It was a tight race with some delicious food, but in the end these were the top 3 picks in our Crock-toberfest Recipe Contest:
First place – $150.00 Well Seasoned gift certificate and 2 seats in a cooking class of her choice
Jessica Zandenberg’s Full of Beans Turkey Pot
Second place – $100 Well Seasoned gift certificate
Arlene Nolan’s Crock Pot Roast Beef Dinner
Third place – $50 Well Seasoned gift certificate
Elinor Ridley’s Best Beef Stew
Here are the recipes:
Full of Beans Turkey Pot
2 cans (14oz each) sliced peaches with juice
19 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed & drained
19 oz can of white kidney beans, rinsed & drained
19 oz can of black beans, rinsed & drained
14 oz can of baked beans in tomato sauce
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
1 tsp curry powder
1 1/2 lbs turkey
Combine first 9 ingredients to slow cooker. Add turkey and stir well. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours.
Crock Pot Roast Beef Dinner
1 – small 3–4 pound roast beef – seared on all sides
1 – jar medium or hot salsa of your choice
1 – medium onion sliced thinly
3 – 4 cloves garlic sliced
S & P & a dash of Worcestershire Sauce taste
4 potatoes diced
4 – carrots sliced
1 – small package frozen peas
Sear roast on all sides to seal in juices.
Place roast in crock pot after it’s seared and cover in order as above.
Just before you want to serve, remove roast from crock pot.
Mix flour and water together and thicken salsa and juices to make gravy.
This dish can be served with garlic mashed potatoes or noodles and a veggie and a salad on the side. It’s very versatile.
Best Beef Stew in Crockpot
Quantities of ingredients will depend on the size of your crockpot. Mine is small – holding only 2 quarts of liquid, so my recipe is based on that. If it was bigger I would add portabello mushrooms and peppers.
Beef Cubes - 1/2 to 3/4 pound (buy your own steak and cut into pieces – it will be more tender than pre-packaged stew meat)
Dredge the beef in seasoned flour – I use 11/2 cup rice flour and add 1 Tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp granulated garlic, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp crushed Tarragon, 1 tsp onion powder. Of course this is more or less – who measures? This mixture can be kept in the freezer to be used again. It’s even great with chicken!
Olive oil plus a little bacon fat ( for yummy flavour) for browning the beef. When browned, set aside.
Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup Port 74 (you could use red wine) To the Port add 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (chipotle) to taste, beef bouillon, 10 oz can of tomato juice, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp Thyme, 2 Bay leaves, 1/2 tsp Cayenne, 1/2 tsp black pepper
While beef is browning, peel and chop 2 carrots, 2 parsnips, 1 rutabaga, 1 medium onion, 4-6 cloves of garlic, 2 stalks celery, 1 medium sized potato, and 2 medium tomatoes.
Combine veg and beef in crockpot, pour deglazing liquid over, and gently mix. I do this in the evening and put the crock pot in the fridge over night. In the morning I turn it to low so it can cook all day.
An hour or so before eating, clean and halve 8 Brussels sprouts. Add a little of the sauce from the crock pot to a microwave dish, and microwave the sprouts for 2 minutes Add back to crockpot. (they turn mushy if cooked all day, plus there isn’t room for them till the rest has cooked down!)
Half an hour before eating, mix 1-2 tsp cornstarch with enough water to make a paste. Add some of the sauce from the crockpot to the cornstarch paste and mix well. Add back to the pot and stir in. You may have to turn your pot to high to get it to thicken.
This is a FAV with my friends even with some variations
Use sweet potato (or yams) red pepper chunked, mushrooms, Okra (okra helps to thicken so you won’t need as much cornstarch)
Or make it with chicken and use chicken bouillon. Use Ancho chilli’s instead of cayenne.
