Guinness Pot Roast

Confession—growing up I hated pot roast.  My mom makes EXCELLENT pot roast, so I know it was not her cooking.  I’ve just never been too keen on things all cooked in one container (still fighting issues with food touching…).  Over the past couple of years, I have begun to LOVE pot roast.  Occasionally, I begin craving pot roast.  I had such a craving this past week.

I like making pot roast in my crockpot.  It’s low-maintenance and the results are usually tender & delicious.  This is currently my favorite prep method.  I love the depth of flavor this recipe has. I experimented with this a lot before settling on the ingredient list/amounts.  When making pot roast in the slow cooker, I will slow cook the meat with a few of the vegetables all day.  When I get home from work, I blend or mash the vegetables that are in the crockpot (super mushy by that point) to get a good gravy base to develop.  I then add the vegetables I will be serving, so that they still have texture when it comes to dinner time. 

If anything is not clear in this recipe, please let me know.  It’s 11pm when I’m typing this…and there are bound to be “huh?” moments (like the double bullet points--no clue what's going on, I'll check out the HTML tomorrow)…Also, please forgive the lack of “finished product” photos. I actually made this for dinner when my mother-in-law was visiting last weekend, and I totally forgot to take a “it’s done” photo. 

Guinness Pot Roast

Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 7-9 hours. Servings Vary

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup.  Biggest Roast I've cooked...ever.

• 1 beef roast (cut of choice, enough meat to serve the # of people)
• ·         2-3 T. vegetable oil
• ·         2-4 T. flour
• ·         1 t. ground black pepper
• ·         1 bottle of Guinness (resist urge to drink)
• ·         1 package of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix (or 2 cans of beef broth reduced in half by simmering on the stovetop)
• ·         2 cups pearl onions or 2 medium, wedged onions (add an extra cup of onion if not using soup mix)
• ·         2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• ·         2 bay leaves
• ·         2-3 cloves minced fresh garlic (or dried equivalent)
• ·         Potatoes (based on # of people serving)
• ·         Baby Carrots (based on # of people serving)
• ·         [optional] 0.5 t. dried thyme
• ·         [optional] Salt, as needed
• ·         [optional] Corn starch slurry or potato buds to thicken gravy

Directions

1.  Heat oil in a large skillet.  Coat roast in flour & black pepper. Brown roast on all sides in the oil.  Remove roast from pan & place in the bottom of a large slow cooker.  Surround the roast with some of the vegetables.  I typically peel & cut up 1 potato.  I then add a handful of baby carrots, 1-2 cups of pearl onions, the garlic & the celery.  Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the vegetables & roast.  Pour the Guinness over the contents in the pan.  Add the bay leaves & thyme.  Cover & refrigerate overnight, or immediately begin cooking the roast.

Brown roast in pan

Layer in some veg.

Add some more veg & the powdered soup mix.

Pour in beer, add herbs & prep for deliciousness

2.  Cook roast in the slow cooker on low for 5-7 hours.

3. [Optional] Remove roast & bay leaves from the broth.  Transfer the broth & vegetables to a blender, or using an immersion blender, blend the vegetables & broth until smooth.

Roast after 5 hours.

Using one of my favorite kitchen weapons...

Roast back in the broth, ready to get a heaping mound of onions,
potatoes & carrots added to it...and finished off for a delicious dinner.
Imagine that there are more photos... :-/  

4. Return roast to the broth & add remaining vegetables.  Cook on low for an additional 1-2 hours.

5.  Remove roast & vegetables from the slow cooker.  Serve gravy, or use a corn starch slurry or potato buds to thicken gravy to desired consistency.  

I bought a huge chunk of beef (Pan Seared Garlic Rosemary Beef Tips)

Nothing makes you feel more gluttonous than buying a $52 piece of meat.  But when that chunk of meat is normally $115 dollars...and it will make roughly 10 meals worth of protein for 2 people...and when that chunk of meat is beef tenderloin (aka filet)...it was worth it (I did sit there staring at it for about 10 minutes in the store before finally committing & putting it in the cart).

Last week Kroger had whole beef tenderloins on sale for over half off their normal price.  Beef tenderloin is super lean, super tender, & super flavorful...and is normally super expensive.  So I splurged & bought one.  I came home & cut it into 12 good sized filet steaks & 3 meals worth of beef tips off of the tapered ends of the tenderloin.  Most of it was individually packaged & was placed in the deep freeze for later use.

This is what I did with some of the tenderloin tips for dinner last night, I served it with sauteed vegetables fresh from our garden.

Pan Seared Garlic-Rosemary Beef Tips
Prep time: 5 min, Cook time: 5-8 minutes, Serves 2


Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup

• 10-12 ounces of lean beef, cut into 2" cubes (i.e. tenderloin or sirloin)
• 1/2 t. fresh rosemary, minced finely
• 1 t. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced finely
• salt & ground pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Toss meat in olive oil, rosemary & garlic.

2. Rub a cast iron skillet or stainless steel skillet with a light coating of olive oil & heat over high heat. 

Searing away...

3. Put meat in the skillet, sear on each side for approximately 1.5 minutes or until desired doneness. Remove from skillet & let rest for 5 minutes. Garnish with salt & pepper, and serve.

Garlic-rosemary beef tips & sauteed vegetables. 

Korean BBQ Stir Fry (Bulgogi style)

This recipe was given to my mom over 2 decades ago by a neighbor we had in Minnesota.  I randomly got it from my mom via email the other day & thought it was a sign to make it. :-)

I used this marinade for a spicy beef stir fry that we had for dinner tonight--but you could also use this sauce as the basis for BBQ ribs/beef cooking methods described in this recipe.  I paired it with Asian slaw, but this beef would also be delicious with broccoli & rice.

Bulgogi- Korean Style BBQ
Prep time= 8 min, Marination= 2-24 hours, Cook time= 5-10 min, 4 Servings

Photo's a little washed out...but it was tasty.

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup (minus the chili oil & sesame seeds.  I'm out
of sesame seeds & forgot to put the chili oil in the photo)

There's my chili oil...

• 1 pound lean beef (i.e. sirloin, roast)
• 2 T brown sugar
• 4 T soy sauce
• 2 T sesame oil (can substitute vegetable oil or use half vegetable oil)
• 1 t. sesame seeds [optional]
• 1 medium green onion, chopped
• 3/4 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. ground black pepper
• 1/2 t. hot chili oil [optional]

Directions

1.  Cut beef against the grain into thin strips.  Place strips in a large zip top bag. Place other ingredients in the bag. Seal the bag & toss to evenly coat all of the strips.  Open the bag & squeeze out the excess air.  Place the bag in a bowl or on a plate in the fridge for 2-24 hours (longer = better).

Cut into thin strips...

All the ingredients in the bag...

Toss, remove excess air, & seal...

2.  Remove bag from the fridge & place on counter.  Let it warm up for 10-15 minutes.

Post approximately 18 hours of marinating...

3.  Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Pour the meat & marinade into the skillet.  Stirfry over high heat until meat reaches desired doneness.  Either a) remove the beef from the skillet or b) move it to one side of the skillet, & boil the sauce until it thickens.  Toss the meat in the sauce & serve.

Rapidly reduce the sauce...

Serve & Enjoy

Slow Cooker "Hawaiian" Ribs

This is a recipe I found when I was on a gluten-free experiment last year from the blog crockpot365.blogspot.com.  If you use gluten-free soy sauce—the recipe is gluten-free.  I loved the flavor that this recipe creates (once it is modified a bit.)  The super-great thing about this recipe is that the sauce & cooking method can be used for So Many items.  For this round of the recipe, I used some beef ribs I had picked up on sale.  I usually use pork spareribs for this recipe.  Both style of ribs have their pros/cons.  

Beef ribs:  pro—the ribs stay solid when being slow cooked for so long, con-- I don’t think the meat picks up the flavor of this sauce as well.

Pork spareribs: pro—these get incredibly tender & the meat soaks up the flavor,  con—The cartilage’y bones in spareribs basically disintegrate & turn into soft rubber pieces, making eating these a little trickier, and a little more difficult to consume in front of company.  

You could also use pork babyback ribs. Pork loin or shoulder substituted in this recipe could make some delicious ‘Hawaiian” flavored pulled pork.  Perhaps serve it on the Hawaiian mini sweet rolls with some coleslaw, pickles, or grilled pineapple pieces?  Just a thought…not something I have actually tried yet. 

The night last week that I made this I served it with pineapple fried rice & sautéed green beans. The meat gets a lovely dark caramelized appearance during cooking & is ridiculously tender.

 

Hawaiian Slow-Cooker Ribs

Prep time: 5 minutes, Cook time: 7-9 hours in a slow cooker. Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup.  I used a snack pack of pineapple for this
because it was midnight on a workday when I was assembling this...
and I got lazy.  A can of pineapple is more economical...

• 1 rack of beef ribs (can substitute 1 rack pork spareribs, 1 rack babyback ribs, 2-3 pounds boneless beef roast, or 2-3 pounds pork loin or pork roast)
• 2/3 cups soy sauce of choice (gluten-free, low-sodium, etc)
• 4 T. brown sugar
• 2 T. honey
• 1 t. Chinese 5-Spice powder* (see note below)
• 1/3 cup pineapple juice  
• 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
• 8 cloves garlic, minced

1. In a small food processor or blender, pulse the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, 5-spice, pineapple, juice & garlic until well mixed. (This step can be omitted…I’ve done it both ways, I actually didn't blend it this time preparing the recipe…and the flavor is deeper if you mix it in advance instead of layering it in the slow cooker).

2.  Cut the rack of ribs into 2-4 smaller pieces.  Layer 1 layer of ribs in the bottom of a large slow cooker, with the bones on the bottom.  Spoon 2-3 large spoons of the sauce mixture over the first layer of ribs. Add the 2^nd layer of ribs & pour the remaining sauce over the top of the ribs.  

Assembled ribs.  I always get this ready the night before & let
it marinate in the fridge overnight.  Then I just pop it in the slow
cooker before I head into work.

3.  Cook on Low for 6-8 hours, or on High for 4-5 hours. If you are around home while these are cooking- move the top layer to the bottom & the bottom layer to the top about halfway through cooking.

Scene I came home to.  It's not pretty...but it's yummy.

4.  Be prepared for the meat to be SUPER tender & for it to fall off of the bone.  Have a slotted spoon on hand to remove stray chunks of meat from the cooking liquid.  Enjoy!

A brief note about Chinese 5-Spice powder.

What is it?  Chinese 5-Spice is a blend of 5 spices that are frequently used in Chinese-style cooking.  Personally, I buy mine at The Spice House (I love the freshness & quality of their spices).  You can find this in some grocery stores—if you do not find it in the regular spice/spice blend section, check the international food aisle in the Asian section.

If you can’t find it…you can always make your own.  Our friend Google will point you in the direction of a ton of different ratios for making up your own blend…but I will just copy over the one used on this recipe from Crockpot365.

Chinese 5-Spice Powder

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. crushed anise seed

¼ t. ground fennel

¼ t. ground black pepper, fine

1/8 t. ground cloves

Mix ingredients together. Store in an airtight container.

Spicy Cilantro-Lime Marinated Flat Iron Steak

This is a fun recipe that we have cooked a few times. I use a slightly modified version of the original recipe that can be found at allrecipes.com.  It is easy to make, takes very little hands-on preparation time, and makes wonderful steak tacos.  Normally I would use a red onion like the recipe suggests, but this time I used a yellow onion since that was what I had in the pantry.  I didn't notice that there was much of a difference in the cooked steak flavor with the yellow onion...but I didn't like the green sauce as much this time as when I have made it before.  For the lime juice you can either use fresh lime juice or bottled lime juice, with this recipe there is not much of a flavor difference. You can also use a different cut of meat, like flank or skirt steak if you want. I prefer flat iron steak just because you can get good deals on it & it picks up flavors well.  

I served this tonight with flour tortillas, queso fresco, fresh lettuce from our garden, various hot sauces & the extra green sauce from the recipe.  I hope you enjoy!  

Not that pretty...but it was delicious.

Spicy Lime-Cilantro Marinated Flat Iron Steak

Serves 2-4, Prep time= 5 min, Marinating time= 12-24 hours, Cook time= 10-20 minutes

Ingredients

Ingredient Lineup

• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 of red onion
• 2 limes, juiced
• 1-2 medium jalapeño peppers
• 1 T dried thyme
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro (approximately 1 cup cilantro leaves)
• 1/4 c vegetable oil
• 2 T honey
• 2-3 pounds beef flat iron steak
• kosher salt to taste

Directions

1.  Cut stems off of cilantro.  Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Blend until ingredients are liquefied.

The sauce is really green...

2.  Put steak into a large gallon resealable bag.  Add 3/4 of the sauce to the bag & massage into the steak.  Place bag on a plate & place in the refrigerator.  Marinate for 12-24 hours. Move the remaining sauce into a sealed container & save for a condiment for the tacos.  

Let it chill overnight.  Notice the extra sauce
in the background.  Save it as a taco
topping for the meal.

3.  Remove steak from fridge & let it warm up on the counter for 15-20 minutes.  Remove steak from the marinade & shake off extra marinade.  Discard marinade & bag.  Preheat grill to Medium-High.

Steak post marinade.

4.  Cook steak on grill to desired doneness. We cooked this about 5-7 minutes per side, which yielded a good Medium-Rare/Medium on our grill.  Your cooking time will be dependent on your grill (this can also be cooked on a grill pan).  Let the steak rest 5-10 minutes prior to cutting.  Cut the steak across the grain into thin strips.

Sizzle Sizzle.

Zzzzzzz...it's resting...

Slice thinly.

5.  Serve steak with tortillas & your choice of toppings.

Our toppings for tonight: hot sauces, fresh garden lettuce,
green sauce & queso fresco.  

Enjoy!!

Korean BBQ Short Ribs

The Hubs made a trip to Saraga earlier this week & picked up some beautiful beef short ribs.  This is the recipe I used for this round of short ribs.  Overall I was pretty happy with the flavor, but next time I use this recipe I will be experimenting with it a little more. We had half of the ribs for dinner tonight with Asian slaw & a very tasty bottle of Malbec. The other half of the ribs are still hanging out in the cooking liquid in the fridge & will be grilled off for a very yummy lunch tomorrow.   


If you don't have access to these style of beef short ribs, you can also substitute thick-sliced beef chuck roast, rib eye (reduce the cooking time), or any other heavily marbled tough cut of beef that you normally need to cook long & slow.  Also, depending on the type of soy sauce you use, this recipe can be made as a gluten-free recipe.  

Korean BBQ Short Ribs (modified from Allrecipes.com submission from user funinthesun) 

Serves 3-4. Actual cooking time 4-6 hours.  8-30 hours including marinating time.

Ingredient Lineup

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds short ribs
• 3/4 c soy sauce
• 3/4 c water
• 3 T white vinegar
• 1/4 c dark brown sugar
• 1 T ground black pepper
• 2 T sesame oil
• 1 garlic bulb- cloves peeled & minced
• 1 small/medium yellow or white onion, minced
• 1 t. garlic chili sauce [optional]
• 1 green onion, chopped [optional]

Directions

1.  Remove short ribs from packaging.  Rinse & rub the individual ribs under cool running water to remove any bone fragments from the butchering process.

Raw ribs, post rinsing.  Do not forget to rinse the short
ribs...otherwise you will end up chewing on bone fragments.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all other ingredients (minus the green onion).  Add the ribs to the marinade.  Cover & refrigerate ribs, marinating for 4-24 hours.  (I marinated them for around 14 hours)

Ribs bathing in the marinade, ready for a snooze in
the fridge.

3.  Remove ribs from the refrigerator.  Carefully layer the ribs into a large slow cooker & pour marinade over the ribs. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  [optional] Carefully turn ribs halfway through the cooking process.

Ribs post marinating overnight.

Ribs in the slow cooker. Halfway done.

4.  Carefully remove the ribs from the cooking liquid.  Some of the bones may fall out of the meat, that is fine.  [Optional] Transfer the ribs to a pre-warmed grill on Medium heat.  Grill for 2-3 minutes per side until meat has grill marks.

Ribs getting some grill marks & caramel'y flavor.

5. Remove ribs from heat.  Plate & garnish with chopped green onion.  

Delicious.