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I realized that with all of the sunny winter days California has had these past few months, slow cooking meals haven’t been on my radar.   When the weather took a turn a couple of weeks ago, I was excited to get back in my “winter groove” of crock-pot cooking!  Here as a Thai inspired menu I put together for Sunday dinner:

Skinny Pina Coladas

• 2 oz Homemade Pineapple Infused Rum
• Juice of 1/4 of a Lime

1. Pour rum into a low ball glass with 1 large ice cube.
2. Top with lime juice, stir and enjoy!

Crockpot Curried Thai Short Rib Tacos with Mango Salsa

Recipe via Half Baked Harvest 

Short Ribs

• 3 lbs beef short ribs, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
• 1 cup sweet thai chili sauce
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon thai red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 head butter lettuce and/or small tortillas

Mango Salsa

• 1 mango, diced
• 1/2 small jalapeño, seeded & diced
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped

Thai Peanut Sauce

• 1 (14 oz) can lite coconut milk
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon thai red curry paste

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a heavy bottom pan and brown/sear short ribs over medium-high heat (about 1 minute for each side).
2. Remove ribs and transfer to the crock-pot bowl.
3. Add garlic, ginger, sweet thai chili sauce, soy sauce, thai red curry paste and fish sauce to crock-pot bowl/ribs.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (5-6 on high). The key is to make sure the meat is falling off of the bones when you remove them.
4. While the ribs are cooking, make the mango salsa but mixing all the ingredients listed about together in a bowl.  Season to your liking and store in the fridge until ready to serve (I recommend doing this in the morning as well… it will only taste better the longer the flavors can meld).
5. Make the peanut sauce by heating coconut milk, peanut butter, brown sugar, soy sauce and thai red curry paste in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Bring to a low bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved, peanut butter has melted and you are left with a smooth peanut sauce.  Store until you are ready to eat.
6. Once the ribs are fully cooked, remove from the crock-pot and shred with a fork.  Feel free to put meat back into crock-pot with sauce (if you aren’t a “sauce” person, or like your meat a little drier than you can skip this step).
7. Serve meat with lettuce (for lettuce cups) or tortillas (for tacos), and top with mango salsa and peanut sauce.
8. Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.