Oct 06 2014
I was glad our son was able to take my wife to the dentist early today to start a long process of getting two tooth implants. They pulled a tooth and put in two screws today. She came through it well.
I am still limping around on my bad leg. I wanted something for my supper tonight and had an excess of flank steak I had rolled and smoked in the freezer. I was hungry for some Chicago style Italian beef. I usually use a good all meat beef roast like eye of round or sirloin tip cap. The flank steak has very little fat so sliced thin it would work. I used about two pounds.
I can’t stand up very long prepping food so I put a tray and cutting board on the table and sat down to slice up the meat. I got it all in my Crockpot at noon and set it on high for the first two hours and then turned down to low the last 3 to 4 hours. After the first hour I added a couple of pats of butter and some sea salt. My beef broth was fat free so I added the butter to get some fat in it.
I had some take home and bake hard crust dinner rolls for my bread so I baked it at 4:00. At 5:00 I stirred in a tablespoon of porcini mushroom powder to enrich the beef broth some. I had some store bought real mashed potatoes for a side. A few years back I would make my own mashed potatoes but as I get older I look for a lot of short cuts. I drained a can of yellow corn and heated with some butter for a side.
We ate about 6:00. I had my sandwich open face; the mashed potatoes on the side, corn on top with gravy over all. My wife’s numbness was gone and was hungry so she had mashed potatoes and some bread with gravy over it. She has to eat all soft food for five days now.
That sure tasted good on a cool fall day. Our son stopped in at 6:30 and made two sandwiches to take back home with him.
Half the beef sliced
Onions added to the pot
Peppers added
Meat and dry seasonings added
All in the pot
Ready to serve
My supper
Smokin Don
Recipe:
Chicago Italian Beef for two pounds
2 lbs. leftover medium rare beef roast sliced thin
1 quart beef broth
1 large sweet onion sliced and cut in half
1 red pepper cut in strips
1 green pepper cut in strips
1 ½ teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper or to taste
4 cloves garlic chopped or 2 teaspoons dried flakes
1 bay leaf
4 or 5 pepperoncini peppers
1 to 2 tablespoons of the pepperoncini pepper juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon porcini mushroom powder (optional)
I did this in a Crockpot; 2 hours on high then 4 hours on low. You could do this all stovetop in less time if you want.
Spray the Crockpot with some cooking spray, I use olive oil. Add in the sliced onions, the pepper strips, the meat and the dry seasonings except the mushroom powder. Pour the beef broth over and add the pepperoncini peppers, the pepper juice and the bay leaf. Let all cook and get happy. Add in the mushroom powder, if using, the last half hour.
Serve on some hard crust hoagie buns with the broth. Some like to do a half dip or a whole dip of the sandwich in the broth or you can have it open face style.
