriate as a food of love: it may be an aphrodisiac, depending on who you ask; it may be even more of one when paired with the scent of baked goods, and finally, in sentimental value, I know cinnamon rolls already go over well.
These were not exactly what I had in mind.

They smell really, really good. But I was not quite pleased when I pulled them out of the oven: at best, I think they look like misshapen and burned miniature hot dog rolls, and at worst they look like turds. Not particularly romantic either way.
For the sake of blogging I ate one, part warm. They are actually quite tasty if you eat them all but straight out of the oven, and if you're not superficial about your food. These don't taste like cinnamon rolls - they taste like biscuits rolled in cinnamon. But that's really not such a bad thing, if you like biscuits and you like cinnamon. They are not worth a second glance fifteen minutes out of the oven once they've cooled. Probably the tastiest part is the bits of buttered pecans and hardened cinnamon sugar left on the baking pan - so maybe you should just skip the biscuits. Leave the nuts whole, toss them with butter and then the cinnamon-sugar mix and then bake on a sheet for about 10 minutes: you'll get all the tantalizing smells and the best part of the recipe. I'd hoped these rolls could do for a tantalizing breakfast-in-bed, but probably you should stick with Pillsbury in a can. After all, what's more swoon-worthy than no extra dishes to wash?

CINNAMON-NUT ROLLS
from The Illustrated Good Housekeeping Encyclopedic Cookbook, 1965, Vol.1

Start heating oven to 425 F. With hands, roll each refrigerated pan-ready biscuit into stick 4" long. Roll in melted butter, then in this mixture: 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed; 2 Tbsp granulated sugar; 1/2 tsp cinnamon/ 1/4 c chopped nuts. Bake 10 min.

tags: RRC #6

Claudia's German Sauerbraten

I happen to work in an office next door to Claudia, who is from Germany by way of the rest of the world. When she gets homesick one of the things she misses most is the sauerbraten, which I’ve determined to be like pot roast but even better, and naturally one day while we were talking I had her write ingredients (zutaten – isn’t that a great word?) down for me.
The list has been on my refrigerator since last July, and I have had very good intentions of making it, but was not fully spurred on until the recent influx of ridiculously cold weather, which all but demands some warm and rich comfort food, and Claudia’s return after the holidays. Because she knows I adore these sorts of things, I have a lovely little box of tea from her and also a package of actual authentic German-as-it-gets pickling spice. Just look at that – she is so Charlie’s Angel turned gherkin-making domestic.

Sauerbraten was in the long list of things I’ve heard of but never made, and the spice package was a perfect incentive – so I had Claudia iron out proportions with her mum and gave it a go. Claudia’s version uses red wine and balsamic vinegar, which gives almost anything a really, really good start. I improvised slightly on her directions for use of a crock-pot because I’m lazy – I think mine could’ve used more braising time to tenderize, but the flavor is absolutely there and yummy. The meat is slightly sweet, slightly sour, a bit peppery, and is even better the next day. Your kitchen may smell like vinegar and onions for a night, but these things happen.
Claudia was very particular on a few points, so I’ll pass them on to you as well: Liquid for the brine should be 3 parts plain to 1 part vinegar (red wine and balsamic, water and plain white vinegar, broth and cider vinegar, etc), and sweetened with 1 Tbsp to about 250 mL/about 1 cup of total liquid. Taste the brine before you put the meat in. The longer you brine the beef, the better. Whether cooking it on the stove, in the oven or in the slow cooker, you must absolutely brown the meat on all sides first. And finally, don’t go overboard and make sauerkraut with it, because there will be too much sauer for one meal.

CLAUDIA'S GERMAN SAUERBRATEN

brine
1 pickling spice package or about 1/2 jar pickling spice*
1 large bay leaf
1 medium onion, cut in large dice
6 cloves garlic, cut in thin slices
½ c balsamic vinegar
1 ½ c red wine
2 ½ Tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
beef
2 ¼ lb untrimmed meat suitable for pot roast, such as bottom round, eye of round or brisket
1 Tbsp olive oil or bacon grease
1 ½ - 2 onions, thinly sliced
about 1/3 – ½ c juice (any juice you like – apple, orange, etc will work. Claudia likes mango nectar because then you don’t have to thicken the sauce. I couldn’t find any, so I used the white cranberry peach in my fridge.)
2-3 Tbsp flour mixed in a slurry with 2-3 Tbsp water
small amount (1/4 c or so) light sour cream

In a nonreactive saucepan, mix together the brine ingredients. Bring to a boil to dissolve the salt and sugar and stir. Let simmer for three minutes. Remove from heat and let cool, about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Pickling spice in brine looks like this:

Place the meat roast in a large Ziploc bag set in a bowl. When the brine has cooled, carefully pour the brine over the roast into the bag. Turn to coat. Seal the bag, pressing out the air. Place in the refrigerator and turn the bag over every 12 hours or so. Let the meat brine for two-four days.
Remove the meat from the bag and place on a doubled paper towel; pat the meat dry with paper towels. Strain the brine through a sieve and reserve about 1 cup of the brine.
In a medium skillet, heat about 1 Tbsp of olive oil on medium – medium-high heat until hot. Brown the meat well on all sides and ends, about 2 minutes per.
Place the onions in the bottom of a slow cooker. When the meat is browned, place the meat on top of the onions. Pour in the reserved brine and the juice. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours or until fork-tender.
Remove the meat from the slow cooker and tent with foil to keep warm. Stir in the flour mixed with water. Cover the cooker again and cook on high for about 15 minutes. Remove sauce from the slow cooker and stir in small amount of light sour cream to thicken and to taste.
Cut the beef in long thin slices with the grain and serve hot with the sauce. Store leftovers in the sauce.

*If you use a jarred pickling spice, try to get one that does not contain cinnamon. You can also mix together your own spices for pickling. The package Claudia gave me contains mustard seed, peppercorns, dillseed, crumbled bay leaf, ginger, cloves, allspice, and two small dried red chilies.