Category: Meat & Poultry

Instant Pot Barbacoa Beef

This week, my foodie friends and I decided to throw a dumpling party, where each attendee contributed another dumpling from around the world! You can watch a roundup here! I decided to go with tamales since I’ve always wanted to learn to make them the authentic way. First, I researched barbacoa recipes for the tamale filling (which you can also fill with beans, pulled chicken, cheese or veggies).

Barbacoa is actually the Spanish word for barbecue. It generally refers to meats over an open fire, but in Mexico, barbacoa evolved into a specific cooking style in which meat is slowly cooked in a pit dug into the ground, which is covered with agave leaves. Cooking the meat sealed in a pit steams the meat by sealing in the moisture while also imparting it with smoky flavor. Home cooks adapted barbacoa to the kitchen and converted it into braised beef, which works well in the Instant Pot or crockpot.

Barbacoa is typically made out of tougher cuts of meat, goat or lamb that require long, slow cooking times. Chuck roast, brisket and beef cheeks are common, but I used deckel because it’s a budget friendly with good marbeling. While tough, the meat breaks down into tender pulled beef in the Instant Pot.

The tamales were a huge hit at the party (full recipe coming soon), and I used my leftover meat to make pulled beef tacos for dinner the next night. I love that this recipe is spicy, savory and full of flavor, different from the sweet pulled beef I’m used to eating. Give it a try!

 


Related Recipes:

Blogoversary BBQ Brisket
easiest crockpot pulled beef
skirt steak tacos

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Cabbage Hamantasch Knish

I’ve been on quite the cruciferous kick these days, and I thought I’d have given up by now, but no! I’m having fun challenging myself to new cabbage creations, and thankfully my body loves cabbage as much as I do, so it works for me!

Growing up, my mom always made cabbage knishes for Shabbat and the holidays. She would sauté a bag of pre-shredded cabbage in some oil, season it with plenty of sugar, salt and pepper and stuff it into pockets of puff pastry. I love the addition of beef bacon here – plus a hint of mustard and maple and just a splash of vinegar to cut through it all makes the perfect filling.

Are you team sweet or savory hamantasch? Let me know in the comments below!

Related Recipes:

salami tarte tatin
corndog hamantaschen
savory hamantaschen trio

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Simanim Plov

I’ve been working on so many recipes for #yeswecanchag initiative including this sheet pan chicken and tzimmes, this 6-spice Moroccan stoup, and this Israeli couscous with beef.  My fellow bloggers and I also got together and created THIS MENU of bonus budget-friendly recipes! I hope these recipes help you scale down your cooking this Chag while still bringing showstopping dishes to the table!

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Denver, Colorado to host a cheese-board-building demonstration at The Jewish Experience 20th annual wine & cheese event. The event was set up beautifully, and they even served my Mile High S’mores Pie in the Mile High City to celebrate, how fun?!

Since the demonstration was late in the week, I stayed in Denver for Shabbos at the home of Rabbi & Mrs. Zeldy Engel of Chabad Cherry Creek. Zeldy was so warm and welcoming, and she happily took me around the neighborhood hot spots, even driving out to Red Rocks for a breathtaking and scenic view of the mountains.

Zeldy prepared many of my cookbook recipes from her well-worn copy of Millennial Kosher and her sister’s recipe for Moroccan fish that smelled like actual heaven. But the star of the Friday night meal was PLOV. Zeldy hosted two Bucharian sisters, Aliza and Sharona, who came over earlier in the day to prepare this labor-intensive dish. By Friday night, the smell was intoxicating, and the huge pot was painstakingly transferred onto a huge round platter in middle of the table. Not only was the dish beautiful, it’s flavor was absolutely mindblowing – savory, spicy, with a hint of sweetness from the carrots and heat from the jalapenos. As I was eating it, my mind started wandering in a million directions on how I could “trash it up” (as I like to say!) and put my own spin on it. Wish Rosh Hashanah approaching, I thought it would be a great idea to incorporate some of the simanim, or symoblic foods that we eat on Rosh Hashanah, so I replaced the onions with leeks, and the jalapenos with apples, and finished it off with pomegranate seeds for a colorful one-pot-meal worthy of your holiday table. Yes. We. Can. Chag!

Related Recipes:

hummus simanim
simanim fritto misto
simanim pasta
simanim holiday salad

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Salami Spaghetti

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a Jewish blogger who happened upon a little-know-custom of eating salami on Purim since it’s hung, like the evil Haman was hanged on the gallows. She loved to celebrate the holidays with fun spins on traditions but salami was knows to give her nightmares.

When she was a girl, said blogger was forced to eat salami sandwiches on Friday afternoons, which she promptly threw down the incinerator chute of her apartment building, horrified by the hard white pieces in the salami. She swore off the cured sausage forever.

As a young bridge, not knowing how to cook, and on a newlywed budget, she was introduced to the humble dish of salami and eggs. She learned, that once cooked, the “hard white pieces” in the salami, rendered out into flavorful fat that crisped up the salami into crunchy bits of deliciousness. Intrigued, she hopped on board the salami wagon.

And so, each year, as an ode to her transformation, she puts a spin on salami dishes for the holiday. There was no outdoing her drunken hasselback salami, which has since graced the tables of thousands of Jewish households and deli counters worldwide.

….And now back to first person, I am spellbound that I have carried on this tradition for TEN YEARS here on the blog!! I couldn’t be more proud! This year, my salami inspiration comes by way of Italy, a trip that continues to inspire my cooking on the daily.

Italy is known for it’s pasta, but equally for it’s charcuterie, including salami. This flavorful yet humble dish, marries a garlicky tomato sauce with spicy chili flakes, and rich salami chunks that get crisped up to perfection. Truly worthy of your holiday feast!

In true Italian style, this recipe makes use of the salty and starchy pasta water to build the sauce, so make sure not to drain it and read the full recipe before proceeding!

Happy Purim!!

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: roasted antipasto salad
two years ago: salami nduja
three years ago: salami tarte tatin
four years ago: salami potato latkes
five years ago: salami babka
six years ago: salami quiche
seven years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
eight years ago: drunken hasselback salami
nine years ago: salami chips

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Roasted Antipasto Salad

I never thought I’d say this but Tiktok is actually good for SOMETHING. The viral baked feta pasta that took the internet by storm last week got me thinking!

It’s salami o’clock here at Busy in Brooklyn, which means it’s that time of year that I make something WOW with Abeles & Heymann salami in honor of Purim (since salami is hung like the evil Haman in the Purim story!).

So what do you think I did? I roasted up those tomatoes with olives, onions, garlic and yes, SALAMI,  a la ANTIPASTO. I mean, HOW. GOOD. DOES. THAT. LOOK. (no that’s not a question!)

So, I toss up that roasted antipasto medley with some tricolor pasta for a BOMB appetizer that is just perfect for your Purim meal. I am in love. Thank you TikTok.

So, a few things about this “recipe”, it’s not really a “recipe”. Go ahead and roast whatever you like in there – artichokes, mushrooms, peppers, chickpeas. Just give it all a nice drizzle of oil and let it go for a while until it’s all soft and tender.

And feel free to use some bowtie pasta, or whatever shape you like, or for a no-carb version, toss it with some hearts of palm spaghetti!

Or just serve as an appetizer with some crusty bread. SALAMI HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD!

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: salami nduja
two years ago: salami tarte tatin
three years ago: salami potato latkes
four years ago: salami babka
five years ago: salami quiche
six years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
seven years ago: drunken hasselback salami
eight years ago: salami chips

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