Originally posted by Sarah – February 22, 2015
I don’t know if any of you attach memories or moments in time with a certain smell, but I do. There is a certain smell that I identify with my seventh grade trip to an environmental camp, and a certain smell that reminds me of being a kid playing kickball in my side yard at dusk. A few years ago I opened a makeup compact and the memory of kissing my granny’s cheek came rushing back to me (apparently she wore cover girl blush too). Well, today I had a memory of visiting my grandparents in Michigan while preparing Sunday night dinner. I am not a coffee drinker, my parents aren’t coffee drinkers, but my grandparents were. The smell of coffee has never been an everyday smell to me, especially fresh coffee grounds. While I was preparing the rub for the meat all I could think of was my grandma in the morning on our visits to Michigan.
Even though I don’t own a coffee maker I was pretty excited about the coffee in the Springdell share yesterday. So many ideas on how to use coffee besides enjoying a cup in the morning. The first that came to mind was a rub for meat. I had never tried this because I don’t have coffee around my house, so I followed a recipe for this one. Jessica and Glen are often guinea pigs for me on my culinary adventures and I think it was a hit. I hope you give it a try!
We had a very packed full day today so the crock pot was the way to go in order to have Sunday night dinner ready on time. This morning I made the coffee rub to put on the brisket.
Very quick and simple: 1/3 cup coffee grounds, 1 Tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cocoa powder, and a can of coconut milk- divided. I decided last minute to add a bit of cinnamon to the rub, but that’s not in the picture. It’s totally my own addition and you could add additional spices to your liking as well. (Recipe came from www.ourfullplate.com)
I mixed the dry ingredients together in an 11×18 dish so I could just put the brisket right in. Be sure to rub the meat and cover all of the area including the sides. I did have some rub leftover, I didn’t want to leave too much excess sitting on the meat.
I let the meat sit for a bit while I took care of the coconut milk. Coconut milk will naturally separate in the can, the thick white cream will be on the top while the liquid is underneath. Take the cream off the top and put it aside. Pour all of the liquid from the can straight into your crock pot.
Put the meat into the crockpot on top of the liquid. The solid cream from the can is then broken up and put on top of the meat.
Set your crockpot on low for 10 hours. We were gone all day, came home about 430, just in time to dash around and put together the meal. Here is a picture of what I came home to, if only I could post a picture of the aroma that comes with it!
I served this with Springdell beets with an herb butter and white rice with the au jus of course. For desert we had apple cider granita, don’t worry I’ll post that recipe for you on Tuesday.
It was a pretty busy day, kids are in bed, it was another successful Sunday night dinner. It’s time to make lunches for school tomorrow, fold some laundry and I hope to have some time to relax with a cup of tea before I collapse! This was a good one, try it with some of the coffee we got yesterday. Enjoy!