Beef Over Noodles

July 8, 2013

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z3.5 (ZReboot 3.5) recipe. Our Plan Z “cafeteria” smelled just like Grandma’s house today. This beef over noodles recipe is a hit. Serve this when you have family around at holidays or other times when there’s a crowd. You can cook this a day ahead and then just reheat when you go to serve it. Or you can put the beef in a crock pot on a buffet. I serve the noodles separately in order to keep down the number of noodles per serving.

When you read this description don’t get the idea that this is an Asian dish. It will not taste Asian when it’s done.

Servings: Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

For prepping the beef:

3 lbs of beef round roast cut into 1” cubes
2 Tbl of olive oil
1 Tbl of Bragg’s Aminos
4 Tbl of port wine (This is a sweet red wine. You can use any red wine and it will be fine)
3 cups of thinly sliced onions

For coating the meat

2 more Tbl of Bragg’s Aminos
2 tsp of corn starch
2 more Tbl of port
2 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp of salt
½ cup of water
1 lb of sliced mushrooms

For the noodles:

thick egg noodles

Instructions:

For the Beef:

Heat the oil in a skillet or Dutch oven. Carefully add the Bragg’s Aminos and the port wine. It will sputter for a bit because you are adding a water-based liquid to oil. Careful. Then add the onions and begin to sauté them. Just stir fairly often as they turn purple and cook. About 10 minutes. Just loosen, don’t brown them.

While that’s cooking, in a small bowl combine the cornstarch, port, and Bragg’s Aminos. Stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.

In a large bowl, place the meat chunks. Douse them in the cornstarch/liquid mixture. Just pour it on and toss with your hands until the meat gets coated.

Add the meat to the onions in the large pot. Begin to brown the meat. Add the garlic and salt. Keep stirring so the onions don’t stick.

Now you have a decision to make. You can put the Dutch oven in the oven, covered, for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees or you can cook on the stove in the skillet on medium-low, covered, for the same amount of time. I like the oven method so I don’t have to babysit it as much.

Stir the mixture every 15 minutes. After the 45 minutes are up, add the mushrooms. Stir them in and cook 30 minutes more. The meat should be tender and cut with a fork. If yours is not you may need more cooking time. Then it’s ready to serve.

For the Noodles:

I use a thick egg noodle for this dish. Since I don’t have noodles very often this is a real treat but I actually find myself satisfied with FEWER noodles than one serving.

Keep in MIND: A serving of noodles is ½ cup COOKED. That means you cook them and then ladle them into your bowl or onto the plate using a ½ cup measure. It will surprise you how rich they taste and how you don’t need very many to be satisfied. In the “Old Days,” you probably ate at least twice that many noodles but you don’t need to anymore. When I cook and drain my noodles now I happily put them in a large bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the noodles and stir it around. This used to make me feel guilty. Not anymore. Now I know adding butter to the noodles cuts down the glycemic index. Amazing.

Enjoy!

Cheers,