Beef and Noodles

I made a beef roast a couple of weeks ago and was lamenting to David that I always do the same things when I make a roast (delicious things, but the same things). Mostly just roast with potatoes, and french dip sandwiches. Luckily, I came across a few new beef roast dishes to try. I made a few things, but this meal was by far the winner. Like, David couldn't stop talking about this meal. You'd think that I'd suddenly become a master chef rivaling Bobby Flay. It was so funny. I'll let you in on a secret - it's the way I cooked the roast.... and the homemade noodles. 

Melt-in-your-mouth pieces of shredded beef with homemade egg noodles in a salty broth. Comfort food doesn't get much better than this. 

(Don't be scared of the egg noodles, it was actually really easy and SO much less expensive than the frozen egg noodles you can buy at the store and SO much tastier than dried egg noodles. 

Beef and Noodles
Source: Adapted from Spicy Southern Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 lb cooked and shredded beef roast, (recipe below)

Homemade egg noodles, (recipe below)

2 TBS dried onion flakes
3 beef bullion cubes
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp parsley flakes
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp black pepper

1 can cream of chicken soup (or mushroom if your husband likes mushrooms more than mine)
4-6 cups water

salt and pepper to taste
parsley for garnish, optional

Directions:
Prepare egg noodles following recipe below. Set out previously cooked beef roast. (I used leftover beef roast from another meal. If you don't have leftover roast, earlier in the day you will need to put your raw beef roast in the crock pot using the recipe below so that it will be ready at this point.)

In a medium sized pot, combine cream of chicken soup, seasonings (bullion, onion flakes, etc...), and 4-6 cups of water (add more water if you want it more like a soup and less water if you want it to be more like a beef and noodle dish with a smaller amount of broth). Bring to a boil. Add beef and egg noodles. Cook until noodles are al dente (cooked all the way through, but not soggy.)

Serve hot with rolls on the side. If your family is anything like mine, this will be a dinner-time hit!



Egg Noodles
2 cups all purpose flour, plus additional for dusting the board
4 eggs, beaten
¼-1/2 teaspoon salt

http://dineanddish.net/2015/04/easy-homemade-egg-noodles-recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/fresh-pasta-recipe.html

Mound the flour in the center of a clean countertop. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs and salt. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape (do not worry if it looks messy). The dough will come together in a shaggy mass when about half of the flour is incorporated. When the mixture starts to become stiff, start kneading the dough with both hands incorporating all of the flour.

Scrape the area to find any loose bits of dough, then re-flour the surface. Continue kneading, adding flour as necessary, until the dough is thick and smooth in texture.The dough will only take as much flour as it needs, so don't worry about adding too much, the rest will fall off, or stay on the outside covering the dough so it won't stick.

Roll out the dough, until very thin, at least 1/8". (The dough will expand/bubble quite a bit while cooking, so try to get it as thin as  possible. Once your dough is rolled out, use a pizza cutter to slice your dough into thin vertical strips. Make a couple of slices horizontally until your noodles are a desired size.

Remember, fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry pasta. It will only need 3-6 minutes until it's cooked through!

Shredded Beef Roast

2-3lb chuck roast
1 large onion, peeled then roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled then smashed
15oz can beef broth
1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
lots of garlic salt and pepper
4oz can chopped green chiles

Directions
Trim large pieces of excess fat from roast then cut into 6-8 big hunks. Add onion, garlic, and beef broth into the bottom of a crock pot then nestle beef into mixture. Sprinkle in chili powder, cumin, garlic salt, and pepper and then place the lid on top and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or until beef shreds easily. Remove beef then shred and place into a large bowl with enough cooking liquid to make it juicy, but not so much that it's dripping. Pull out as many onions as you'd like to include with the beef. Stir in green chiles. Discard remaining cooking liquid.

This Beef and Noodle recipe may also be made as a crock pot meal using the following instructions: 

Crock Pot Beef and Noodles
Place beef roast in slow cooker. Sprinkle seasonings from both recipes on top. Add cream soup and smear on top of roast. Add beef broth.
Put lid on crockpot and cook 9 to 10 hours on LOW.
Remove lid and shred beef using 2 forks. Add noodles and enough water to mostly submerge the noodles.

Cook for 1 hour. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.