Cooking with Sara: French Dip Crockery

Santa brought me a crock pot this year (yes, it was totally on my list!), so I decided to crack open the box today and whip up something.  I flipped through my new cookbook and cruised around All Recipes, and ended up choosing a French Dip recipe because I had nearly all the ingredients already on hand.  And going to the store is suuuuch a big fat pain. 

As always, I made a few mods to the original recipe, mostly because I didn't have the exact ingredient list.  But, the key to this recipe is the step where you slice the beef and then continue cooking it.  I tried a taste at this step, and it was kinda dry and flavorless.  Cooking it sliced for an additional hour allowed it to really soak in the yummy juices. 

2-4 lb Roast (I used sirloin roast, a teeny tiny little one)

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 c low-sodium Soy Sauce

12 oz Water

1 packet Lipton Onion Soup Mix

12 oz. Beer (obviously, I went wayyy fancy with this item, hehe)

8 oz Beef Broth

1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme, crumbled

1/4 tsp. Dried Oregano, crumbled

4 Cloves Garlic
Black Pepper, to taste

Throw all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook covered on High for 3 hours.*  Give it a quick stir and turn the temperature down to Low for another 2 hours.  Remove the roast, and slice it thinly across the grain.  Return slices back to the slow cooker and cook for one more hour.  Serve on buttered, toasted french rolls with small bowls of the broth for dipping.

* Note:  You could just leave it on the Low setting all day instead.  But, as usual, I was rushing this recipe and trying to make it ready in 5 hours instead of 7-8.

Ooooooohhhh...new and shiiiiiinyyyyyyy....

Dubious.  And - Lover of weird face photos.

The ingredient lineup.  I wouldn't normally have used a light beer, but this was all that was in our fridge, so there you go.  I wasn't about to make a trip to the store for this venture.  I wanted it put together and thrown in the pot as fast as I could do the prep (and take photos).

My roast looks so teeny and lonely in the huge crock pot.

G'night, lil guy.  Sweet marinating, tenderizing dreams.

After I sliced the roast and put it back into the pot, it looked like a sad, veggie-less stew.

You can't really tell from this photo (I'm no pro), but the meat was falling apart as I stacked it on the bread.  Success!

Bo's sandwich got the cheese.  (And not even a great variety of cheese either. That's what happens when I don't eat dairy and have no idea what state our cheese supply is in.)

And...done.  My plate looks like a ghost town.