Leitey's Pot Roast

I like pot roast because it's really easy to make. You just throw it in the crock pot in the morning, and then dinner is made at whatever time you want to eat. Also, you can't burn it, which I learned is a very good thing, after that tapioca incident...

You will need:

A Crock Pot

A Roast

Some Carrots

A Few Potatoes

A Can of "Cream of Mushroom" Soup

Minced Garlic

Onion Soup and Dip Mix


First prepare the meat.
My roast had a bunch of fat on it, so I ripped that off first.














Next, cut some holes into the meat.














Stuff the holes with minced garlic.














I used to use actual garlic cloves for this, but the pieces were just too big, and they were really hard, even after cooking, and not really good for eating.

Now the meat is prepared. Throw the meat, potatoes and carrots into the crock pot.














Add the condensed "cream of mushroom" soup, and 1 packet of the onion dip mix.














In most crock pot recipes, you add some water, do not add water to this, not even to the can of soup. There is more than enough water already in the soup, and in the vegetables.

Cook on "low" for at least 8 hours. Stir, cover, and let cool. Enjoy!














As with any crock pot recipe, do not stir the roast during the actual cooking process.

As you can see, there is more than enough liquid in the finished product. That's why you don't add any water.

I cooked my roast for 11 hours. It's so tender, I could break it with the stirring spoon. I've found that cooking longer is better, but anything more than 14 hours is a bit excessive, and the texture of the vegetables is overly compromised.

Stir-Fried Rice Sticks (耖米粉)

Ingredients

• 1lb package of rice vermicelli
• 1lb (or so) ground beef or other meat
• 1 carrot
• 1 onion
  
• 1/8 cabbage
• 3-4 leaves napa cabbage
• 3 shitake mushrooms, dried
• 1 bag bean sprouts
• salt
• pepper
• soy sauce
• sugar

Pre-Preparation

Soak dried shitake mushrooms in bowl of water about 3-5 hours prior. Dice when hydrated and save the water.
Loosen ground beef and season with salt, pepper, ~1-2 tbsp soy sauce, sugar.
Chop carrots into oblique cross-sections, then cut into strips.
Chop cabbage into slivers.
Stack and cut napa leaves in half down the center. Then, cut crosswise into thin strips.
Chop onion into half-inch pieces.
Soak rice vermicelli in hot water until soft (~5 minutes). Drain.

Cooking

Brown onions, meat, carrots, mushrooms. I like to sautée onions with a little bit of soy sauce and sugar. Absolutely make sure your pan is big enough to hold all the ingredients with room to spare.
Stir-fry in cabbage and napa. Add in some mushroom juice and cover until mostly cooked. Season to taste, then add 1/2 more amount of salt and 1/4 more pepper. Seasoning evenly after this step becomes much harder.

Push everything in the pan to the edges and add in the vermicelli. Make sure there's some water in the pan, as the vermicelli will soak it up. Optionally, drizzle some soy sauce over the vermicelli. Cover and mix/turn occasionally until vermicelli is soft.

Once again, push everything to the edges and bury the bean sprouts. Reduce to medium/medium-low heat and cover until bean sprouts are soft. You did make sure your pan was large enough, right?

Add more mushroom juice or water if the noodles are sticking to the pan. There should not be any standing water at this point.

After bean sprouts are soft, turn off the heat, plate and serve. Leave the pan uncovered or half-covered to allow some moisture to evaporate. If all goes well, you should have something like this:









These steps can be used to create pad thai. Simply substitute wider rice noodles for the rice vermicelli, and add crushed peanuts and lime juice when serving.

Lasagna

INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
* 3/4 pound lean ground beef
* 1 package of bacon
* 1 cup minced onion
* 3 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
* 26 oz of some kind of tomato sauce (we used some kind of spicy spaghetti sauce)
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
* 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 12 lasagna noodles
* 16 ounces ricotta cheese
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a big pan/skillet, cook sausage, ground beef, bacon, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.




2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.




5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.