I’ve mentioned my ideal crock pot recipe before. It involves opening packages and cans, dumping stuff in the cooker and leaving it to cook for upwards of 10 hours while I’m at work.
Most of the recipes I’ve been making recently haven’t been that simple. Some have been tasty, some have been downright delicious. But none of them have been as easy as the infamous pot roast of my childhood.
Until now.
Last weekend we were trying to find something that didn’t have tomatoes or beans because our aging digestive systems needed a break. It surprises me how many recipes had one or both of those ingredients in them.
Then I hear Nancy say “Hey! Easy Beef Stew!” And I think, “How easy can this be?”
As easy as the pot roast, actually.
In fact, it was the pot roast.
Let’s compare recipes, shall we?
Pot Roast – 2-3 lb beef roast, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 envelope onion soup mix, 1/4 - 1/3 soup can of water. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
Easy Beef Stew – 2 lbs stew meat, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 envelope onion soup mix, 1/3 cup red wine, 1 package sliced mushrooms. Cook on low for 8-12 hours.
The stew got a little fancy, adding wine and extra mushrooms. But essentially they’re they same recipe. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before on my own. It was brilliant!
So Monday morning I dumped the ingredients in the crock pot and turned it on; Monday night I got home from work to a house redolent with the fragrance of hearty stew. I started the rice cooker to cook some rice to go with the stew, added some frozen peas and carrots to the stew for some extra veg.
Et voila! Thirty minutes later dinner was ready. The stew was delicious!!! Particularly over the rice. The recipe says to serve over noodles, which is fine, but there’s something about pouring meat and rich gravy over rice that gets to my culinary soul. My father would definitely have approved!
It was so good, we were sorry when it was gone Thursday night. Next week, we’re going to try it with chicken, cream of chicken soup and some other kind of powdered soup mix. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Now to completely switch gears, I have to express my congratulations to Richard Blais for winning Top Chef All Stars!! I have never been so excited or invested in a reality show. Ever. It was like watching old friends (or enemies), seeing some of my favorite chefs from previous seasons competing again.
I was a fan of Richard’s when he was on Season 4 of Top Chef. He was the guy to beat then, but he choked in the season finale, letting his head get in the way of his gut and letting his self-doubt cripple him.
Going in to All Stars, he was the man to beat, I thought. It was his title to lose. His combination of exquisite taste and knowledge and the playfulness of a little boy make him unique among the men who have come to the top of Top Chef. He is a NICE guy. He’s not an over-confident prick with anger issues.
His lack of confidence in his own ability makes him both endearing and a little irritating sometimes. Sometimes I wanted to hug him and tell him it was going to be okay. Other times I wanted to Gibbs-slap him.
I was so happy for him when he won, I cried as if he was a member of my own family.
That being said, Mike Isabella surprised the hell out of me. I didn’t know until last night’s episode that he had worked for Jose Andres, had run one of his restaurants for two years. Mike took the break between the ‘regular season’ and the ‘post season’ in the Bahamas to study, hone his skills, train and make himself ready for the finale. And it showed. He won the majority of the challenges in the Bahamas. He came out with a truly impressive menu for the finale and really showed his knowledge of how a restaurant runs during the set up portion, talking to the servers, choosing wines. He showed everyone that he really belonged there.
Both chefs presented amazing meals I wish I could have eaten. In the end, what separated those two chefs was very little indeed. During the celebration/consolation shots at the end of the show, Tom Colicchio hugged Mike and said “You may not have won, but you did great and you have a great career ahead of you.”
I am so proud of Richard and I really hope he is able to make his culinary dreams come true!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go add a bunch of chefs to my Twitter.
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