Chinese take-out Beef in Crock-Pot

I’m always looking for new meals to try in my crockpot. I am often way to tired and stressed to cook in the afternoon anymore so just throwing stuff in a pot in the morning ia pretty irresistible. This was a huge success. Both kids and husband loves it. I thought it was a little boring to tell you the truth but I’ll add more spices next time. Maybe some chili flakes. I’ll also cut down the sugar, which is a little much.

I started out with a recipe for “Mongolian beef” whatever that is. However, the end result is very near to what I frequently ate as a kid, Chinese take-out food with beef and mushrooms. (Not that there are any mushrooms  in this dish - but feel free to add them. My kids wouldn’t eat that.)

Serve with whatever vegetables you like. I had some green beans slowly dying of freezer burn that I rescued along with some broccoli, the kids had baby corn. 

Chinese take-out Beef in Crock-Pot

Serves 6 

600 g flank steak, cut across the grain into thin strips 

Corn starch

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large carrots, julienned (or just grated)

1 red onion, thinly sliced 

3 garlic cloves, minced

100 g brown sugar 

100 ml soy sauce 

300 ml water (plus more) 

Vegeta or other all-purpose spice mix, stock powder would work too

Put some corn starch in a plastic bag. I didn’t measure, but about a good handful. The goal is to cover the meat so add your strips of beef and make sure that they are well coated.

My crockpot has a sauté setting so I began by frying the carrots, onions and garlic in the oil. Skip this if your pot can’t do it. Just add the ingredients instead. 

Add sugar, aoy and water and stir. Add the beef, but shake off any excess corn starch as you go. Stir to cover with the sauce. Add Vegeta or other spices. 

Cook on low for 6 hours or so. My meat was super tender by then and it might have been fine a lot earlier but longer wouldn’t hurt either. 

Check for texture. I added quite a bit of water, at several times. The corn starch really does make the sauce thick. 

Serve with rice and vegetables. 

Curry stew with cashews (in crock-pot)

Curry - as in the yellow powder, not as in the Indian dishes - is one of the comforting spices of my childhood. Always mild, always combined with cream for the very best chicken dish... I love it. Nowadays, I don't use it a whole lot, but as I came across a recipe for a hot stew from Kenya in Sara Begnér's latest cookbook Glöd (means "glow") that has recipes from various places across the world, the curry powder intrigued me.

I decided to play down the heat completely, as spicy food isn't very popular in my family, and cook it all day in the crock-pot, to make dinner-time more effortless. It turned out really nice - flavorful and spiced, without being spicy. We ate it with bulgur, and plenty of toppings.

Curry stew with cashews (in crock-pot)
serves 4-6

1 kg stewing beef (I use "högrev" which I believe is chuck steak)
2 tbsp butter
salt, pepper
1-2 tbsp curry powder
2 beef stock cubes
700 ml water
2 yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp smoked paprika (I used the sweet kind, without heat)
1/2 tbsp brown sugar

Toppings:
fresh coriander
dried apricots, chopped
toasted cashews
greek yogurt

Cut the meat into large dice. Heat half the butter on high heat, and brown the meat, a little at a time, on all sides. Transfer to crock-pot and toss with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the butter, the curry powder, the beef stock cubes and fry for a few seconds. Add a little of the water to deglaze the pan and pour all of the pan contents into the crock pot. Add the rest of the water, onions, garlic, and smoked paprika. Cook on low until the meat is tender - I had almost ten hours, but I'm sure a few hours less would have worked well too. Season with brown sugar, and taste to see that it's the way you want it. Serve with rice or bulgur, and toppings as you wish.

Flank Steak with Chimichurri

I cooked this back in January, for our annual 13-course dinner, and I have no idea why it's taken me so long to blog about it. Also, it was my first time cooking with flank steak, and again, why did it take me so long? It's a super flavorful cut of meat, and it's fairly cheap, too. I had to special order it, though, and it does benefit from marinating, so it's not exactly great for spur-of-the-moment cooking.

As you might remember, we had to do courses from different countries, and I drew Argentina. Hence the chimichurri. It's awesome with the flank steak, which is flavorful in itself but the sauce takes it to a whole new level. I heartily recommend this.

Marinated Flank Steak
375 ml dry sherry
60 ml sherry vinegar
60 ml red wine vinegar
4 small red onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
125 ml olive oil
800 g flank steak
salt, pepper

Mix the sherry, both vinegars, onions, garlic and olive oil in a big plastic bag. Add the meat and make sure it's covered. Place in the fridge to marinate over night.

Drain the meat, and season well with salt and pepper. Grill on very high heat for about 3-5 minutes per side, depending on how red you like your meat. Let it rest for five minutes before slicing, thinly. Serve with chimichurri.

And yes, this recipe does use a whole lot of sherry vinegar. Try to find a fairly cheap kind, or substitute red wine vinegar. It'll still be great.

Chimichurri
240 ml olive oil
160 ml sherry vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
250 ml flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp fresh basil, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp fresh oregano, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2-1 tbsp flaky sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Mix everything except for the salt and pepper in a food processor, and whizz into a smooth sauce. Don't process it too much though - you're not making a purée. Season with salt and pepper.

Recept på engelska:
Flank Steak with Chimichurri

Claypot Pork Roast

It's still winter. Most definitely. Everyone's rejoicing because it's finally above zero degrees, but... really, it's still winter, and there's a lot of it.

So, still plenty of time for what I think of as winter food. This dish most definitely qualifies - as do most roasts, in my opinion. You might have problems finding the same cut as I used, since butchering is one of those things that greatly differ from country to country. I used something called "skinkstek", but "fläskstek" would also have been good. I think the difference is small. They weigh about 1 kg, or 2 pounds. Then again, I find that especially US cuts are usually a LOT bigger than ours...

Anyway - it's a fairly lean cut, and well suited for this kind of cooking. You basically cut it into a flat(-tish) slab, rub it with spices, fill it with onions and garlic, and roast it. In a claypot. Yes, get out the one you have gathering dust on a shelf somewhere! You can probably make this in another kind of pot, but I haven't tried it - I think you'll probably have to adjust the cooking time.

We served this with a simple gravy and boiled potatoes, and some boiled carrots, too.

Claypot Pork Roast
(printable recipe)
serves 4

1 kg roasting pork (see above)
2 yellow onions
3 garlic cloves
salt, freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp cloves, ground
1/2 tbsp fennel seeds, ground
2 tbsp olive oil
1 parsnip
2 carrots
100 g swede (rutabaga)



Remember to soak your clay pot for a few hours before you begin cooking.

Chop the onions and garlic. Set aside about 1/3 of the onions, and fry the rest in one tbsp olive oil along with the garlic. Leave to cool slightly.

Cut the pork into a flat slab by cutting lengthwise into it, but not all the way through. Open as you would a book. Score the surface, but without cutting through it.

Mix cloves, fennel and rosemary with salt and pepper. Pour the remaining tablespoon of oil over the pork roast and work in the spice mix with your fingers. Put some of the oil and just salt and pepper on what will be the outside of the roast.

Place the fried onion mix on the inside of the roast. Roll up tightly and bind, using kitchen string. (Or food loops, which is what I have.)

Heat a frying pan and brown the roast on all sides.

Coarsely chop carrots, parsnip and swede. Mix with the onion that you've set aside, and place in the clay pot. Set the pork roast on top. Cover with the lid, and place in the cold oven. Set the heat to 200°C, and leave it in for about 90 minutes.

Remove the pot from the oven, but be very careful when removing the lid. There can be a whole lot of really hot steam! Remove the roast to a cutting board and let it rest for a little while before carving. Meanwhile, you can push the now very soft vegetables through a sieve and make a simple gravy by mixing them with a little bit of apple juice and cream (and season with salt and pepper). Serve with boiled potatoes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Fläskstek i lergryta