5 spice slow cooker pot roast

Here we are again in the deep dark depths of winter with short grey days, comfort food calls.  I love long slow cooked meat, that is really my comfort food, so on Sunday I had a lean beef pot roast that I wanted to cook for Sunday dinner and to make things even simpler I used the slow cooker. I wanted to inject some flavour and so decided to try cooking a pot roast with asian flavours, specifically 5 spice powder.

This fed 6

3lb pot roast
2 tablespoons of 5 spice powder
1 large onion sliced
2 garlic cloves sliced
thumb size piece of ginger finely chopped
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of mirin
small bunch of cilantro


Rub the beef with the five spice powder and a little salt.

Place the sliced onion in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Place the beef on top and add the remaining ingredients.

Slow cooked roast beef for a crowd

This is a good method for cooking a cheaper cut of beef if you are feeding a crowd.  Unless you are being reimbursed some of the costs of the meal roast prime rib is not the way to go if you have a lot of people to provide a roast beef meal for.  Also traditional roasting of a good cut of beef can be a bit finicky as you have to get the timing exactly right or you can serve raw meat or over cooked dry meat.

This is simple fool proof and importantly very tasty. You do not want to use a very tough cut, a sirloin tip works fine, just make sure that there is some marbling of fat, but not too much.

I am afraid it is hard to give exact measurements here, so I will give proportions, as it really depends on the size of the beef roast and how many you want to feed.  But it will work for a family of 4 or a party of 40.

Spice rub

1/3 salt
1/3 paprika
1/3 fresh ground black pepper

Rub the spice rub all over the beef.

Then double wrap in foil and place in a roasting tin.

shredded beef on a bun

This Saturday I had a surprise party for my husband who has just retired. He was taken sailing by a couple friends for the afternoon, and so I could only start cooking after he had gone, so the menu had to be simple and quick.  I did put the beef in the crock pot before he left, but apparently he did not notice that I had put in enough for 20!

This made enough 20 people with sadly no left overs, but it would be easy to shrink down for a more reasonable number.

Beef pot roast (I did one pot roast and 4 large braising steaks)
2 cups of tomato puree
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon of Cinnamon
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 tablespoon of coriander
4 garlic cloves sliced
1 lime cut up

Sauce
2 tablespoons of sirachi sauce (or more to taste)
1/4 cup of tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Place the beef in a crock pot along with the lime.

Combine all the  other ingredients in large jug.

Goulash style beef

I am spending the weekend in Whistler with a group of friends who are all skiing, I on the other hand am enjoying the winter scenery and quiet relaxation, and of course providing dinner for the happy skiers.

I am calling this goulash style as I have cobbled together ideas from several sources and I do not want to offend any one with a Hungarian heritage, as I am sure that this is not authentic, but never the less it was tasty.

This is the view I get to enjoy while cooking.

This fed 8

1 large onion chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 red peppers
1 tablespoon of ground caraway
4 tablespoons of Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 large pot roast cut in to chunks or equivalent.
1 can of crushed tomatoes (or home canned tomato puree )
3 carrots chopped.

In a large oven proof pot, cook the onion in the olive oil until soft, then add the red pepper and cook until that is too starting to soften.

Then add the spices and stir in and cook for about a minute until fragrant.

Slow cooker Asian beef

I recently bought a freezer back of beef from Hopcott's, so my freezer is full of beef looking to be used.  Much of it is the less tender cuts that need to be cooked slow and long, which really I prefer as they have so much flavour.  Also I have replaced my slow cooker which died last fall and so I was looking to make a dish that I could throw in to cook when I leave for work and have waiting ready to eat when I came home.

Sauce

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup of hoi sin sauce
1 garlic clove chopped
1" piece of fresh ginger chopped
1 tablespoon of Sriracha sauce (optional)

The night before combine all the ingredients ready for the morning.  Of course you could do this in the morning, but I never have that much time.

Next morning pour over the beef in a slow cooker, I used two braising steaks.

Set the slow cooker to low and leave for work, or cook for 7 hours.

Peppered braised steak

This weekend I bought a beef freezer pack from Hopcott's which included ground beef, pot roasts and blade steaks.  I also bought myself a beautiful new cast iron cooking pot the perfect size and shape for braising steaks.  So Sunday night it had to be braised steak in my beautiful new olive green pot.

I saw this idea on Delia Smith's website of braising a steak with the flavours of peppercorn steak and thought it was a good idea especially as my Father loves black pepper.

This fed 6 (2 with very large appetites)

• 2 tablespoons of whole black peppercorns
• 1/4 cup of flour
• salt 
• 4 large braising steaks
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove sliced
• 1/4 bottle of red wine
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 2 bay leaves
• Sprig of thyme

Pummel the black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar or grind very coarsely.

Mix the ground pepper with the salt and flour, then place on a large plate and coat the steaks.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or cast iron pot and then brown the steaks, I did this in two batches as I had a lot of beef.

Vietnamese Seared beef salad

To go along with the fried noodles with spicy peanut sate that we had on Saturday we wanted a fresh salad to complement the noodles, and we found the recipe in the same book.

I was also delicious and did have a wonderful fresh crunch. Again the recipe called for vegetable oil, but as always I substituted olive oil.

1lb of flank steak (or any steak really)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 small romaine lettuce
1 bunch each of mint basil and cilantro stalks removed
1 lime cut up to serve

Dressing
Grated rind and juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of raw cane (or brown) sugar
2 garlic cloves grated
2 lemon grass stalks finely sliced
2 red chillies seeded and finely sliced.

Combine all the dressing ingredients together.

Pan fry or barbecue the steak until it is wonderfully golden on the outside, but very rare inside. rest for 10 minutes, and then slice thinly

Steak and mushroom pie

What better food to eat on a rather cool June long weekend in England than pie.  We decided to make two pies fish pie and steak and mushroom pie.  Jackie was in charge of the fish pie and I took responsibility (with a little help) for the meat pie.  We picked up some braising steak from the store and set that to cooking before we walked up to the Chipperfield fair

getting ready for the children's races

First I browned the steak that was cut up in to chunks in pot with a little olive oil. I did this in 3 batches as we were making two meat pies as there was 12 for dinner.

You really do not want to overcrowd them. Then when the last batched was browned I added 3 small onion chopped by my able co chef Jacky.

I stirred these in to cook with the meat and then when they were softened added about 2 tablespoons of flour.

Fridge pot roast

Currently sitting in Whistler BC enjoying the peace and quite that settles over the lodgings when all the skiers and boarders are up on the hill. My job as I do not choose to either ski or board is to provide a comforting meal on their return.  Pot roast was my friends vision, so that is what I would do, as this is always popular and the longer it cooks the better.  I like something that does not have to be dealt with at the last minute as, though I do not ski I definitely like to participate in the Apres Ski.

The fridge was fairly well stocked by my friend, so I picked up a nice large pot Roast of beef at the local store and decided to use what was on hand.  And that was.

olive oil
1 onion chopped
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 red and 1 yellow pepper chopped
1/4 cup of tomato paste
1/2 bottle of red wine (oh happy find)
A small bunch of fresh basil
1 cup of beef stock (actually a beef stock cube)
Then I bought a large pot roast

In a large oven proof pot (I would have liked to have a cast iron one, but beggars can't be choosers) saute the onion and celery in about a tablespoon of olive oil.

When the onion is translucent add the chopped pepper, cook until they are softening and then stir in the tomato puree.

Now pour in the wine and beef stock.

My mothers red bean stew

My mother was quite an adventurous cook and would often try recipes from all over the world, we did not eat a lot of standard English fare, in fact I was a food snob from a very early age. One day when I was only about 4 or 5 I went accross the road to where my friend lived and asked if I could come for dinner because we were having "English" food for dinner, obvouisly not up to my sophisticated standards.  Mrs Stanley my friends mother was from Budapest and was a wonderful cook and always cooked interesting unfamiliar food which she was happy to share with me.

However one of my mothers standby's that I was particularly fond of was beef stew with red beans.  I am sure the red beans were some frugal Yorkshire trick to make the beef go further, but never the less I always enjoyed it.  As this weekend was particularly horrible, rainy and cold I remembered of this stew and thought it would be the comfort food that I needed.

To feed 4 with left overs or 6

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion chopped
6 cups of cubed stewing beef cut up
2 cups of red beans soaked for one hour in boiling water
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of dried basil
2 cups of beef stock.
1 can of crushed tomatoes
Handful of chopped parsley

Add the oil and onion to a large pot, I used my mothers Le Crueset which is what my mother always cooked this in.  Cook until the onion is translucent then add the beef.

Roast beef with mahogany gravy

This is not so much a recipe as a technique for a great rich dark full bodied beef gravy.  I saw this done by a friend in England last time I was there and ever since this is how I have been cooking my roast beef.  I can not give quantities as it really varies depending how many juices come out of the beef, how much gravy you want, and whether the moon is full or not.  Actually not the last one or least I don't think so.

finished gravy sitting in a perfect Yorkshire pudding.

Before placing the roast in the roast in the roasting tin place an onion (or two) roughly chopped in the bottom and then place the roast on top.  In this case this roast was to feed 6 and I used one large onion.

Sprinkle the roast liberally with salt and pepper and if as was the case with this one there is not a lot of fat on the outside, pour a little olive oil over.  Roast as you normally do to the doneness that you like, then when you remove the beef to rest you are left with a roasting tin with not only some lovely drippings but also some wonderfully caramelized onion.

Braised short ribs - Comfort food

Continuing with our theme of comfort food on the girls birthday weekend, we found some meaty looking beef short ribs at the local meat market and decided to have long slow cooked short ribs on Saturday night.

Short ribs on the bone are really the best cut of beef for long slow cooking as the are very flavourful and the meat has enough fat to keep them moist but if you choose to the correct ones not too much as who wants to eat large globs of fat!

This quantity served 10 women, but would probably be enough for 6 or 8 if you had men and boys to feed.

6 short ribs
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 onions chopped
2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1 cup of red wine
1 quart of crushed tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 small handful of fresh basil chopped
1 punnet of button mushrooms quartered

Brown the beef on all sides in the olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan.

You will have to do this in several batches. As they are browned transfer to a large oven proof cassserole.

Pot Roast Indian style

It is no secret that Pot Roast is one of me favourite winter meals, it is a lot cheaper than a standing rib roast and it cannot really be over cooked. You can put it in the crock pot on the way out in the morning and not only do you have a delicious warming meal at the end of the day, but also a kitchen that smells like some one has been cooking all day.  I do like to mix it up a little though and I am always looking for new flavours and ways of enhancing the good old pot roast.

This recipe is very loosely and I mean loosely based on a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey , which a good friend had suggested as we were cooking Saturday night meal together and we had picked up a pot roast from Hopcott's.

2 tablespoons of ground cumin
2 tablespoons of ground coriander
1 tablespoon of ground dry ginger
1 tablespoon of paprika

2 cups of plain yogurt
1 large or 2 small onions chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 medium sized pot roast.

Pot Roast plain and simple

Sometimes it is good to keep things simple, and on the weekend I got a cross rib roast from Hopcott's and I decided to cook it with my home canned tomato puree. As these were both really good flavourful ingredients I decided to keep it really simple and not add a lot in the way of herbs or spices.

So the ingredients list is short.

4lb pot roast
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes
1 quart of home canned tomatoes (or a can of crushed tomatoes)
a handful of chopped parsley

Brown the beef on all sides in a large frying pan.

Then place it in a large casserole dish, or you could use a slow cooker. Then in the same frying pan that you browned the roast in saute the onion and garlic until soft and translucent.

Beef short ribs ala Bourginon

Fall is well underway now, and more and more I am cooking comfort foods and long slowly simmered dishes.  Up at Pender Harbour last weekend we found some wonderfully meaty short ribs at the Oak Tree Market, and the weather was rainy and miserable a great day for card games slow cooking, movies and red wine.

Feeds 8

6 rashers of bacon chopped
6 Beef short ribs
1 large onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 cup of red wine
2 cups of beef stock
fresh sage and thyme
2 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoon of olive oil
box of pearl onions
2 cups of quarted button mushrooms

Cook the bacon in a large non stick frying pan until the fat has released and it is starting to crisp then brown the ribs in the bacon fat.

Mexican lettuce wraps - Mexican pot roast part 2

On the weekend I made Mexican pot roast and there was some leftover. Normally I would have made a type of fajita wrapping the heated up meat along with cheese salsa and peppers in a flour tortilla.  But I was on my own for dinner so I decided to make a take on one of my favourite Chinese dishes lettuce wraps, it is really the only time I like to eat iceberg lettuce.

I replaced the flour tortilla with an iceberg lettuce leaf, replaced the hoisin sauce with a fresh salsa and added cheese. You could of course use ground beef (or turkey) if you had no left over beef, but this is certainly a light refreshing way to use left over roast or pot roast beef.

For 2

For the filling

• 6 oz left over beef pot roast chopped
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder (or less to taste)
• 1/2 cup of beef stock (or left over juices from the roast or even water)

Quick fresh Salsa

• 1 tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 a small onion chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
• Hot sauce to taste

1/2 an Iceberg lettuce with the leaves separated
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese.
Sour cream would also a good addition

Mexican pot roast part 1

The cooler weather has me thinking comfort foods and one of my favourites is beef pot roast.  Normally I would buy a nicely marbled chuck roast or some other rather fatty tough cut, but I am trying to cut down on the fat so I chose an inside round roast. As this can be rather dry I wanted to have a tasty sauce to serve with it.

In August I Made some Home made Salsa and canned it. The idea was so that I could use it in recipes that called for salsa.  So this seemed the perfect oportunity to use it for both flavour and moistness. I spent the afternoon at Ioco Ghost town days helping children decorate the cookies I had made, so I decided to cook my pot roast in the slow cooker.

I placed the beef roast in the slow cooker and poured one of my jars of home made salsa over it.  If you were not lucky enough to have some home made you could use a purchased one.

Then I turned the slow cooker on to high and went to decorate cookies and when I returned 5 hours later I had a cooked pot roast and a wonderful smell in the house.

Perseus Restaurant Florence

 We had asked the owner of the apartment we were staying for some recommendations for local restaurants, we also did research, Connie the old fashioned way in her guide books and Nancy and I on the Ipads and everyone pointed to Perseus Restaurantl .As it was very close to were we were staying we walked by one afternoon to check it out.  At the entrance we were greeted by a friendly waiter and a large glassed in cool room with enormous chunks of tbone steak hanging in it.

Steak in the front entrance

This is not a place for vegetarians, and as it turned out not for people with small appetites. We made a reservation for later that evening.

At 8:00 the place was busy but not full and most of the diners appeared to be locals.  Nancy and I decided we would share one of the steaks which it declared on the menu in English and Italian only came rare, and our waiter reiterated this.  Apparently the only way to eat the Florentine speciality Bistecca alla Fiorentina was rare, so rare it would be.  The waiter then said that he would send us an assortment of appetizers, he asked if we ate like Italians, I think I can say that the answer to that should have been no.

The first thing that arrived was a dish of beans with pork, which I loved (though still not tasting anything really) then a platter of assorted bruschetta.

Assorted Bruschetta

There was a liver pate which even though I had this horrible cold that did not allow me to smell or taste I could taste the very strong liver taste.  OK for me as I love liver not so good for some of my fellow diners. there was also one with lardo and anchovies on it. (more about lardo another day) as well as the traditional tomato and basil bruschetta.

We also received this beautiful large crispy flat bread, I am not sure what it was or whether we paid for it , but it had a wonderful texture. (it was all about texture at this point)

Then on to the main event, and the steak is quite an event, it comes to the table whole and then is cut apart by the waiter, as even Italians do not eat this alone. We told our waiter that we wanted to photograph it and he was very obliging.

Steak for two