Crock-Pot Carne Guisada and Refried Black Beans

 If you have more than one crock pot or slow cooker get them out! Today you will need to crock pots, one for the carne guisada, and the other for refried black beans.

 

 

So what is carne guisada, it is a Mexican style beef stew served over rice or in tortillas. This is a simple recipe, not a lot of vegetables and the meat is extremely tender. We ate this on tortillas, spooned in steamed white rice and the refried black beans. Add a little lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro to dress up your tortilla and expand the flavors.

 

 

 I like to cook dishes like this in a crock-pot or slow cooker. The smell of it cooking all day, keeps anticipation of a great dinner coming our way. I warn you now that you will have to guard your crock-pot while this cooking. The drool worth smell drives people to want to remove the lid and savor the scent. With slow cookers and crock-pots, removing the lid is a very bad thing! It takes almost half hour plus for them to regain the heat that is lost from removing the lid. If you ever needed an endorsement for these recipes, they did win a “you’ve got to put this on the blog” comment from the kids.

 

 

Another plus of cooking this stew in a crock-pot, is during the summer you can have a fantastic meal without heating the oven or your house!

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Crock-pot Cowboy Stew...

I first came across this recipe in a book by Sandra Lee, of Semi-Homemade. The orginal recipe calls from potatoes and corn. I personally thought it was too much in the carbohydrates so I took out the corn and added a can of kidney beans.
The meat in the stew is brisket. You only need 2 pounds, if you can not find a small 2 pound brisket look for corned beef. The meat in that package of corned beef is brisket, just throw away the seasoning packet that is inclosed.
We used to have eat this recipe twice a month. Super simple to throw together in the morning before work, or great on a cold day. The orginal recipe states it serves six, four is more the correct portion.

Ingredients:
2 pounds beef brisket, cut into bite size pieces
1 Tablespoon taco season
2 cups chopped potatoes
2 10 ounce cans of Rotel tomatoes and chilies
1 10 ounce can of cream of celery soup
1 10 - 15 ounce can of kidney beans, undrained
1 cup beef broth, low sodium
1 small onion chopped
2 teaspoons garlic, minced

Directions:
In a 4 quart crock-pot add brisket and sprinkle with taco seasoning
Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined
Cover and cook on hight temp setting for 4 to 6 hours.
or low temp setting for 8 to 10 hours.

Stew or Soup? You Decide...

My parents were born in raised in Kentucky, my husband’s in Texas. Here lies the base to an eighteen-year long debate over is it stew or soup.

Growing up when mom made stew it was a thick gravy sauce, with beef, potatoes, peas and a single bay leaf that always managed to end up in some ones bowl. Mom served it with bread and butter.

My husband grew up with stew that was broth based, beef, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and one onion. He eats it with crackers.

Can you see where the debate comes from?

My loving husband states it is because he is from the south and they put tomatoes in everything. I have been deemed a Yankee. Well I hate to break this to my husband, but his father's side of the family was not even American's during the Civil War! When the namesake did immigrate to America, he went to Kentucky. Therefore, if I am a Yankee, he is too!

I will leave each of you to decide which label you would like to classify this recipe, in our house it is called "Oh, that’s good!" 

If you have a picky eater like mine. Try a ladle full with only a small bit of broth and top with shredded cheddar jack cheese.

Paddy's Beef Stew (Soup)

1 ½ to 2 lbs of beef stew meat or roast cut into 2 inch pieces

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

3 carrots sliced

4 large potatoes, chopped to bite size pieces

2 large (28-30 oz) cans of whole tomatoes

Ground pepper

1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil

In soup pot, add oil and brown stew meat (personally, I add crushed garlic or garlic powder to the meat at this point.) Add enough water to cover meat, cover pot and let simmer until meat is tender. (If you have meat tenderizer go ahead and sprinkle some in) Simmer until almost all of the water has evaporated from pot, usually takes 1 ½ hours.

Add potatoes, onion and carrots.  Crush tomatoes while adding to pot along with the juice.

Cover pot and simmer until vegetables are done, season with pepper to taste.

Crock-pot version – Yes, you can make stew in a crock-pot!

Place meat tenderizer, stew meat, pepper, (garlic,) onion and enough water to reach almost halfway of crock-pot. Set to highest setting, replace lid and let simmer for 6 hours.

After six hours, water should be mostly gone. Place carrots and potatoes in a microwavable dish (I prefer an 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup) cover with water and microwave on high for ten minutes. The vegetables should fork tender but not completely cooked. Add tomatoes, potatoes and carrots to crock-pot and let cook for an hour on high temperature.