Beef Barley Stoup

Beef Barley Stoup

Is is a stew, or is it a soup? Who knows, but I call it a stoup! The day I made this it ate more like a soup, but the second day, its texture was more like a stew. I’m thinking the barley continues to soak up the liquid and thickens overnight. Either way, it was about time I made this staple cold-weather meal. Sooo comforting!

I used the last package of our top sirloin steak from last year’s quarter cow as we began to make room for our new cow in the freezer. Our lucky daughter got to take home about 10 pounds of ground burger to share with her ever-hungry male roommates in college that we never got around to using. (It appears we ate way less burger than we did in prior years.) You can use any cut of beef for this that doesn’t need a super-long cook for tenderness.

Stoup Base

Beef Barley Stoup

1 pound beef, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and pepper, for seasoning meat
Flour, for dusting meat
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped carrots
2 stalks celery, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 14.5-ounce can stewed tomatoes
4 cups homemade or low-sodium beef broth
1 bay leaf
3 small sprigs thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
Salt and pepper, to taste

Season cubed meat with salt and pepper, then toss with some flour to dust it. In a large soup pot or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add beef to pot, and sear cubes on all sides until browned. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Add onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms and cook about 8 to 10 minutes, until mushrooms start to brown. Add the minced garlic and tomato paste in the last minute of cooking.

Pour in the red wine and deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits. Add the stewed tomatoes, beef broth, bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Stir well to combine. Add the meat, including any accumulated juices in the bowl.

Simmering Beef Barley Stoup

Bring to a boil, then stir in the barley. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, for about 45-60 minutes or until the barley is cooked. Remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs and taste for additional salt and pepper. Serve in bowls with crusty bread for dipping/sopping.

p.s. Tomorrow starts my seventh year of blogging, can you believe it?? Thanks for hanging with me! And please have a safe and Happy New Year!

Beef Barley Stoup

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24 vs. 48 Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast

24-Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast

I’ve been slowly learning the best methods and temperatures to cook meat via the sous vide method. For those of you not familiar with this, I’ll give you a cheat link over to Wikipidia: Sous Vide Cooking.

So about three weeks ago I decided to cook a piece of chuck roast for 48 hours at 149 F, but about halfway through the cooking time my foodie friend and sous vide guru Stefan gave me the sage advice that I would achieve the results my hubby desired in said chunk of meat by cooking it only 24 hours at a higher temperature. Horrors, what was I to do? So I threw caution to the wind and bumped it up to 165 F for the last 24 hours. It came out out fall apart tender and my husband said it was the best chuck roast he had ever tasted.

I had only used half of the chuck roast, so two weeks later I decided to try only 24 hours at 165 F for the second half. It was very tender, but both of us thought the first one had the perfect texture. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely delicious, the first one was just amazingly absolutely delicious. Was this a controlled experiment? Heck no. I had too many differences with what I did. Was the first chuck roast the better half of the roast? (It was a 6-pound roast initially.) The first one I only seasoned it then seared in a hot cast iron skillet. For the second one I seasoned it then dusted it heavily with flour before searing, as I wanted a thicker gravy than the first one. Did the flour have anything to do with the texture of the meat? I have no idea. But I did get a thicker gravy!

Anyhoot, since I bothered to take the pictures, I’ll go ahead and step you through the process I did for the second roast. Who knows? Maybe it will prompt you to pick up a sous vide circulator and try it out!

24-Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast with Gravy

1 3-pound chuck roast
Seasoning spice mix of choice
Ground black pepper and salt
Flour
1 tablespoon high heat oil, such as grapeseed oil
1/2 cup homemade beef stock

First, fill a large pot with water, insert the sous vide circulator, and set the heat at 165 degrees F.

Seasoned Beef

Season the beef liberally with a spice seasoning mix of choice. I used Santorini Sunset seasoning (available from Kouzouna’s Kitchen). Grind a bunch of black pepper over it, and lightly salt if your seasoning mix does not contain salt. Pat the roast all around with flour until it is thoroughly coated.

Coated with Flour

Heat a cast iron skillet to high heat and add the tablespoon of oil. Sear the roast on all sides until it is browned and crusty.

Seared Chuck Roast

Place the roast in a gallon zip-top freezer bag, then remove all the air by zipping it almost shut and slowly immersing it into the pot of water until all the air is sucked out of the bag, then finish sealing the bag.

Ready to Cook for 24 Hours

Cover the pot with cling-wrap to prevent evaporation. Now go find something to do for the next 24 hours, like eat your dinner, watch a movie, sleep, get up and do laundry, or whatever you find yourself doing for the next day.

Cooked Roast and Juices

About 20 minutes before you want to eat the roast, turn off the sous vide, remove the bag from the pot, and remove the roast from the bag, saving the juices in the bag. Set the roast aside on a plate and cover with foil while you make the gravy.

Showing off my Poppa’s Hook ~ I love my meat hook!

Pour the juices from the bag into a skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the 1/2 cup beef stock to it. Bring the sauce up to a simmer, and whisk constantly while keeping a simmer until the gravy has reduced and thickened.

Making the Gravy

To finish the gravy, add a half tablespoon of very cold butter and stir it in until just melted. Strain the gravy through a sieve (I also line it with mesh or cheesecloth) into a serving bowl.

Smooth Beef Gravy

Serve the fall-apart tender meat with the gravy and sides of vegetables. We had rosemary buttered baby potatoes with green beans.

24-Hour Sous Vide Chuck Roast

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Garden Dump Soup ~ Plus a Wild-Caught Chinook Salmon!

Garden Dump Soup

Our kindly neighbor in back gifted us with two giant zucchinis and a large summer squash just before we left on our trip to the coast last weekend. I packed the largest zucchini and my mandoline and made a huge pan of Zucchini Lasagna in our RV’s convection oven, so that made use of one.

A couple days after we got back, I discovered the other zucchini and squash in the vegetable bin plus a half bag of baby spinach. AND our tomatoes had gone gangbusters while we were gone!

Garden Fresh Veggies

Soup was the only thing that came to mind where I could use that many veggies at once, so scoured our freezer for a bit of protein to go with it. I found a 1/2 pound of ground turkey, and about a 1/4 pound of homemade ground hot Italian sausage, which I figured needed using up anyways. Last, I grabbed a quart of homemade beef stock out of the freezer, as I had 6 quarts of that and only 2 quarts of chicken broth.

Basically I chopped it all up, sauteed the veggies and meats, then threw the rest of it in a stock-pot with some seasonings and spicy oregano from gardening and voila! Garden Dump Soup. Maybe I should have called it Garden and Freezer Dump Soup? Also at the very end I tossed in a cup of elbow macaroni to thicken it up a bit. Either way, this wowed the hubs, who went back for second and thirds, and he kept asking me what I was going to call it for my blog. I finally came up with this name.

What’s good about a soup like this is you can use any  vegetables you have on hand, your preference of broth, and any kind of ground meat and pasta. So versatile! If you don’t end up using any ground hot Italian sausage I would recommend adding a 1/2 teaspoon or so of dried Italian seasoning and perhaps a pinch of red chile pepper flakes. But that’s just me.

Even better, the next day I made myself a hearty breakfast (it was workout day) by plopping a farm-fresh egg into it and simmered it to perfection. Yay!

Perfectly Poached Egg in Soup

Garden Dump Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 extra-large zucchini (about 3 cups chopped)
1 large summer squash (about 2 cups chopped)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3/4 to 1 pound low-fat ground meat or combination of meats
Ground black pepper and Mrs. Dash or salt, to taste
4 cups broth or stock of choice, preferably homemade or low sodium
4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (or canned)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
4 ounces fresh spinach, chopped (about 4 cups loosely packed)
1 cup dry elbow macaroni
Grated Parmesan cheese, optional for garnish

Chop and mince up everything to prep. Add the oil to a stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

Veggies and Ground Meats

Add the ground meat, veggies (except tomatoes, and spinach if using), onion, garlic, and seasonings. Cook for about 15 minutes until the meat is cooked pretty much through.

Add the stock or broth, tomatoes, and oregano plus other herbs/spices if necessary.

Tomatoes and Oregano Added

Bring to a simmer, then add the elbow macaroni or other small pasta. Simmer until pasta is done then add the chopped spinach (if using) and cook until wilted.

Wilting the Spinach

Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Serve in bowls with optional Parmesan cheese. Filling and super yummy!

Garden Dump Soup

p.s. Never Forget! 9-11-01

 

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p.p.s. My hubby caught a 40-inch 24-pound Chinook Salmon out of the Siletz Bay last weekend! Woo hoo! Here’s a few photos (or 6 or 7), if you don’t mind me sharing. My turn next. 🙂

Hooked

Netted!

Paul and his 40-inch Chinook Salmon

Fresh Chinook from the Ocean

Victory Walk to the Weighing Station

Weighing the Salmon ~ That’s One Happy Man!

 

Jagerschnitzel with Mushroom Gravy and Bacon

Jagerschnitzel with Mushroom Gravy and Bacon

“This is a keeper!”

Those were pretty much the first words out of hubby’s mouth after finishing the meal. I must admit this is pretty damned good, too. In my usual frugal manner, I had picked up some super-thin cut pork loins in the 50% off bin and was randomly searching the interwebz and Pinterest what to make with them and Voila! Not only did bacon and mushroom gravy catch my eye, but so did the unusual name.

Jager (properly spelled Jäger in German) loosely means hunter, named after the German military term for rifle-armed infantry. In short, “hunter’s cutlet” and the dish was originally made with thinly pounded venison or wild boar backstrap. In the U.S., it is typically made with pork.

If you do not pour sauce over all the cutlets, then the schnitzels reheat beautifully with a light spray of oil in the toaster oven. The meal is typically served with spaetzle or noodles, but I served Brussels sprouts instead. Hey, that’s close to Germany! This isn’t the quickest dinner to make in the book, but it is so very worth the time. It took me about an hour and a half but if you have all your ducks in a row (i.e. prep everything ahead of time) then you could probably make it in an hour. Guten Appetit!

Jagerschnitzel with Mushroom Gravy and Bacon
Adapted from Guy Fieri and The Food Network

1 1/4 pounds thin-cut pork loin (or pounded thin)
3/4 cup flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt or Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
3/4 cup crushed unsalted crackers
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3 slices thick-cut bacon, diced (1 more if thin-cut)
1/2 cup diced onion
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup red wine
Olive oil, for frying
2 cups beef stock, homemade or high-quality store-bought
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Schnitzel Ingredients ~ I am not ashamed to use paper plates to use less dishes

If your pork slices are not already thin, pound them thin until 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Trim the fat off the pork edges. On a plate, mix together 1/2 cup flour with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika. In a bowl, combine egg, milk and mustard. On another plate, combine crushed crackers and panko.

Breaded Cutlets

Dredge pork slices first in flour, then in egg wash, then in the crumbs. Set on a cooling rack above a sheet pan and place in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

In a cast iron skillet (or other heavy pan), cook the bacon until crispy. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Frying Bacon ~ And yes I did cook this entire meal on our grill propane burner outdoors!

In the same skillet with the bacon grease, add the onions and saute for several minutes. Add mushrooms and continue cooking for about five more minutes until the mushrooms have browned.

Shrooms and Onions

Stir in 1/4 cup flour and continue stirring until you have a light brown roux. Add the wine and cook for a few more minutes until it’s reduced by 1/3, then add the beef stock. Continue cooking to reduce by 1/3 again. Season with salt and pepper then keep warm on low.

Mushroom Gravy ~ Not my best shot…

Heat 1/4-inch oil in another cast iron skillet (or heavy pan) until it bubbles when you insert a wooden chopstick to the bottom. In batches, cook pork evenly on both sides, about five minutes for the first side, several more minutes for the second.

Fried Schnitzels

Remove to a platter and continue cooking until all cutlets are done. Add butter to sauce, stirring until it has melted. To serve, cover pork with sauce and garnish with chopped bacon and fresh parsley.

Jagerschnitzel with Mushroom Gravy and Bacon

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Bloody Mary Beef Stew

Bloody Mary Beef Stew

When I read a fellow foodie blogger had made a Bloody Mary Pot Roast, I thought to myself “I SO have to make this!” But being lazy like I am, I instead used some pre-cut beef stew meat we had in the freezer, along with a pre-made Bloody Mary mix. You see, I drink like maybe one or two Bloody Marys a year. (Specifically one on New Year’s Day, and sometimes another one on Mother’s Day.) But what to do with all that leftover Bloody Mary mix? So I end up freezing it. This recipe idea gave me the perfect excuse to defrost it and make this wonderfully flavorful and spicy beef stew!

Dr. Swami and Bone Daddy’s Bloody Mary Mix ~ Da’ Good Stuff!

The original recipe is by my friend Mollie, aka the Frugal Hausfrau and she concocts her own homemade Bloody Mary sauce to pour over a full chuck roast. You can read that version here. By adding some additional beef broth and various chopped veggies, you end up with a one-pot full-meal deal! What is not to like about that? I recommend serving with a nice crusty piece of French bread. So tasty! Hubby agreed.

Bloody Mary Beef Stew

1 1/4 pounds beef stew meat
2 tablespoons flour
Ground pepper and salt or Mrs. Dash, to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup Bloody Mary mix (I used Dr. Swami and Bone Daddy’s)
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic (1 clove)
1 cup baby carrots
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
2 cups homemade or good-quality beef broth
1 shot glass of Vodka
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup peas, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep the veggies. Unwrap the beef stew meat and leave it on the plastic wrap on the butcher paper. Season with ground black pepper and salt or Mrs. Dash, to taste. Sprinkle the flour over the meat, mixing it around until all pieces are coated.

Seasoned and Dusted Beef Stew Meat

Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the beef stew meat and cook (in batches) until browned on all sides. You don’t want to cram all the meat into the pot at once or it will steam instead of crisp up.

Browning the Stew Meat

Remove meat and set aside on the butcher paper after removing the plastic wrap from it.  (See how I did that? No dirty plate!)

Add the chopped onions to the pot and cook until starting to soften. Add in the minced garlic for a minute or so. Deglaze the pot with the beef broth, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients except the peas and bring stew up to a simmer. Season with more ground black pepper, if you wish.

Beef Stew Ready to Go Into Oven

Cover, turn off heat, and carefully place into preheated oven. Cook covered for 2 hours. Remove from oven and stir in the thawed peas. Serve in bowls with crusty French bread and butter.

Bloody Mary Beef Stew

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Tri-tip Beef with Sugar Snap Peas

Tri-tip Beef with Sugar Snap Peas

We had about a half-pound of tri-tip beef leftover that my hubby cooked up on the grill earlier in the week, the daughter was gone, and I needed to come up with something for dinner that was quick and easy. I also had a partial bag of sugar snap peas left in the fridge and a half bag of bean sprouts in the freezer. (Did you know you can freeze bean sprouts? But they need to be cooked after freezing, they won’t be good in a salad or sandwich.)

A quick search on the internet gave me this super-easy meal that was on the table in less than thirty minutes! It’s so quick you’ll want to start cooking your rice before making this, unless you are super-fortunate to also have some leftover rice in the fridge.

Tri-tip Beef with Sugar Snap Peas
Adapted from Beef with Snow Peas, Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman

1/2 pound leftover barbecued tri-tip beef (or any other cooked beef)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sherry
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 ounces fresh sugar snap peas
4 ounces bean sprouts
3 green onions, cut into inch pieces on the diagonal
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
1 cup low sodium or homemade chicken or beef broth
Cooked rice, for serving.

Simmering the Beef and Vegetables

Slice the cooked beef in very thin slices against the grain and set aside. Cut into bite size pieces too if you want. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, cornstarch, and ginger.

Heat a wok or other heavy bottomed skillet to medium-high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the beef and let it sear on one side for a couple of minutes, then flip it over and sear for another minute or two. Remove meat from the pan and set aside.

Add the last half tablespoon of olive oil to the wok or skillet, then throw in the snow peas, bean sprouts, and green onions. Toss them around for a minute or two, then pour in the mixture from the bowl.

Tri-tip Beef with Sugar Snap Peas

Next add the meat back in and sprinkle with some crushed red pepper flakes, to taste. Last, pour in the chicken broth, stir to combine, and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and serve immediately with cooked rice. Easy and delicious!

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Keema ~ A Taste of India

Keema ~ A Taste of India

About six years ago my employer decided that hosting an Indian Cuisine potluck would be a good idea for some newly hired employees from India who were training at our local office for an extended period of time. At that time, I had zero experience with Indian cuisine, so had asked one of the new hires for a recipe I could make for them. The next day I was handed a photocopy from an unknown cookbook. It was titled simply “Keema.” I made it for the potluck and remember it was a hit! But then it remained forgotten in my loose-leaf recipe archive (read “mess”) until last week.

I had obviously adapted it the first time around, as it had scratch outs, scribbles, and additions and substitutions written all over it. This time around, I decided to search it out on the internet. There are so many variations of Keema that I felt I had good liberty to basically “redo” it again to my family’s tastes as they are today. My new remake got two thumbs up from the family! My only regret was not buying some cottage cheese to serve on the side, as it makes a refreshing accompaniment to the meal. Since this made way too much for one meal, I went straight to the store the next day and bought cottage cheese for the leftovers. No leftovers were thrown out, I am glad to say!

This is traditionally made with ground lamb, but I used ground beef as a substitute, but you could use either one or a combination of the two. Make sure you use at least a 12-inch skillet, as this makes a LOT! Feel free to halve the recipe.

Keema

1 to 1 1/2 pounds ground beef or lamb
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (about 2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons garam masala (I used dried Mild Curry #512, according to the bulk bin I bought it from)
1 teaspoon salt or Mrs. Dash table blend
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste
1 1/2 cups homemade or low sodium beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup frozen peas
Lime wedges, for garnish
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Cooked rice, for serving
Cottage cheese, for serving

Ground Beef and Onions

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef or lamb with the chopped onion until evenly browned. Drain off any grease. Stir in the garlic and cook for about a minute more, then add the spices and combine.

Spices Added to Ground Beef Mixture

Add the the rest of the ingredients except the frozen peas and garnishes. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. In the last five minutes, add the frozen peas and cook until heated through.

Keema Ready to Serve

Serve over a bed of rice, with a squeeze of lime, and cilantro. Please add cottage cheese to the side as a lovely, refreshing side.

Keema

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Old-Fashioned Swiss Steak

Old-Fashioned Swiss Steak

I don’t use my pressure cooker nearly enough, but during my winter staycation I used it twice! Once for this flavorful, tender Swiss steak and another time for a spicy Mexican stew/soup. (Look for that recipe in an upcoming post.)

Have no fear if you don’t own a pressure cooker, as these recipes can also be made in a Dutch oven. The cooking times will be much longer over the stove or in the oven. That is the beauty of a pressure cooker — dinner can be served in about a half hour for something that can typically take up to two hours!

I call this “old-fashioned” because it reminds me of the Swiss steaks my mom used to make for us growing up, and I imagine her mother also made this meal. It was common practice for depression-era cooks to tenderize tough cuts of meat with a heavy meat mallet. Pre-tenderized top or bottom round steak are now widely available, but if you have a good old-fashioned heavy meat mallet, you could certainly tenderize the steaks yourself.

Somehow I failed to get a photo of the actual tenderized steaks without the sauce, but yes, there is a steak under all those vegetables! My family was duly impressed with this old-fashioned meal, and I hope you will be too!

Prepping Swiss Steak Ingredients

Old-Fashioned Swiss Steak
Adapted from Alton Brown/Food Network

1 to 2 pounds tenderized top round steak (or cube steak)
Ground black pepper
Mrs. Dash or salt
Flour to coat the steaks
2 tablespoons grapeseed or vegetable oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste (freeze the rest for another use)
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted with garlic)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 1/2 cups beef broth, homemade or low-sodium

Cut the tenderized steak into serving size portions. (That would be three in this household.) Season the meat with ground black pepper and Mrs. Dash or salt, to taste. Dredge the steaks through flour and set aside.

Add the oil to the pressure cooker set on medium-high heat, and cook the steaks, one at a time, on both sides until browned. Remove each to a plate and set aside. Add a little more oil, if needed, in between steaks.

Sauteing the Veggies after Browning the Steaks

Add the chopped vegetables and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined. Return the steaks to the pot, submerging them in the liquid as best you can.

Tomato Sauce Mixture with Steaks ~ Yes the steaks are under there!

Secure the lid, add the pressure rocker, and turn the heat to high. When the pressure regulator begins to rock, reduce the heat to medium so that it rocks steadily for 15 minutes. At the 15-minute mark, remove from heat. Let the pressure reduce on its own before removing the lid. Serve steaks over cooked rice with a side salad or vegetable.

Note: If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make this in a Dutch oven. Follow the same steps, except cover the Dutch oven and cook on the middle rack in a 325-degree oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

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Beef Sirloin Tips with Mushrooms over Hot-Buttered Noodles

Beef Sirloin Tips with Mushrooms over Hot-Buttered Noodles

I made this dish the same day I made my Black-Eyed Pea Risotto. Yep, the lunch my hubby never even tasted. His loss! It was New Year’s Day, and I wanted him to go get some take-out from a local Italian chain restaurant with my “Carino’s Cash” cards from buying gift cards there.

We were all set to order, then I read the fine print. “Only good for dine-in orders.” Oooh, bummer. So what is one to do? I didn’t want to get dressed (hey, I was still in my jammies/sweatpants — who isn’t on New Year’s Day?) and I needed to make dinner STAT!

I quickly scoured my fridge found an entire package of fresh mushrooms ready to go south, and a one pound package of boneless top sirloin I forgot I had put in there a couple of days before to defrost. These two items armed me with the makings of a delicious meal made in under one hour!

So let’s get straight to it on how to make a simple, filling meal on a short notice:

Beef Sirloin Tips with Mushrooms over Hot Buttered Noodles

8 ounces dried pasta, any kind
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 pound top sirloin steak
1/4 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
Ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup onion, chopped
8 ounce package sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups homemade or low-sodium beef broth
Chopped green onions, for garnish

First get the pasta cooking according to package directions. Any time during the below cooking process, remove and drain when it’s cooked al dente , then add two tablespoons of butter and keep warm/hot.

Seasoned Beef Tips

Cut the steak into bite-sized pieces (hence the “tips”), then toss with the paprika, thyme, mustard, and black pepper, to taste.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, then the steak. Saute for about 5 or more minutes, browning the steak on all sides. Remove steak from pan to a plate and set aside.

Browning the Beef Tips

Melt the remaining butter in the same skillet and add the onions and mushrooms.  Cook for 7 to 10 minutes or until the mushrooms start to release their liquid.

Sauteing the Mushrooms and Onions

Next add the garlic and Worcestershire Sauce and mix to combine. One tablespoon at a time, whisk in the flour until a paste forms and no dry flour is left.

Slowly add the beef broth to the mixture. Continually whisk the mixture to remove any lumps during this process. Bring it to a boil and cook until it thickens.

Steak Tips and Mushroom Sauce

Add the cooked beef back to the pan and mix to coat.  Continue to cook until the meat is reheated. Serve over the hot buttered noodles and garnish with chopped green onions. Dinner is ON!

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Steak and Pork Pot Pie

Steak and Pork Pot Pie

After a busy and fun (OK, awesome!) weekend out of town, I’m finally getting around to cooking and blogging again! My husband had grilled up some pork and steaks over the weekend and I was faced with grilled leftover meat and not a lot of ideas for what to do with it.

When I opened the freezer to look for options, I spied a frozen pie crust and had an “AHA!” moment. Who said you can’t make pot pie with grilled steak or pork, huh? And with the meat already cooked, it became a simple and delicious dinner idea. I did not use the “Holy Trinity” with celery since my daughter does not eat celery (even though I cook with it all of the time), but I added peas for both color and taste. Two thumbs up from the fam, too! Here is what I did:

Steak and Pork Pot Pie

Steak and Pork Pot Pie

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup baby carrots, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 small potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup flour
2 cups homemade or low-sodium beef broth
Ground black pepper, to taste
Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb, or salt, to taste
1 sprig of fresh thyme, leaves stripped and minced (or a pinch dried)
1/4 cup milk
1 pound leftover cooked steak and/or pork, cubed (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup frozen petite peas
1 frozen pie crust, thawed
1 egg, beaten with a little water

Grilled Beef and Pork

In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the carrots, onion, and potato. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the flour, seasonings, and thyme and stir until mixed into the butter.  Add the beef broth, then turn up heat to medium, stirring constantly until it thickens and begins to simmer. Turn back down to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the milk and stir to combine. Last, mix in the meat and peas, then turn off heat.

Steak and Pork Pot Pie Filling

Pour into a 1.5 quart casserole (or large deep pie dish — I don’t happen to own one like that). Preheat oven to 375 degrees, meanwhile letting the mixture cool for about 20 minutes.  Top with the thawed pie crust and crimp around edges to seal. Brush on egg wash all over crust, then cut a few slits on top for venting. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until crust is golden. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Dee-lish!

Steak and Pork Pot Pie

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