Happy New Year!! Our hope is that 2017 brings you all health and happiness! It’s great to have the first meal of the new year as a Sunday Night Dinner, sharing food and laughs with Jess, Glen, and the boys.
In our shares from yesterday we had a lot of cuts of meat included. What I didn’t mention was that it was also my meat pickup day. I will have plenty of meat to work with. Take a peek at my meat share from yesterday:
Tonight was a crockpot night and I decided to highlight the stew beef since I had two packages of it and we have 4 adults and 4 growing boys to feed tonight!
Stew beef is usually cooked low and slow so it breaks down and becomes tender. When cooking stew beef you often brown the meat first so that the sear adds a layer of flavor. That is not the case tonight, all ingredients get dumped in and you let it go for the day. There are quite a few ingredients in tonight’s dish so go ahead and gather the following:
2 pkg of Springdell beef stew meat
Sauce:
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of ginger
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Save for 30 minutes before serving:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
I used a large measuring cup to save myself some hassle. Start with the beef broth and the soy sauce first, using the cup markings.
Mince up some fresh garlic cloves, I used 3 because they were huge! Use 4 if you have normal sized garlic.
Add the garlic to the measuring cup.
Next add 1 Tablespoon each of rice vinegar and sesame oil.
Add your brown sugar, white pepper, ginger, and onion powder. Using a small whisk, combine the liquid with the powders.
All that’s left is to add the meat to the bottom of the crockpot and add the liquid on top.
Set this for 8 hours on the low setting.
When there is about 30 minutes of cooking time left combine the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and add to the crockpot. For the last 30 minutes turn the crockpot onto the high setting. The liquid will thicken with the cornstarch.
To serve with the meat I cooked up some mushrooms with a sprinkle of salt over a low heat until they give up their liquid and darken in color.
They may become crispy around the edges, this just makes them better in my opinion!
The beef is served on a bed of rice. The photo above is the beginning of the rice cooking in some of the beef stock I made last week.
Time to put it all together. Lay down your rice and top with the beef and some sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and top with the crispy mushrooms and crunchy bean sprouts. Enjoy!