By New Year's Eve and 2019 is going out the way years go out: with snow on the streets and the particular feeling of the last day of something. We didn't make plans—I'm twenty-eight weeks pregnant and Liam is almost two and plans require energy we didn't have—and so we had Meghan and Cormac over instead, and Aidan asleep in the carrier and their girls in Liam's room with permission to watch a movie, and the six of us at the kitchen table eating the short ribs I'd braised on Sunday and watching the year turn over on the TV with the volume low.
Meghan made a toast. She does this at the new year, a short one, the kind that says the thing without saying too much. This year she said: "To what's coming." She looked around the table—me and my belly, and Cormac who was going back to work on a big project in January, and Sean who had quietly started looking at the numbers for a house—and she said "to what's coming" and we drank.
2020. Nora in April. A house in a few years. Liam turning two in March. The year in front of us full of the things we can see and the things we can't, which is every year but which I feel more clearly at thirty-three weeks pregnant with a glass of sparkling water watching the city count down through the window.
I made the black-eyed peas for New Year's Day, same as every year, from the nurse who taught me to make them in my first year at MGH. The chain of what you learn and what you pass forward. The chain is long.
The short ribs I’d made that Sunday were exactly what that table needed—something braised low and slow, something that had already done all its work before anyone arrived. That’s the genius of this kind of cooking when you’re twenty-eight weeks pregnant and running on whatever energy is left after a toddler and a year: you put the meat in, you walk away, and hours later the whole apartment smells like it’s been taken care of. These Machaca Beef Dip Sandwiches work the same way—the slow cooker does the braising, the beef shreds into something deeply savory and tender, and all you have to do at the end is pile it onto rolls and set them on the table while the year turns over quietly on the TV.
Machaca Beef Dip Sandwiches
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 8 hrs | Total Time: 8 hrs 20 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 3 lb beef chuck roast, trimmed
- 1 can (14-1/2 oz) beef broth
- 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 8 hoagie or sub rolls, split
Instructions
- Load the slow cooker. Place the trimmed chuck roast in the bottom of a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. In a bowl, stir together the beef broth, diced tomatoes with chiles, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Pour the mixture over the roast.
- Braise low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours, or until the beef is completely tender and pulls apart easily with a fork.
- Shred the beef. Transfer the roast to a cutting board or large bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes. Use two forks to shred the meat into rough, generous pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat.
- Add the chiles and return. Stir the canned green chiles into the cooking liquid in the slow cooker. Return the shredded beef to the pot, stir to combine, and cook on HIGH for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until heated through and well sauced.
- Build the sandwiches. Pile the machaca beef generously onto split hoagie rolls. Ladle some of the cooking juices into small bowls on the side for dipping. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 445 | Protein: 37g | Fat: 15g | Carbs: 37g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 790mg