We Provice Recipes

Showing posts with label pot. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I am a pot roast virgin. Ive never made it before and it isnt something my mother made often but I have eaten it and Ive wanted to make it for a long time. I decided that this fall Im going to try to use my slow cooker more often. Its so nice to come home from work to a kitchen that smells like Ive been there cooking all day without having to do any watching or stirring. So this morning I prepared my crock pot for some pot roast. In hindsight, I can laugh at what I must have looked like rushing to get dinner started and get dressed and ready for work at the same time. It resulted in a cut finger and the smoke alarm blaring which means Ill need to do some preparing the night before the next time I make this. I may have rushed around but when I came home I was nice and relaxed and ready to enjoy my dinner. I have only one complaint and its not with the recipe but just something that comes with using a slow cooker....I could not make the gravy in the crock. I took all the meat out and the potatoes, added my thickeners (tried three different methods) and it just did not thicken up to a gravy like consistency. I took out the juice and added it to a small pot and put the heat up, within minutes I had a delicious thick gravy (Dad, you would approve!) I assume that the crock pot does not get hot enough for the liquid to boil and thats why it didnt thicken. If anyone has any tips for this I would love to hear them!

I found the recipe just by searching for healthy slow cooker pot roast recipes. This recipe was found at about.com I searched for healthy recipes because most of the ones I found contained canned gravy or condensed soup. Although Im sure those would taste equally delicious its just not what I was going for.

Give this recipe a try, its definitely a keeper in our house!

Crock Pot Pot Roast Dinner

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1-1/2 lb. boneless beef top round, cut into 6 pieces
1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
16 oz. pkg. baby carrots
14 oz. can ready to serve beef broth
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Preparation:

Combine flour, salt, pepper, and thyme in small bowl and coat beef with this mixture. Cook beef pieces in olive oil in a nonstick skillet for 2-3 minutes on each side to brown. Set aside.

Combine potatoes, carrots and onion in 3-4 quart slow cooker. Place meat on vegetables. Pour beef broth and Worcestershire sauce over meat. Cover crock pot and cook on low for 8-10 hours until beef is tender.

Remove meat and vegetables from crock pot and place on serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm and place in slow oven.

Combine rest of broth and the cornstarch in a small bowl and mix well with wire whisk. Add to liquid in crock pot, turn to high and cook for 10-15 minutes until gravy is thickened.

Serve with beef and vegetables. 6 servings

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Crock Pot Baby Back Ribs with Simple Chili Bourbon Honey Sauce

I have tried baby back ribs almost every way possible including cooking them entirely in the crock pot, wrapped in a foil packet in the oven, low and slow on the grill and every combination of the preparations possible. I have yet to decide which way is the best. I think it just depends on the type of ribs you are trying to achieve on that particular day. The crock pot is obviously the easiest method - you just put them in the crock pot, turn it on and let them cook for 6-8 hours in sauce. Tasty, but a little mit mushy if they cook too long and but they certainly are fall right off the bone tender. Completely wrapping the ribs in foil packet and slowly roasting them in the oven works well too. The result is a very tender rib with a little more bite to it than the crock pot version and you can caramelize the sauce on the rib by giving a zap under the broiler right at the end. The grill works great, but if you are using a gas grill, this method uses quite a bit of propane. You also can not wander too far as one grease flair up could turn your potentially juicy succulent ribs into a pile of ash. If it all works perfectly, the results are by far the best. Since no one, at least in this part of the country, is grilling their ribs outside Ill save the details for entry on grilling ribs during the warmer months so stay tuned.

The ribs from last night were partially cooked in the crock pot and partially in the oven. This, however, was purely accidental. I set the crockpot around 1:30 in the afternoon and left to run some errands. While I was out, the electricity apparently went out around 3:30 and the crock pot did not turn itself back on while the electricity was restored. Not to worry. When I arrive back home around 5:00, I immediately placed the ribs on a baking sheet and put them in a 325 degree oven for the next 2 hours. I turned the oven temperature up to 425 degrees sauced the ribs and allowed them to cook for another 15 minutes. They were fantastic! Not nearly as "fall off the boneish" as they would have been had they cooked entirely in the crock pot, but still very tender and with just a bit of bite. I actually prefer a little bit of resistance when biting into a rib. There is something a litte off putting when the meat just falls away from the bone with no effort. Maybe thats just me.

I did not make a homemade BBQ sauce this time. I formulated a concoction of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce with a spoonful or two of Asian Garlic Chili sauce, a splash of Bourbon and a squeeze of honey. The perfect amount of sweet sticky heat to accompany these easy and delicious BBQ ribs.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Burger and French fries pot

Burger and French fries pot

Ingredients

Beef mince ½ kg
Onion 1 cup chopped
Flour 2 tbsp
Tomato puree ½ cup
Cheddar cheese 1 cup
Frozen French fries 2 cups
Salt 1 tsp
Crushed red pepper 1 tsp
Black pepper ½ tsp
Mustard powder ½ tsp
Wooster shier sauce 2 tbsp

Method

Heat oil add onion fry for 5 minutes till soft add beef with salt, pepper, mustard, Wooster shier sauce and tomato puree, cover and cook till beef tender add flour and mix well, cook for 1 minute and remove in a greased casserole, sprinkle with cheddar cheese arrange frozen fries over beef in single layer bake uncovered for 20 minutes until fries golden brown.