Day 4: Chinese Beef with Veggies

 

Cooking~
Something I liked about this recipe is that it can be done on high for half the time. (Not all crockpot recipes will allow that, and assuming that 8 hours on low can be done in 4 hours on high is a gamble). So I started this one at about 3:30, in anticipation of Darling Husband being home around 7ish. (We are a big "ish" household... Even if he actually gets to leave when he thinks he will, the chances that DC Metro area traffic will have him home 20 minutes later is slim... I gave up having dinner on the table when he walked in the door a long time ago...) The prep was wonderfully simple, mix a sauce, rough chop some onions and peppers, brown some beef in oil and garlic. I did hit a minor SNAFU when I noticed I didn't have the 14.5 oz can of stewed tomatoes... So I dumped everything in the crockpot and ran to the store. I seriously debated putting them in at all. Neither one of us are big tomato eaters, and stewed tomatoes in a Chinese dish seems odd to me. Even the picture doesn't really seem to show any tomatoes in the dish. But I am not here to judge, only to attempt. Maybe they're there for added moisture, and like ingredients being boiled down for a stock, will blend in to the background and disappear. We'll see...

Review~



Huh. This was not at all what we expected. From the original Pinterest Pin, I guess I had it in my head that this would be more along the lines of a Chinese dish. Hence the title. The stewed tomatoes should have been my first clue. The fact that there was only 3 Tbs of soy sauce in it should have been my second. So this may have to be called a pleasant disappointment... It was not at all what I  hoped it would be. But it was pretty good. Kind of like a pot roast. The onions were soft, which was fine, but the peppers were too soft, and I found them a little unpleasant. (This may be due to the 4 hours on high, perhaps the peppers would have done better on low...) I was surprised by the tomatoes, as neither one of us enjoy them overmuch, but I actually did in this dish. Over all it was tasty and easy. 

Scoring~ 6/10. I will probably make this again. And since there was nothing Asian in the flavours, add some carrots or potatoes. 

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