Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Truffle Oil topped with Short Ribs // The One Where Crouton Tries to Go Shopping

I often feel the need to add a disclaimer to my blog posts, stating “THIS PHOTO IS NOT STAGED. I PROMISE.”  Crouton gets herself into such weird little situations and poses that I could imagine someone thinking, “Please. This is a cat we’re talking about. This is not for real.”

That would only come from someone who hadn’t actually met Crouton, but I digress.

Over the weekend, David had borrowed my debit card. When I was sitting on the bed, he tossed at me to return it (Not exactly the most responsible method of return, but again, that’s digressing). It soared passed me onto the floor on my left.

In the 10 to 15 seconds between the card landing on the floor and me looking to my left, I couldn’t tell you what happened. But, I looked down to see this:

I guess there’s a chance that the debit card simply landed there. I prefer to think that it landed next to Crouton, and that she stealthily drew one paw out to slide it back to her. “I’ll take this, thank you. I’ve been considering purchasing a new hair dryer to maintain my fluffy exterior. Or food. I need some more food.”

Crouton always thinks she needs more food.

Meatballs in Red Wine Sauce

Crouton has officially been kicked out of the fridge.  You might recall this photo from last year:

Well, no more. Last week, we spontaneously purchased a new fridge that has a freezer on the bottom. This means that unless Crouton develops the ability to open the freezer door and pull out the shelves to stand on — and I wouldn’t put it past her — there will be more no more climbing into the fridge to find her food.

Beef and Mushroom Stew

This week has been a bear. We’ve dealt with illnesses, doing taxes, more illnesses, a lot of driving to places we didn’t really feel like going, and just general displeasure in our household. So it’s Friday, and I look back on the week and I see that I only actually cooked two times. Pretty miserable week, if you ask me. But this beef and mushroom stew? No, that’s not miserable. That’s quite homey, actually.

Asian-Inspired Braised Beef with Bok Choy

When I look back at my college years, I remember about a two-year stint where I didn’t eat red meat.

What was I thinking?

While chuck roast is most commonly used as a pot roast — and for good reason — sometimes I get tired of making pot roast and want to do something different. I had some bok choy in the fridge to use, so I thought an Asian-style sauce to braise the chuck roast might be a good idea.

Asian-Inspired Braised Beef with Bok Choy

2 pounds chuck roast, cut into large cubes.
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
1 bunch bok choy, chopped

Heat two tablespoons of sesame oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Working in batches, add the cubes of beef and brown on all sides. Remove from heat, and return all the beef to the pot.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic, and ginger.  Pour the combination over the beef. Cover the Dutch oven, and place it into the hot oven. Cook for 2 hours, or until the beef is tender and falls apart easily.

Add the chopped bok choy to the pot, and return it to the oven. Cook for another 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are cooked to your desired tenderness.

Beef Bourguignon (Sans Photo)

The past week or so has been all about cooking (when isn’t it, though?) and visiting, as my parents came to visit us from Arizona. I don’t get many chances to cook for them, so — as I always do — I had planned plenty of delicious meals. However, I was so caught up in visiting with them that I didn’t really take photos of anything.

This Beef Bourguignon dish was so delicious, though, that I didn’t want to wait until I made it again to share the recipe. Just imagine chunks of tender meat, slowly cooked in a red wine sauce, and there you have beef bourguignon. This recipe was really made famous by Julia Child — I happened to visit a replica of her kitchen this weekend at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum — but I did things slightly different, though still staying true to the traditional dish.

This dish has a reputation of being fussy and time-consuming, but that’s not really the case. There’s about 20-30 minutes of prep work involved at the beginning, but then you can let the oven work its magic by itself for the next two hours. I’m sure you can make it in the slow-cooker, but letting the dish braise in the oven made the most succulent, tender meat I have ever tasted. It was so worth it.

Beef Bourguinon
Serves 4-6

2.5 pound chuck roast, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces bacon
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup vermouth
1 bottle good, dry red wine
2 cups beef broth
6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups pearl onions (Optional. You can find them in Trader Joe’s freezer section. They are traditional, but I will omit them next time due to our tastes.)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook until slightly crispy, then remove to a paper towel-lined plate.

Make sure the cubes of beef are dry, and then season them with salt and pepper. Working in batches, add the cubes to the pot in a single layer, browning them on all sides. Remove them to the same plate as the bacon.

Add the carrots and onions to the pot and cook for 10 minutes until the carrots are slightly tender. Add the garlic and mushrooms, and cook for one more minute, then add the vermouth to deglaze the pan. Scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan and let it cook for one minute. Return the beef and bacon to the pot, and then pour in the red wine and enough beef broth to cover the meat. Add tomato paste and thyme. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid.

Place the pot into the oven and cook at 250 degrees for 2 hours.

Remove the pot from the oven and return to the stove top at a medium temperature. Add the butter and flour, whisking it into the stew to thicken it. Add frozen pearl onions, if using. Simmer for 15 minutes, and then season to taste. Serve immediately over mashed or roasted potatoes, dinner rolls, or egg noodles.

 

Beer-Braised Corned Beef Brisket

I’ve never made corned beef before. (Actually, I still didn’t technically *make* it, as I didn’t corn the beef myself. The better phrase is “I’ve never cooked corned beef before.”) However, it was on sale when I was grocery shopping, so I decided to try it out, even though it’s not St. Patrick’s Day (e.g. the only time I’ve ever had corned beef).

I didn’t really know what to do with it. Everything I Googled called for making it with a whole ton of spices and lots of cabbage, which I didn’t have. So I decided to treat it exactly like I would any other type of beef roast and braise it with potatoes and carrots.

It worked.

Earlier in the day, I had picked up a six-pack of Sam Adam’s Cranberry Lambic because I thought it sounded interesting. David suggested using that as the braising liquid.

The beer itself was pretty good; it had just a hint of fruit flavor.  So I drizzled it in, and then tucked in chopped red potatoes and a cut-up carrot.  Dinner is served.

Beer-Braised Corned Beef
2.5-pound corned beef brisket + accompanying spice packet
1 bottle beer (darker is better as it imparts more flavor)
4 red potatoes, quartered
1-2 carrot sticks, cut into chunks
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the corned beef in a large Dutch oven and sprinkle it with the spice packet accompanying it. Drizzle the beer over the beef and then add the potatoes and carrots. Season with salt and pepper.  Bring the liquid to a boil and then simmer it for 50 minutes per pound of beef. My 2.61-pound brisket took approximately 2.5 hours. Serve immediately.

Sirloin Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

The alternate title to this blog post could be “Some dishes just do not photograph well.”

Alternate, alternate title to this blog post: “I just don’t know how to photograph some dishes correctly.”

I’m a newbie with a “real” camera (aka, a DLSR) so I’m still learning how to make my food look as mouthwatering and delicious as it tastes. While I think I’m going pretty while so far, there are some dishes I’m having a hard time with. This steak dish is one of them, as the pomegranate sauce did not photograph right. But this is a great fruity yet savory sauce to top a steak with!

Sirloin Steak with Pomegranate Sauce

1 pound sirloin steak (Though, honestly, you could top any red meat with this sauce!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup red wine
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup water

Allow your steaks to come to room temperature, and then cook them by your favorite method to your desired doneness. Remove from heat, and allow them to rest for 5 minutes. In my case, I melt a tablespoon of butter onto a grill pan over high heat, and sear them. In this recipe, it’s best to cook them on the stove-top so you can use the juices from the in the sauce.

Pour the red wine, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and let it reduce until it’s approximately 1 cup.

In the same pan that you cooked the steaks, melt the butter. Saute the shallots and garlic, and then add the red wine. Scrape up the brown bits from the steak to incorporate into the sauce. Pour the pomegranate reduction into the pan and whisk together. Drizzle in the balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Whisk the flour into half-cup of water and add to the sauce to thicken. Simmer until it reaches the desired consistency, then pour over the steaks and serve.

Flank Steak with Easy Tomato “Gravy”

Flank steak — often marked as “London Broil” — is often one of the cheapest cuts of meat available, especially when you catch it on sale. Typically, directions for cooking it call for grilling or broiling it for a few minutes on each side, and then cutting it against the grain and serving it as-is.

I’m not really sure what’s wrong with me, but I’ve never thought this method of preparation was particularly good. Therefore, I thought maybe I could treat it like a roast and throw it in the crockpot all day.

So I did, and it turned out well. But once it was done, the liquid the steak had cooked it was too soup to serve as any sort of sauce over the side of pasta I was planning. Hmm — what to do?

I decided to treat it kind of like a gravy, adding liquid to a pan and letting it reduce to create a concentrated tomato sauce flavor. I started with just a canned of diced tomatoes and let it cook down until it was almost caramelized. Then I slowly began adding the liquid from the slow cooker and letting it boil down. Add liquid, boil ’til reduced, repeat. It created a delicious tomato “gravy” to put over the pasta and sauce.

Flank Steak with Easy Tomato “Gravy”
2 pound flank steak, often labeled as “London Broil”
1 cup red wine
2 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, smashed
A drizzle of olive oil
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano

Combine all but one can diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours, until the meat is tender and falling apart.

Remove the meat from the Crock Pot to a plate and set aside. Add one 14.5-ounce can of tomatoes to a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Add the liquid from the slow cooker a half cup to 3-4 cup at a time and let it boil, stirring occasionally. When the liquid has reduced, add more, until all the liquid has been used. It should be a sauce-like consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Serve over pasta, rice, potatoes, or your choice of starch.

Coconut Curried Beef with Snow Peas

This dish is incredibly easy to put together (it uses just one pan!) and very flavorful, making it ideal for a weeknight dinner. My only suggestion is to start small with the red pepper flakes, as I started big and regretted it later. This dish would work just fine with chicken or shrimp as well.

Coconut Curried Beef with Snow Peas

1 pound beef stew meat
1 can light coconut milk
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup nonfat Greek Yogurt
1 tablespoon olive oil
10-15 fresh basil leaves
1 cup snow peas

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute. Mix in the curry powder and red pepper, sauteing to allow it become fragrant. Pour in the coconut milk and slowly mix in the Greek Yogurt, which brings a richness to the dish. Increase the heat and add the snow peas. Cover and let them cook for 5 minutes. Add the beef and let the sauce simmer until the beef is cooked and the sauce has slightly thickened. Add the basil leaves and remove from heat.

Serve over rice.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I’ve owned a slow cooker for a long time. I think I got my first basic gadget in mid-college, so I’ve been slow-cooking like a pro for at least seven years. But lately, I don’t know what it is … I’m just a slow-cookin’ fool.

I think it’s just because it makes my life so much easier. Take pot roast, for instance. By its nature, pot roast is not a hard food to cook. But it does take a long time — at least, if you want the meat to be tender — and when it’s in the oven, you can’t leave the house.

(There are some people out there who also won’t leave the house when the slow cooker is running. Call me crazy, but I call them crazy. Isn’t that the whole point of it?)

So this pot roast I’m about to share with you is not only easy, but it’s absolutely delicious. Sometimes it’s a marvel to me that something so good can come about using only four or five ingredients. It just fits nicely with my cooking philosophy: “The best food is the simplest food.

Basic Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Serves four … unless you’re my husband and me, who devoured all of it in one night.

3-pound chuck roast
Olive oil
3/4 cup red wine
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 onion, chopped
Chopped potatoes (as many that will fit around the meat in your slow cooker)
Baby carrots (ditto)

Place the chopped onions on the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the roast on top of it. Drizzle the top of the roast with olive oil and then sprinkle on the oregano. Arrange the potatoes around the meat, then pour red wine around the circumference of the pot. Turn the slow cooker on low and cook for 6 hours. Open it up, push the carrots in wherever you can find space, and cook for another hour. The meat will be perfect, but the carrots won’t be mushy.