Recipe: "Crockpot Sloppy José Filling"
Jul. 26th, 2014 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday we went to the farmer's market and bought ingredients for two batches of freezer food. One is new, the other an old favorite. This afternoon I made Crockpot Sloppy José Filling. Tomorrow's project will be Venison Spaghetti Sauce.
"Crockpot Sloppy José Filling"
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. tomatillos
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 lime (zest and juice)
1/4 cup dried cilantro flakes
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 lb. lamb chorizo
2 lb. ground beef
3 tablespoons tapioca starch
Directions:
Peel the husks off the tomatillos, wash the tomatillos and then chop them. Put them in the crockpot, cover, and turn it on Low.
Chop 1 white onion. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and add that. Scrape those into the crockpot.
Zest the lime, then juice it. Add to the crockpot. Cook for 2 hours, or until the vegetables start to get tender.
Add 1/4 cup dried cilantro flakes, 1/2 teaspoon pink salt, 1/2 teaspoon smoked black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke to the crockpot.
Put the chorizo and ground beef into an electric skillet and turn it to low heat. Carefully break the meat into tiny pieces, mixing together as much as possible. Cook until browned. Chorizo tends to retain a reddish color even when cooked, so gauge from the beef. Scoop up the browned meat, allowing the grease to drain, then transfer the meat into the crockpot.
Cook for 2-3 more hours, until the meat and vegetables are well blended and the flavors have matured. Add tapioca starch as needed for thickening.
Makes about 10 servings. Filling may be divided into containers and frozen. The finished filling is flavorful but not hot. (No esta picante.) If you want to make it spicy-hot then consider adding salsa verde, jalapeno, or serrano peppers.
Notes:
Tomatillos are Mexican green tomatoes that have a papery husk. They provide one of the main flavors for the sloppy josé. If you can't find these, you may substitute ordinary green tomatoes.
Dried cilantro soaks up the moisture and helps bind the mix together, but you can try this with fresh cilantro if you wish. Parsley flakes should work if you don't have cilantro.
Pink salt is a gourmet salt with a moderate amount of trace minerals. Popular varieties include Himalayan and Australian. Another good salt for this recipe would be any kind of smoked salt. If you don't have the fancy kinds, then sea salt or plain table salt will work instead.
Smoked black pepper adds to the smoky flavor of the filling. If you don't have it, substitute ordinary black pepper.
Chorizo is a Spanish/Mexican sausage, usually very spicy and made from pork. We found a lamb version at a farmer's market, which is spicy and flavorful but not hot. It mixes marvelously with the beef here. Other alternatives would be to use a small amount of hot pork chorizo with some ground lamb, or the 1 1/2 pounds of hot pork chorizo for a much spicier sloppy josé.
In addition to making sandwiches, this could also be used as taco filling or tostito chip dip. This recipe is gluten-free as made, and can be eaten with other things than wheat bread.
This is a recipe in active development. It's quite tasty but my partner Doug and I agree that it needs something more. We have discussed possibilities including hominy, sweet corn, and cheese.
"Crockpot Sloppy José Filling"
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. tomatillos
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 lime (zest and juice)
1/4 cup dried cilantro flakes
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 lb. lamb chorizo
2 lb. ground beef
3 tablespoons tapioca starch
Directions:
Peel the husks off the tomatillos, wash the tomatillos and then chop them. Put them in the crockpot, cover, and turn it on Low.
Chop 1 white onion. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and add that. Scrape those into the crockpot.
Zest the lime, then juice it. Add to the crockpot. Cook for 2 hours, or until the vegetables start to get tender.
Add 1/4 cup dried cilantro flakes, 1/2 teaspoon pink salt, 1/2 teaspoon smoked black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke to the crockpot.
Put the chorizo and ground beef into an electric skillet and turn it to low heat. Carefully break the meat into tiny pieces, mixing together as much as possible. Cook until browned. Chorizo tends to retain a reddish color even when cooked, so gauge from the beef. Scoop up the browned meat, allowing the grease to drain, then transfer the meat into the crockpot.
Cook for 2-3 more hours, until the meat and vegetables are well blended and the flavors have matured. Add tapioca starch as needed for thickening.
Makes about 10 servings. Filling may be divided into containers and frozen. The finished filling is flavorful but not hot. (No esta picante.) If you want to make it spicy-hot then consider adding salsa verde, jalapeno, or serrano peppers.
Notes:
Tomatillos are Mexican green tomatoes that have a papery husk. They provide one of the main flavors for the sloppy josé. If you can't find these, you may substitute ordinary green tomatoes.
Dried cilantro soaks up the moisture and helps bind the mix together, but you can try this with fresh cilantro if you wish. Parsley flakes should work if you don't have cilantro.
Pink salt is a gourmet salt with a moderate amount of trace minerals. Popular varieties include Himalayan and Australian. Another good salt for this recipe would be any kind of smoked salt. If you don't have the fancy kinds, then sea salt or plain table salt will work instead.
Smoked black pepper adds to the smoky flavor of the filling. If you don't have it, substitute ordinary black pepper.
Chorizo is a Spanish/Mexican sausage, usually very spicy and made from pork. We found a lamb version at a farmer's market, which is spicy and flavorful but not hot. It mixes marvelously with the beef here. Other alternatives would be to use a small amount of hot pork chorizo with some ground lamb, or the 1 1/2 pounds of hot pork chorizo for a much spicier sloppy josé.
In addition to making sandwiches, this could also be used as taco filling or tostito chip dip. This recipe is gluten-free as made, and can be eaten with other things than wheat bread.
This is a recipe in active development. It's quite tasty but my partner Doug and I agree that it needs something more. We have discussed possibilities including hominy, sweet corn, and cheese.
Re: Venison
Date: 2014-07-29 09:56 pm (UTC)GRIN.
Re: Venison
Date: 2014-07-29 10:20 pm (UTC)The beefsteak tomato sauce came out sweeter, although this time we added ground beef to it. The mushroom medley, which I'm also hoping to do again this year, is tangy-sweet with strong earthy notes from all the shrooms.
We've put together two bags of stuff for my parents (since they bought us a massive amount of ingredients) including a whole batch of sloppy joe mix with the mild spicy barbecue sauce; and a sample carton each of the wild tidy joe, sloppy jose, venison spaghetti sauce, and beefsteak spaghetti sauce. Dad figured out that the sloppy joe mix could be turned into spaghetti sauce simply by adding a can of tomato sauce.