Wowie-Wow-Wow-Wow!

There is an old Saturday Night Live sketch starring Christopher Walkin called "The Transcontinental" in which Walkin plays an unsuccessful ladies man where everything he does pretty much repels women. It is actually quite a brilliant sketch and if you have never seen it, well it's definitely worth a quick Google search and a YouTube viewing experience. The reason I bring it up now is because the catch phrase of the character is "Wowie-wow-wow-wow" and it is the first thing that pops into my head when I think of tonight's dinner. Let's just say, if my dinner were a lady's man, it would not be going home alone tonight, if ya know what I mean (wink, wink).

Tonight we decided to try Skirt Steak with Cipollini Onions from the Food Network website in honor of a fresh shipment of red cipollini onions from our Dandelion Organic Produce Delivery service. Please visit the website directly for a copy of the complete recipe.

Since the Community Food Co-op where we buy all our meat coes not carry skirt steak, we elected to go with a nice organic brisket instead since it was roughly about the size and shape we wanted.

Don, my dear knight in shining armor, got up early enough to prepare the slow cooker meal so that I didn't have to, and was even awake enough to remember to take pictures of the prep as he went. Good hubby! He started by coating the meat chunks in flour and then browning them on the stove top over high heat in small batches to avoid over crowding. When all the meat was done browning and nestled snugly in the crockpot, he set to work on the braising liquids.

While pan is still hot, add two cups of beef broth and one cup of red wine. Whisk well and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the brown bits. Cook until liquid reduces by half and then add to the crockpot. For the red wine, we chose the 2005 Chuckanut Ridge Madrona, a personal favorite of ours purchased from a recent wine tasting event. Chuckanut Ridge Wine Company outsources it's grapes from Yakima Valley and then processes their wines at their facility in Ferndale. You can sample and purchase their wines at their tasting room in Bellingham, which also offers live music several days a week.


Next add 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns, and about a pound of whole trimmed red cipollini onions to the slow cooker. Cover and cook over low heat about 8 hours. Just before it's time to eat, add 3/4 cup roughly chopped green olives and simmer another 20 minutes before serving. Recommended: Serve over cooked rotini pasta tossed in butter and parsley with steamed broccoli. This would also be delicious over egg noodles.