Slow Cooker Beef and Barley

 Super nice slow cooker dish. Minimal effort and left to cook on its own. Will definitely cook this again.

 

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons olive oil
• ¾ pound beef stew meat cut into ½ inch pieces
• ¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1½ cups)
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 cup)
• 2 stalks celery, diced (about ½ cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, or 2 teaspoons minced garlic in a jar
• 6 cups low-sodium beef broth
• One 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juices
• ½ cup pearled barley
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, heat 2 teaspoons of the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Dry off the meat with paper towels and then sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
3. Add the meat to the pan and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes total.
4. Transfer to a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.
5. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil to the skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion begins to soften about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook another minute.
6. Scrape the mixture from the skillet into the slow cooker. (If there are any browned bits still remaining in the skillet, add a little of the beef broth to de-glaze the pan and then add to the slow cooker.)
7. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, broth, tomatoes, barley, and thyme to the slow cooker and stir to blend.
8. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish each serving with a sprinkling of parsley, if desired.

Quick Weekday Vegetable Soup

The man in the household loves soup of any kinds. When i have time i will do the slow boiled soups but when it is mid week and dinner needs to be on the table within an hour, a quick anchovy based soup always works. 

Ingredients:

- a handful of dried anchovies

- dried kelp (optional)

- 1 medium size onion

- Few slices of ginger

- 1-2L of water or whatever suits your family size

- Vegetables of choice (i used carrots, wombok and tomatoes)

Method:

- Boil the water in a pot and soaked the anchovies while the water is boiling

- Once boil, throw in the anchovies and onion and kelp and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.

- Remove the anchovies with a sieve cause it will taste bitter if left for too long

- throw in vegetables and continue to boil. Throw in the ginger too for a nice heat.

- Add in salt to taste. I had some anchovies stocked made in the thermie a while ago, so i added them in as well.

I love soups like this. Simple, fresh and tasty.

 making the anchovies broth

You can used any type of vegetables. Spinach, cabbage, whatever that is left in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Beef Balls and soup

Easy soup on Fridays.

 Minced some spring onions and kale together with garlic and seasoning. Mixed together with 500gms of minced beef.

Soup is just made from pork bones, carrot, dried oysters and slow boil for an hour. Throw in the meatballs to cook in the soup and separately cook the noodles.

serve while it is hot.

Kale Soup

Pureed vegetables of Kale and celery and fry some chips for the kiddos.