Sunday Beef Roast

Today was an enjoyable Sunday Funday. Slept in, went to Itaewon for some cocktails and gourmet hotdogs (Bulldogs), and arrived back home to a delicious fully cooked dinner!

How? Well...crock pots are amazing. Throw some food in them, and bing, bang, boom, dinner with little effort. I especially enjoy using them on weekdays, when the last thing I want to do is cook when I get through a particularly stressful day at work. 

Last night, my lovely boyfriend, Warren, and I decided that we wanted to eat a nice beef roast for dinner today. Once we had decided, step one was thawing the beef out in the fridge overnight. We managed to purchase approximately 1.5kg worth of eye of the round portions from Costco. The beef was cut into 4 equal portions, which we tossed into zipper bags, and then placed them into the freezer. We use this beef in a variety of different meals, one of my favourite being a classic beef stew.

Without further adieu, here’s how Warren created our delicious Sunday night supper!

Throw some carrots, an onion, several potatoes, and the beef into a large crock pot. Pour enough beef stock in to cover everything. Turn that baby on low for 8 hours (or 5-6 on high).Next, go enjoy your day.

 We splurged on some delicious looking alcoholic cocktails.

When the time is up on your crock pot removed meat and vegetables and use the liqud to create delicious homemade gravy.

Whip up a basic rue. (1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp flour for every cup of liquid you plan to add)

Finally, serve on a plate with a simple salad or enjoy on its own. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients:

Pot Roast
- 1lb of eye of the round beef (or a similar cut)
- 1 large carrot
- 10 small/medium potatoes
- 1 large onion
- 4 cups of beef stock (or enough to cover)

Gravy
- remaining liquid from crock pot (about 3 ½- 4 cups)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour

Directions:

Place thawed beef into the crock pot. Cut onion in large pieces and throw into crock pot. Peel, wash, and cut carrot into 1 inch slices and toss in crock pot. Wash and cut potatoes in half and toss into the crock pot. Pour beef stock over the beef and vegetables, making sure everything is covered. Cook on low setting for 8 hours or 5-6 on high. Once cooked, remove beef and vegetables using a slotted spoon. Set aside.

In a pot gently melt butter on low heat. Slowly add flour, a tablespoon at a time stirring constantly. Continue to stir and cook until the rue changes to a golden brown. (The darker the rue, the thicker your gravy will be.) Next, pour in your crock pot liquid, a cup at a time and stir. Once combined, bring to a boil, and simmer until desired thickness is reached.

Pour gravy over sliced beef and potatoes and voila!

Serves 2-3 

Panko Mozza Sticks

Recently, I found some Korean frozen mozzarella sticks at my local mart. They tasted pretty delightful to me, but after making these homemade sticks I’ll never go back… well maybe.

This past weekend was a nice four day holiday for Korean Lunar New Year (Seollal), so I decided to spend some time whipping up a delicious mid day snack for my boyfriend and I. A nice big HomePlus opened up nearby and had a 1+1 deal on mozzarella sticks, which inspired me to finally try making homemade mozzarella sticks. The rest of the ingredients can be easily found at most local marts. Enjoy!

Ingredients

·         6 mozzarella sticks

·         1 egg

·         ¼ cup of milk

·         1 cup of panko breadcrumbs

·         1 tbsp of dried or fresh parsley (I used dried)

·         1 cup of flour

·         Canola oil for frying

·         Marinara sauce for dipping (optional)

Prepare three shallow bowls. In one bowl, pour in the flour. In the second bowl, wisk the egg and milk together with a fork. For the last bowl, combine the parsley and panko bread crumbs.

Next, cut each mozza stick in half.

Then, roll each stick in flour, dip in the egg mixture, and then place into the panko mixture. Instead of rolling the eggy-cheese stick in panko, place the panko over the stick and press. I find the stick gets covered more evenly this way.

        Once all of your sticks are ready, place on a tray or cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer for 20-30 minutes. (I went out for about an hour. Don’t worry if you leave them in for awhile, just don’t leave them in all afternoon)

After 30 minutes (or an hour if you’re forgetful like me), take those sticks out of the freezer and heat up oil on Medium to Medium-High depending on your stove top (Medium worked well for me). Fill the pan with an inch to an inch and a half of oil.

Make sure the oil is hot enough before putting the sticks in the oil. Turn the sticks over when they've browned slightly. These little treats cook quickly, maybe 1-2 minutes. Don’t crowd your pan. Fry the sticks in batches of 6-8 at a time.

When done place them on a paper towel to absorb the oil and serve with marinara. I was feeling lazy so I used Ottogi pizza sauce, which was surprisingly good when heated up slightly. 

Happy New Year! 

Recipe adapted from: http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/05/panko-mozzarella-sticks/