Ragout (pronounced ragu)is meat in a spicy sauce, much like a spicy stew, so that’s why I called this a ragout.

In an effort to stretch our meat budget I again used left over roast for this recipe, however this time I used left over Peppered Pot Roast.  It was rich and spicy and very very filling.

To keep this thick and chunky cut all our veggies into nice big chunky pieces.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. olive, coconut or nut oil
• 1 lg. green pepper, chunky chop
• 1 cup of mushrooms, halved or quartered
• 1 lg or 2 sm. zucchini, chopped
• med. onion, cut in chunks
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt & pepper
• 1 tsp. ground chili pepper, I used ancho
• 1 1/2 tsp. cumin
• chopped or shredded beef, left over roast is great here
• 2 tbsp. jalapeno juice,  more or less to fit your tastes
• 1 tbsp. jalapenos, more or less to taste
• *Noodles- shirataki, whole wheat, Caboodles*( I used shirataki)
• 2-3 tbsp. crushed tomatoes

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large skillet and sauté peppers,mushrooms, zucchini, onions, garlic, and shirataki noodles
2. Season with salt, pepper, chili pepper and cumin.
3. When veggies are tender, add shredded or chopped beef
4. Add jalapenos and juice, tomato sauce and noodles (if using something other than shirataki)
5. Let simmer until veggies are done, add water as needed, 1 tbsp. at the time.

Best served warm instead of hot.

* Noodles- you can use any kind of pasta you want in this, but as someone watching carbs I automatically think of lower carb versions, like shirataki, whole grain or caboodles (which is shredded cabbage, which in this case needn’t be sautéed first). I didn’t have any at the time but you could parboil a few turnips (cubed of course) and use those instead of pasta altogether.

If your not watching carbs, then feel free to add any pasta you like or even parboiled potatoes. 

Then just sit back and enjoy!

I’ve read several recipes for pot roast with pepperoncini peppers, all slightly different but all pretty simple.

Since I like really simple and I’m not great at following recipes (even my own )I simply did what I wanted.  I cleaned and seasoned a small chuck roast (less than 3 lbs) with salt and pepper.  I gave it a good once over with my favorite meat tenderizer.

Then I added just a little oil to my heavy bottomed Dutch oven.  I didn’t use my cast iron because it was simply too big. But my normal cookware has a heavy nickel disk bottom on them. 

I browned my roast on all sides and then poured half a large bottle of pepperoncini peppers over it, covered and let it braise for a couple of hours. 

At this point it was fork tender.  I served it with lemon butter broccoli and a few cherry tomatoes.  While it didn’t have the slightest bit of heat to it to me, mom and Cindy both declared it too hot for them.  They both thought it had a great flavor, but complained it was hot.  So adjust the amount of peppers you use to your families taste.  I guess I’ll be using less next time.

The next night I morphed the left over roast into a Beef Ragout and then had the last little bit for lunch in a peppered beef soup. 

Tell me I don’t know how to stretch a piece of meat…giggle

I got a good deal on London broils a few months back, so I bought three. Now I have never cooked a London broil in my life, and as far as I knew, I had never eaten one either. As it, turns out these were top round, so they are very, very lean and tend to be on the tough side. What to do? What to do? I asked a few friends how they cooked them, and the answers were all different. I did a Google search and again the answers were all different But the basic consensus I got was you could either prepare like a pot roast, which I'm not nuts for in the first place, and which we have had more than our fair share of lately in the second. The other choice I seemed to have was to marinade and broil it like a steak, which is what I chose to do.

This came out with great flavor, but even with my diligent half hour tenderizing, and marinating 24+ hours it was still a bit tough and chewy. Next time I think I will cut it up and make Swiss steak or stroganoff with it. But, I will definitely be using this marinade again.

I'm betting it would be great on pork or chicken as well.

Chili Lime Steak

Ingredients:

• Steak, chicken or pork
• ¼ cup lime juice
• ¼ cup tequila
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder, I used ancho but use whatever you like
• ¼ cup rough chopped onions
• 1 tbsp. rough chopped garlic, about 2 med sized cloves
• Gallon sized zippy bag

Method:

1. As always I start by washing my meat well
2. Tenderize. I spent a good 30 minutes with my Jaccard meat tenderizer but use what you have
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in the zippy bag
4. Add steak and press out as much air as possible
5. Massage steak well to make sure everything is well coated and covered in marinade
6. Refrigerate 4 hours up to over night
7. When ready to cook, preheat broiler
8. Drain off marinade, place meat on broiling pan or if like me rack set in sheet pan
9. Broil until desired doneness. I recommend medium.

To serve, slice on the bias with salad or even on top of the salad. A nice fruit salsa would be excellent with this as well.